The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday reacted sharply to former party vice-president Kalyan Singh's statement that he had taken "moral responsibility" of the Babri Masjid demolition, saying the former UP chief minister was making a "late beginning" in being apologetic about the incident.
"Kalyan Singh is making a very late beginning and if he was so apologetic he should have done it exactly 14 years ago," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters.
Rudy also said Singh's exit from the party and his growing proximity with Samajwadi Party would not harm BJP's electoral prospects. "There's a lot of
speculation but this is more of a hypothesis then a reality," he said.
Another BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said this was the "same Kalyan Singh who had said post-demolition that he had to choose between sacrificing his chief ministerial chair or protecting the Babri Masjid and he had chosen the former".
Singh was the chief minister when the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992. He was sentenced and
imprisoned for a day for contempt of court for failing to keep his promise of protecting the disputed structure. President's Rule was imposed in Uttar Pradesh soon after the demolition.