The Hindu : Modi need not quit: Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 12, 2002

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Modi need not quit: Advani
By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 11. The Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, today strongly defended the action taken by the Gujarat Government in controlling the communal riots while rejecting the Opposition's demand for the resignation of the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, and an inquiry by a Supreme Court judge.

In his reply to a short-duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the Gujarat situation, Mr. Advani refuted the Opposition's charge of police inaction and cited instances where the police moved in to save many lives. However, he invited sharp protest from the Opposition which staged a walkout charging Mr. Advani with having made an ``irresponsible'' statement.

The debate, spread over two days, ended on an acrimonious note with members of the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the CPI(M), the SP, the RJD and Shabana Azmi (nominated) disputing Mr. Advani's clarification.

The Home Minister said the State Government had already instituted a probe and the Centre normally did not order a parallel inquiry. Action would be taken against all those found guilty of dereliction of duty. He said the Opposition had the habit of seeking the Chief Minister's resignation as often as they could and cited a similar demand after the Gujarat earthquake.

Mr. Advani said the thought of his resignation had crossed his mind in the past _ after the Amarnath killings, when even some Opposition MPs dissuaded him from stepping down.

He conceded that the Gujarat violence was a `black mark' and that it diluted the BJP-led Government's claim that the number of such clashes had come down while the party was in power. It also cast a shadow on the Government's effort to fight international terrorism which was backed by religious fundamentalism.

Mr. Advani said the reaction to the Godhara incident and the aftermath was ``selective''. All such incidents were `shameful' and there was no rationale in killing innocent people on the basis of religion. ``The situation does not permit anyone to indulge in communal violence; it is wrong.''

However, it was his defence of the police that led to sharp reaction from the Opposition which charged Mr. Advani with `misleading', the House.

Reeling off statistics, Mr. Advani said that never before in Gujarat, which had a history of disturbances, had such communal violence been controlled within 72 hours.

To persistent queries, he claimed that a large number of those killed belonged to the majority community. Even in the housing society, where a former MP was burnt alive, 180 people were rescued by police and in Bhavnagar, some 400 children were shifted to safety from a `madrasa' after mobs moved towards it.

Earlier, Mirza Abdul Rashid (National Conference) said the occurrence of communal disturbances were creating problems in Jammu and Kashmir also where people were now questioning whether Sheikh Abdullah's rejection of Jinnah's two-nation theory was correct.

PTI reports:

Later, in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Advani, replying in a similar vein, said that ``sweeping allegations against the police, the administration and the Chief Minister are highly unfair and totally unjustified.''

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