Uma remembers when photo was taken but not what she said that day

Uma remembers when photo was taken but not what she said that day
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, JAN 16: Sports Minister Uma Bharati remembers when exactly her controversial photograph with Murli Manohar Joshi was taken in Ayodhya on the day the Babri masjid was demolished but has no recollection of any of the provocative utterances and slogans attributed to her by various contemporary accounts.

In what has otherwise been an evasive deposition before the Justice M.S. Liberhan Commission, Bharati today asserted that the photograph showing her and Joshi allegedly celebrating the demolition on December 6, 1992 was actually taken that morning well before the demolition began.

Bharati said she was sure about when the photograph was taken because that was the only time she was with Joshi the whole of that day. It happened, according to her, soon after she reached the dais on which all the leaders were seated, facing the disputed structure.

Having climbed the dais from the rear, she greeted Joshi from behind and just then the photographers, ``as is the habit with them'', prompted us to look towards them. The result was a photograph of the two leaders grinning, with Bharati standing behind Joshi and resting her arms on his shoulders.

But as for what she said to the kar sevaks, Bharati claimed to have little memory of it when the Commission's counsel, Anupam Gupta, confronted her with a succession of contemporary accounts, including the FIR registered by the police, the local intelligence report and newspaper reports.

All she remembered in this regard was that she chanted the Hanuman Chalisa and, at L.K. Advani's instance, appealed to the kar sevaks ``once or twice'' to refrain from damaging the disputed structure.

The FIR registered by the police on their own within minutes of the demolition alleged that Bharati shouted inflammatory slogans such as ``Ek dhakka aur do, Babri Masjid tod do (Give it one more push, demolish the Babri Masjid)'' and ``Ram naam satya hai, Babri Masjid dhwasth hai.''

Bharati's response: ``I don't remember.'' But she added that from her childhood, whenever she raised any slogans, they were only in praise of God.

The local intelligence report gave a detailed account of an anti-Muslim and anti-Masjid speech delivered by Bharati to egg on the kar sevaks.

Bharati's response again was: ``I don't remember.''

She said she also did not remember how other leaders on the dais reacted to the demolition. She only talked of Advani who she said looked ``tense and worried''.

Asked if she knew of attacks on the life and property of Muslims in Ayodhya soon after the demolition, Bharati said she had only read about them in the newspapers.

Bharati complained to the Commission that her photograph with Joshi was used as part of ``a very filthy campaign'' against her in the last Lok Sabha elections in Bhopal. It was made out that she had ``gone to the hills on a sojourn with a man''.

She will resume her deposition on February 9. The Commission has also rescheduled the dates for deopositions by Advani and Joshi to March.