The Hindu : Modi denies planning snap poll in Gujarat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 31, 2002

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Modi denies planning snap poll in Gujarat

By Our Special Correspondent

Left activists protesting against the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, outside the BJP office in Mumbai on Saturday. — Photo: Vivek Bendre

MUMBAI MARCH 30. The Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, today denied reports that he was planning for a snap poll in his State and that he discussed it with the Prime Minister during his visit to New Delhi.

Mr. Modi told a press conference here that he briefed the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister in the presence of officials about the situation in Gujarat and that at no time was the mid-term poll idea even mentioned.

Several leftist activists had gathered at the venue of the press conference, headquarters of the Maharashtra BJP, and showed Mr. Modi black flags and shouted slogans, asking him to go back. Anticipating the trouble, police rounded them up and whisked them away.

Mr. Modi described the situation in Gujarat as "fast returning to normality. Those who know the Gujarat conditions would agree that the affected areas in the previous riots had taken long to be peaceful and remained under curfew for months at a time''.

But this time efforts by all concerned, including political and social leaders, NGOs and the Government, had resulted in the violence being controlled and beginning of the restoration of confidence, he said.

Mr. Modi strongly defended the police action in controlling riots and said that unlike in any other earlier communal violence in the country, 25 per cent of the casualties were due to the police firing and among them were members of both the communities. The Army could not be called out immediately because the units, which were normally billeted in the Ahmedabad cantonment, were away on the borders and took some time in returning to the city.

Asked if he would charge the rioters under the POTA, he said that no decision was taken so far and the view of the Advocate-General was that its invocation was not needed at the present stage of investigation.

He said that neither in Gujarat nor elsewhere in the country, a State Government had formed an all-party high-power committee for relief and rehabilitation.

Later, when asked about the demand for his resignation, Mr. Modi said in an informal chat that the Congress — the only Opposition party in the State — had not sought his resignation either on the floor of the Gujarat Assembly, now in session, or outside it.

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