New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday said the Liberhan Commission report on the demolition of Babri Masjid should be scrapped "lock, stock and barrel", warning that it has the potential to whip up communal frenzy in the country.
Deputy leader of the party in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj also sought to dare the government by declaring that its leaders "inside and outside Parliament" were ready for any punishment.
Participating in a debate on the report, she questioned the motives of Justice Liberhan in indicting her party leaders, as she dubbed the report as a document authored by "an opportunist" with political intentions.
Seeking to drag Prime Minister Manmohan Singh into the issue, she said at the time of demolition in December 1992, he was the Finance Minister in the then P V Narasimha Rao government and could not escape the responsibility.
"In the name of God, you (the Home Minister) should disown the report, as it can cause communal discord and whip up communal passion and violence in the country. Scrap this report lock, stock and barrel," she said.
Questioning the authorship of the report on the Babri Masjid demolition, she said there was ample indication that the retired Supreme Court judge had not penned it.
"Justice Liberhan has not written the report. The Government should reveal who wrote the report," she said, adding this itself was a matter that needs to be investigated.
Swaraj said Justice Liberhan, on the day his report was tabled in the House, said he had not indicted former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but two days later said as the leader of the BJP he must take responsibility for the
demolition, just as "managing director" should for the wrongdoings of his company.
"This clearly shows that he had not read his own report, which mentions Vajpayee 22 times. Then who prepared the report?" she asked.
"If Vajpayee, as managing director, should own responsibility, what about the then managing director of the Congress (P V Narasimha Rao) and the then director (Manmohan Singh), who is now the managing director," she posed.
The BJP leader said Kar Sewaks had dismantled the disputed structure in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, but dismissed the charge that it was a conspiracy.
"Did the Kar Sewaks dismantle the disputed structure? Yes. Was there a conspiracy? No," she said, adding "yes, we are ready for any punishment, if you want to punish us. Both the leaders inside and outside the House are ready."
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She said the CBI, Intelligence agencies and Muslim organisations failed to prove conclusively before the Commission the conspiracy charge, as stated in the report itself.
"Then how did Justice Liberhan come to the conclusion that there was a conspiracy? Just because funds were spent to mobilise Kar Sewaks?" she asked.
Swaraj also wondered what the Central government was planning to "gift" Justice Liberhan with. "We know what is the wish list of Justice Liberhan? Does he want to become an Ambassador or Governor? We will get to know in a matter of few days," she added.
Stating that the report mentioned Narasimha Rao only once, to thank him for deposing before the commission, she said despite "strictures" passed by it on the then Central Government as being "crippled and uncooperative", there was no indictment of the then Prime Minister.
Dubbing the report as "ill-founded" and "against the evidence" placed before the Commission, the BJP leader said the Commission had indicted Vajpayee, who was not even summoned once to depose, which went against the principles of natural justice.
Taking a dig at CPI member Gurudas Dasgupta for calling for "political isolation" of the BJP, Swaraj said only talks among all political groups was a solution to the menace of communalism.
Swaraj said Dasgupta, while talking of isolating the BJP, had four days ago invited her to address an AITUC rally against the government's economic policies.
"If you want to get closer to the Congress, you say we should come together to fight communalism. If you want to join hands with BJP, you say lets get together on economic issues.
That's is your double talk," she said. On the report slamming BJP's ideology, Swaraj wanted to know who gave him the right to "write an essay on secularism and thesis on RSS and Hindu organisations."
On the report dismissing the Ram temple agitation as "not a people's movement", Swaraj slammed Justice Liberhan, saying he would not know the facts of the wave in favour of the temple by sitting in air-conditioned office in Chandigarh.
"It was the largest people's movement of post-Independent India and L K Advani, a mass leader. Ram is the soul of India as all religions with origins in the country, including the Sikh Guru Granth praised Ram," she said.
Swaraj said there were "perverted conclusions" in the report and pointed out "inadequacies" such as attributing a quote of Muslim League leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah on the two-nation theory to BJP leader Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.
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