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Sudershan blames Rao for
mosque demolition: PTI

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief K S Sudershan Tuesday blamed former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao for the demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya in December 1992, while describing the incident as "unfortunate".

Deposing for the second time before the Liberhan Commission, probing events leading to the demolition of the structure on December 6, he said in a written statement that Rao never wanted the kar seva to take place, keeping two things in mind.

In the event of "failure" of the programme, "the sadhus, sants and kar sevaks would get enraged with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party and would never turn up at their call in future. In that situation, the Congress would come forward and declare that the VHP could not do it and now we would do it".

The second point was that in the event of any untoward incident, "the VHP, BJP and Bajrang Dal could be held guilty and banned, the BJP governments dismissed and their leaders arrested."

He said that on the day when the domes were being pulled down, "we could not prevent the mass attack on the structure and the security forces had already retreated" while the situation was out of control.

Sudershan said, "Flouting of intense sentiments of the people was the root cause of their fury... and the irate kar sevaks turned towards the structure which they brought down within five hours."

He said then RSS chief Raju Bhaiya had asked Rao to file an application before the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court to decide before December 6, a petition challenging acquiring of land by the Uttar Pradesh Government for construction of the temple but this plea was turned down by him.

Sudershan, who would be cross-examined before the commission on Wednesday, emerging out of the courtroom told reporters, "I solely blame Rao and also the government for this incident", which he termed as "unfortunate" during recording of his statement.

He said when the situation went out of control, he and some senior leaders including L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, late BJP leader Vijayaraje Scindia and Uma Bharti had appealed to the kar sevaks to get down from the domes but to no avail.

"For some time everybody (at Ram Kathakunj Manch) was stunned and the kar sevaks did not listen to their appeals," Sudarshan said, adding later in the evening a resolution was drafted, terming the whole incident as "unfortunate but the Central Government was to be held responsible for it".

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