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All-party team refuses to meet Modi
By Manas Dasgupta

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, visiting riot victims at the Daryakhan Gumat relief camp in Ahmedabad on Friday. - Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

AHMEDABAD, MARCH 8. An all-party delegation of Parliamentarians, including the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, which visited riot-torn Gujarat today reportedly refused to meet the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi.

Some members of the delegation are believed to have told the Government protocol officials that they believed that Mr. Modi was the ``culprit'' in the entire episode and that there was no meaning of listening to his ``explanations''.

Though the official programme did not include a meeting with the Chief Minister, Mr. Modi was keen on meeting the leaders to give the official version of the events.

While initially it was planned to take the delegation to Gandhinagar for a meeting with Mr. Modi, on being turned down by the members, Mr. Modi offered to come to the circuit house annexe in Ahmedabad, where the delegation was meeting representatives of various organisations, but that too was not acceptable to the MPs.

Later, a team of officials led by the Chief Secretary, G. Subba Rao, called on the delegation and briefed the leaders on the steps being taken to restore normality and providing relief and rehabilitation to the riot victims.

The officials were thoroughly grilled by the Opposition party leaders and the meeting, scheduled for about 30 minutes, lasted for over two hours.

The delay forced Ms. Gandhi to leave Ahmedabad without meeting a Congress delegation and a large number of Muslim leaders waiting for hours to call on her.

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