The commission — formed soon after the demolition of the 16^th century mosque by a mob of religious zealots on December 6, 1992 — took 17 long years to probe what had been 
universally known.

Justice Liberhan presented the report to the federal government in June this year, perhaps after realising that no more extensions were possible. And the Congress-led UPA government would have perhaps sat on the report for some more time, if some of its findings hadn’t been leaked to the media.

So what does Justice Liberhan have to say on the mosque destruction that was followed by nationwide riots killing more than 2,000 people?

Not surprisingly, the commission has found top BJP, VHP and RSS leaders guilty of conspiring to demolish the mosque. Sixty-eight people have been individually held ‘culpable’ for leading the country to the “brink of communal discord”.

While the list includes the virtual who’s who of the Hindu Right — LK Advani, MM Joshi, Kalyan Singh, Ashok Singhal, Sudarshan, Uma Bharti and Bal Thackeray — the inclusion of Atal Behari Vajpayee will come as a surprise to many. For the former prime minister has always been seen as a moderate leader and a ‘right man in a 
wrong party.’

Again, not surprisingly, the commission has been scathing in its criticism of the then UP chief minister Kalyan Singh and how he used and abused official machinery in the run up to the demolition. But what about the role of the federal government? Lest we forget, the Congress party was in power then and PV Narasimha Rao headed the government. Even though Sonia Gandhi did not head the party and was not into active politics then, the Congress can’t shrug off its own responsibility in this tragedy.

What happens now? Does this government have in it to confront those responsible for Ayodhya tragedy that divided the nation along religious lines once again and took the country to the brink?  The government is indeed caught between the devil and deep blue sea. If it does not act on the commission’s recommendations, it would be seen as shirking its constitutional responsibility. If it moves against the men and women named by the commission, it would be perhaps handing Hindutva parties another opportunity to revive their divisive agenda — and their sagging 
political fortunes.

The Action Taken Report presented in parliament yesterday says the government has accepted the commission’s recommendations. Justice Liberhan has come down heavily on mixing politics and religion. He has recommended a new law, providing ‘exemplary punishment’ for such misuse of religion for political purposes. The Constitutional scheme to separate religion from politics was meant to insulate issues of governance from those of theology, the commission has rightly pointed out. According to Home Minister Chidambaram, acting on this recommendation, the government will soon bring in Communal Violence Bill and set up special courts to deal with such cases.

While there’s little hope of action against those responsible for the 1992, the UPA government should be persuaded to initiate steps that will ensure no desperate politicians ever take the shortcut of religion to power. India cannot afford another Ayodhya.