UPA’s Afzal Record

UPA’s Afzal Record Afzal Guru, who the Supreme Court has convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 Parliament attack case and who has remained on the death row for the last three years because the UPA government is afraid of ‘repercussions in the Kashmir valley’, now wants to be relieved of his suffering. He wants LK Advani to become ‘‘India’s next Prime Minister as he is the only one who can take a decision and hang him’’. He says ‘‘at least his pain and daily suffering would ease then’’. However, the UPA government would be unmoved. What apparently worries the government is clear to one and all — outrage in Kashmir and increase in vengeful militancy. But this outrage will remain restricted to those who have championed the cause of either free Kashmir or Pakistani Kashmir. As for militancy, it does not take Afzal’s fate to fuel anything in Kashmir. It simply takes the ISI to direct the jehadis to launch attacks on innocent men, women and children not just in Kashmir but in the whole of India too. And it will be a joke on the nation if the UPA government says it is unaware of that reality. So why is the government dithering on the Afzal issue? Either it wants Afzal to suffer more as he waits for the noose or it is worried about its most cherished vote bank! Sentinel Assam

Only Advani can end my misery: Afzal Guru

June 09, 2008 19:55 IST
Afzal Guru, sentenced to death for his role in the 2001 attack on Parliament, caught both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party on the back foot on Monday by stating that only veteran BJP leader L K Advani could end his miseries by hanging him.

In an interview to a wire service, Afzal had claimed that indecisiveness on the part of the Congress government had been killing him. He charged the United Progressive Alliance government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh of playing a double game rather than deciding one way or the other in his case.Responding to queries in this regard from media persons, Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan said she was not aware of the authenticity of the interview. "I have to verify before I make a comment," she said. She further elaborated that Afzal's mercy plea was taking time because it had to go through the due process of law. According to sources, the petition is still lying with the Union Home Ministry to be forwarded to President Pratibha Patil. Not willing to join the issue with the Congress, BJP demanded immediate implementation of the Supreme Court order upholding Afzal's punishment. BJP spokesman Rajeev Pratap Rudy said: "The Congress should come out in the open with whether Afzal Guru's family has filed a petition with the President seeking a pardon." "In case they want to be pardon him, they should go right ahead with it or otherwise hang him. Sarabjit Singh's wife has come out with nationalist statement saying that if the condition of release of her husband is linked to Afzal Guru, then she is ready to sacrifice her husband," Rudy claimed. http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jun/09parl1.htm