NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has said that former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao was to be blamed for the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid, as the act occurred when he was in office.
Talking to media persons in New Delhi on Sunday, Aiyar said that Rao had a conflict with Congress party over secularism.
“He (Narasimha Rao) was the one who was responsible for what happened in the Babri Masjid, he proved that death is not a necessary pre-condition for rigor mortis to set in. It was the biggest disaster that overtook this country because the rift valley in politics is not between right wing economic policies and left wing economic policies, it is over the nature of our nationhood. Are we a secular nation? An inclusive nation? Or are we any new nation?” he added.
He said that years ago during his Ram Rahim yatra (rally) Rao had told Aiyar that he did not understand his definition of secularism, as the former Prime Minister believed that India was a Hindu country.
The demolition of the 16th century Babri Mosque by Hindu zealots on December 6, 1992 had triggered widespread religious riots across the country.
Aiyar also said to be a part of this party, one has to be a part of the circus that goes on at the Congress committee office.
Aiyar said: “We all are there and a kind of fair is held at the 24, Akbar road and if you want to be a part of the Congress, then you will have to join that circus, then only you can be a part of it. Sometime you achieve success and sometime you may fail but you always keep faith that one or the other day, you will definitely achieve something.”
Aiyar said unlike other parties, which are based on caste, position, state, language or society, Congress has people who hold different viewpoints and live harmoniously with faith in variety.
“This is a party where people of different opinion can live harmoniously but from that, there is one base point on which they always stand and it is that we have faith in variety and we celebrate variety. We feel very happy if we have various varieties of people between us and this is a truth about our party other parties are formed based either on caste, position, state, language or society. But Congress is one party, which is the mirror of the country,” said Aiyar.
Talking about the new economic policies, Aiyar said the pattern of economic policies adopted by the government has resulted in 8 per cent growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 0.8 per cent growth of poverty.
“The Congress party has wrestled with the question of the new economic policy in such a manner that those who have serious reservations about it, people like me, are marginalized. The party as a whole is behind Prime Minister Manmohan Singh . I don’t know what the question you are asking is? The fact of the matter is that what were concerns of the Congress party from the days of Mahatma Gandhi onwards continue to be for 80 per cent of our people, the concerns today. This pattern of economic growth that we have adopted has resulted in 8 per cent growth of GDP and 0.8 per cent growth of poverty,” said Aiyar. He said the economic growth pattern has resulted in country’s position to remain at 134 from the last 17 years in UNHDI .”This economic growth pattern has resulted in India’s position on the UN Human Development Index which was 134 in 1994, 17 years later, being in 2011, exactly there 134,” he added. (Agencies)