Countering the Prime Minister's charge that Narendra Modi is not following his "rajdharma", BJP today alleged the Manmohan Singh government has failed on this front by "doing the unthinkable" in commuting death sentences to life terms in some cases of heinous crimes.
Former BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu asked Prime Minister Singh to introspect, before advising others on following rajdharma (the duty of a ruler).
He alleged UPA government has failed to perform its duty and keeping its word, be it controlling price rise within 100 days of coming to power, checking corruption or bringing back Indian black money stashed abroad.
However, it was the issue of the Congress-led government turning death sentences into life terms even in some cases of heinous crime that BJP used to make a scathing attack on Singh.
Even as Congress is targeting Modi on the issue of illegal surveillance of a woman which was done allegedly at his behest, BJP said while the ruling party is making baseless allegations it has itself done the "unthinkable".
"You (PM) have tried to overturn the judgments of the Supreme Court which gave death sentences to five persons in four cases of rape and murder involving three minor girls and beheading of one boy by commuting their sentences to life imprisonment," Naidu said.
The BJP leader maintained that in all these cases, the heinous nature of the offences has been ignored and the principle that the power of pardon can only be exercised in the rarest of rare cases has also been ignored.
"Will you and Congress party explain this to the people as to how and why it acted in this shameless manner?" he said.
