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Samajwadi Party announces mass campaign over Srikrishna report

All the elected representatives of the Samajwadi Party from Maharashtra will resign en masse and the party will move the Supreme Court if the state government failed to prosecute by October 2 all those indicted for December 1992-Januarty 1993 Bombay riots in the Justice B N Srikrishna inquiry commission report, party Rajya Sabha member Raj Babbar announced in Bombay today.

Babbar told a news conference that a party delegation called on Governor P C Alexander today and submitted a memorandum appealing to him to direct the state government to immediately prosecute all the accused, irrespective of their positions, in order to secure justice for the innocent riot victims.

The film-star turned politician said his party will launch a nation-wide awareness campaign to secure implementation of the recommendations of the commission and prosecution of all the accused. If all these efforts failed to yield results before October 2, then all the elected representatives of the party from the state, including legislators, members of Parliament and corporators would submit their resignation to President K R Narayanan with a request to forward the same to the respective authorities, and approach the proper legal forum to protect the constitutional and fundamental rights of the minorities. He said he had already submitted his resignation from the Rajya Sabha seat to party president and former defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Babbar said besides the leaders of the Shiv Sena who have been named in the commission's report, his party would also seek prosecution of all those from the then Congress government, including then chief minister Sudhakarrao Naik, and police officials, against whom strictures had been passed.

Babbar said his party had already begun consultations with experts to ascertain the legal provisions on moving the Supreme Court in the matter as an ultimate recourse.

He said the party's state unit resolved to take these measures to fight for justice within the democratic, constitutional and legal framework, at its meeting held in Bombay yesterday. The party also passed a resolution condemning the attitude of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government, particularly Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, for rejecting the commission's findings and calling the report biased. He alleged that the chief minister had lowered the dignity of his office by his remarks against the commission's report, which Babbar said was a meticulous job performed by Justice Srikrishna. To call such a Herculean effort biased deserved nothing but condemnation, he added.

Babbar said the party resolution has also demanded contempt proceedings against Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray for calling Justice Srikrishna "biased", and said the chief minister had forfeited his moral right to continue in office after his statement in the assembly that if Thackeray was arrested he would quit his post and launch a public agitation in support of his party chief.

He said the party campaign to seek implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report and action against all accused in the riot would be totally peaceful and conducted within constitutional and legal framework without taking to the streets. The party has set up a task force under the chairmanship of Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, to coordinate the filing of case or cases as may be required to bring the culprits to trial. He said the party would not be cowed down by what he alleged as terror spread by the ruling Sena-BJP alliance, and warned that his party workers were fully capable of dealing with it in a befitting manner.

Meanwhile, a release issued by Raj Bhavan said the delegation conveyed to the governor the concern of the party, particularly of the minority community, about the state government's decision to reject the main recommendations of the commission and about the public statements of the chief minister in connection with the report. The governor told the delegation that he would convey their concern and their requests to the appropriate authorities.

UNI

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