Thackeray prosecution’– CWC attacks Centre, backs Vilasrao

NEW DELHI, JULY 21: Even with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) touting the action against Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray as their initi...

NEW DELHI, JULY 21: Even with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) touting the action against Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray as their initiative and the Maharashtra government facing intense pressure from the Shiv Sena, the Congress Working Committee today came out in full support of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

The CWC meeting, chaired by party chief Sonia Gandhi, was called to discuss the party’s stand on the Jammu and Kashmir autonomy issue. But more significantly, the meeting took stock of the political situation in Maharashtra. “The CWC firmly stands-by the decision taken by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and his government to enforce the rule of law in the event of the prosecution of Bal Thackeray,” senior CWC member Pranab Mukherjee told reporters after the meeting.

The CWC has made a statement on the issue after days of silence. And today, it blasted the Centre for not providing the additional para-military forces as sought by the state government. “Instead of fulfilling its constitutional responsibility to help a state government in need, the Union Government chose to help its political ally and (is) risking law and order situation there,” the CWC asserted.

Party sources said several CWC members, including Jitendra Prasada and Arjun Singh, strongly endorsed the state government’s action against Thackeray and held the view that Sonia should firmly back their state government on the matter. Their views were supported by other CWC members present at the meeting.

Apparently, with an eye on the minorities vote in Maharasthra as well as in the rest of the country, the Congress has realised that it has to be aggressive on the issue of action against the Shiv Sena supremo. The CWC’s stamp of approval on the state government’s action was also reportedly necessitated after it was felt that the NCP was walking away with all the credit.

“The perception that the Congress was given a fait accompli by the NCP and was forced to go along with it once Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal made the decision public had to be removed,” a senior CWC member said.

The CWC today also formally rejected the autonomy resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir government. It endorsed party’s stand that the basis of the discussions on the autonomy issue has to be the Indira Gandhi-Sheikh Abdullah accord of 1975. Criticising the “inept and clumsy” handling of the whole issue by the Centre, the CWC noted that the autonomy committee’s report was received by the Government in April last year but no action was taken. “The whole thing exposes the immaturity, indecisiveness and confused approach of the Government to a highly sensitive sector,” it asserted.

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Stating that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India and the accession of the state to Indian Union was “final and irrevocable”, the CWC said the prospect of the state going back to the status prevailing before 1953 was “totally inacceptable” to the party.