NEW DELHI, 10 July 2003 — With the blame game taking different twists in the Ayodhya saga, the federal government led by the extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) blamed opposition parties and Muslim leaders for indulging in “false propaganda and malicious activities” to divide communities on the issue.
Amid this a prominent Muslim organization blasted the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) for negotiating with Hindu organizations on the Babri Masjid issue and condemned their actions for initiating a dialogue with a Hindu religious leader on this issue.
The federal government also claimed before the Liberhann Commission, which is investigating the Babari Masjid’s demolition (Dec. 6, 1992), that Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani and Union Minister M. M. Joshi were not responsible for exciting the Hindu masses into the stage of communal frenzy to indulge in riots and demolish the mosque during that period.
The nature of the government’s submission raises questions on whether it was drafted in keeping with BJP’s Ayodhya-designs and whether its “secular” allies were taken into confidence.
It also questions the credibility of claims made by BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu that it cannot pursue VHP’s demand for legislation for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya as it was not on the NDA agenda. “I don’t know why the VHP leaders are making the demand. BJP cannot force such an idea on other constituents of the NDA,” Naidu said in Madras.
In a submission filed before the commission, by counsels Lala Ram Gupta and Bhupender Yadav, the gvoernment said, “Ram janambhoomi should be handed over to the Hindus through a negotiated settlement or else through a legislation.” Advani and Joshi and other BJP leaders had been propagating and saying to every body that please come and negotiate, asking the government to facilitate such negotiations.”
It asserted, “The Ayodhya issue was being used to create this divide and that the long relations between these two communities were being distorted by false propaganda and malicious activities by all opposition parties and Muslim leaders.”
In a different tack, Mustafa Sherwani, the president of All India Muslim Forum (AIMF) condemned the role played by a few members of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board in stage-managing the whole saga of dramatic events, right from arranging a meeting between Shankarcharya Jayendra Saraswati and an innocuous and gullible Chairman of the Board, Maulana Rabey Hasni.
Criticizing the leaders of the AIMPLB, Dr. Sherwani lamented that the people behind this heinous role are the same who remain at the forefront during every election in issuing appeals to favor different parties and candidates.
“If there is to be any sincere effort for resolving the Ayodhya tangle through negotiations, there might have been a serious exercise and all concerned outfits and bodies on both the sides should have formed respective representative, authorizing them to hold talks” he said. He added a judicial verdict remains the only solution.
