The Hindu : National : Srikrishna Commission report revival badly timed for the Congress-NCP

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Wednesday, Aug 15, 2007
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Srikrishna Commission report revival badly timed for the Congress-NCP

Meena Menon

MUMBAI: The demand to implement the Srikrishna Commission report on the 1992-93 communal riots in Mumbai could not have come at a worse time for the Congress-Nationalist Congress party (NCP) Government in Maharashtra. Its relations were at an all-time high with the Shiv Sena.

On the eve of the Presidential polls on June 18, the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra actually paid a never-before visit to Matoshri, the home of Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray to thank him for supporting the UPA candidate for President. The Sena broke ranks with its alliance partner in Maharashtra of 21 years, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to back Ms. Pratibha Patil.

Ms. Patil since then has called Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on his birthday and last week, her husband Devisingh Patil paid a courtesy visit to the Thackeray senior. The Sena-BJP alliance is on the rocks and even though a glimmer of hope was felt after the Sena voted for NDA candidate Najma Heptullah in the elections to the post of Vice-President, things are not hunky dory.

On Monday, the district chiefs of the Shiv Sena held a meeting at the Sena Bhavan and decided to pass a unanimous resolution saying that the alliance with the BJP must be broken off.

The Sena rank and file feels that the BJP calling their support to a Maharashtrian woman for President as a “betrayal” was an insult to the party.

However, late on Monday night Uddhav Thackeray who was cornered by the press while attending the 47th anniversary celebration of the weekly magazine, Marmik, said he still had to see the resolution.

While the central leadership of the BJP does not seem too keen on the break, State BJP president Nitin Gadkari has continued to indicate that the ties are strained.

Vicious campaign

While the alliance is tottering, the two saffron parties are one in registering vehement opposition on the issue of reopening of the riot cases of 1992-93.

The Sena’s newspaper Saamna has once again started a vicious campaign, prompting activists to demand police action against the paper. On Monday, Uddhav Thackeray was categorical that this action to reopen riot cases and settin g up special courts was calculated to offend Hindutva.

He said that Ms. Sonia Gandhi instead of worrying about the riot cases should worry about the 4000-odd suicides of farmers in Maharashtra or the situation in Nandigram, where even journalists are not allowed entry.

By agreeing to set up special courts and reopen cases, the Congress has persuaded various groups to postpone a massive morcha planned for August 20.

Though the Congress-NCP promised the implementation of the Commission’s report in its election manifesto of 1999, little was done. And now when there is mounting pressure to do something, the Congress is caught in a bind. It is a clear case of too little too late.

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