Gwalior, June 1 : In an apparent jibe at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his growing national stature, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L. K. Advani Saturday lavished praise on Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at a party meeting here.
Advani said that Chouhan had successfully transformed his “bimaru” (sick) state into a healthy one, which was a far tougher job than what Modi faced in Gujarat.
Addressing the BJP's booth-level coordinators in Gwalior, the octogenarian leader even compared Chouhan to former National Democratic Alliance (NDA) prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“I often tell Nadrendra Modi that Gujarat was already an economically healthy state when he became chief minister. He has only made Gujarat a better state. But Madhya Pradesh was a 'bimaru' state, and it underwent a total developmental change and evolved as a healthy state, for which I give full credit to Shivraj Singh Chouhan,” said Advani.
“I am from Gujarat. But I want Madhya Pradesh to get its position in the world,” Advani said.
While Modi entered the BJP parliamentary board – the highest decision making body of the party – Chouhan did not make it, despite backing from Advani.
Speaking on former prime ministers and their positive and negative points, Advani said: “Vajpayee did not have any shortcomings. One of his best qualities was his humility. I see the same in Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Vajpayee implemented several developmental schemes including road network, but he always remained very humble and far away from arrogance,” he said.
“Similarly, Chouhan has also formulated a large number of development and welfare schemes like the Ladli Laxmi scheme and Mukya Mantri Teerth Darshan Yojna, and implemented them successfully. Despite all his major work, I have found Chouhan very humble, like Vajpayee,” Advani said.
He said the party wants both Chouhan and Modi “to play a major role in securing India an important place in the world”.
“Both BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are now reckoned as models of development even outside India,” Advani said.
Modi has a sizeable number of supporters who want his name to be proposed as the party's prime ministerial candidate for 2014.(IANS)
Did Shivraj Patil ask Dikshit to delay Afzal Guru’s hanging?
New Delhi, June 6 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Sunday stopped short of denying that former home minister Shivraj Patil had asked her government to delay a decision on parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s hanging.
‘May be what you are thinking is true,’ Dikshit told a news channel when asked if Patil had asked her to keep the matter pending even if the home ministry sends frequent reminders.
Asked if there was any political pressure on the issue, the chief minister again refused a direct reply and said: ‘Political pressure was there and wasn’t there. I cannot say anything more on this.’
Dikshit was replying to questions on a show on Aaj Tak channel.
The city government was sitting over Guru’s file for almost four years and had got 16 reminders from the home ministry on the issue. It replied to the latest reminder in May, saying the matter was under ‘active consideration’.
The Delhi government while sending its comment on Guru’s death sentence May 19 had supported the hanging, but expressed apprehension that law and order could be ‘disturbed’ in the wake of his execution.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna Friday forwarded the parliament attack convict’s mercy petition file to the home ministry.
Khanna, to whom the file was rushed May 19 by the chief minister’s office, sent it to the ministry after ‘carefully studying’ it and giving his ‘personal comments’, a source in the Raj Bhavan told IANS.
The source said that the Supreme Court judgment, confirming Guru’s conviction and death sentence for masterminding the terror attack on parliament Dec 13, 2001 has not been opposed in the file sent to the home ministry.
Guru, a resident of Sopore town in the Kashmir Valley, was found guilty of plotting the attack and was sentenced to death by a trial court in December 2002. The Delhi High Court confirmed the death penalty in October 2003.
The Supreme Court also upheld the capital punishment given to him for his role in the attack. Guru’s wife Tabassum filed a mercy petition before the president after the apex court’s verdict.
As per the laid down procedure, the president sought the home ministry’s views on the mercy petition in 2005.
The procedure on mercy petition also requires the home ministry to seek comments of the state government in whose jurisdiction the crime, for which the death penalty is awarded to the convict, has been committed.