PUNE: Describing the Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan Commission’s report on the demolition of Babri Masjid as a disastrous document, controversial politician and eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani said here today.
Delivering a lecture on Liberhan Report in a public lecture series organized by Symbiosis Education Society, Jethmalani said that the Commission’s sole intention was to give the federal government a handle to beat the Opposition. The main objective of the report was to provide a judicial document so that the ruling establishment could condemn parties allegedly involved in the disgraceful act, he said.
Jethmalani, a former federal law minister, a few days ago had kicked up a row at an international conference on terrorism in New Delhi, asking if Islam's jehadi doctrine does not virtually render "god a brothel keeper", prompting a Saudi Arabian envoy Faisal Al Trad to walk out of the conference.
Referring to an article by Syed Shahabuddin, editor of Muslim India, Jethmalani said “The article describes the Liberhan report as shoddy, ill-drafted, inconsistent and with bad quality of language, which has no relevance in today’s time for the Muslim community.” Jethmalani further said that no intelligent Muslim had been guided in the report and Shahbuddin’s article clearly reflected the sentiments of the community.
Lambasting the Congress party for its vote bank politics, which led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Jethmalani said “ Even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other parties involved in the demolition cannot disclaim their role as the cadres of these parties had declared what their intent was while demolishing the Babri Masjid.”Subsequently, the demolition of the Babri Masjid led to a lot of heartburn among the minorities plaguing the country in a cycle of violence of bomb attacks, communal violence with some taking to terrorism and the last November Mumbai terror attacks crowning disgrace polarizing the majority and minority communities further, he added.
Jethmalani in his speech further stated the onus of “not repeating another Ayodhya” was on the younger generation. “I hope it will not happen and I am convinced it will not happen, and the younger generation was the balancing wheel of Indian politics, he said.
“They are totally indifferent to the fate of temples and masjids. They know the limitations of religion and with some amount of secular education, the current generation is concerned about job creation, higher standards of living and social harmony,” Jethmalani added.
He said the younger lot should defeat the designs of the past generations, as the older generation still carried the poison of the two-nation theory and religious hatred. “At the same time I want to tell the Muslims of India that they are safer in India as compared to other parts of the world and specially the Muslim world where they are pitched against each other on sectarian lines.”The country deserved their eternal gratitude and loyalty and the proof was that no Indian Muslim had ever been part of any global terror act, Jethmalani concluded.
