BJP deflects Liberhan issue, focuses on Atal indictment

BJP on Tuesday appeared to be deflecting the Liberhan Commission focus from indictment of senior leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi by raking up the issues of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, being named in the report, and the leakage of document to the media.

BJP on Tuesday appeared to be deflecting the Liberhan Commission focus from indictment of senior leaders L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi by raking up the issues of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, being named in the report, and the leakage of document to the media.

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Initiating a tirade against Justice Liberhan Commission report and the ATR tabled in Parliament today, Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said, "Findings of this report are perverse, ill-founded and against the evidence placed before the Commission."

Swaraj asserted that the report violated the principles of natural justice by putting Vajpayee in the list of the guilty without summoning him for a hearing.

In an apparent attempt at keeping the focus away from Advani, Joshi, RSS and others in the demolition of the Babri mosque, BJP even mentioned the petition submitted by one Aslam Bhure with the Commission asking it to summon Vajpayee. Swaraj said her party had answered the petition but Liberhan had dismissed it.

She categorically ruled out the stepping down of Advani due to his indictment by the Commission, saying a case was already pending against the senior leader on the issue in a court.