BOMBAY: Janata Dal leader VP. Singh here recently charged the Prime Minister ‘Narasimha Rao of “bluffing” when he spoke of rebuilding the mosque on the site of the demolished Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
Addressing a press conference, the former prime minister said Rao was unable to point out the plan of reconstruction even on paper. Replying to 4 question on his party’s stand on the rebuilding of the mosque, Singh explained that the JD would stand by whatever verdict the Supreme Court passed on the Ayodhya tangle.
The senior JD leader opined that along with the Babri Masjid, “three domes had been demolished at once.” They were the dome of the Supreme Court, the dome under which the Prime Minister sat in South Block and the dome of Parliament.
While the RSS and the Bajrang Dal volunteers had the masjid, the Prime Minister had demolished the Republic of India, he said.
Coming down heavily on the Prime Minister, Singh compared Rao to a “medicine whose expired date was over,” Singh charged that the Prime Minister lacked punch. In fact, like the expired medicine, he could be more harmful, to the health of the nation, than anything else.
Rao should have resigned on moral grounds out of rational repentance and that would have enhanced India’s image abroad. The Congress was like a company with Rao as its chairman, it would not be able to achieve much, he opined.
Referring to the Mandal Commission, Singh demanded that the Center make a special allocation in the next Union budget for providing education to the economically backward classes.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 8, 1993
