Ex-BJP leader suspects 'political conspiracy'

New Delhi: Kalyan Singh, who was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when the Babri mosque in Ayodhya was razed, said he suspected a "political conspiracy" behind the Liberhan Commission of Inquiry that has severely indicted leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the demolition.

Kalyan Singh, who later quit the BJP and recently broke ranks with the Samajwadi Party, told reporters in New Delhi that the Liberhan Commission report was "politically motivated".

"In the Liberhan Commission there is a stench of politics," he said. "I say there was no deep conspiracy and there was no advance planning to break the structure. December 6 was an explosion."

Accused by the Liberhan Commission of inaction to prevent the destruction of the Babri mosque, he said he had told the police to use their canes or fire tear gas to disperse the hundreds of thousands of people who had gathered in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

"But I made it clear that there should be no firing on the kar sevaks [volunteers]," he said.