If TN-like resolution is passed on Afzal, will the reax be as muted: asks Omar

Srinagar, Aug 31 (PTI) Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
Wednesday raised a question whether a resolution by north
Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly seeking mercy for
Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru on the lines of south
Indian state of Tamil Nadu House would also generate a "muted"
reaction, comments that came under sharp attack from BJP.
"If J&K assembly had passed a resolution similar to the
Tamil Nadu one for Afzal Guru would the reaction have been as
muted? I think not," Omar punched on social networking site
Twitter.
His controversial comments 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 CM should not have made such comments," Bhartiya
Janta Party(BJP) spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said in Delhi.
His party colleague Balbir Punj dubbed Omar's remarks
as "shocking, irresponsible and unfortunate".
Congress chose to distance itself. "What the CM comments
on twitter is his business. It's really not for us to take
cognisance of. These are sensitive issues which each state
government sees and percieves on their own. We can only wait
and watch.
"In a democracy, it's perfectly okay for people to voice
their opinions collectively or individually. I don't think we
should speculate," Renuka Chowdhary, Congress spokesperson
said.

"The Congress party does not feel the need to comment on
old issues, on issues like death sentence, execution of death
sentence which, as we have repeatedly said, involve a
constitutional process, a legal statutory porocess and then an
administrative process," said Abhishek Singhvi, also Congress
spokesperson.
"That process has gone on and is going on. There is no
question of us commenting and there is also no question of us
commenting upon the comments of another on that issue," he
said.
The state government apprehends trouble if Guru is
hanged. The home ministry has sent the file on Guru's mercy
petition to President Pratibha Patil.
Legal expert and senior lawyer K T S Tulsi said religion
has no play in crime and punishment.
"It has taken a political turn. That is unfortunate but
the political controversy is completly irrelevant. If at all,
the assasins get off the hook and their death sentence is
commuted, it will be on the basis of the human rights
jurisprudence of the Constitution of India," he said.
The September 9 hanging of Rjaiv Gandhi assassination
case convicts Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, lodged in
Vellore Jail, was stayed for eight weeks by the Madras High
Court on Tuesday.