Liberhan debate: Rajnath,Jaitley to lead BJP charge

While the initial plan would have seen the quartet of Delhi BJP leaders — Jaitley,Sushma Swaraj,in addition to Venkaiah Naidu,and Ananth Kumar — holding forth on the Ayodhya

debate,sources say that Rajnath,whose term as party president technically ends on November 26,“didn’t want to be left out of the debate”.

The BJP leaders intend to use the debates in the two Houses to also reassure their “core ideological constituency”. Not all the leaders would speak on Hindutva,though. While Rajnath is expected to be an unabashed Hindutva spoke- sperson in his speech,Jaitley is likely to focus on the legalities and incongruities in the Liberhan report.

While Sushma will use her oratorical skills to explain how leaders like A B Vajpayee had been indicted by the commission,L K Advani is likely to use his intervention “to explain the text and context of the Ayodhya movement and how it changed the politics of 90s”.

People to decide Rao role: Cong

NEW DELHI: The Congress denied ticket to former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao in 1998 general election for his perceived inaction in preventing demolition of Babri Masjid but now the party appears to be in a fix over its stance on the Liberhan Commission report that gave a clean chit to Rao saying “constitutional constraint” prevented him from acting. “What Rao did during his prime ministership is for people to decide,” Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said on Thursday. “There was perceptible anger against the then government. (Then Congress President,Sitaram) Kesri publicly apologised for it (failing to protect Babri Masjid),” Ahmed said.