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The Bharatiya Janata Party never wanted to destroy the 16th-century Babri mosque in Ayodhya, Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said on Wednesday.
"I can say with full humility and responsibility that the fact that this demolition could take place was never, never, never even remotely conceived by us," Joshi said.
He was deposing before the Liberhan Commission, which is probing the events that led to the razing of the mosque by Hindu fanatics on December 6, 1992.
The demolition sparked the worst Hindu-Muslim violence since India's independence in 1947.
Joshi asserted that that BJP always wanted to settle the dispute by mutual agreement. "This also meant that nothing should harm the disputed structure until a negotiated settlement was reached."
He said the most 'remote reference' to the mosque's removal during the campaign to build a temple at the mosque site was by BJP President Lal Kishenchand Advani who said that the mosque must be relocated.
The minister told the commission he had appealed to temple supporters to stop going to Ayodhya after December 3 because of an ominous surge in the inflow of Kar Sevaks.
"We knew the crowds were becoming unmanageable and already large numbers had reached Ayodhya by December 3. So we advised supporters to stay where they were and perform their rituals without going to Ayodhya," Joshi said.
He said the original idea was for the volunteers to perform symbolic rituals at the site over a period of 18 days, beginning December 6.
Joshi denied that there was any acrimony between Hindus and Muslims in the build-up to the mosque razing.
"Political parties tried to create a divide, but we always wanted the communities to come to a mutual agreement," he added.
Indo-Asian News Service
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