Babri Masjid demolition meticulously planned: Justice Liberhan

Twenty-eight years after a mob demolished the Babri Masjid in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya town and sparked off a cycle of violence and riots across India that left thousands dead, a judgement was delivered on September 30. The special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Uttar Pradesh, acquitted all 32 persons- including senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders L K Advani, MM Joshi, Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh, who were accused in churning a conspiracy on December 6, 1992.

The 2300-pages of verdict pointed towards insufficient evidence and possible tampering of video and audio proof and anti- social elements for the razing of the structure.

The public looked at the verdict in utter shock and moreover with irony as the events that led to December 6 1992, unfolded right in front of their eyes. They knew without doubt who did it, why they did it and what did it cost as a nation. Among them who could undoubtedly say that the demolition was meticulously planned is Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan who headed the Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry for 17 years.

The Liberhan Commission, set up in 1992 to probe the Babri Masjid Demolition, had in its report submitted in 2009, pointed to the involvement of senior RSS and BJP leaders, including L K Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti and the involvement of the then Uttar Pradesh government. “They either actively or passively supported the demolition,” it said.

“I found it was a civil conspiracy, I still believe in it. From all the evidence produced before me, it was clear that the Babri Masjid demolition was meticulously planned,” Justice Libheran said to The Indian Express.

Justice Liberan also said that BJP leader Uma Bharti categorically took the responsibility of the demolition.

The Liberhan Commission said the mobilisation of “kar sevaks” was neither “spontaneous or voluntary” but “orchestrated and planned”. The report named over 60 people – including senior BJP leaders Advani, Joshi, Bharti and A B Vajpayee, RSS and VHP leaders, bureaucrats – as “culpable” for “leading the country to the brink of communal discord.

“It was the leadership of the BJP, a national political party, which came forward to mobilising the people on the Ayodhya temple issue, along with Mathura and Kashi. It challenged constitutional secularism by calling it pseudo-secularism,” the report said.

The Commission added that on December 6 1992 – the day Babri Masjid was demolished, Advani and Joshi were present at the spot, and they made a ‘feeble request’ to the kar sevaks to stop the demolition and come down from the dome.

The Commission also criticised the then Congress’s Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao’s led government at the center.

Justice Liberhan said that given the evidence and the witnesses that were presented before him, anybody could have concluded that the demolition was a premeditated action.

The 82-year-old former Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh and Madras High Courts said the demolition could have been prevented with administrative planning and action. He had made this point in his report, saying that no preventive steps were taken to avert the demolition, or prevent the spread of communal hatred.

However, Justice Liberhan refused to comment on the CBI court’s decision, he said that “I believe everyone does his job honestly. The court has the right to differ, there can be no dispute about its power or working.”