Rediff Logo News Find/Feedback/Site Index
HOME | ELECTION | REPORT
September 3, 1999

NEWS
ANALYSIS
SPECIALS
INTERVIEW
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
CONSTITUENCY
ISSUES
GALLERY
MANIFESTOS
OVERHEARD
INDIA SPEAKS!
COUNTDOWN
CHAT
PREVIOUS RESULTS
SCHEDULE
DISCUSSION GROUP

E-Mail this report to a friend

Congress refuses to sack Gamang

The Congress today ruled out the removal of Orissa Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang in the wake of the murder of Father Arul Doss and blamed organisations affiliated to the Sangh Parivar for spreading communal venom in the tribal areas of the state, leading to the killing.

Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal said Gamang's predecessor Janaki Ballab Patnaik was removed for a variety of reasons besides the gruesome murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his young sons.

Sibal said it was a "political decision" to replace Patnaik and the party does not feel the need to replace Gamang now.

Promising that the state government would do its best to bring Dara Singh, alleged mastermind of the murders of the Staines as well as trader Sheikh Rehman, Sibal pointed out that the Justice D P Wadhwa Commission of inquiry had mentioned the failure of the central intelligence agencies as well. By this yardstick the Congress should demand dismissal of the caretaker government at the Centre, he quipped.

Sibal said the murder of Reverend Arul Doss with bows and arrows, coming on the heels of the barbaric hacking and burning to death of Rehman last week and the burning alive of the Staines in January, are all inextricably linked. They are symptoms of a larger poison being spread with great deliberation, he said.

"To attack altruistic people, to burn them alive, to aim a quiver of arrows into them, to hack them to death with axes, is completely unacceptable" and betrays a seriously sick mind, Sibal said, adding that this is not the way to a new century but to the Stone Age.

He, therefore, appealed to the people not to vote for a culture of hatred, intolerance and divisiveness, but for stability in the country, for programmes and coherence of vision.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report

HOME | NEWS | ELECTION 99 | BUSINESS | SPORTS | MOVIES | CHAT | INFOTECH | TRAVEL
SINGLES | BOOK SHOP | MUSIC SHOP | HOTEL RESERVATIONS | WORLD CUP 99
EDUCATION | PERSONAL HOMEPAGES | FREE EMAIL | FEEDBACK