MUMBAI, 2 November 2007 — In an interview with an English daily newspaper, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said there was no evidence of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s involvement in the 1992-1993 communal riots in Mumbai.
Deshmukh’s statement has shocked Muslim leaders and organizations that have been demanding the implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report on the Mumbai riots and call for action against political leaders and police officers indicted in the report.
“Deshmukh has hurt the sentiments of Muslims by giving a clean chit to Thackeray, perhaps to appease him. Sonia Gandhi, the Congress president, should immediately sack Deshmukh for his foolish statement, or else Muslims will teach the Congress a lesson in the assembly elections in 2009,” said Latif Magdum, a prominent Congress leader from Bandra suburb in Mumbai.
In his interview, Deshmukh said there was a reference to Thackeray in the Srikrishna report, but there was no evidence against him.
He also added that the case against Thackeray could not be framed without evidence and that legally a commission inquiry is not admissible in a court of law to depose someone.
Deshmukh also reiterated that the Democratic Front (DF) government was committed to taking action according to the report’s recommendations and would do everything possible to bring culprits to book.
Meanwhile, Deshmukh’s performance during his three-year tenure has been rated below average, according to a survey published by a local English daily in Pune.
Suicides among farmers, power failures, funds for regional development, flood-like situations, national schemes, and daily events have kept the chief minister busy. Deshmukh has also always remained uncertain over his continuation as chief minister.
However, the survey report spoke differently. It was the agrarian crisis, which Deshmukh handled badly, causing most people polled to rate his government’s performance as poor.
Criticizing the state government performance, Gopinath Munde, a legislator and Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary said, “During the three years rule, the DF government has only raised slogans and carried out no developments. The government has failed on all fronts. I have never ever seen such a helpless government before.”
State BJP President Nitin Gadkari said, “The DF government has done very little for the people of the state. The government hasn’t handled the agrarian crisis properly. But I would like to give full marks to Deshmukh and his team for selling generators, inverters and, of course helmets.”
