Cong blames Advani for delay in hanging Afzal Guru

New Delhi, Nov 24:

Seeking to turn the tables on BJP's attempts to "politicise" terror, Congress on Monday held senior BJP leader L K Advani responsible for the "delay" in hanging Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

Advani as the Home Minister from 1998-2004 "failed to deal" with any clemency petitions and this is the reason for the "delay" in hanging Afzal, party spokesman Manish Tiwari told reporters and asked "why didn't Advani fulfill his responsibility..."

"The situation is that law does not allow the government to deal arbitrarily with one clemency request pending since 2006, at the will of the BJP, without dealing with the one pending since 1998", he said.

The Congress also accused the saffron party of adopting double standards on terror as also human rights issues alleging that its "silence" in connection with the torture of young men in Andhra Pradesh who were later released was a proof.

He also made it clear that the Congress was not interested in raising with the Election Commission the "communal" statement made by BJP in this regard. A BJP leader had reportedly said if Afzal was a Hindu, he would have been hanged.

Your comment(s) on this article

The BJP has very efficiently painted a picture that the Cong being pro-minority has failed to hang Afzal Guru But the fact is that a number of clemency petitions are yet to be processed (some even from the BJP term) before Afzal`s turn comes The Law of the land does not allow any case to be taken up before it`s turn comes Even the BJP (even though it is making promises to the contrary) will not be able to hang Afzal Guru out of turn The Cong is being blamed for something which is not within it`s control I am sure that the BJP also knows this (having law experts like Jaitley in it`d fold) The fact that it is intentionally trying to blame the Cong is sheer misleading of the citizens of India who are largely ignorant of this fact and sadly are only willing to take the BJP at its face-value Such manipulations for power are very sinister as it is indicative that BJP is capable of going to any unethical means for it`s gains -R S Sharma - Hydearbad

If it`s so Mr raghuveer then we r better off without BJP B`coz we all know how efficient they r in handling d crisis situation in Kargil war n Kandhar handling it exposed They r dalal of business houses n wants power just to distribute Govt companies to them All BJP leaders are born with BIG MOUTHGood to hearclap n then just FORGET -Raj - delhi

What congress goverment has been doing since 5yrs?????????? If HC issue death sentence then why he has not been hanged in congress tenure?? Why home minister release to give afjal to pakistan on exchane basis??? Fact is since 5 yrs no single terririst is punished! Give any single example if congress have??????? -pushkar - mumbai

Mr Raj-Delhi, can you not even understand this much, that Pakistan hated the idea of a Hindu majority India governed by Hindus (BJP) and thus stepped up its terrorist attacks during the BJP rule (to discredit Hindus, BJP)? Surely u must be able to comprehend this, that is if you allow yourself to be unbiased and put off your Congress glasses Don`t curse yourself with blindness friend, for who knows Dharmaraj will then let you be born blind in next life! -raghuveer -

It is only Congress Party,which encourages terrorism by repealing POTA & delay in the hanging of Afzal GuruThis is clear signal to terrorist that they can do any unlawful activity in this country under Congress regime -Mukesh - Palanpur

Give me one single promise NDA fulfilled, d biggets cheating to indian people was to built ram mandir at ayodhya who had stopped them in 6 years of their rule talked about common civil code what happen to that removing of special status of J n K why not done? India was so peacefull under NDA, what if we had akshedham attack, red fort attack, parliament attack, and who can forget our hounrable minister escorting a millitant to kandherThey couldn`t manage even this and had to let free a militant, how can they protect india as a whole??? who can forget due to mismanagment we had to lost so many young and bright army officers in Kargil So many army officer`s perhaps didn`t lost their life in previos war n what they did made fun of their sacrifice by making it an election issue arranging football matchesin the name of providing assitance to army officer ? U r conveniently forgetting all the major militant attack taken place during NDA regimen mind u POTA was well in placed that time Once they got power started selling INDIA n that too at penny India will again for SELL n this time their slogal will be INDIA SELLING -raj - delhi

The most to blame is the person who is ruling at present, for Congress was very speedy with undoing many policies of BJP, so why were they not speeding up this issue? -elton johns -

Being the home minister from1998 to 2004 LK Advani is equally blameworthy for not sending Afzal Guru to the gallows for his Big Terrorist Act -NP Singh - Vancouver

The law should take its courseThis blame game is doubtful of bad political intentionsWhy Govt failed to clear cases pending since 1998 ie for Ten long yearsTime has come to fix the responsibility and not politicsUPA govt is not clean as it is under a dynastic rule -Harcharan Mehta - Toronto,Canada

Everyone knows that the BJP government had already cleared the capital punishment of Afzal Guru, but was held up in President`s office due to the pending clemency petiton, which the Union Home Ministry beaucrats had to work out and clear it But after the elections, it is the present Congress regime which still has kept it pending for fear of losing Mulsim votes, thanks to the lame duck PM and President the so-called people`s representatives have elected While blaimg LK Advani for delay in hanging Afzal Guru, the loud mouthed Congress spokesman shoud better remmber that we do not have a firing squad to punish the guilty as done in China, where utions are done by agencies of Communist PLA Here we have a judicial system and an adminsitartive system, the latter, of late, has become a tool of the ruling combine at the Centre Congress cannot paint LK Advani in black for this delay They have to blame the Union Home Minsitry officials and the President`s office which has failed to raise its objection for delay in granting clearence to the hanging of Afzal Guru Similarly, these Congressmen and their allies who are hobnobbing with extremist elements among minirity communities since the 80s have to be tried for `treason` -KN Shivakumar - Bangalore

This is interesting The Congress is saying that Mohammad Afzal has still not been hanged because his clemency petition is pending and his clemency petition cannot be taken up till all the earlier clemency petitions are taken up for disposal Is this a legally tenable position? Would someone in the know please confirm? -K.Venugopal - Mumbai

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