A sham called Liberhan report

The congress party can be accused of many things. But the one thing no is ever going to accuse it of , is being intelligent.

consider the timing.

This was supposed to be the finest hour for the PM. He was going to be the state guest of America. This was a much needed fillip for a government which was trundling from one embarrassment to the other and whose very credibility was at stake. This government never looks to be in control of anything, be it the spiraling prices, or swine flu or the Maoist attacks. They needed a gloss. What better way then showing the PM , as a great statesman, on the lawns of the white house shaking hands with the President of USA. Never mind if the same President on his visit to China almost accorded it the status of the leader of the Asia. (One wonders if the pomp and ceremony would alter that perception. But that’s one of PM’s least worries. He has a most genuflecting and pliant English press). But being Dr.Manmohan Singh isn’t easy. He has his party to contend with.

The Lieberhan report is nothing short of an embarrassment for any government.No government can justify that kind of delay. It took the venerable judge a remarkable seventeen years to come out with a report on the contentious Babri Masjid razing. And even after that there's nothing new and the report looks half baked.

Its not just the opposition saying that. Even the congress Governor, Mr. Satyanarayan Reddy criticized the report saying that he was in charge of the UP government after the dismissal of the government but he was never summoned by the judge. He described this report as incomplete. Mr. Vajpayee was indicted without inviting him even once. so what was so great or secretive about this report.

Yet some clever and a half Johnny from the party decided its time to honor the services of a servile paper and a TV channel. He leaked the findings.( I told you being Dr. Manmohan singh is not easy!)

He thought he was killing two birds. One obliging the said media and two dividing the opposition who had come together on issues of price rise etc. and deflect attention.

He did kill two birds though. But not the ones he wanted.

He brought the completely comatose opposition ( read BJP) to life and did the unthinkable. He united them!! and two he dislodged the PM visit from the headlines. Common sense indeed is the rarest of sense. What was lying dormant in the custody for six months with the government after dragging for painstaking seventeen years couldn’t have waited for the PM to return? The report isn’t worth the paper on which it is written on. But by leaking the contents, the government gave the opposition a stick with which to beat them.

The world has moved in the last seventeen years. Our country suffered many attacks. 26/11 is still fresh in everyone’s mind. A young voter must have been a baby when this happened. Today he worries more about recession, employment and price rise.

Another theory is that the party wanted to win the muslim votes in UP. My feeling is that it would nullify whatever good work Rahul Gandhi may have done there. Assuming this was the motive it begs one question to the intelligent English media. If pandering to the Hindus is communal , how can appeasing the muslim community become secular? But clearly we do not have many cerebral journalists anymore.

I am proud to say that throughout my life, I had some very good muslim friends. We grew together. Our different religions never came in the way. We celebrated Eid and Diwali together. I am sure that they too would be offended by this brazen tokenism. If the Government is really serious, what happened to the other commission’s findings – The Srikrishna panel on the Mumbai riots or the Nanavati commission on the Sikh carnage?

If the guy who leaked it to get muslim sympathy thinks he won a lot many admirers, he is in for a rude shock. I am sure that the muslims are not going to go running to add him as a friend if he has a facebook profile!

A common man , hindu or muslim, doesn’t ask for much. All he asks for is a decent and dignified life. Is that too much to ask?

It took Justice Liberhan 17 years to write this. It was buried for six months under the other files with the government. It could have remained buried for another 17 years.

No one would have really cared.