By IANS,
New Delhi: Attacking the government for “leakage” of the Liberhan Commission report on the 1992 Babri mosque demolition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday sought Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s resignation and demanded a joint parliamentary panel probe into it. It termed Liberhan’s report, which indicts top party leaders, as “ill-founded”.
Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said the findings were against the evidence produced before the commission and against the principles of natural justice.
“The principles of natural justice say that anyone who is held guilty should be given hearing opportunity. These principles have been violated,” she said.
“Conclusions of the commission are ill-founded and perverse,” she added.
Swaraj said the BJP will keep its viewpoint before the people during the discussion on the report in the Lok Sabha Dec 1.
She expressed shock at the inclusion of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s name in the list of those indicted by the report and said he was never summoned and given a chance to be heard. She added that the commission had, in fact, rejected an application to summon Vajpayee.
“Now an allegation has been levelled against him. That’s why we say the report is against the given evidence,” she said.
The BJP leader said the report leaked in the media Monday was true to the contents of the Liberhan report presented in parliament Tuesday.
“We say that the home minister has himself leaked the report. We demand that he should resign, taking moral responsibility for the leakage and then discussion should be held on the report,” she said.
She also took a dig at Justice Liberhan for giving the report five years after hearings had ended.
“He gave the report two months after the general elections,” she said, asking if he was in some kind of dilemma about the timing of the report.
Earlier, BJP president Rajnath Singh and party senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi also attacked the government over “leakage” of the Liberhan Commission report.
Rajnath Singh, speaking to reporters outside parliament, said: “The home minister should take moral responsibility for the leakage. The lapse should be probed and its report given to parliament before the conclusion of the winter session.”
Joshi demanded a joint parliamentary probe into the leakage of the commission report in the media.
He said Home Minister P. Chidambaram had asserted that there were only two copies of the report, one with the government and the other with Justice Liberhan, who probed the Babri mosque demolition. “How did leakage take place?” he asked.
Joshi said the main issue of contention was how the Liberhan report was leaked. “We want the government and the home minister to take moral responsibility for this. We want that a joint parliamentary committee should be set up to probe how the report was leaked.”
On the issue of construction of a Ram temple, Joshi said his party had always supported the movement. “As far as the Ayodhya issue goes, a grand temple should be constructed there. That has always been our stand,” he said.
The Liberhan panel report, which was tabled in parliament Tuesday, has indicted members of the Sangh Parivar for demolition of the 16th century mosque in Ayodhya. The vandalism and destruction triggered communal riots across the country.