Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: With the Liberhan Commission reportedly indicting Kalyan Singh for failing to prevent the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister on Tuesday claimed that there was "no lapse" in security arrangements on that day 17 years ago.
"Security arrangements had been in place (on December 6, 1992). But the structure could not be saved from being demolished. Many times security remains in place but certain things happen," he told reporters here.
Singh cited the example of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi and said they too had security cover.
The Liberhan Commission report is believed to have said that as chief political executive of the administration, Singh did not requisition Central forces which were at his disposal for stopping 'kar sevaks' from bringing down the structure.
Singh, however, said he had asked the security personnel not to open fire at the kar sevaks.
"I had just said kar sevaks were present in lakhs and full force should be used to stop them. But there should be no firing of bullets," he said.
If there was firing, thousands of kar sevaks would have been killed and there would have been a situation of stampede, Singh said.
Asked about the report reportedly mentioning the name of former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, Singh said it was irresponsible to drag Vajpayee's name into this.
"It is totally baseless and irresponsible to drag the name of AB Vajpayee into this and this proves how biased and malafide the report is," he said.
He went to say that he was not sad, repentant or sorry about what happened on December 6, 1992. It was a day of national pride, he said.
“But it was not planned,” he hastily added.
Singh insisted that he was in favour of construction of a Ram temple where Babri structure stood. “The structure’s disintegration process began under Congress regime when the locks of the structure were broken, idols were placed etc.” The ultimate act of demolition was a result of people’s spontaneous anger.
He also said he was ready to face any action after the tabling of the Liberhan report in Parliament. “The muslims and Hindus should arrive at a consensus for the Ram temple as Ram was also the forefather of all Indian muslims,” he added.
- PTI inputs
First Published: Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 15:39