The 68 individuals named as culpable in the Liberhan Commission of Enquiry Report

Liberhan's 68
Mr Vajpayee's name figures at #7 in the list of 68 individuals named as culpable for bringing the country to the 'brink of communal discord'

1 Acharya Dharmendra Dev (Member, Dharam Sansad)
2 Acharya Giriraj Kishore (Leader, Vishwa Hindu Parishad)
3 AK Saran (IG. Security)
4 Akhilesh Mehrotra (Additional Superintendent of Police, Faizabad)
5 Ashok Singhal (Leader, Vishwa Hindu Parishad)
6 Ashok Sinha (Secretary Tourism)
7 AB Vajpayee (Leader, Bharatiya Janata Party)
8 Badri Prasad Toshniwal (Leader, Vishwa Hindu Parishad)
9 Baikunth Lal Sharma (Leader, Vishwa Hindu Parishad)
10 Bala Sahib Thackeray (Leader, Shiv Sena)
11 BP Singhal (Leader, Vishwa Hindu Parishad)
12 Braham Dutt Divedi (Revenue Minister, Uttar Pradesh)
13 Champat Rai (Local Construction Manager)
14 Dau Dayal Khanna (Leader, Bharatiya Janata Party)
15 DB Roy (Senior Superintendent of Police, Faizabad district)
16 Devraha Baba (Leader, Sant Samaj)
17 Gurjan Singh (Vishwa Hindu Parishad, RSS)
18 GM Lodha (Leader, BJP)
19 Govindacharya (Leader, RSS)
20 HV Sheshadri (Leader, RSS)
21 Jai Bhagwan Goyal (Leader, Shiv Sena)
22 Jai Bhan Singh Pawaria (Leader, Bajrang Dal Ayodhya)
23 KS Sudarshan (Leader, RSS)
24 Kalraj Mishra (President, Uttar Pradesh unit of BJP)
25 Kalyan Singh (Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh)
26 Khushabhau Thackray (Leader, RSS)
27 Lal Ji Tandon (Energy Minister, Uttar Pradesh)
28 Lallu Singh Chauhan (MLA BJP Ayodhya)
29 LK Advani (Leader, BJP)
30 Mahant Avaidhyanath (Leader, Hindu Mahasabha)
31 Mahant Nritya Gopal Das (Leader, Ram Janmbhoomi Nyas)
32 Mahant Paramhans Ran Chander Dass (Leader, VHP)
33 Moreshwar Dinanant Save (Leader, Shiv Sena)
34 Morpanth Pingale (Shiv Sena)
35 Murli Manohar Joshi (Leader, BJP)
36 Om Pratap Singh
37 Onkar Bhava (Leader, VHP)
38 Pramod Mahajan (Leader, BJP)
39 Parveen Togadia (Leader, VHP)
40 Prabhat Kumar (Principal Secretary home)
41 Purshottam Narain Singh (Secretary, VHP)
42 Rajendra Gupta (Minister, Uttar Pradesh)
43 Rajender Singh, Professor alias Raju Bhaiyya (Leader, RSS)
44 Ram Shankar Agnihotri (BJP, VHP leader)
45 Ram Vilas Vedanti (Leader Sant Samaj)
46 RK Gupta (Finance Minister, Uttar Pradesh)
47 RN Shrivastava (District Magistrate, Faizabad)
48 Sadhivi Ritambara (Leader Sant Samaj)
49 Shanker Singh Vaghela (President, Gujarat BJP)
50 Satish Pradhan (Leader, Shiv Sena)
51 Shri Chander Dixit (Leader, BJP)
52 Sita Ram Aggarwal
53 SP Gaur (Commissioner, Utter Pradesh)
54 Sunder Singh Bhandari (Leader, BJP)
55 Surya Pertap Sahi (State Minister, Uttar Pradesh)
56 Swami Chinmayanand (leader VHP)
57 Swami Sachidanand Sakshi alias Sakshiji Maharaj (Leader, BJP)
58 SVM Tripathi (DGP)
59 Swami Satmit Ram Ji (Leader, Sant Samaj)
60 Swami Satyanandji, (Leader, Sant Samaj)
61 Swami Vam Devji (Leader, Sant Samaj)
62 Uma Bharti (Leader, VHP)
63 UP Bajpai (DIG, Faizabad)
64 Vijayraje Scindia (Leader, BJP)
65 VK Saxena (Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh)
66 Vinay Katiyar (Leader, RSS)
67 Vishnu Hari Dalmia (Leader, VHP)
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 all the three leaders together and even though these leaders were not completely in charge of the situation, they could not “however be given the benefit of the doubt and exonerated of culpability.”

Page 941: [166.1] “On one hand, the leaders like AB Vajpayee, Murli Manohar Joshi and LK Advani, who are the undeniable public face and leaders of the BJP and thus, of the Parivar, constantly protested their innocence and denounced the events of December 1992.

[166.2] It cannot be assumed even for a moment that LK Advani, AB Vajpayee or MM Joshi did not know the designs of the Sangh Parivar

[166.3] On the other hand, it stands established beyond doubt that the events of the day were neither spontaneous nor unplanned nor an unforeseen overflowing of the people’s emotions...

Page 942: “These people, who may be called pseudo-moderates could not have defied the mandate of the Sangh Parivar, and more specifically the diktats of the RSS, without having bowed out of public life as leaders of the BJP. They were not in control of the RSS and had absolutely no influence over the direction that they had been told to follow”

“The commission is unable to hold even these pseudo-moderates innocent of any wrongdoing. It cannot be assumed even for a moment that L K Advani, AB Vajpayee or MM Joshi did not know the designs of the Sangh Parivar”

In addition to the conclusion, 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.”