Babri mosque demolition had badly dented BJP's image: Advani

New Delhi, Mar 13: Senior BJP leader L K Advani today (Sunday, Mar 13) said that he felt the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 had "badly dented" the credibility of his party.

Recalling a newspaper article he had written a fortnight after the demolition, he said that while describing the genesis of evolution of Ayodhya movement, he had said that the day the disputed structure was pulled down was the saddest day of his life.

In the latest post on his blog, Advani said that some colleagues had criticised him for that statement saying, "Why he was being apologetic about the development?"

Advani said he had replied, "I am not at all apologetic. Indeed, I am proud of my association with the Ayodhya movement. But I am extremely sad that our party's credibility has been badly dented by the happenings of Dec 6." He recalled that he had written in his article that organisations involved in the movement could be faulted for not being able to judge the impatience of the people participating in it.

"I felt sad that a meticulously drawn up plan of action, where under the UP government was steadily marching forward towards discharging its mandate regarding temple construction without violating any law or disregarding any court order had gone awry (because of the demolition).

"If the exercise contemplated had now been short-circuited in a totally unforeseen manner, the organisations involved in the movement can be faulted for not being able to judge the impatience of the people participating in the movement, but they were certainly not responsible for what happened that day", Advani recalled as having stated in the article.

PTI