The Hindu : National : BJP hails verdict on Dutt

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BJP hails verdict on Dutt

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party has welcomed the Supreme Court order disallowing suspension of the conviction of actor Sanjay Dutt in a TADA case to enable him to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha election.

BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said: “Had the court granted Sanjay Dutt permission to contest the election, it would have led to many persons convicted of serious crimes asking for a similar suspension of their sentences. It would have set a bad precedent. It is only in the rarest of rare cases that the court would stay or suspend a sentence.” Otherwise, it would open the floodgates and shake the people’s faith in democracy.

Asked why the BJP earlier welcomed the stay on the conviction of its MP, Navjot Singh Sidhu, cricketer-turned-politician, in a case of road rage death, Mr. Jaitley said: “Well, the Supreme Court clearly thought that was one of the rarest of rare cases.”

On the Uttar Pradesh government slapping the National Security Act on the party candidate from Pilibhit, Varun Gandhi, Mr. Jaitley said it was definitely a case where the punishment sought to be meted out was “disproportionate” to the offence. He said the alleged hate speech made by Mr. Gandhi had now receded to the background.

Mr. Jaitley insisted that invoking the NSA was the result of a “political conspiracy” hatched by the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party. Asked why the known rivals, the BSP and the SP, should come together to use the NSA against Mr. Gandhi — in fact, SP leader Mulayam Singh has expressed his reservations about the resort to the Act — Mr. Jaitley said: “The stand of the three parties on Varun Gandhi [on his hate speech] has been the same.”

Asked about the induction into the party of Neera Yadav, former IAS officer, who has been accused of corruption, he said: “I do not want to comment on individuals. She has only joined the party as an ordinary member and is not a candidate.”

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