MUMBAI, February 16: Five years after the communal holocaust in Mumbai, the Srikrishna Commission today submitted its 700-page inquiry report to the State Government. The two-part report was handed over to the Deputy Secretary in the Home Department by the Commission's Secretary at half-past noon.Coming as it does in the middle of the general elections, the inquiry report, Justice Srikrishna told this paper, discusses at length the causes of the riots and the people responsible for the bloodbath.The submission of the report assumes significance because while the role of the Shiv Sena in stoking the communal fires that followed the Babri Masjid demolition was the matter of hot debate, the inability of the Congress-led Government to adequately respond to the situation was also believed to have contributed in great measure to the communal slaughter. It will thus be interesting to see if the Sena-BJP Government publishes the report immediately or prefers to wait it out till the elections.The submissionof the report is the culmination of a long saga of ups and downs. The most agonising part was the Government's decision to disband the Commission in 1995 after the coalition Government came to power. However, it was revived following the intervention of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who had requested the State Government to revive it during his 13-day rule at the Centre. The Commission was appointed on January 25, 1993, but it was not before June 23 that it could start recording evidence.Precisely three years later, when the Sena-BJP assumed power, it was scrapped and revived on May 27, 1996. It sat for a total of 526 days, was granted 10 extensions and examined 504 witnesses, including heavyweights like Sharad Pawar.
