Congress aims to attack Gujarat CM Narendra Modi for not apologising for 2002 riots.
New Delhi: The 2002 Gujarat riots could puncture the BJP Prime Ministerial candiate Narendra Modi’s ‘Vote for India’ campaign in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
While the Congress has made it clear that the Gujarat riots would be one of the major planks to put Modi on the defensive in the electoral battle, the BJP’s attempt to foil the attack by reminding 1984 anti-Sikh riots is unlikely to work for the simple reason that neither Mr Modi nor the BJP president has so far tendered apology for the communal carnage in Gujarat.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress president Sonia Gandhi have not only tendered apology for the anti-Sikh riots but denied tickets to the party leaders facing cases in the riots. How-ever, the BJP has made Modi its PM candidate.
This is the Congress’ line of offensive which could be expanded by regional players like Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Ram Vilas Paswan, Sharad Pawar, Naveen Patnaik and the Left during the campaign.
On Monday, the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in a TV interview alleged that the Narendra Modi government was responsible for “abetting and pushing” the 2002 Gujarat riots while the Congress government tried to stop the 1984 riots.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said that for the first time in the country, post-Godhra court cases relating the riots were transferred to Maharashtra, which is the “clearest vote of no confidence” in the Modi government.
Rahul faces Sikh ire, BJP joins in
A day after the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said in a TV interview that the party led government had tried to stop the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) slammed him and accused that his party had in fact shielded those involved in the carnage against the community members.
“Rahul Gandhi says that Narendra Modi was responsible for the 2002 riots in Gujarat, because he was the Chief Minister. Then what about his father (Rajiv Gandhi) who was the Prime Minister when the carnage against Sikhs took place in Delhi,” SAD leader Naresh Gujral said.
The SAD leader added, “Several hundred people including a former Gujarat minister have been jailed for the 2002 riots but those accused of gruesome crimes in 1984 have been protected and even made MPs.”
The BJP on Tuesday hit back at Rahul Gandhi for his attack on Narendra Modi over the 2002 Gujarat riots “The remarks are palpably wrong. We condemn these. It is a textbook case of lying. The people will reply to this,” BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
Nitish slams Congress, BJP for riots in the country
The Congress governments at the Centre and in Bihar were responsible for the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 and Bhagalpur riots in 1989 while BJP government in Gujarat was accountable for the 2002 riots in that state, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said.
All these riots were blots on the country for which all Indians were ashamed, Kumar said and asked those responsible for the carnage to own up responsibility.
Kumar slammed the RJD-led government headed then by Lalu Prasad for closing the probe in the Bhagalpur riots case after assuming power in 1990. It was his government that pursued the Bhagalpur riots case and brought the culprits to justice, besides giving assistance and relief to the victims and pension to the those displaced in the incident, he said.
