Action-taken report a whitewash, says NDA

Tabling of the Nanavati commission report set off a plethora of political reactions, with an angry Akali Dal and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) terming the action-taken report of the home ministry as a "whitewash".

While the commission pointed a finger of suspicion at Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, they were both let off the hook by the government's action-taken report.

Sukhbir Singh Badal, Akali Dal member of Parliament, said his party was considering launching an agitation against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on the issue. "When the report says there is credible evidences against these Congress leaders, then how come they have been let off in the action-taken report," Badal said.

Tytler, meanwhile, reiterated that he was innocent. "I have always maintained that I had no involvement in the riots. I am also a Punjabi. My father was a Kapur and we came here during the partition. I could never have done this," he said.

The NDA wondered how Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could clear such an action-taken report in a Cabinet headed by him, when he saw such an injustice being done to his own community.

"We wonder how Singh allowed such an action-taken report to be cleared by the Cabinet," said BJP parliamentary party spokesperson VK Malhotra.

BJP chief LK Advani said the matter would be raised in the House. "We will corner the government in the House on this matter," he said ruling out any boycott of Parliament.

The Congress put up a feeble defence of the action-taken report. The party said the government had accepted nine of the 10 recommendations made by the Nanavati Commission. On one count, relating to Tytler, there was not enough evidence to prove his involvement.

"It was ambiguous, not clear and not actionable in view of the government," said Congress spokesman Anand Sharma.

Sharma also said the government was ready to debate the action-taken report in both Houses of Parliament on the date indicated by the business advisory committee.

The Congress found some support from the CPI(M). In an apparent defence of the UPA government, the CPI(M) maintained a stubborn silence on the action-taken report.

The CPI(M) said it could not comment about the government's refusal to move the cases against Tytler, who had "very probably" been found guilty of organising attacks on Sikhs during the 1984 riots in the aftermath of Prime Minster Indira Gandhi's assassination.

CPI M MP Nilotpal Basu said that his party needed at least two days to study both the ATR and the report itself from where the ATR originated. The party even questioned the credibility of the Nanavati Commission report which had begun work during under the National Democratic Alliance NDA dispensation.

The next round of politcal point scoring on what were some of the wrost communal riots in post partition India, will be played out in Parliamnet, where debates on the findings of the commission and the ATR have been allowed by the Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.