People want early justice for Mumbai attack victims

ALLAHABAD: With political parties remaining largely divided over the issue of the Liberhan Commission report being tabled in the Parliament, the fact remains that the `aam aadmi' has travelled a long distance post December 1992, albeit the inordinate delay in pinning down culprits of 26/11 attack in Mumbai has left many questions unanswered.
Almost 17 years after it was set up to probe the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992, the one-member Justice M S Liberhan Commission report was finally tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday, though initially the time period granted to the commission for submitting the report was three months, stated former UP Assembly speaker and veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kesri Nath Tripathi.
Terming the report as politically motivated, Tripathi said that one more commission should be constituted to probe into the reasons behind the delay in tabling the report.
``The demolition of the Babri Masjid, which raised question on India's secularism remains a shame for us. In fact, it was the most traumatic event of our nation after Independence and we were waiting for a proper probe on this matter,'' said socialist and former district president of Samajwadi Party, Kamal Singh Yadav.
``But the question is, was it worth the long wait,'' asks Gauhar Hussain, garden supervisor in Allahabad University and Shahid Askari, a social worker who asserts that neither the Muslims nor the Hindus bother to ponder over the issue anymore. ``The citizens are more concerned about spiralling prices, unemployment and lack of infrastructural facilities in the society,'' said Rishi Chopra, a financial analyst.
Satyasheel Srivastava, a businessman, said the government should concentrate more upon bringing the 26/11 culprits to book instead of raking up a non-issue. He added that the only visible achievement of the government has been to try Ajmal Kasab in the court of law even as Pakistan has been repeatedly misleading India about the action taken on the real perpetrators and handlers of the incident.
Smelling a rat in the timing of tabling the report, Yadav opined that with elections in Jharkhand round the corner, the Congress party was trying to muster support of the minority community. ``How otherwise can one justify the delayed but yet specific timing of tabling the report,'' he asked.
Airing similar sentiments, Anurag Srivastava, a bank employee, said, ``the Liberhan Commission was expected to complete the inquiry in three months but it took almost two hundred months instead of the said time frame which included 48 extensions and the centre spending over Rs 10 crore on it.'' During this period we were just waiting and waiting and waiting hoping against hope that a common Indian can lead a life with secular identity, he added.
Congress Working Committee member and veteran leader Anil Shastri, however, had an altogether different point of view. Talking to The Times of India, Shastri said, ``The indictment of saffron brigade leaders should act as a deterrent. It is not a question of the timing or how relevant the issue is at this point in time, one should instead think about the families of persons who lost their lives in the largescale violence which ensued following the demolition and their endless wait for justice.''
While terming the 26/11 attack as unfortunate Shastri accused Pakistan of being insensitive towards the issue and repeatedly changing its stand vis-a- vis nailing down the culprits seeking shelter in Pakistan. ``They (Pakistan) have not really been very forthcoming,'' he said, adding, ``another sad part of the attack is that one year down the line, concrete results are yet to be achieved as far as punishment to Kasab is concerned.''