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Thursday, Dec 06, 2007
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Parties demand action against Modi

Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI: Several political parties have demanded that the courts and the Election Commission take “immediate suo motu action” against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his speech at an election meeting in Mangrol in south Gujarat on Tuesday where he reportedly justified “fake encounter” killings.

His speech apparently referred to the Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s case in which the Gujarat government had admitted in the Supreme Court that the person was killed in a “fake encounter” and for which several senior police personnel were arrested and were on trial.

The Congress, locked in a bitter electoral battle with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat, was the first to join issue with Mr. Modi and his party. “This is the first time in global democratic history that an elected constitutional authority has justified cold-blooded murder,” party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi, said here on Wednesday.

“The Gujarat Chief Minister has virtually owned up to a murder and he has declared that he has a licence to kill,” Mr. Singhvi said, pointing out that it was a fit case for “suo motu action by a court of law.” He added that by his “own admission” Mr. Modi was “guilty” and “he should be convicted for cold-blooded murder.”

BJP stand

BJP spokesman V.K. Malhotra, however, said: “The Chief Minister [Modi] had not taken any name. All that he said was that if a terrorist is killed in an encounter there was nothing wrong.”

When it was pointed out that Sheikh Sohrabuddin had been killed in a “fake encounter” as admitted by the Gujarat government in the Supreme Court, Mr. Malhotra said that Mr. Modi had not referred to Sohrabuddin by name.

He then left the press briefing without answering more questions.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP and Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury described Mr. Modi’s speech as “shameful” and said that “even if a person was a known criminal, it was not for the Chief Minister to decide his fate; not even the Prime Minister can do that.”

His party colleague Brinda Karat said Mr. Modi clearly thought that he was above the law.

“He has virtually admitted to killing [Sohrabuddin]. The court should take suo motu notice. There should be no double standards. After all, the court takes notice of demonstration and traffic lights. This was also a fit case for action by the Election Commission,” she said.

Barbaric: CPI

CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said: “This is barbaric. He has spoken not like a politician but like a criminal. The law should take immediate action.”

Several eminent lawyers said Mr. Modi’s speech amounted to owning up responsibility for police action in the “fake encounter” of an accused who had the legal and constitutional right to a fair trial.

A report from Gujarat quoted BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley justifying Mr. Modi’s speech on the ground that he was responding to Congress president Sonia Gandhi describing him as a “merchant of death.”

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