By IANS,
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Wednesday alleged a Congress-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “conspiracy” behind what she termed as a “systematic leakage” of the Liberhan Commission report that probed the 1992 demolition of the Babri mosque.
“It was this very Congress-BJP secret nexus that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid and they are again active to play their respective politics in the name of the Ayodhya issue”, Mayawati told reporters here, a day after the Liberhan report was tabled in parliament.
She described the mosque razing as the “most unfortunate incident in recent history, (one) that took the lives of hundreds of people across the country”.
She said: “It was amply evident that the Congress and BJP have been taking political mileage out of the Ayodhya issue. After all, who does not know that the doors of the Ayodhya shrine were unlocked and the ‘shilaniyas’ of the proposed temple was carried out under the patronage of the Congress in the 1980s.”
She pointed out that “even when the Babri Masjid was pulled down with a BJP government sitting in Lucknow, Congress ruled New Delhi. What happened on Dec 6, 1992 could have never happened without the active connivance of the central government”.
The Liberhan report, running into almost 1,000 pages, was tabled in both houses of parliament Tuesday, a day after the Indian Express scooped it. The government has denied leaking it to the media.
While blaming it all on the BJP and Congress, Mayawati did not spare the Samajwadi Party either.
“What Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav did was even worse because it was he who provoked people on both sides with his speeches,” she said.
She also did not mince words in condemning the Liberhan Commission for taking 17 long years to submit its report.
“I do not see any reason why the Commission should have taken so long to submit its report. I also have reasons to see a design to shield the Congress,” she said.
While accusing both the Congress and the BJP of never being “serious in resolving the issue”, she said: “The Congress played a dubious role even in the Mumbai riots that followed the Ayodhya mosque demolition. It was a Congress government that dumped the Srikrishna Commission report that had indicted many for the Mumbai riots.
“I would not rule out the same fate for Liberhan Commission report.”
The chief minister directed the principal home secretary and the director general of police to visit all communally sensitive places in the state and keep the security forces in readiness to overcome any communal trouble that might arise on account of the Liberhan report.
“Anyone inciting any communal trouble would be dealt with most severely,” she stressed.