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Srikrishna report revival badly timed for the Congress-NCP

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. He did not want to comment on the issue as Rajnath Singh, the BJP president, had called his father regarding the elections to th e Vice-President and also assured him that the alliance would continue.

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