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"I plead guilty of believing a state government. I have no explanation on that," P V Narasimha Rao as the Prime Minister said in Parliament on December 21, 1992.
"Brave words are being said after the event and people look like sages who knew everything beforehand," - Rao wrote in his book 'Ayodhya, December 6, 1992'.
“...there was no lapse on the part of the Central Government and that if the State Government had at least made use of the central force in time and meaningfully, the Babari structure could certainly have been saved on December, 1992.” - Rao in his book 'Ayodhya: 6 December 1992' published in 2006 after his death.
"They (a few Congress leaders) had already made up their mind that one person had to be made historically responsible for the tragedy. They got a stick to beat me with. I understood it," - Narasimha Rao
"Please spare me your sympathy," - Rao had said
on Dec 7, 1992 when the union council of ministers met and all his colleagues tried to share their agony. (This is mentioned in former Minister and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid's book "Sunrise over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times")
((Khurshid wrote: "Understandably, most were at a loss for words, but Madhavrao Scindia broke the ice to say how we all felt for Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. The reaction of the embattled PM took us by surprise when he retorted, ''Please spare me your sympathy''. ))
Mr Khurshid also writes in his book published in 2021 that on the night of December 6, he and some other young ministers, "gathered at the residence of Rajesh Pilot to take stock, and then proceeded together to CK Jaffer Sharief -thus two bold voices in the government were roused".
He says calls were "made to Principal Secretary AN Verma, who suggested that we speak to the PM. We got through to the PM and suggested to him that Rajesh Pilot be included in the group that was flying to Faizabad".
Mr Rao "in turn asked us to speak to AN Verma again, and thus the chase continued for a while, until we were told that the PM would not be available, having turned in for the night. The urgency was for a senior functionary of the government to intervene before the idols, which had been shifted during the demolition of the mosque, were reinstalled on the site", he writes. (NDTV web report)
In his book for chapter titled “The Building Blocks of Dispute”, Narasimha Rao claimed that these Congress leaders had made a crucial calculation well before the mosque fell on December 6, 1992.
"If there had been success (in preventing any incident -- as had seemed likely initially when Rao held behind-the-scenes consultations with Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders) they would readily share the credit or appropriate it for themselves. So they were playing either for success or an alibi."
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| Dec 6, 1992 : Advani, Uma Bharati in Ayodhya rally |
(It was later stated that Narasimha Rao's experiment with his style of politics lasted 19 months, from June 1991, when he was elected prime minister, to December 1992 when Babri Masjid or disputed structure was brought down)
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