NEW DELHI, July 14: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today attempted to keep its nose clean over the violence in Mumbai by criticising all the parties involved in the trouble.

A meeting of the parliamentary party this morning decried the desecration of an Ambedkar statue, the violence which followed, the ransacking of a Congress leader's residence by Shiv Sainiks as well as the demand for President's rule in the state.

BJP leader Jaswant Singh maintained that it was on his party's insistence that those involved in the ransacking episode were arrested and that more arrests would follow.

``Those responsible will have to pay the legal cost of what they have done, no matter what their status. The incident is completely unacceptable and runs counter to democratic norms,'' he declared.

At the same time, the party lashed out at the Congress for attempting to take political mileage out of the incident. The demand for President's rule in the state is ``politically motivated and unwarranted'', the party felt.Singh pointed out that the three main demands of the Opposition, have been accepted by the State Government.

Accusing the Congress of trying to defame the BJP-Shiv Sena Government, Singh pointed out that in the two and a quarter years the alliance had ruled in Maharashtra, the government never had to use the police force in this manner, barring one incident.

BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, in whose constituency the violence occurred, presented a detailed report of the incidents to the parliamentary party.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.