Liberhan Commission's Report

After a wait of seventeen long years, finally the one member Liberhan Commission which was investigating the demolition of the Babri Masjid and incidents related to it, submitted it’s report in front of the Parliament. The Government presented the report and informed the House about the steps taken by it and what are it’s plans in the future in this regard. It should be clear that even before it was presented the secret was out which was a cause for a great commotion in the Parliament. This report highlights the conditions in which the Babri Masjid was demolished and who were the people responsible for it, what was the role of the Government of that time, what was the role played by the state government and how did the central government dealt with it. This point has already become clear that the commission has accused 68 people, which include former Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the present party president Lal Krishan Advani. It has also presented some recommendations such as bringing an end to the combining of religion and politics and the use of religion for political gains, giving harsh punishments to people who make use of religion to gain power and making of laws for this purpose, to ban such government or governments which include religious articles in their agenda, the election commission should reject the nomination of such candidates who are found involved in spreading religious hatred , stopping people from making caste and class as election issues etc. All these people clearly belong to the current government. Beauracracy has also been found guilty and muslim leaders are also not forgiven. The names of the leaders mentioned in the report which the commission has presented which comprises of more than a thousand pages belong to BJP,RSS,Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal etc.

The points explained by the Government, which express their plans, state that the government will try to get the speedy judgement of the various cases registered against the accused in the different courts of the country, but they have not promised that any action will be taken against them, whether they are individuals or parties. In this way the Government has announced that cases registered against people involved in communal riots will not be taken back. The proposal which was given by the commission for putting an end to the use of religion for political gains, the government in this regard has given this clarification that it will send it soon to the commission so that they can ponder upon it. In the same way the government has also agreed to this view of the commission that the attitude of the police should change and fresh thought should be given to the ways and methodologies and necessary steps should be taken for their improvement. Also the police force should be equipped and also trained with latest arms and ammunitions . But the government has not accepted this proposal that a commission which has a competent authority and a legal status too should be formed for the security of sensitive places and memorials. In the same way it has also rejected the proposal of forming a separate force to control communal riots. However this report of the commission has once again proved that such parties are present inside the country which are involved in spreading communal hatred. In the same way this fact has also become clear that such individuals not only stand as candidates in the elections rather they get elected and reach the state assemblies and parliament too. The presence of weaknesses in the structure of the governing body and the police organisation has also been proved. It is now time to watch what steps the government is going to take in this regard.
28/11/09 Editorial, sehrozaDAWAT, translated by: Asma Anjum Siddiqui