This Article is From Sep 04, 2011

No regrets for tweet on Afzal Guru, says Omar Abdullah

Srinagar: Following the furore over his comments on Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru on Twitter, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah has said that he has no regrets for saying what he did.

The chief minister had, on the microblogging site, said that if the J&K assembly had passed a resolution against the death sentence given to Guru as was done by the Tamil Nadu assembly for the killers of Rajiv Gandhi, the reaction would not have been as muted as it is now. (Read)

This had drawn a sharp response from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which dubbed Mr Abdullah's comments as "unfortunate".

Speaking to NDTV, Mr Abdullah said that he stood by his comments on Guru and the response to his tweet was just a reflection of the double standards on Kashmir.

Hitting back at the BJP, the chief minister asked why the party wasn't burning effigies of Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal for seeking clemency in the Devinder Singh Bhullar case. Bhullar's amnesty was also rejected by the President who is on death row for plotting the attempt on the life of Punjab SSP Sumedh Singh Saini in 1991 and then Youth Congress worker M S Bitta in 1993.

To the BJP's accusation of trivialising the clemency issue by tweeting it, the young chief minister retorted, "The Leader of the Opposition (Sushma Swaraj) tweeted every minute during the Tiranga Yatra. If she can tweet, why can't I?"

Mr Abdullah's reaction comes after the BJP attacked him for his tweet saying that a Hurriyat leader making such statements was understandable but was not expected from a responsible chief minister. The party had also said that those who have been given a death sentence by the highest court and whose clemency petition has been rejected by the President should be hanged.

Meanwhile, an Independent MLA in the J&K assembly has brought in a resolution seeking amnesty for Guru. Engineer Rashid has moved the resolution taking a cue from the Tamil Nadu Assembly demanding clemency for three men convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

Rashid says although he condemns the attack on Parliament, any decision to hang Afzal Guru will have serious repercussions on the situation in Kashmir.

"I have full faith in judicial system of the country. I have full faith in Supreme Court, I have faith in our Constitution and the system but we have to see consequences of such decisions. For God sake please see other dimensions if Afzal is hanged," he said.

Reacting to the development, the chief minister said that while he had apprehensions about the impact of Guru's hanging, his party, the National Conference, was yet to take a decision on backing such a resolution.

The largest Opposition party of the state, the PDP, has backed Rashid's resolution.

(With PTI inputs)
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