When Parliament was attacked on December 13, 2001, the Congress and all political parties described it as an attack on democracy. Ten years later, the Congress dismisses an important letter on the punishment to be given to Mohd Afzal Guru as `routine’ and tucks it into some dog-eared file.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs sends a letter to the Delhi Government on April 27 asking the government headed by Shiela Dikshit to furnish its views on the mercy petition of Afzal Guru. The letter gets buried and the MHA sends a reminder. Again no reply. And the Home Ministry of the Delhi Government is under Shiela Dikshit herself!
The MHA letter was rather strongly worded, but the Delhi Chief Minster chose to sit over the file. In fact, the Delhi Government has been sitting on Guru's file since September 2006!
This is not the first time that Sheila Dikshit is getting a letter from the MHA located a few blocks away from her office. A similar notice was sent in April last year. At that time, Dikshit had said she would study the matter after the elections and take appropriate action. But, a year after the Lok Sabha elections, Dikshit has not decided on the matter.
It was in August 2005 that the President sought the MHA's views. The MHA, in turn, sought the opinion of the Delhi Government as the comments of the government of the state where the crime has been committed are sought before deciding a mercy petition. That is where Afzal Guru is stuck - on the table of Shiela Dikshit.
In fact, at one point of time Afzal Guru was so frustrated over the political battle and the delay in showing him mercy that he wanted to be hanged.
So who is fooling the public? The MHA or the Delhi Government or both?
So, is the Congress going soft on terrorists just for petty vote bank politics? One Congress leader sits over an important letter on Afzal Guru, another senior leader - Digvijay Singh -- visits Azamgarh, the hotbed of terrorists and give the Batla House encounter in Delhi a new spin.
Probably Shiela Dikshit does not want to take any action on the letter before the Commonwealth Games. If Guru is hanged now, there may be a backlash and this is the last thing that the Delhi Govt wants before the Games. One minor backlash and the Games would be `up for a toss'.
The BJP is right when it says that the clean chit to two suspected Indian accomplices of 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab and the delay in hanging Parliament attack culprit Afzal Guru was fast giving India the reputation of being soft on home-grown terrorists.
"Is the Delhi government pro-terror or does it think Afzal Guru was a tourist or a nationalist and feels he is not guilty. If yes, then it should openly say so. We want a clarification from the Prime Minister on the manner in which Afzal is being given relief", BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.
The main opposition maintained that the people were closely watching this appeasement politics of the Congress-led government, according to a PTI report.
Rudy alleged the action of the government in the whole issue was becoming questionable.
BJP also alleged that the Indian government was giving a softer treatment to home-grown terrorists unlike Kasab who was given a death sentence.
After Ajmal Kasab's conviction and with the prosecution failing to provide evidence against his two Indian accomplices Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed,there is a world-wide belief that Indian laws are different for those who are Indian terrorists and those who come from outside, Rudy said.
Just look at how `soft' the Delhi government is: The letter addressed to the Delhi government says: "It may seem that a considerable time has since passed but comments of the Delhi government are still awaited despite reminders."
The letter is addressed to G S Patnaik, the Home Secretary. It would be naive to say that the Home Secretary did not put up such an important letter to his boss, Shiela Dikshit.
If the Delhi Chief Minister is unaware of a letter on a terrorist who has been found guilty of attacking Parliament, she had better give an explanation.
Patnaik did what a typical bureaucrat would - protect his boss. "The Chief Minister was not aware of the latest. We informed her today about the letter from MHA," Patanaik was quoted in The Indian Express.
"I have not received any letter (from the MHA). Maybe the Home Department (of the Delhi government) received it," said Dikshit. Maybe? This is no routine letter on the weather or traffic jams in Delhi. This was a letter on a terrorist who attacked the symbol of democracy.
The reminder from the MHA came just a week before a Mumbai court sentenced Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab to death for the 26/11 attacks.
The letter had a sense of urgency as Kasab cannot be hanged before Afzal Guru. Questions are bound to arise on why.
"We are aware questions may be asked on what we are doing about the Afzal Guru case once the file pertaining to Kasab's death sentence lands with us if somebody files a mercy plea," a senior MHA functionary was quoted in The Indian Express.
Source: R Shankar, India Syndicate
K.Venugopal
#1
Tuesday, 18 May 2010 17:24:31
It would be wrong to say that the Congress is fooling the public. They are committed to their vote banks, which consists of the minorities and Hindus fragmented into various castes. So long as the Hindu constituency is not consolidated, the Congress can afford to take all sorts of anti-national decisions because only the Hindu constituency is programmed to respond to issues of national interest. If political parties of the secular and casteist varieties are to cease to be a danger to national integrity, the Hindu constituency must get consolidated.
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3914559&page=0
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs sends a letter to the Delhi Government on April 27 asking the government headed by Shiela Dikshit to furnish its views on the mercy petition of Afzal Guru. The letter gets buried and the MHA sends a reminder. Again no reply. And the Home Ministry of the Delhi Government is under Shiela Dikshit herself!
The MHA letter was rather strongly worded, but the Delhi Chief Minster chose to sit over the file. In fact, the Delhi Government has been sitting on Guru's file since September 2006!
This is not the first time that Sheila Dikshit is getting a letter from the MHA located a few blocks away from her office. A similar notice was sent in April last year. At that time, Dikshit had said she would study the matter after the elections and take appropriate action. But, a year after the Lok Sabha elections, Dikshit has not decided on the matter.
It was in August 2005 that the President sought the MHA's views. The MHA, in turn, sought the opinion of the Delhi Government as the comments of the government of the state where the crime has been committed are sought before deciding a mercy petition. That is where Afzal Guru is stuck - on the table of Shiela Dikshit.
In fact, at one point of time Afzal Guru was so frustrated over the political battle and the delay in showing him mercy that he wanted to be hanged.
So who is fooling the public? The MHA or the Delhi Government or both?
So, is the Congress going soft on terrorists just for petty vote bank politics? One Congress leader sits over an important letter on Afzal Guru, another senior leader - Digvijay Singh -- visits Azamgarh, the hotbed of terrorists and give the Batla House encounter in Delhi a new spin.
Probably Shiela Dikshit does not want to take any action on the letter before the Commonwealth Games. If Guru is hanged now, there may be a backlash and this is the last thing that the Delhi Govt wants before the Games. One minor backlash and the Games would be `up for a toss'.
The BJP is right when it says that the clean chit to two suspected Indian accomplices of 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab and the delay in hanging Parliament attack culprit Afzal Guru was fast giving India the reputation of being soft on home-grown terrorists.
"Is the Delhi government pro-terror or does it think Afzal Guru was a tourist or a nationalist and feels he is not guilty. If yes, then it should openly say so. We want a clarification from the Prime Minister on the manner in which Afzal is being given relief", BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.
The main opposition maintained that the people were closely watching this appeasement politics of the Congress-led government, according to a PTI report.
Rudy alleged the action of the government in the whole issue was becoming questionable.
BJP also alleged that the Indian government was giving a softer treatment to home-grown terrorists unlike Kasab who was given a death sentence.
After Ajmal Kasab's conviction and with the prosecution failing to provide evidence against his two Indian accomplices Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed,there is a world-wide belief that Indian laws are different for those who are Indian terrorists and those who come from outside, Rudy said.
Just look at how `soft' the Delhi government is: The letter addressed to the Delhi government says: "It may seem that a considerable time has since passed but comments of the Delhi government are still awaited despite reminders."
The letter is addressed to G S Patnaik, the Home Secretary. It would be naive to say that the Home Secretary did not put up such an important letter to his boss, Shiela Dikshit.
If the Delhi Chief Minister is unaware of a letter on a terrorist who has been found guilty of attacking Parliament, she had better give an explanation.
Patnaik did what a typical bureaucrat would - protect his boss. "The Chief Minister was not aware of the latest. We informed her today about the letter from MHA," Patanaik was quoted in The Indian Express.
"I have not received any letter (from the MHA). Maybe the Home Department (of the Delhi government) received it," said Dikshit. Maybe? This is no routine letter on the weather or traffic jams in Delhi. This was a letter on a terrorist who attacked the symbol of democracy.
The reminder from the MHA came just a week before a Mumbai court sentenced Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab to death for the 26/11 attacks.
The letter had a sense of urgency as Kasab cannot be hanged before Afzal Guru. Questions are bound to arise on why.
"We are aware questions may be asked on what we are doing about the Afzal Guru case once the file pertaining to Kasab's death sentence lands with us if somebody files a mercy plea," a senior MHA functionary was quoted in The Indian Express.
Source: R Shankar, India Syndicate
K.Venugopal
#1
Tuesday, 18 May 2010 17:24:31
It would be wrong to say that the Congress is fooling the public. They are committed to their vote banks, which consists of the minorities and Hindus fragmented into various castes. So long as the Hindu constituency is not consolidated, the Congress can afford to take all sorts of anti-national decisions because only the Hindu constituency is programmed to respond to issues of national interest. If political parties of the secular and casteist varieties are to cease to be a danger to national integrity, the Hindu constituency must get consolidated.
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3914559&page=0
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