New Delhi: Two weeks after an inquiry commission came out with its overdue report on the December 6, 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid (mosque) in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and indicted top Hindu nationalist political leaders, Rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said it is not apologetic about the incident. 

“The party is not at all apologetic about the incident of demolition of a disputed structure as it had not committed any mistake,” BJP national president Rajnath Singh has been quoted as saying in the current issue of the weekly publication of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS or the ideological mentor of the BJP), Organiser.

“Whatever happened in Ayodhya was the outburst of sentiments of the masses. It is not apt to hurt the sentiments of the masses,” added Singh in an interview.

On June 30, the Justice MS Liberhan Commission of Inquiry submitted its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reportedly holding BJP leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi responsible for the razing of the Babri mosque in 1992. Advani, presently the Leader of Opposition in parliament, was the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in the general election in April-May 2009.

The inquiry commission also indicted former BJP leaders Uma Bharati and Vinay Katiyar, besides blaming the then prime minister, Narasimha Rao, of the Left-of-Centre Congress party for giving permission to Hindu nationalists gather at the mosque compound in Ayodhya, a disputed structure. Katiyar was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when the Babri mosque was vandalised.

Hindu nationalists claim that Ayodhya is the birthplace of Hindu God, Rama, and that the mosque was built after a Mughal emperor, Babur, demolished a temple of Rama in the 16th century.

The demolition of the mosque resulted in numerous communal riots across the country in which around 2,000 people were killed. The emotive incident in the Hindu-majority country also divided voters along religious lines, benefiting the BJP, which gradually came to power at the Centre in 1998 and ruled till 2004.

The Liberhan Commission, formed on December 16, 1992, was mandated to probe culpability in the demolition incident “as soon as possible” but “not later than three months”.

Now it is up to the ruling Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance government to initiate action on those held responsible for the 1992 incident in the report. But analysts believe nothing much will come out of it given that India’s premier investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, which reports to the incumbent government, has been sitting on the case for around 17 years.

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