'The Liberhan report has lost its relevance'

The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership is not 'unduly perturbed' by the submission of the report of the Justice M S Liberhan commission, which probed the Babri Masjid demolition.

"The Liberhan report has lost its relevance. It took him 17 years to arrive at a conclusion. Two different FIRs have been filed -- one under 197 and the other under 198," a senior BJP leader and former minister in the Vajpayee government said.

According to him, several witnesses, including a lady police officer, had changed their statements. The lady police officer gave contradictory statements in the two cases that she appeared.

"Even if the government is bent upon prosecuting them, nothing would happen. Congress can have fun at the cost of a dead man (former prime minister Narasimha Rao) whose government was in power when the Babri Masjid was razed to the ground. BJP has nothing to fear, as it was part of the party's agenda. The person who would regret the most would be Mulayam Singh Yadav, who would be at the receiving end both from Congress as well as BSP," another senior party leader said.

Chidambaram, who returned to New Delhi on Wednesday after a two-day trip to Mumbai, refused to take media persons' queries on the commission report.

"I am a slow reader. I would go through the report and when I am ready I would tell you," he said.

The commission had handed over the report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who asked Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to prepare an Action Taken Report in the shortest possible time. Chidambaram, in turn, passed it to prime minister's media advisor Harish Khare to ensure that it is not leaked to anyone in his absence.