HVK Archives: BJP wants to see CM behind bars
BJP wants to see CM behind bars - The Indian Express
Express News Service
()
23 July 1997
Title: BJP wants to see CM behind bars
Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 23, 1997
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday demanded immediate dismissal of the
Shankersinh Vaghela Government and the Chief Minister arrest for "fomenting
caste-wars".
A party delegation of six MPs and two former ministers on Tuesday met
President Shanker Dayal Sharma in New Delhi and submitted a details
memorandum, seeking his intervention in seven cases, the party said here on
Tuesday.
The delegation told the President that even peace-loving Saurashtra and
North Gujarat, which "had remained unaffected during 1985 Anti Reservation
agitation" had witnessed the worst-ever disturbance during the
government-sponsored bandh last week in protest against the desecration of
Ambedkar's statue and police firing on Dalits in Mumbai.
The delegation attributed the disturbance to the Rashtriya Janata Party
machinery, alleging that it had created trouble under Vaghela's guidance.
The government gave the bandh a violent and casteist turn, according to the
delegation, as the Congress had started threatening to withdraw support.
The delegates told the President that the Chief Minister, who supported the
bandh, and his government should be held responsible for the seven deaths,
arson and looting as well as the criminal negligence in enforcing law and
order.
The memorandum pointed our that since the ruling Rashtriya Janata Party had
supported the bandh, the police remained mute witness to violence,
forgetting their duty and responsibility.
Referring to the government ban on bandh and Vaghela's announcement that
anyone issuing a bandh call would be arrested, the BJP leaders argued that
Vaghela should be arrested first as his party had supported the bandh.
Describing as unfortunate the violence and police firing in Ahmedabad and
Saurashtra, the BJP leaders blamed Vaghela for "his selective restraint on
actions" and his "doublespeak". There cannot be two laws for the chief
minister and the common man, the delegation stressed.
The memorandum said the bandh created rift amongst Dalits and others for
political mileage. "A person occupying the high office of Chief Minister
cannot be spared for instigating the people to take law and order into
their hands and disturb social harmony", the memorandum said.
The leaders impressed upon Sharma that Vaghela had no right to continue as
Chief Minister as he had supported the bandh and then failed to protect the
common man, which was his constitutional and moral obligation.
Hence, his government's dismissal, the delegation said would act as a
lesson and well as a deterrent for other state governments if they acted
irresponsibly.
Meanwhile, state BJP vice-president K D Jeswani claimed that Vaghela's
trusted ministerial colleagues had started feeling uneasy over his style of
functioning and even "bureaucrats are fed up with the unmindful decisions
and inefficient performance of his ministers".
Referring to yesterday's happening of the Sachivalaya, Jeswani criticised
the curb on the movement of journalists as well as people.
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