Omar spreads Afzal Guru fire on Twitter; BJP furious,Cong mum

Omar’s tweet comes a day after the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed an unprecedented resolution asking the President to reconsider the mercy pleas of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s killers — soon after the Madras High Court suspended their hanging for eight weeks.

As soon as his tweet began playing in the media,Omar tweeted again: “I should remember that the channels will make a story out of just about anything and that will teach me to shut up,’’ he tweeted.

Accusing Omar Abdullah of indulging in vote bank politics,BJP spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said: “Omar Abdullah has gone to Kashmir after taking over as chief minister,but after that there should be no communalisation of politics.”

Shahnawaz Hussain said that though the Madras High Court has stayed the execution and the Tamil Nadu Assembly have passed a resolution for granting pardon to Rajiv’s killers,the matter involving Afzal Guru is about attack on the Parliament.

“Omar wants to address his constituency by talking about such issues. They should not indulge in vote bank politics on every matter. National politics is bigger than vote bank politics,” he added.

His party colleague Balbir Punj dubbed Omar’s remarks as “shocking,irresponsible and unfortunate”.

Congress chose to distance itself. “What the CM comments on twitter is his business. It’s really not for us to take cognisance of. These are sensitive issues which each state government sees and perceives on their own. We can only wait and watch.

“In a democracy,it’s perfectly okay for people to voice their opinions collectively or individually. I don’t think we should speculate,” Renuka Chowdhary,Congress spokesperson said

“The Congress party does not feel the need to comment on old issues,on issues like death sentences,execution of death sentences which,as we have repeatedly said,involve a constitutional process,a legal statutory process and then an administrative process,” said Abhishek Singhvi,also Congress spokesperson.

“That process has gone on and is going on. There is no question of us commenting and there is also no question of us commenting upon the comments of another on that issue,” he said.

Legal expert and senior lawyer K T S Tulsi said religion has no play in crime and punishment.

“It has taken a political turn. That is unfortunate but the political controversy is completely irrelevant. If at all,the assassins get off the hook and their death sentence is commuted,it will be on the basis of the human rights jurisprudence of the Constitution of India,” he said.

The Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed the death penalty of three assassins of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi after hearing their review petitions presented by eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani here. The court also asked the Central government to explain within two months (eight weeks) why it delayed in executing the death sentences for over eleven years.

The court order came days after President Pratibha Patil had rejected the mercy petitions of Santhan,Murugan and Perarivalan,and fixed September 9 as the date of execution.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly also passed a unanimous resolution asking President Patil to commute the death sentences on the three and grant them clemency immediately. The motion for the resolution was introduced by the Tamil Nadu government headed by AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa.

However,this is not the first time Omar has commented on the death sentence of Afzal Guru. Earlier,he had said he apprehended trouble on the law and order front in the event of Afzal Guru getting hanged.

On Tuesday evening,he made a blooper on his father. After Cabinet ministers,his father among them,virtually forced Sports Minister Ajay Maken to rewrite the new,tough Sports Bill,Omat tweeted: “I believe the Union Ministers heading sports bodies should have excused themselves from the Sports Bill discussion.’’

Significantly,Farooq Abdullah was present in the meeting and he heads the Jammu Kashmir Cricket Association as president.

Today,he withdrew the tweet slamming his father,but not without a tongue-in-cheek follow-up tweet which read: “And on a different not the next time I plan to tweet on what Central ministers do someone please tell me to shut up.’’

Omar’s frank and spontaneous comments have raked up controversies earlier too. His statement on Jammu Kashmir’s accession to India had drawn flak not only from the Opposition BJP,but also many senior leaders in the Congress.