Sena unlikely to table Srikrishna panel report in current session

MUMBAI, April 8: The Maharashtra government is unlikely to table the Srikrishna Report on the 1992-93 Mumbai riots during the ongoing Budget...

MUMBAI, April 8: The Maharashtra government is unlikely to table the Srikrishna Report on the 1992-93 Mumbai riots during the ongoing Budget session of the State Legislature for fear of a reprisal against the ruling Shiv Sena.

Despite commitments from both Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, the government will keep the report in abeyance as the Commission of Inquiry Act allows it time till August 1998 for making it public.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state fears no adverse consequences, its alliance partner, the Shiv Sena, has been playing for time as its senior leaders are believed to have been indicted by the Justice Srikrishna Commission.

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The Sena is now drawing mileage from the precarious numbers game at the Centre and will approach the BJP-led government in Delhi to stall its tabling in the event that the state BJP pressures it to publicise the commission’s findings.

The Atal Behari Vajpayee government cannot run the risk of losing thesupport of the Sena’s six Members of Parliament and will have to buckle under pressure. “If the BJP insists that the report be tabled, then Sena chief Bal Thackeray will not hesitate to take up the dispute with the prime minister,” a senior minister preferring anonymity said. “The Shiv Sena has six MPs and at this juncture, when every MP counts for the BJP-led government at the Centre, Vajpayee will positively consider Thackeray’s request.” he added.

Moreover, the minister explained, it is not binding on the government to submit the report during the on-going legislature session. Under Section 3 (4) of the Commission of Inquiry Act, the report has to be tabled within six months along with the Action Taken Report (ATR) from the date of its submission.

Another obstacle is the absence of Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Venkat Chary, who resumes work on April 13. Chary, a member of the high-level committee set up to draft the ATR, is on leave at present. Hence tabling the report with the ATR is nearimpossible before the April 20 deadline set by the chief minister, the minister pointed out.