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Thackeray won't be arrested now, PM assures Sena

Amberish K Diwanji in New Delhi

At a hurriedly called meeting on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee assured a five-member delegation of Shiv Sena MPs that their leader Bal Thackeray would not be arrested now, according to Heavy Industries Minister Manohar Joshi. A spokesman for the prime minister's office, however, denied any such assurance to the Sena politicians.

At the 25-minute meeting, the Sena members demanded that the Government of Maharashtra be 'suspended' because, as Heavy Industries Minister Manohar Joshi put it, it was trying to create a law-and-order crisis by its actions. It was not clear, however, under what provision of the Constitution they were seeking this action.

The prime minister agreed to ask Law and Justice Minister Ram Jethmalani to go into the legal aspects of the case against Thackeray under section 153-A of the Indian Penal Code.

The Sena politicians claimed that the state government's decision to grant permission to the police to proceed against Thackeray in the case dating back to 1993 was wrong in law, because, according to them, a three-year time limit operates in such cases. They said it was a decision rooted in political vendetta.

The three Sena ministers in the Union government, Joshi, Suresh Prabhu and Eknath Vikhe-Patil, also refused to withdraw their resignations submitted earlier in the day. Joshi told reporters they would decide their next step in consultation with Thackeray.

The Sena leaders said Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilas Deshmukh is likely to be summoned to the Centre to discuss the crisis caused by his government's decision to proceed against Thackeray.

National Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, however, told rediff.com that Deshmukh would be visiting the capital in the next couple of days in connection with a conference on population.

Pawar, whose party is one of the two big partners in the eight-member Democratic Front coalition ruling Maharashtra, also scoffed at suggestions that the Centre dismiss the state government for causing a law-and-order problem. He said he wasn't worried about such a prospect because even if the state government is dismissed, the Centre would never be able to get it past the Rajya Sabha.

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