ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy), a New Delhi based NGO working for communal harmony and democracy in India, in a statement issued on November 25, urged the Government to urgent legal action against those indicted in the Liberhan Commission Report and protect communal amity in the country. The statement inter alia says:
The Liberhan Commission have brought to our attention once again the real forces behind one of the biggest tragedies of Independent India. It has now become clear from Liberhan Commission’s work that the demolition was not an act of spontaneous anger as claimed by the communal forces. It was a well planned crime coordinated by RSS and executed by different progeny of RSS. The political leaders, some of whom were trying to hide behind different shields stand completely exposed as far as their role in the demolition was concerned. In this meticulously planned attack, leaders like Vajpayee, Advani, Joshi, Kalyan Singh etc. played their part assigned by their controller, the RSS.
Whatever be the motives of the leak, which itself may be a planned one by some political forces, it is once again clear that rather than debating the issue, mulling over the truth coming out, BJP adopted its usual method of disrupting the proceedings of Lok Sabha. It does not believe in proper discussion so every such time it resorts to the mayhem and the discussion is avoided. What becomes transparently clear is that the whole top leadership of ‘BJP and company’ was involved and RSS, the organization expert in making the things opaque from public, had undertaken the demolition for political goals. RSS did go on to bring immense suffering to the nation through this demolition. In addition, the mask of Vajpayee as the moderate political person also stands torn apart and the scheming, calculating politician, behind the mask stands exposed. Incidentally on December 5, 1992 Vajpayee did give some hint about the happenings of the next day.
The government needs to take this report with utmost seriousness as the demolition was not just a destruction of age-old mosque, and archaeological treasure of the country, but essentially an attack on Indian Constitution. It was also an attack on the plural-democratic fabric of the nation. It became a turning point of sorts, which changed the direction of politics and society in the adverse direction. Tragically, this paved the way for communal forces to come to the centre-stage of the politics, and led to massive communal violence in Mumbai, Bhopal, Surat and other places, leading to the loss of over two thousand innocent people and the loss of over 10000 crore of social wealth. It demonised the minority community and began the process of erosion of secular-democratic values. Tragically, this led to relegation of minorities to the status of second class citizens. It gave political muscles to the divisive forces, forces which have no faith in the values of Indian Constitution.
While the society at large needs to condemn the ideology of perpetrators of this act once again, it is also time to recapitulate that this was the same ideology which killed the Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi. While at social level we need to resolve to strengthen the values of Freedom movement and comprehensively reject the divisive politics being propagated by RSS and its progeny, it is also time that the demonisation of minorities which got triggered due to this demolition needs to be fought against.
We fervently appeal to the Government to take urgent steps to punish the guilty of the demolition and the consequences which followed. The Government must act with full strength and forthrightness to take political and legal steps against the culprits to ensure that the law of the land prevails and the guilty are punished without any fear. Be it RSS top brass, be it BJP top leadership, starting from Vajpayee and Advani to Joshi and others, be it the VHP leaders or the Bajrang Dal leaders, law must catch up with these criminals.
ANHAD demanded an urgent legal action against those indicted in the Liberhan Commission report. It also called upon the Government to undo the damage done by communal forces to our mixed culture, to ensure the promotion of values of communal amity and national integration. It further urged the Government to give the message of plural values to the society through different communication channels.