Given their experience, the Indian people do not expect any justice simply because a Commission of Enquiry is appointed. Even so, the duration of almost 17 years between setting up such a commission and the submission of its report comes as a shock. The Liberhan Commission was set up on December 16, 1992 by the Narasimha Rao government to inquire into the circumstances leading to the event of demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6 of that year. The Commission submitted its report to the government on June 30, 2009, after 48 extensions!

Justice Liberhan is reported to have said that the delay was because witnesses did not respond. Whether or not that is a fact, it is to be noted that it took more than nine years for the Commission to obtain V P Singh's deposition, and nine-and-a-half for P V Narasimha Rao's; former RSS chief K S Sudarshan appeared only on February 6, 2001.

The present Congress government of Manmohan Singh has not offered any explanations as to why the Report was not completed and submitted in all these years. All governments, since 1992, have contributed to this delay by unashamedly extending the term of the Commission each time it was about to expire!

Even worse, the present government is no hurry to table the Report. It has said that it would need time to review the report and has taken shelter under some "Parliamentary norms". The Union Parliamentary Minister Pawan Bansal has been quoted as saying: “The report will not be tabled in the session beginning tomorrow. It’s too early to table it. According to (Parliamentary) norms, we have a period of six months from the date of submission of report. The UPA government will carefully study it and decide upon its action plan. Things will not be done in a hurry here.”

What are these "Parliamentary norms" except to hide the truth about the crimes committed against the people and ensure that those guilty of the most heinous deeds are never brought to book and punished? These norms entail the appointment of Commissions whose reports are never tabled within a stipulated time hoping that people will forget about the event; such norms also ensure that no action is taken on the basis of the reports of such Commissions.

There is no mystery about the event itself that the Liberhan Commission was mandated to enquire into. On December 6th 1992, in full view of television cameras, and amidst heavy deployment of police forces, the Babri Masjid, a historical monument dating back to the 15th century, was destroyed by hordes of Kar Sevaks led by the top leadership of the BJP. The demolition of the Babri Masjid was proclaimed as a “victory” for “hindus” and communal passions were deliberately inflamed all over the country. In the days and weeks that followed, thousands of people were slaughtered in state organized communal massacres, in Mumbai, Surat and many other towns of India.

What the delay in submission of the Report and response of the Manmohan Singh government reveals is that the Indian people cannot expect any justice from this system, from this state and its parties - they will never let the truth be revealed nor will they punish the guilty. People must have no illusions about the enquiry commissions set up by this state or its criminalised parties.

There was incriminating evidence against the two major political parties - the Congress and the BJP, with one of them ruling at the Centre and other in power in Uttar Pradesh, both leading up to the demolition and the subsequent killing. This is the crux of the matter - that both of them are responsible for the communalization and criminalization of the polity. Communal terror and violence is used by the state through these two parties to break down the resistance and unity of the people against the anti-people agenda of the bourgeoisie.

If the truth is to be accepted and guilty have to be punished, if there is to be no repeat of state organized communal provocations and massacres, then parties like Congress and BJP should not be allowed to come to power. The people — the workers and peasants — must be in political power. If the people are in power, they will certainly ensure that there is immediate and serious investigation to identify and punish those guilty of committing crimes against society and the people.