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A Double-Edged Sword

That is the Srikrishna Commission report for the new government

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A Double-Edged Sword
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The most onerous-and potentially bloody-task before the new government in Maharashtra is the review of the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission which probed the 1992-93 Bombay riots. When the commission was set up, the Congress was in power in the state. But the report was submitted to a Sena-bjp government with both parties named in the report for their involvement in the riots. Predictably, the then chief minister, Manohar Joshi, rejected the findings, particularly as Justice Srikrishna had clearly named Sena supremo Bal Thackeray the main culprit. 'Like a general directing his troops'', the Sena chief caused mayhem and murder, the report said.

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Thackeray is threatening mayhem and murder again in case he is arrested by virtue of that indictment. The Congress-led government has only hard choices before it: risk violence by arresting Thackeray or alienate the minorities again.

However, chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has bought some time by seeking to go step by legal step rather than plunge headlong into any ill thought-out action. He has also to set a precedent: inquiry commission reports, once rejected by a particular government, become closed chapters. If the report is now revived, the Democratic Front government has to take extreme steps to ensure that it does not bring forth charges of personal bias against Thackeray, particularly with deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, a known Thackeray-baiter, heading the home department.

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A delicate balancing act is required to ensure that Shiv Sainiks-and their voters-do not rally to Thackeray's support, causing the move to boomerang and thus ensure another defeat for the Congress. At the same time, any pussyfooting on the issue will invite scathing and trenchant criticism from the secularists. Congress chief ministers in the past have been known to soft-pedal on Thackeray. Any evidence of a similar return to the past on the part of the Vilasrao government is likely to damage Congress prospects, not just in Maharashtra but also in the crucial states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, shortly going in for assembly polls-most of the affected minorities by were settlers from these two states.

The Srikrishna Commission's report, Deshmukh and Bhujbal might well discover to their chagrin, is the proverbial double-edged sword.

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