ON May 31, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a supplementary charge-sheet against Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and seven others, including Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, former Union Minister Uma Bharti, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinay Katiyar and Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Ashok Singhal, in the Babri Masjid demolition case in a Special Court in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh. The report, filed by CBI counsel S.S. Gandhi, contains the statements of 39 witnesses, besides documents and press reports relating to the investigation of case No.198/92 by the agency after September 10, 1993. The development has led to fresh demands from Opposition parties, especially the Communist Party of India (Marxist), that Advani and Joshi should quit the government to enable the CBI to pursue the prosecution of the case in an unbiased manner.
The CBI had filed its consolidated charge-sheet against most of the accused in the case before the Special Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Lucknow, on October 5, 1993. The supplementary charge-sheet had to be filed after the Supreme Court upheld the Uttar Pradesh government's notification setting up a Special Court in Rae Bareli to deal with the charges. The accused face charges of inciting communal feelings that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.
In February 2001, the Allahabad High Court had quashed the charges against Advani and others, citing a procedural lapse, which resulted in the State government transferring the case to a special CBI court without due consultation with the High Court, as required under the law. The Uttar Pradesh government, led by Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati, issued the notification to set up the Special CBI court in Rae Bareli following persistent demand from civil rights groups and Opposition parties.
The BJP considers the Babri Masjid demolition case as an instance of political victimisation because its senior leaders supported or participated in the Ramjanmabhoomi movement for the construction of a temple at Ayodhya. The party argues that the accused in the case need not quit their posts because it does not involve corruption or moral turpitude. In the past, faced with Opposition demands for the resignation of the Ministers, the Central government maintained that the investigating agency was free to do its job. Recently, the party boasted about the independent and professional approach that marked the arrest by the CBI of the Personal Assistant to the Union Minister of State for Finance, Ginjee N. Ramachandran, in a bribery case. The arrest led to the immediate resignation of Ramachandran, who represented the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
If the CBI's 1993 charge-sheet could be considered a case of political vendetta, its supplementary charge-sheet could hardly be considered one. Thus the BJP's and the Vajpayee government's claim to moral high ground in politics stands exposed for its lack of consistency.
V. VenkatesanCOMMents
COMMents
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