Former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao arrives at the Cabinet After Demolition of Babri . Mosque

PV Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister when Babri’s tomb was demolished in 1992. (File)

New Delhi:

The morning after the Babri mosque was demolished on December 6, 1992, the Union’s Council of Ministers met and as they tried to convey how they all felt towards the then Prime Minister, Mr. Reporter Narasimha Rao, he replied: “Please forgive me.”

This anecdote is covered in the new book by senior parliament leader Salman Khurshid “Dawn over Ayodhya: The Nation in Our Times”.

Mr Khurshid said the immediate shock of the “unthinkable” gradually subsided to a kind of numbness.

The demolition happened on a Sunday, and on the morning of December 7, the Council of Ministers had gathered in a crowded room on the ground floor at Parliament House, he said.

The mood was gloomy, and an air of gloom hung over the crowd.

“Understandably, most are left speechless, but Madhavrao Scindia broke the ice to speak to the love we all have for Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. The Prime Minister’s reaction is surprising us as he he retorted ” ”, Mr. Khurshid recalls.

He also said that after Rao’s “curt reply”, there was no further opportunity to discuss the topic and the meeting ended.

Kalyan Singh’s Uttar Pradesh government was dismissed on 6 December and a week later BJP governments in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were dismissed by the President, on the advice of the cabinet, he said. .

Mr. Khurshid also wrote that on the night of December 6, he and several other young ministers, “gathered at Pilot Rajesh’s residence to pick up supplies, and then together headed to CK Jaffer Sharief. Two Voices. strong in government has been stirred”.

He said calls were “sent to Principal Secretary AN Verma who suggested we speak to the Prime Minister. We informed the Prime Minister and suggested to him that Pilot Rajesh be brought in. the group flew to Faizabad”.

Mr. Rao’s turn “requested us to speak to AN Verma again, and so the chase continued for a while, until we were informed that the Prime Minister would not be available, having turned around the same night. The urgency is for a senior department of Mr. to write.

The reinstallation was eventually done, but when it appeared the next morning that a roof would be placed above the idols, the government moved to disperse the crowds that were apparently karsevaks, he added.

According to Mr Khurshid, the politics shaped by the temple-mosque contest pushed the Parliament to an existential crisis in Uttar Pradesh and, after giving temporary power to the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samajwadi Party, gave the BJP a springboard for domination of the state and within the Center.

“The Ayodhya story certainly has something to do with certain organized groups between Hindus and Muslims who are trying to secure the leadership of their respective communities by tilting the scale,” he said. beneficial to the mandir and a mosque.

Mr. Khurshid claimed the Supreme Court had “put its mark on history and in a sense it turned the last page. In the process, it wrote itself down in history” of Ayodhya.

If that has laid the groundwork for a major reconciliation or perpetuated the tension between authoritarianism versus right, or a combination of the two, only time will tell, he added. Okay.

Mr. Khurshid feels the biggest chance the verdict offers is to reassert India as a secular society.

“It is a decision that rejects the ideas of the Hindu Rashtra and amplifies the practical handling of sensitive religious concerns in a secular system. Upholding the purpose and effect of the Places of Worship Act , among other things, is a clear sign that India’s secular edifice and its highest court’s commitment to the Constitutional principles we hold dear are not only unchallenged. disturbed but actually reinforced,” he wrote.

Mr Khurshid says his book, published by Penguin Random House, is an “attempt to see hope in what could be a wise decision, even if some think it’s incomplete. It’s all fair. When people start to disagree about what’s fair, there are cracks that need concern beyond all natural human emotion.”

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)