BJP slams Omar Abdullah's bid to highlight subdued response to TN resolution on Rajiv Gandhi's killers

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has made news again with yet another tweet. He asked whether there would be a similar reaction — as the one generated after the Tamil Nadu assembly passed a resolution on three condemned in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case —if the J&K assembly passed a resolution seeking commutation of death sentence for Afzal Guru, convicted in the Parliament attack case.

BJP pounced on Abdullah’s comments, describing them as ‘unfortunate’. BJP chief spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad maintained that any person who seeks to break India's sovereignty and integrity or kills a former prime minister and is given a death sentence should be executed.

“BJP is clearly of the view that all those who have been given capital punishment after due process of law, including confirmation by the Supreme Court and whose clemency plea has been rejected by the President, then the capital punishment should be executed,’’ he said.

Abdullah’s comment on social networking site, Twitter, said: “If J&K assembly had passed a resolution similar to the Tamil Nadu one for Afzal Guru, would the reaction have been as muted?’’ He argued that the political class would not have been so subdued in its response in such a situation.

His tweet came a day after the Tamil Nadu assembly passed a unanimous resolution urging President Pratibha Patil to reconsider the mercy plea of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case who are facing death sentence.

“Omar’s remarks are unfortunate. Had the Hurriyat leaders made such a comment, it would have been understandable. A responsible chief minister should not have made such comments,’’ another BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said.

Congress was guarded in its reaction. The party refused to comment on the stay granted by the Chennai High Court on the execution of three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and said such issues involved constitutional, legal and administrative processes.

“We have clarified a number of times that the cases of death penalty involve a constitutional process, a legal process and an administrative process. It has been going on and will go on. There is no question of commenting,’’ Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told newspersons.