The Hindu : Modi violated constitutional duty, says Arjun Singh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 07, 2002

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National

Modi violated constitutional duty, says Arjun Singh

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 6. A senior Congress leader, Arjun Singh today renewed the demand for removal of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, a probe into the Gujarat violence by a sitting Supreme Court judge and a CBI inquiry into some cases as recommended by the National Human Rights Commission.

Winding up the 17-hour discussion, spread over three days on Gujarat in the Rajya Sabha, Mr. Singh said the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's response to the debate was ``rich in words but short on feeling'' and referred to his own 45 years in political life — a dig at Mr. Vajpayee's frequent invocation of his 50 years in the public arena. Mr. Singh said he did not consider this long innings as a `special' qualification.

He said that Mr. Modi could not remain in office since he had `violated' the constitutional duties. If Mr. Vajpayee did not remove Mr. Modi, people could also question him about the oath he had taken as Prime Minister to protect the Constitution.

He said that progress of the inquiry ordered by the State Government into the Godhra and post-Godhra violence was not ``visible''. Urging Mr. Vajpayee to break free of the people around him with `vested interests', he said the least the Government could do was to ensure action against the guilty.

He cited a Hindi poem by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar indicating that those who did not act and remained neutral in times of moral crisis would invite history's indictment.

He dismissed Mr. Vajpayee's charge that the Opposition wanted to dislodge the Government and was unwilling to wait till the next general elections.

``Free yourself of this brahm (illusion) or bhay (fear),'', he told the Prime Minister

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