Omar stirs a hornet's nest

BJP flays his remark on Guru

“If the J&K Assembly had passed a resolution similar to the Tamil Nadu one for Afzal Guru would the reaction have been as muted? I think not,” Omar wrote on the social networking site Twitter.

His controversial comments came a day after the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a unanimous resolution urging President Pratibha Patil to reconsider the mercy plea of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case who are facing death sentence. The Madras High Court has already stayed the hanging by eight weeks.

Although Abdullah later deleted the comment, the BJP was quick to pounce on him, describing as “unfortunate” the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister’s comments and saying that a responsible leader like him should not speak the “language” of Hurriyat leaders.
Echoing BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussein’s remarks, his party colleague Balbir Punj dubbed Omar’s remarks as “shocking, irresponsible and unfortunate”.

BJP national spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said capital punishment should be executed in all such cases as it is awarded after the due process of  law, including confirmation by the Supreme Court and rejection of clemency plea by the President.

The Congress chose to distance itself with party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi saying: “The Congress party does not feel the need to comment on old issues, on issues like death sentence, execution of death sentence which, as we have repeatedly said, involve a constitutional process, a legal statutory porocess and then an administrative process.”
Singhvi said that the “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.”

‘Sensitive issues’

Another Congress leader, Renuka Chowdhary said: “What the chief minister comments on Twitter is his business. Its really not for us to take cognisance of. These are sensitive issues which each state government sees and percieves 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.”

The Jammu and Kashmir  government apprehends trouble if Guru is hanged.
Guru is on death row and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has recommended to Patil that the mercy petition filed on behalf of Guru be rejected.

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 completly irrelevant. If at all, the assasins 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.