Press distorted my statement: Sudarshan

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, DEC. 20. In a volte face, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, Mr. K.S. Sudarshan, today asserted before the Liberhan Commission that his recent statement that a bomb explosion brought down the disputed structure in Ayodhya had been distorted by newspapers as the Ayodhya issue had paralysed the proceedings in Parliament.

Reading from the transcript of the recorded version of his speech made at an RSS meeting in Tiruvananthapuram on December 8, Mr. Sudarshan said he had only quoted from Gandhian Ms. Nirmala Deshpande's interview and that the statement attributed to him was not his own. He handed over an audio cassette of his Tiruvananthapuram speech and an English transcript to Mr. Justice Liberhan. But the RSS chief did not deny his statement that a senior Congress leader from Maharashtra had sent a fax message in Marathi to Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao, then Prime Minister, saying that the inner circles of his Cabinet were aware that an explosion brought down the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.

He said the Congress leader had also told Mr. Sudarshan that he had sent another fax to Mr. Rao that the four BJP ruled States should not be dismissed after demolition and he had told Mr. Rao over telephone on December 5, 1992 that something untoward might happen ``tomorrow''.

Mr. Sudarshan said that though he had seen this message in 1993, only this year the said leader gave him ``permission'' to make this information public on condition that he should not reveal the name of the leader.

The RSS chief said that yesterday he had received a letter from Mr. Kunwar Dharamvir Singh Rawal, national president of a political party registered with the Election Commission, that the structure was brought down by an explosion carried out by the president of Muslim Rajput Sabha, Anees Ahmad Gehlot.

Mr. Sudarshan said that according to Mr. Rawal, Gehlot had gone to Ayodhya as a karsevak and planted three brick-shaped explosive devices with the inscription of Lord Rama inside the structure. He pleaded with the Commission to summon Mr. Rawal as he could throw more light on this aspect. He informed the Commission that Gehlot was murdered in 1997.

Elaborating further, Mr. Sudarshan said that Mr. Rawal had also sent the letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker Mr. G.M.C. Balayogi, giving details of the role played by Gehlot, advocate and resident of Dehra village in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh in bringing down the structure. He will continue his deposition on February 6, 2001.

Plea to summon PM

An application has been filed before the Justice Liberhan Commission to summon the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, for his statement that Ram temple would be constructed at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

In another application, Mr. Aslam pleaded for summoning Mr. Arjun Singh, senior Congress leader and former Minister in the Narasimha Rao Cabinet as he had supported the theory of bomb explosion at the disputed site.

Mr. Aslam said that the Janata Party president, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, had stated in Chennai that in a letter dated December 2, 1992, Mr. Arjun Singh had stated that ``ISI was planning to blow up the Masjid''.

The Commission today rescheduled the dates of appearance of the former Prime Minister, Mr. Narasimha Rao, to February 19 and 20 next (instead of December 26 and 27); the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, will depose on March 5 and 6, instead of January 15 and 16 on which dates, the Sports Minister, Ms. Uma Bharti will continue her deposition.

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