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| 'Beyond doubt, the demolition was a pre-planned act' | | P Chidambaram's speech in LS on the Liberhan Commission |
| P Chidambaram / Dec 13, 2009, 00:15 IST |
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What was happening that day? This is the most important part, Madam. At about noon, a teenaged kar sevak vaulted onto the dome and thereby signaled the breaking of the outer cordon. Other kar sevaks wielding pickaxes, hammers, iron-rods and shovels started scaling the Ram Deewar and over the barriers of the outer, inner and isolation cordons, from the east, west and south directions.
Madam, I ask where do the pick-axes come from? Where do the hammers come from? Where do the iron-rods come from? Where do the shovels come from? In a tremendous team-work they carried them… (interruptions). They stormed the disputed structure. The police deployed at the spot… (interruptions) Please listen to this. The police deployed at the spot gave their canes and shields to the kar sevaks who brandished them openly… (interruptions).
The kar sevaks’ assault on the disputed structure started at 12.15 p.m. They first entered the Garba Griha, carefully took away the idols and cash box, etc to a safe place. Then they started breaking the dome and started breaking the upper plaster of the dome with hammers. In fact, the demolition was accomplished by smashing holes inside the walls. Ropes were inserted through these holes in the walls under the domes; the walls were pulled down with these ropes bringing down the domes as well… (interruptions). The structure was not brought down by the kar sevaks on the domes, the structure was brought down by digging a hole in the dome, putting the ropes to the hole and pulling the dome down with the ropes… (interruptions).
It was shameful, pre-planned, conspiratorial, wanton, cold-blooded destruction of the property, which they promised they would protect… (interruptions). L K Advani, M M Joshi, Ashok Singhal, Vijayaraje Scindia, H V Seshadri who were present at the Ram Katha Kunj made feeble requests to the kar sevaks to come down from the disputed structure either in earnest or for the media’s benefit. … (interruptions).
What does the Commission conclude? This charade by these leaders at the instance of L K Advani is in stark contradiction to their own prior conduct and their public posture, incitement and exhortations to the crowd to build a temple in place of the disputed structure. The demolition of the structure was unavoidable for the construction of a temple. They had to demolish the structure to construct the temple. Therefore, they demolished the structure.
The idols and cash box removed to safe places were brought back to their original place at 7 pm. The construction of a temporary makeshift temple commenced at 7.30 pm. A close examination of the evidence shows that the enthusiastic chanting of inflammatory slogans acted like a proverbial war cry and these were raised to encourage the kar sevaks in their dastardly deeds. Slogans against Muslims were also raised. Sarcastic remarks were made against the High Court and the Supreme Court.
Mulayam Singhji was mocked by the kar sevaks. Even though the Chief Minister was informed about this, he gave a written order not to resort to firing under any circumstances and to take any other measure. The police and the administration were a mute spectator. Their loyalty to the political masters was writ large.
Listen to Shri Kalyan Singh’s reaction: “It was like a badly inflated balloon that burst. They should arrest me because, after all, I fulfilled one of the major objectives of our party and have redeemed the party’s election manifesto.”
It stood established before me beyond reasonable doubt that the Joint Common Enterprise was a pre-planned act for demolition under the immediate leadership of Vinay Katiyar, Paramhans Ramchander Dass, Ashok Singhal, Champat Rai, Swami Chinmayanand, S C Dixit, B P Singhal and Acharya Giriraj. The other leaders cannot be absolved of their vicarious liability and were willing collaborators playing the roles assigned to them by the RSS. Their informed support for the Ayodhya campaign, fortified by their physical presence during the grand finale of the prolonged campaign is irrefutably established.
(Excerpts from Home Minister P Chidambaram's speech in the Lok Sabha while replying to the debate on the Liberhan Commission, on December 8, 2009)
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