MUMBAI, 11 August 2007 — The Srikrishna Commission report has put the Congress-led Democratic Front government on the back foot and pushed the state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh against the wall. Now the Samajwadi Party (SP) has jumped into the fray and will hold a rally today in Mumbai. The rally will be led by Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh.
Speaking to journalists at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh premises on Thursday evening, the state president of the SP Abu Asim Azmi demanded that the investigation into the 1992-93 communal riots must be conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court, similar to the Sohrabuddin encounter case of Gujarat. “Let the Supreme Court oversee the riot panel implementation,” he said.
Azmi further said that all the accused named in the Srikrishna Commission report should be tried in a special court under the provisions of the then Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (TADA) Act or the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA).
The SP leader launched a scathing attack on the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and accused them of being soft on Sena leaders, particularly former legislator Madhukar Sarpotdar who was arrested by the Indian Army with weapons.
Comparing the leniency being shown to people like Sarpotdar with the “harsh punishment” given to 60-year-old Zaibunissa Shaikh in the 1993 serial blasts, Azmi said that the DF government was not treating all the accused equally before the law of the land, and that the SP would rake up the issue in the ensuring session of the Parliament.
Azmi wanted to know as to why the Vilasrao Deshmukh government was hesitating to take action against the accused named in the Srikrishna Commission report though the Supreme Court had observed that the police action was unjust.
He also demanded that action should be taken against former Mumbai Police Commissioner R.D. Tyagi for his role in the firing and killing of nine innocent Muslims in the Suleman Bakery on Mohammed Ali Road during the riots.
Meanwhile, eminent personalities and peace activists called for a determined fight against injustice, at a meeting held in Mumbai on Thursday under the banner of Justice for All and criticized the nonimplementation of the Srikrishna Commission report, despite the judicial experts questioning the government as to why more legal opinions, evidences and committees were need to go ahead with the implementation.
The speakers at the meeting that included former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Ribeiro, theater personalities Alyque Padamsee, Rahul Bose, journalists Anil Dharker, Teesta Setalvad, Javed Anand, social activists Pushpa Bhave, Cyrus Guzder, Titu Ahluwalia, Ulema Council’s General Secretary Maulana Athar Ali, Jamiatul Ulema-e-Hind leader Maulana Mustaqeem Azmi, and retired Justice Hosbet Suresh, appealed to the people not to bow to the threat of communal elements to put off the implementation of the report, as being indicated by various leaders.
Justice Suresh asked why the government needed additional legal opinion, when the Srikrishna Commission had submitted a comprehensive report and said, “We are talking about justice and peace and it cannot be done without the sense of justice. The victims of riots should now move court for justice,” and cautioned that if political parties are creating a bogey of communal tension to avoid implementation of the report, then we should not tolerate it.
Pushpa Bhave came down heavily on Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray and urged the people of Maharashtra to disown Thackeray as their political leader as he played a major role in the worst criminal act by instigating the rioters to attack Muslims, she said.
Journalist Teesta Setalvad said that the Justice for All forum had met Mumbai Police Commissioner Dhananjay Jadhav on Thursday and demanded action against those named in the report. “The Sena mouthpiece Saamna has been communalizing the issue in last few days. We have demanded quick action against the newspaper,” she said.
Maulana Athar said, “We have been demanding punishment of the accused and are not against a particular religion as no communal mind knows religion.” Maulana Azmi airing the grievances of the Muslims community said that the Muslims were receiving step-motherly treatment from the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra.
