New Delhi:
The government should table in parliament the report of the Liberhan
Commission probing the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, the Babri
Masjid Action Committee (BMAC) demanded Tuesday while the Jama
Masjid's chief cleric said taking 17 years to submit the findings
amounted to "befooling Muslims".
The commission, mandated to
investigate the demolition of the mosque that led to widespread
communal violence, submitted its report to Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh Tuesday, 17 years after it was set up.
"I appeal to the government to table
the report in the parliament and take concrete action within three
months," said Zafaryab Jilani, convener of the Babri Masjid Action
Committee.
He blamed both the Congress and the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the delay in the report.
"Both the BJP and the Congress came to
power after the commission was formed but then also it took 17 years
to submit the report. I have come to know that the commission had
completed its work in 2006, but the Congress delayed it because of
the adverse consequences that the party might face in Lok Sabha
elections if the report had held P.V. Narasimha Rao also responsible
for the demolition of the Masjid," Jilani told IANS.
Rao was the prime minister of the
Congress-led government when the Babri Masjid was demolished.
Head cleric of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmad
Bukhari, said the long time taken by the commission, which got 48
extensions, was a perfect case of justice delayed amounting to
justice denied.
"The Liberhan Commission was formed on
Dec 16, 1992 but it took 17 years to submit the report; this is
befooling Muslims and a perfect example that justice delayed means
justice denied," Bukhari told IANS.
He said only after seeing the contents
of the report would it be known "whether the commission has held the
real culprits responsible for the demolition or not".
The panel was to submit its report by
March 16, 1993. But it sought repeated extensions to complete its
investigation. The last three-month extension was given in March
this year.
The commission has recorded the
statements of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders L.K.
Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh
Kalyan Singh and now Bharatiya Jan Shakti party chief Uma Bharati. |