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Friday, Aug 10, 2007
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National

NCP yet to take a stand

Special Correspondent

On demand for prosecution of rioters indicted by panel

MUMBAI: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is yet to take a stand on the growing demand for prosecuting all persons indicted by the Srikrishna Commission for their involvement in Mumbai riots in 1993.

“I am not clear about the party’s stand and I can tell you what it could be only after talking to the leadership,” Maharashtra NCP spokesman Madan Bafna told reporters on Thursday. But he said that this matter was very important.

The statement has surprised political circles here for the issue has become crucial with mounting pressure on the Government from the Muslim groups to file cases.

The NCP is a partner in the Congress-led ruling coalition and its party leader R.R. Patil is the Deputy Chief Minister and holds the Home portfolio.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has declared that he had sought the opinion of the Law and Judiciary Department to give its opinion on the legal course the Government should take in the matter.

Most of the political leaders indicted are from the Shiv Sena. They include, besides Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, the former Lok Sabha Speaker, Manohar Joshi; Madhukar Sarpotdar, MLC; and the former Minister of State for Home, Gajanan Kirtikar.

Rally on August 20

Several Muslim and secular organisations have organised a rally in Mumbai on August 20 to press for action against the Sena leaders and police officers named in the report.

About four-lakh Bharatiya Janata Party workers, including prominent leaders Gopinath Munde and Nitin Gadkari, courted arrest on Thursday as part of a State-wide campaign against the coalition Government’s “inefficiency.”

Government should quit: BJP

Launching the agitation on the 65th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, the BJP called on the Government to quit. At Azad Maidan, BJP workers were lathicharged and there was some stone-throwing too.

Party State vice-president Kirit Somaiya and others were injured in the lathi charge and admitted to hospital.

Mr. Munde made several promises that his party would fulfil if it came to power in the 2009 Assembly elections.

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