A destructive legacy

摘要

After 17 years, several hundred testimo-nies, and many missed deadlines, an inquiry into one of modern India's darkest episodes, the destruction of a mosque by Hindu fanatics, this week at last published its findings. It prompted riotous scenes in parliament and a media whirl. The report, on the demolition in December 1992 of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, concluded that senior leaders of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including the party's present leader, Lal Krishna Advani, were complicit in the vandalism.