The Hindu : Hand over Gujarat to army: People's Front

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 05, 2002

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Hand over Gujarat to army: People's Front
By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 4. The People's Front today came down sharply on the Narendra Modi Government's ``inability'' to control communal violence in Gujarat and demanded that the State be handed over to the army to tackle it.

``India's image has been lowered both by the Central and Gujarat Governments. Violence is spreading to villages and police is contaminated. We have no faith in the Chief Minister and Gujarat should be handed over to the army'', the Front chairman, Jyoti Basu, told presspersons after a meeting here this afternoon.

The former Prime Minister and Janata Dal(S) chief, H.D. Deve Gowda, said the Gujarat Government was on a collision course with the State police which had led to the continuation of riots in the State. ``This is State-sponsored terrorism and this cannot be allowed to go on'', he said demanding the dismissal of the Government.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the steps taken by the State Government to restore law and order, the Front said that while the ``ugly incident'' at Godhra should be condemned, justifying the violence against minorities elsewhere in the State as a ``fallout'' was unacceptable.

The Front also took stock of the developments at Ayodhya and demanded that the Centre deal firmly with the VHP threat. Mr. Basu said neither the Congress Government in 1992 nor the NDA Government now appeared to be keen on handling the situation. Even now the kar sevaks were gathering at Ayodhya, he said and added that the West Bengal Government had decided not to allow kar sevaks to leave the State.

Mr. Gowda felt that the root cause of the problem was the stand-off between the VHP and the Prime Minister. Mr. Vajpayee maintained that the Ayodhya tangle could either be solved through negotiations or by a court verdict, but did not say so to the VHP. ``What does Mr. Vajpayee want? Oblige the VHP?'' he asked. He also reiterated the demand for a probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the Gujarat violence. The Left parties had already decided to observe March 6 as National Unity Day.

The other leaders who attended the meeting included the Samajwadi Party president and Front convener, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the CPI general secretary, A.B. Bardhan, his CPI(M) counterpart, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, the CPI(M) politburo member, Sitaram Yechury, the RSP leader, Abani Roy, and the AIFB secretary, G. Devarajan.

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