Acrimony marks debate on Liberhan report

Major parties take opportunity to have a go at one another

 
Leaders present during the debate rarely missed a chance to aim a shot or two at their adversaries as they significantly digressed from deliberating the report’s contents.
Indeed, the report was only occasionally referred to by the members as their rhetoric became louder and more emphatic. The intense  turf war in UP was amply reflected when Congress leader Salman Khurshid  questioned Samajwadi Party (SP) President Mulayam Singh Yadav’s “ideological loyalty”.

Hand-in-glove

Debating the Liberhan report, the SP strong man had accused the Congress of hand-in-glove with the BJP in the events leading to the unfortunate developments in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.  

Khurshid  sought to say that the politics of “divide” and “double face” has been rejected by UP as was indicated by the electoral victories of the Congress in the state.  “Aap to Firozabad se hi itna ghabra gaye hain” (you are so scared just by Firozabad defeat). The Congress leader further rubbed in referring to the defeat of Yadav’s daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav in the Lok Sabha poll at the hands of Raj Babbar, the Congress candidate and former Bollywood actor.

The comment prompted Yadav’s son Akhilesh and other SP members to stand up and protest saying that the Congress member was going out of the brief of the Liberhan debate.

BJP President Rajnath Singh fired shot at “one-day UP Chief Minister” Jagdambika Pal who is now a Congress member. “The report mentions Jagdambika Pal as Kar Sevak at Ayodhya”, Singh read from the report.   Amid loud protest from Pal, Singh further said: “You were also a minister in the Kalyan Singh government.”

Present in the House during the debate, Kalyan Singh, who was UP chief minister during the December 6, 1992, demolition of Babri Masjit, looked on in silence.  Countering BJP President’s high pitch claim that temple will be constructed at Ayodhya, Khurshid wondered as how BJP lost Lok Sabha election from Ayodhya .

“Ye hamare Nirmal Khatri baithe hain  Sadan mai Ayodhya se”, (Nirmal Khatri is Congress MP from Ayodhya despite your raving and ranting on the issue), said the Congress leader.

A good one-hour after the debate was initiated, most  members apparently lost interest and made their quick exit. Even treasury benches looked empty despite the presence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who digested the sweet-bitter reflections of members from both sections.