Chandigarh: Punjab government is unlikely to
bring a resolution in the state assembly seeking clemency for
Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, a death row convict in the 1993
Delhi blast, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said on Thursday.
He said the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal was in favour of
conversion of Bhullar's death penalty to life imprisonment but
most of the political parties including the Congress were
opposed to the idea.
"We (SAD) wanted to bring a resolution (to convert
Bhullar's death sentence to life imprisonment) for his
benefit, but Congress and other political parties are opposed
to it," Parkash Singh Badal, who is also his party's patron,
told reporters here.
"By bringing a resolution we wanted to help Bhullar, but
now if we bring it with most political parties opposed to it
it will be defeated and the step is going to harm Bhullar," he
said.
Bhullar is on death row for his role in the 1993 car bomb
blast at the Youth Congress headquarters in Delhi in which
nine persons had been killed.
On being told that SAD's ally BJP too was opposed to
clemency to Bhullar, Badal said, "In an alliance, at times
some parties do not support an issue as every party has its
own agenda and ideology."
He rejected the proposal to convene an all-party meeting
on the issue of Bhullar languishing in Tihar jail for a
murderous attack on the then Youth Congress chief M S Bitta in
which nine persons lost their lifes.
BJP had always opposed clemency to Bhullar while Punjab
Congress chief Amarinder Singh was in its favour but later he
too opposed the suggestion of bringing a resolution in the
state assembly on the issue.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, September 29, 2011, 21:14