Lucknow: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) on Sunday said it agreed with the Justice M S Liberhan Commission report on the demolition of the Babri mosque, but objected to it not indicting former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
"We do not see the Liberhan Commission report as politically motivated. However, what the commission should not have done was giving a clean chit to former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee," said AIMPLB secretary general Abdul Rahim Quraishi after a meeting of the board's executive in New Delhi.
"Vajpayee should have been summoned by the commission, but even if it did not do so, Vajpayee could not absolved of his collective responsibility as he was the tallest leader of the party that masterminded the demolition of the Babri Mosque."
The panel said it was opposed to the proposed Prevention of Communal Violence Act.
"The draft bill, in its existing form, is full of lacunae and would only end up leaving Muslims at the receiving end, as it bestows unbridled powers on the local administration and the police who are generally biased towards Muslims," Quraishi alleged.
"What was quite surprising was that the draft bill has no provision for action against those who instigate violence, as also against those involved in conspiring violence and it tends to rope in only those who were found to be indulging in actually violence, thereby allowing the masterminds to have a free run," he said.
"What was also strange was that the bill appears to take cognizance only of acts of violence like arson, murder or rioting only after such acts were committed... there was no provision for taking suitable action to prevent such acts," he said.
The AIMPLB has resolved to meet United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Law Minister Veerappa Moily "to draw their attention to the glaring anomalies and pitfalls in the bill".
According to Quraishi, the bill requires several amendments and would not be acceptable to Muslims in its present form.
The board proposes to mobilise various Muslim organisations across states to stage demonstrations against the provisions of the bill.
On the Babri Mosque front, the board demanded clubbing of all criminal cases pending before two courts in Lucknow and Rae Bareli.
"Besides, the cases of criminal conspiracy that were dropped against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani and seven others ought to be revived in the wake of the Liberhan Commission report, which clearly indicts Advani," Quraishi said.
"The case relating to title of the land on which the Babri Masjid stood until it was pulled down on December 6, 1992, should be expedited by the Allahabad High Court, where it had been pending for decades," he said.
He said the AIMPLB also strongly suggests the need for "using evidence gathered by the Liberhan Commission in all other criminal cases pending before courts with respect to the Ayodhya mosque demolition".
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