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Sena ministers skip Cabinet meeting

Amberish K Diwanji in New Delhi

Manohar Joshi and Suresh Prabhu did not attend Friday's Cabinet meeting even though Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has still not accepted their resignations.

The duo, along with Minister of State for Finance Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil, called on Vajpayee today to tell him that they will not be attending the Cabinet meeting since they were still keen that their resignations be accepted.

Joshi told the media that party chief Bal Thackeray would speak to the prime minister on telephone later in the day.

"Whether the Shiv Sena remains a part of the National Democratic Alliance or not will be decided by our leader after he speaks with Vajpayee," said Joshi.

Joshi reiterated that the central government will look into the entire issue pertaining to the prosecution of Thackeray for inflammatory writings in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna (of which Thackeray is the editor) in 1993. He said the government was keen to preserve the law and order situation in Bombay and Maharashtra.

Joshi stressed that Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance government's decision to prosecute Thackeray was politically motivated and illegal, since the incident had taken place in 1993 and was thus barred by the law of limitation that placed a three-year limit.

Joshi said that they stressed to the prime minister that the Maharashtra government must not be allowed to break the law for its political benefits.

This morning, Attorney General Soli Sorabjee told the Supreme Court that the Centre had no intention of intervening in the crisis.

However, a highly placed source close to the prime minister explained that the Centre was concerned about ensuring that there was no law and order problem in Maharashtra, as a fallout of the Thackeray's arrest.

Moreover, the source added that the Supreme Court was primarily examining action taken vis-a-vis the findings of the Srikrishna Commission report and not the latest move by the Maharashtra government to prosecute Thackeray.

The Srikrishna Commission report inquired into the Bombay riots in 1992-93 and its conclusions blamed certain individuals for inciting violence.

The source said that under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code, the accused has to be booked within three years of the offence. The sources pointed out that there had been other precedents where the Supreme Court had refused to entertain petitions beyond the limit.

The source said that the Centre's stand was that it had nothing to do with the pending case regarding action on the Srikrishna Commission report, but the Centre was concerned about the law being followed in Thackeray's case.

"The Centre will examine whether the law is being used for political motives," the sources added.

The sources also said that the prime minister's primary concern was to restrain both sides in the conflict - the Maharashtra government and the Shiv Sena - and maintain peace and communal harmony in Bombay.

"Since 1993, there has been no outbreak of communal violence in Bombay and the Centre wants peace to be maintained at all costs. The last thing it wants is a riot-like situation," the sources added.

But even as the government debates the finer nuances of law, the situation remains tense with fears that any move by the Maharashtra government could precipitate the matter.

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