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"The sadhus and sants were the leaders of the Ayodhya movement. Dr. Joshi, Mr. Advani, Mr. Vajpayee and other leaders of BJP were supporting the movement and their approach had always been finding out a meeting ground to create a consensus for the construction of Ram temple," the Centre's counsel, Lal Ram Gupta, said in his written submission before the Commission. The affidavit comes 10 days after Mr. Kalyan Singh alleged that the demolition was done under the directions of Mr. Vajpayee, Mr. Advani, Dr. Joshi and senior Sangh Parivar leaders. Counsel was elaborating on the role of Mr. Advani, who was then the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and Dr. Joshi the BJP president. Quoting from the statements of witnesses including Mark Tully of the BBC, the VHP leader, Ashok Singhal, Mahant Ramachandra Paramhans Dass, the RSS Sarsanghchalak, K.S. Sudarshan, and the BJP leader, Uma Bharti, counsel said Mr. Advani's remarks during the campaign were never anti-Muslim or provocative. Taking an excerpt from the book "The Saffron Swastika" by Polish author Koenraad Elst, he said that "during the Ayodhya campaign, its leader L.K. Advani was never caught in the act of making a single anti-Muslim remark". About Dr. Joshi, counsel said, "Joshi at all times, expressed his strong view that the Ayodhya issue should be resolved either through negotiated settlement or by legislation and not by force so that there may be a grand reconciliation between Hindu and Muslim communities. In fact, Mr. Advani and Dr. Joshi had, during their Rath Yatra, even advised karsevaks not to proceed to Ayodhya realising that the crowd there might become unmanageable. The only statement against Mr. Advani was that of a woman police officer, Anju Gupta Rizvi, who said he was seen taking sweets after the second dome of the disputed structure fell on the fateful day, Mr. Gupta said. However, Ms. Rizvi had also said that Mr. Advani had requested her to accompany Ms. Bharti to the structure and ask the karsevaks to come down, he said. Meanwhile, an application was filed today before the Liberhan Commission to summon Mr. Vajpayee in the light of the allegations made by Mr. Kalyan Singh that he knew about the alleged conspiracy to demolish the structure in December 1992. The application was filed by Mohd Aslam alias Bhure, on whose petition the Supreme Court had last year banned all kinds of religious activity on the 67 acres of acquired land adjacent to the disputed site. Mr. Bhure also filed two other applications through counsel, O.P. Sharma, for summoning Mr. Advani and Mr. Kalyan Singh whose recent remarks about the alleged conspiracy had created a flutter in political circles. All the three applications were posted for hearing on July 10.— PTI
Term extended
Our New Delhi Special Correspondent reports: The Ministry of Home Affairs has extended the term of the Liberhan Commission for a further six months, up to December 31, 2003. Set up on December 16, 1992, to investigate the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the Commission was given three months to submit its report. However, the Commission began proper hearings only in March 1993.
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