Sena-BJP plays down SC notice to leaders

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena-BJP combine in Maharashtra have hit out at the Congress-led UPA government for "using the CBI to reopen the Babri Masjid case to divert public attention from the series of scams being unearthed every day."
The reaction of both the parties in the state was low key. The saffron alliance did not express its anger against the government for forcing the CBI to file a petition of appeal even after the stipulated time of nine months was over.
Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray was not available for comment, but senior party leaders were asked to rein in the party cadres and shakha pramukhs to maintain peace as any unprovoked action would go against them in court.
Shiv Sena MP and executive editor of the party's mouthpiece Samna Sanjay Raut alleged that the Congress-led government was misusing the CBI to browbeat the opposition parties which were launching agitations throughout the country against the price rise and corruption. The party will reply to the notice, he said.
However, on the whole, the party kept a studied silence over the Supreme Court notice issued to Thackeray. Even executive president of the party Uddhav Thackeray, who has been touring the rural parts of the state to gauge the political situation, decided to keep a low profile and react only after studying the legal as well as political angles of the issue.
Maharashtra BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said, "The notice issued by the SC against senior BJP leader L K Advani is a routine matter and the lawyers would file his reply in court."
A section in the saffron alliance felt that the "CBI action was mainly to ensure that the emerging Left-Right unity against the UPA government over corruption" and price rise does not remain intact. "This is a clever move to drive a wedge between the saffron parties and the CPM- led Left parties who have been cooperating on the floor of Parliament to corner the government," a senior BJP leader from Maharashtra said.
The state BJP asked its cadres to keep a low profile and not to make a political issue out of the notice as it may harm the NDA's moves to seek support from smaller regional parties.
"We do not have to say anything. The people will notice that on the same day SC issued the notices the agency has asked the court to drop charges against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi," a senior Shiv Sena leader said.