New Delhi: An amount of Rs 9 crore has been spent on the Justice M S Liberhan Commission, which has been probing the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 for the last 16 years.
The one-man commission, which was set up a week after the mosque’s destruction by Hindu radical groups in Ayodhya on December 6, was given an extension for the forty-eighth time this week. But it is not that the commission’s work is not over: CNN-IBN learns that the report is ready but is being held back because of political compulsions and election time.
Believed to be running into almost 800 pages, the report takes into account the social situation which existed in the period leading up to the demolition and concludes with a full chapter on nailing the guilty parties.
If the commission hasn’t found anything so far, then what will they find now,” says Rajya Sabha member from BJP, Prabhat Jha.
The Government is worried that making the commission’s report now may cause communal polarisation. A substantial amount of the Rs 9 crore spent on the commission since 1992 has been on Justice Liberhan, salaries of his secretary and his office staff.
The benefits that Justice Liberhan gets include a car, air fare for his travel Delhi-Chandigarh trips, and regular government incentives like travel allowance and dearness allowances.
Sri Prakash Jaiswal, Minister of State for Home, had in 2007 assured Parliament that the commission’s report would be released by end of the year.
But on Tuesday the commission became the longest serving in the country. The latest extension will expire on June 30, said a Home Ministry spokesman.
The Commission, which was mandated to probe into the circumstances leading to the mosque’s demolition, was to submit its report by March 16, 1993. It sought an extension to complete its probe. The government granted its request and since then the commission has been on the job -- for 16 years.
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