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'Kar sevaks' did not hear my appeals: Bharti

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

Contradicting media reports about her role in the Babri Masjid demolition, Union Minister of State for Sports Uma Bharati, the first senior Hindutva leader to appear before the Liberhans' Commission, Tuesday began recording her statement on the happenings of December 6, 1992.

She often took refuge in the fact that the events were so old that she did not have a clear memory of what happened on that day, but asserted there was no plan to demolish the five century-old structure.

The Union minister's deposition took the entire day. Wednesday, it will be Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief K S Sudarshan's turn.

Sudarshan in a sensational statement a few days back had said that a bomb blast brought down Babri Masjid.

Over 1000 people were killed in the post-demolition communal riots across the country.

Uma Bharati, dressed in saffron saree with a dark blue sweater, was relaxed, mostly jovial, and addressed Justice M S Liberhans as "Bhai Saab."

She said right-wing leaders -- L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Ashok Singhal, Sheshadri, Ramchandra Paramhans and Vinay Kattyar -- were trying to pacify the excited crowd of kar sevaks at Ayodhya that fateful day.

Her statement contradicts reports in national media in the wake of the demolition that she was extorting kar sevaks to pull down the mosque.

She said after she reached the Ram Katha Kunj dias, a rooftop where all the senior leaders had assembled, and she was called to address the crowd, things got out of hand. She could see people climbing the dome of the disputed structure.

"I stood up to speak. It is my habit to look up my watch before I speak. It was about 11.30 - 11.35 am. The movement I stood up to speak, I could see the disputed structure in front of me. I saw some people atop the structure...I was alarmed... could no start my speech," she told the Commission.

"I remember, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, L K Advani, Ashok Singhal, all these people were appealing to kar sevaks to come down. I also appealed to the kar sevaks. All this took about an hour or an hour-and-a-half," she said.

Later, she said, Advani called her to the rear of the rooftop, "he was very tense, very worried"

Advani told her: "Is there any way you can go near the disputed structure?" She said "Yes."

A lady police officer with a few policemen took her in their Gypsy to the rear of Babri Masjid "from where I could speak to the kar sevaks."

"The moment the crowd saw me in a police vehicle they thought I had been arrested. I said I had not been arrested...they (the police) had to bring me down from the Gypsy (to convince kar sevaks). There was a huge crowd. Before getting down, I asked the lady police officer if it was the very place where she had wanted to take me. The moment she replied in the affirmative, I got down with the megaphone in my hand and asked the crowd to take me to a high place," Uma Bharati said.

"They picked me up and stood me on a high wall. The wall was right behind the disputed structure. Standing on the wall with the megaphone I appealed to the kar sevaks to come down. I felt my voice was not reaching them. Therefore, I waved my dupatta to draw their attention," she said.

In response, one or two of those atop the disputed structure came down. "On coming down, they asked me why was I calling them. I told them that we wanted that they should come down and listen to their leaders and assert their protests through democratic methods. Upon which the boys angrily told me that they did not know me. I told them that I was Uma Bharati."

The Union minister said the youth retorted saying, "Kahan ki Uma Bharati? Kaun Uma Bharati? Bharr (hell) mein jhao."

She claimed that the agitated crowd picked her up and "brought me down from the wall and formed a ring around me, and took me almost half-a-kilometre away." They told me not to come back again. Since I could see Ram Katha Kunj Manch from a distance, I walked my way through the rear to the manch and spoke to Advaniji."

"Thereafter I remained on the manch. In the evening when the entire disputed structure came down, the state police officers in charge of my security took me back," she said.

The fiery sanyasin said she could not recollect who all spoke what all. But said Advani, Joshi, Singhal, Sheshadri and a few others were there on the dais.

When asked what she felt when she saw Babri Masjid being demolished, Uma Bharati said: "There is a strange feeling when you do not want to see somebody but do not wish death (to him) also, and that same person is killed in front of you. I felt that kind of emotion."

She said she feared a stampede and was surprised to see no sign of paramilitary forces.

"I had very mixed emotions. Fear, worry, panic. I would also mention, now that it has come to my memory, that I saw a vulture hovering in the sky. That is considered a very bad omen. And that frightened me all the more," Uma Bharati told the Commission.

She claimed that the demolition was the "failure of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement."

Bharati also told the Commission that she does "not remember anybody making any provocative speech."

Her deposition started a few minutes after 11 am, and went well past afternoon.

She will appear before the Commission on January 15 next to complete her deposition and for cross-questioning by advocates of various Muslim and Left organisations.

Her statements were in response to the queries posed by the Commission and its counsel Anupam Gupta.

The sanyasin deposed after swearing by God that she would tell the truth, only truth, nothing but the truth.

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