Kesri will insist on Maharashtra government's dismissal
Syed Firdaus Ashraf in New Delhi
Congress president Sitaram Kesri will meet I K Gujral early next week to demand
the dismissal of the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra. He will base his demand on what his party's fact-finding committee discovered when it investigated the killings of ten dalits in police firing in Bombay last week.
The Congress committee -- which included former Union minister of state for home Syed Sibte Razi, former Union ministers Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi and G Venkatswamy --- visited Bombay to assess the situation after the dalit deaths and the subsequent attack on the official homes of Congress leaders of the Opposition
in the Maharashtra legislature, Chhagan Bhujbal and Madhukar Pichad.
The committee recommended the dismissal of the BJP-Sena
government on the ground that the law and order situation had deteriorated in the state. Kesri assured the trio that he would meet the premier and urge him to dismiss the Maharashtra government.
Speaking to Rediff On The NeT, Razi said, "It
is a national shame that a statue of Dr Ambedkar was desecrated.
This is the tenth incident under BJP-Sena rule that miscreants have desecrated Babasaheb's statue. The democratic rights of the dalits is being suppressed
in Maharashtra. Kesriji is going to request the prime minister to dismiss
the state government."
Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta, who visited Bombay on Tuesday and Wednesday, had said the law and order situation
in the city was not satisfactory, but felt the state government could not be dismissed merely because the Opposition leaders's homes were attacked. In any case, he added, that decision was left to the prime minister.
Rediff On The NeT learns that Gupta has since asked Maharashtra
Governor P C Alexander to submit a daily report on the law and order situation in the state. Under the Constitution, the governor submits a monthly report on
the situation to the home ministry. Only if the home minister feels the situation has deteriorated does he asks for a daily report from the governor.
The Congress fact-finding committee's report states that the Shiv Sena newspaper
Saamna condoned the attack on Bhujbal's home.
It also states that though Shiv Sena member of Parliament
Mohan Rawle led the mob last Sunday, the MP has not even been arrested.
Says Razi, ''Though Indrajit Gupta said that Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray
met him and condemned the attack on Bhujbai's house, he was not
aware of the article in Saamna which condoned
the attack."
The BJP-Sena ruling alliance has a thin majority in the Maharashtra
assembly and the Congress will not miss this opportunity
to pressurise Gujral to dismiss the state government and
call a mid-term poll.
In another development, Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi,
who travelled to Delhi on Thursday to attend the meeting of the
Inter-State Council, urged the central government to protect the
statues of national heroes like Shivaji and Ambedkar.
Interestingly, the Council failed to reach a consensus on providing adequate safeguards against the misuse of Article 356 of the Constitution, which provides for
imposition of central rule in the states.
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