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Chief minister Manohar Joshi, who was grilled for another five hours on the second
and final day of cross-examination before the Srikrishna Commission on Tuesday,
said that in case of an adverse court judgement in the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid
issue, his party will try and bring legislation to overrule the court decision.
In another reply, he admitted that avenging the death of victims of the Radhabai
Chawl, Jogeshwari incident, by killing innocent people in Colaba was not proper.
"According to me retaliation against some innocent persons in Colaba because some
innocent people were killed in Jogeshwari will be as improper as the retaliation
carried out in the city against the so-called Babri Masjid," Mr Joshi said, while
replying to a question from Milli council lawyer Yusuf Muchhala.
During the long grilling session, Mr Joshi was asked whether Shiv Sena would abide
by the court decision on the mandir-masjid issue. Mr Joshi replied that the court
before which the case was pending was also of the view that the pending case is
purely a religion-based issue and therefore the court was slow in giving its
decision. When Mr Muchhala persisted in asking whether the Sena would abide by
the decision, Mr Joshi said, "If the court gives a decision and it is unacceptable
to us, we will take steps to bring party power and bring legislation to overrule
the court decision."
Mr Joshi said that any retaliation, even if spontaneous, must be carried out in a
constitutional manner and within the framework of the law. Asked whether the
Hindu backlash of 1993 was done in a constitutional manner, Mr Joshi replied, "I
would say to the extent that retaliation came about in actual incident of communal
riots and violence, it was not done in the frame-work of the Constitution. But
other acts like holding morchas and giving memorandums were acts which fall under
the category of constructive retaliation were within the frame work of law." Ibis
opinion he said was not just restricted to the riots but also to the serial bomb
blast in Mumbai on March 12, 1993.
Shiv Sena did not object to the use of loud speakers in the azaan by the Muslims
on religious grounds, but because it leads to noise pollution, Mr Joshi told the
commission. Justifying the use of word shastra in one of the Saamna editorials,
Mr Joshi said that as far as he understood it, the weapons were those of kar seva.
According to Mr Joshi, neither he nor the many Shiv Sainiks who left for Ayodhya
to perform the kar seva could reach on time. By the time they reached it the
evening of December 6, 1992 and the tomb had already been demolished. Mr Joshi
said it was not true that the intention of Sainiks was to indulge in acts of
violence.
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