Pawar demands President's rule in Maharashtra

Sharad Pawar, the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, on Tuesday demanded that the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government be dismissed and President's rule be imposed in Maharashtra. He cited a breakdown in the state's law and order machinery as reason for doing so.

Moving a motion against the atrocities on dalits in Bombay, Nagpur and other places, the former Maharashtra chief minister said it was high time the Centre intervened.

Pawar gave a detailed account of the desecration of Babasaheb Ambedkar's statue in Bombay on July 11.

He took exception to Home Minister Indrajit Gupta's statement that though the law and order machinery in the state was bad, it had not collapsed.

"Fear still grips the dalits in Maharashtra due to State-sponsored terrorism,'' Pawar said, and recounted many incidents to support this.

He criticised Gupta's statement in the House last week that Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had assured him (Gupta) of an improvement in the situation shortly.

Pawar said the home minister had relied on an extra Constitutional authority's statement. Gupta should have quoted either the chief minister or the deputy chief minister, not Thackeray.

The Congress leader, who admitted that similar incidents had occurred during the Congress regime too, said whenever his regime tried to ameliorate dalits, attempts were made to foil the move.

He strongly deplored the attack on Chhagan Bhujbal's house by Shiv Sainiks. The ruling combine, Pawar said, to shift the blame, had hatched a conspiracy to implicate Bhujbal in the desecration case.

About the Ghatkopar incident, Pawar said reserved forces personnel had opened firing at the dalit basti as soon as they got down from their vans. The police statement they opened fire to disperse the crowd which was bent on torching petrol and LPG tankers on the express highway is false.

If that was the case, there should have been bullets marks on the tankers, he argued. The firing was aimed at the harijan dwellings and nowhere else.

The BJP, responding to the Congress demand, said there was no cause for imposing Article 356 in the state.

Appealing to all political parties not to politicise such issues, the BJP's Pramod Mahajan said everyone should endeavour to bridge the gap between the dalits and non-dalits.

The state government had earlier accepted Union Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan's suggestion for a judicial inquiry by a high court sitting judge. The report will be submitted in two months, Mahajan said.

UNI

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