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PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 21: Former Prime Minister V P Singh today criticised the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra for the manner in which the Srikrishna Commission report on Mumbai riots was ``disposed of'' and said it smacked of an authoritarian attitude.
NEW DELHI, AUGUST 21: Former Prime Minister V P Singh today criticised the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra for the manner in which the Srikrishna Commission report on Mumbai riots was ``disposed of'' and said it smacked of an authoritarian attitude.
He said the state government's action was a ``violation of all democratic norms'' and demanded that Parliament should deliberate on it. Singh said the convention that was being laid down by such arbitrary action was that the ruling party could summarily throw away any indictment against itself even if it was by a duly constituted body.
``What relief is there to victims if perpetrators of crime have the powers to decide on the validity of their indictment? Can they be impartial?'' Singh asked and said the Parliament should think of a just and effective solution for such cases.
Singh said there was a ``blatant example of this during Congress regime'' when the government rejected the unanimous indictment of its ministers by the Parliamentary Committee. ``Now we have the burial of Srikrishna Commission report. If nothing is done right now, it will become the standard practice in future,'' he said, adding, the least that should be done was to initiate concrete action against those who were indicted, irrespective of whoever that person might be.
Stating that the report has rightly indicted extremists of both sides, he said ``the most chilling part of it is the role of the state apparatus, especially, the state police and its allied forces.'' ``If these forces are allowed to become partisan and brutalised, what is the hope of fair play and justice,'' he asked.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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