MUMBAI, 29 October 2007 — Going on back foot in view of the criticism of Muslim organizations that the government was dilly-dallying to act on Srikrishna Commission report on the 1992-93 communal riots in Mumbai, state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh yesterday denied the allegations leveled against his Democratic Front government.
He said the government had no intentions of delaying the implementation of the report and added that a committee headed by the additional chief secretary (home) was re-examining certain cases mentioned in the report and assured that those guilty will not be spared. Admitting that several delegations from various NGOs had met him to press for the implementation of the report, he said that the government was in regular touch with them and would do whatever is possible to implement the recommendations of the commission. “It’s completely baseless and wrong to say that the government is dilly-dallying and not keen to implement the report.”
Deshmukh whose Congress led DF government is just three days behind of completing three years of his second term as chief minister on November one, said that most of the cases that are to be examined are related to policemen and that some delay in implementation is due to the evidence factor which need to be recreated. The whole process requires reinvestigation and putting pieces of evidences together and recreate it keeping in mind that the communal riots took place 15 years ago.
Putting the blame on the then BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government, Deshmukh said the saffron government had destroyed or dumped vital information and that it would take time for collecting information and then making up cases. The chief minister reminded that it should be borne in mind that evidence given before any inquiry commission is not acceptable in court of law and in face of this situation, the DF government wants to ensure solid and concrete evidences which can stand scrutiny to the law and accepted by the courts, he added.
In another development, the working president of the Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray dubbed the Tehelka sting operation on the Gujarat Riots as a “mere political conspiracy to defame Hindus,” by those who claim to be secularists, and questioned the motive behind telecasting the sting operation tapes on news channels, that too few days before the legislative polls in the state.
Thackeray alleged that the secular leaders who are demanding arrest of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi after the sting operation by Tehelka newspaper, were doing so with an eye on the Muslim vote bank.
“Those leaders who are demanding Modi’s arrest after the sting operation are doing so with an eye on the Muslim vote bank, are hypocrites, who are indulging in double standards and maintaining silence on the hanging of Afzal Guru, who was awarded death sentence for the attack on Indian Parliament. These secularist leaders should better demand the arrest of state Samajwadi Party and Member of Parliament Abu Asim Azmi and his party president Mulayam Singh Yadav for their anti-Hindu utterances and criticism of the Hindu religion, Thackeray added.
Meanwhile in Nashik, the police foiled attempts of 100 Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) activists from burning the effigy of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his role in the post-Godra riots.
The president of the NCP Youth Front Ranjan Thakare demanded that cases of murder and genocide be filed against Modi, he be arrested, and inquiry be held in incidents exposed through the sting operation.
