Salman Khurshid reflects on Babri demolition, says hindsight reveals possible mistakes

Congress leader Salman Khurshid has said decisions taken by governments during crises may later appear to have been mistakes, citing the Babri Masjid demolition and Partition as examples where hindsight offers a different perspective.

Speaking at the launch of lawyer-author Javed Gaya's book Heartland Rising: The Making of Majoritarian India, Khurshid said governments sometimes adopt what he described as "strategic restraint" in the hope of preventing a larger crisis.

"Hindsight obviously helps you look at the possible mistakes that would have been made," the former Union law minister said while responding to a question on the P V Narasimha Rao government's handling of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.

He said some believed strategic restraint was necessary to avoid provoking a "larger beast", but acknowledged that such restraint "may have unleashed the beast".

Khurshid said events such as the Babri Masjid demolition and the 2002 Gujarat riots could be examined in terms of their "explanations, failures and implications".

Referring to Partition, he said India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru continued to face criticism over the decision, but leaders had to take difficult calls based on the circumstances prevailing at the time.

"In the heat of the moment, you take a decision in the hope that it is the best decision. In hindsight, you can conclude it wasn't the best decision," he said.

Khurshid also described Uttar Pradesh as central to India's political future, saying any return to the democratic values envisioned by the country's founding leaders would have to involve the state.

During the discussion, columnist and academic Apoorvanand criticised post-Independence Congress governments and said socialist and Left parties weakened opposition politics by aligning with the Jan Sangh in pursuit of electoral gains. He also stressed that ensuring Muslims felt they were equal citizens remained "non-negotiable".

Responding, Khurshid said it remained a "big question" why leaders who were not communal overlooked the long-term consequences of such political decisions.

(Inputs from PTI)