Was Prime Minister PVN Rao sleeping when Babri Masjid was being demolished?
According to media reports, quoting from veteran journalist Kuldeep Nayyar's new book Beyond the Line, the late prime minister P.V.Narasimha Rao was sleeping when Karsevaks were demolishing the Babri Masjid structure. One does not know the source of this FALSE INFORMATION offered to Mr Nayyar, that has found a mention in the book.
This unfortunate episode happened on a Sunday (6/12/92).Yet the then prime minister late P.V.Narasimha Rao, the then Home Minister S.B.Chavan and the home secretary Madhav Godbole and many others in the central government were on the watch out for the developments in Ayodhya. As a person who was closely working with the prime minister, I would like to set the record right by narrating that day's developments as follows:
On Sundays the Prime Minister Rao had the practice of working on government files, catching up with reading and writing on his computer while staying in his bedroom until the afternoon, except he was travelling.After 4 pm,the prime minister would attend to official work in his office room. On all the seven days of the week, he had arranged that I should telephone him between 6.30 and 7 am and brief him about the news and views in the media. If I delayed my call for any reason, I would receive a call from 7 Race Course Road.
On this particular Sunday, the December 6th, after contacting the Home Ministrys control room, my sources from Faizabad and Ayodhya and reviewing media, I had spoken to PM on phone as per the existing arrangement. The previous day several rounds of meetings had taken place running late into the evening reviewing the Ayodhya developments and the backup central security arrangements. He was anxious to know about the overnight developments. if any.And his personal staff was also in touch with the control room of the Home Ministry but they did not have any kind of information from Ayodhya.
With the Prime Minister's permission, I had set up a media liaison and observation office in Faizabad telecom office ( nearest available Telecom center from Ayodhya)and had deployed a team under an experienced media person from UP,D.N.Chaturvedi, who had retired from the press information bureau. On my request the Telecom department had added additional telecom facilities for meeting expected increased media presence (those were pre –mobile phone days). I had also made arrangements with late R.P.Gupta, (located in Faizabad) a representative of a Delhi newspaper who had followed the Masjid-Temple controversy for decades and written books on the subject. Both from D.N,Chaturvedi and R.P Gupta I was receiving information about the Ayodhya events from time to time and I was required to keep the Prime Minister informed. I had spoken to Gupta late in the previous night and he had told me about the presence of large number of Karsevaks in the vicinity of the disputed area and a certain bon homie existing between them and the state security personnel. According to him there could be some untoward incidents causing law and order problems.
The Home Secretary Godbole was in office early, and as he told me on phone he was greatly worried about the reports from Ayodhya And according to him he was trying in vain to contact the senior officers of the UP government. Between 10 and 10.30 am, I had contacted R.P.Gupta and he informed me that he apprehended danger to the structure. I relayed this information to the prime minister and also contacted the Home Secretary ( he had already received similar information from his official sources) and the Cabinet secretary. The Home Secretary was very concerned that senior officers of the UP government were not responding to his calls and he had informed the Home Minister, with a suggestion that he call the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. During this period I had spoken to the prime minister more than once conveying whatever information I was gathering from my sources and according to my information, PM was also in touch with the concerned persons in the government.
Regarding the developments after the attack on the disputed structure and government responses, these have been recorded in the late priminister's book on Ayodhya episode, the union government's White Paper, the Liberhan commission and Mahdav Godbole's book and therefore, donot need to be recalled here.
S.Narendra, former Principal Information Officer to the Government of India and official Spokesperson
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