In a veiled attack on the BJP, which has been taunting the Congress over the delay in hanging Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, home minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday said that not a single case of mercy petition of persons on death row was decided when Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani was the home minister. “When Mr Advani was the home minister, 14 cases were submitted to the President. No case was decided,” Mr Chidambaram said while presenting the monthly report of his ministry. Mr Chidambaram provided figures about the cases of prisoners of death row dealt during NDA and UPA regimes. “My immediate predecessor (Shivraj Patil) re-submitted the 14 cases (of NDA) plus another 14 cases and two cases were decided,” he said. Citing the record of the UPA-II government with himself as home minister, Mr Chidambaram said, “In the 14 months of UPA II, our government submitted eight cases, and five have already been decided. So the record speaks for itself about our determination to decide each of these cases.” He also made it clear that the government was taking up every case and “when Afzal Guru’s case comes up, that will also be taken up.”
Mr Chidambaram also went on the reject the BJP’s stand on dealing with the Kashmir situation and maintained that the UPA government’s policy on J&K is the “right approach’’ which will bring peace. “The UPA government’s policy has also been stated time and again by the Prime Minister. There are obviously differences between the BJP and the government’s stand. We will pursue our policy which we believe is right and will bring peace in J&K.”