From the Report of the Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry:
Chapter 14: Conclusions
Atal Behari Vajpayee figures at #7 in the list of 68 individuals, along with Shanker Singh Vaghela who is now with the Congress, as culpable 'for leading the country to the brink of communal discord'.
From the Report of the Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry:
Chapter 14: Conclusions
The report which otherwise classifies the culpable into three categories -- those directly involved in demolishing the mosque, those responsible for complicity and those who did not perform their duty in protecting the structure -- does not divide the 68 people it individually names into these categories and puts them all together in one slot.
171, Individual Culpability
171.1. For leading the country to the brink of communal discord, this commission finds the following persons culpable:
171.1.1 Acharya Dharmendra Dev (Member, Dharam Sansad)
171.1.2 Acharya Giriraj Kishore (Leader, Vishwa Hindu Parishad)
171.1.3 AK Saran (IG. Security)
171.1.4 Akhilesh Mehrotra (Additional Superintendent of Police, Faizabad)
171.1.5 Ashok Singhal (Leader, Vishwa Hindu Parishad)
171.1.6 Ashok Sinha (Secretary Tourism)
171.1.7 AB Vajpayee (Leader, Bharatiya Janata Party)
171.1.8 Badri Prasad Toshniwal (Leader, Vishwa Hindu Parishad)
171.1.9 Baikunth Lal Sharma (Leader, Vishwa Hindu Parishad)
171.1.10 Bala Sahib Thackeray (Leader, Shiv Sena)
171.1.11 BP Singhal (Leader, Vishwa Hindu Parishad)
171.1.12 Braham Dutt Divedi (Revenue Minister, Uttar Pradesh)
171.1.13 Champat Rai (Local Construction Manager)
171.1.14 Dau Dayal Khanna (Leader, Bharatiya Janata Party)
171.1.15 DB Roy (Senior Superintendent of Police, Faizabad district)
171.1.16 Devraha Baba (Leader, Sant Samaj)
171.1.17 Gurjan Singh (Vishwa Hindu Parishad, RSS)
171.1.18 GM Lodha (Leader, BJP)
171.1.19 Govindacharya (Leader, RSS)
171.1.20 HV Sheshadri (Leader, RSS)
171.1.21 Jai Bhagwan Goyal (Leader, Shiv Sena)
171.1.22 Jai Bhan Singh Pawaria (Leader, Bajrang Dal Ayodhya)
171.1.23 KS Sudarshan (Leader, RSS)
171.1.24 Kalraj Mishra (President, Uttar Pradesh unit of BJP)
171.1.25 Kalyan Singh (Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh)
171.1.26 Khushabhau Thackray (Leader, RSS)
171.1.27 Lal Ji Tandon (Energy Minister, Uttar Pradesh)
171.1.28 Lallu Singh Chauhan (MLA BJP Ayodhya)
171.1.29 LK Advani (Leader, BJP)
171.1.30 Mahant Avaidhyanath (Leader, Hindu Mahasabha)
171.1.31 Mahant Nritya Gopal Das (Leader, Ram Janmbhoomi Nyas)
171.1.32 Mahant Paramhans Ran Chander Dass (Leader, VHP)
171.1.33 Moreshwar Dinanant Save (Leader, Shiv Sena)
171.1.34 Morpanth Pingale (Shiv Sena)
171.1.35 Murli Manohar Joshi (Leader, BJP)
171.1.36 Om Pratap Singh
171.1.37 Onkar Bhava (Leader, VHP)
171.1.38 Pramod Mahajan (Leader, BJP)
171.1.39 Parveen Togadia (Leader, VHP)
171.1.40 Prabhat Kumar (Principal Secretary home)
171.1.41 Purshottam Narain Singh (Secretary, VHP)
171.1.42 Rajendra Gupta (Minister, Uttar Pradesh)
171.1.43 Rajender Singh, Professor alias Raju Bhaiyya (Leader, RSS)
171.1.44 Ram Shankar Agnihotri (BJP, VHP leader)
171.1.45 Ram Vilas Vedanti (Leader Sant Samaj)
171.1.46 RK Gupta (Finance Minister, Uttar Pradesh)
171.1.47 RN Shrivastava (District Magistrate, Faizabad)
171.1.48 Sadhivi Ritambara (Leader Sant Samaj)
171.1.49 Shanker Singh Vaghela (President, Gujarat BJP)
171.1.50 Satish Pradhan (Leader, Shiv Sena)
171.1.51 Shri Chander Dixit (Leader, BJP)
171.1.52 Sita Ram Aggarwal
171.1.53 SP Gaur (Commissioner, Utter Pradesh)
171.1.54 Sunder Singh Bhandari (Leader, BJP)
171.1.55 Surya Pertap Sahi (State Minister, Uttar Pradesh)
171.1.56 Swami Chinmayanand (leader VHP)
171.1.57 Swami Sachidanand Sakshi alias Sakshiji Maharaj (Leader, BJP)
171.1.58 SVM Tripathi (DGP)
171.1.59 Swami Satmit Ram Ji (Leader, Sant Samaj)
171.1.60 Swami Satyanandji, (Leader, Sant Samaj)
171.1.61 Swami Vam Devji (Leader, Sant Samaj)
171.1.62 Uma Bharti (Leader, VHP)
171.1.63 UP Bajpai (DIG, Faizabad)
171.1.64 Vijayraje Scindia (Leader, BJP)
171.1.65 VK Saxena (Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh)
171.1.66 Vinay Katiyar (Leader, RSS)
171.1.67 Vishnu Hari Dalmia (Leader, VHP)
171.1.68 Youdh Nath Pandey (Leader, Shiv Sena)
***
There are at least 22 references to Mr Vajpayee in the over 1029-page report but the most critical ones are in its ‘Conclusions’ in Chapter 14 where it goes on to say that former party ideologue K Govindacharya’s description of Mr Vajpayee as BJP’s mukhauta (mask) could in fact be applied to what the commission calls the pseudo-moderates. In addition to that, the following are some other significant remarks about Mr Vajpayee:
Page 447: “The orchestration and management of the political ethos and circumstances was managed by the RSS, LK Advani, AB Vajpayee, other members of the RSS and the BJP and notably Kalyan Singh, K Sudershan, HV Sheshadri and Govindacharya.”
Page 580: “BJP leaders, including Advani and Vajpayee, had been supporting the construction movement of the temple overtly since 1984 and covertly ever since its inception.”
Page 582: In the context of BJP proclaiming that it had no control of the karsevaks, the report says that that it could not be denied that almost all leaders of BJP, VHP and other organisations in the Sangh Parivar, used to be or are current members of the RSS. “So much so that even A B Vajpayee, even while he was the PM, proclaimed that he is first a swayamsevak and thereafter the PM.”
Page 660: Vajpayee told the VHP rally of April 4, 1991 that “the construction of the temple at Ram Janmabhoomi was necessary because national honour had to be restored.”