Other States - Gujarat

Cong. MLA embarrasses party

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD June 1. The Gujarat Congress has been put in an embarrassing situation with one of its MLAs, and that too belonging to the minority community, extending a public felicitation to the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. The supporters of Mr. Modi are trying to take political advantage of Khurshid Pirzada, representing the Wankaner constituency in Rajkot district in the Saurashtra region, showering praise on Mr. Modi while his party was demanding his dismissal for the ``genocide'' of the Muslims in the State.

The Pradesh Congress president, Amarsinh Chaudhary, admitted that Mr. Pirzada's `gesture' was sending the wrong signals to the people in the State.

He said he had written to the party's central leadership to take ``the strictest possible disciplinary action'' against Mr. Pirzada, since under the party constitution only the AICC was authorised to take action against an MLA.

While the Leader of the Opposition, Naresh Raval, said he had sought an explanation from Mr. Pirzada, the head of the Momin (Shia) sect, Mr. Chaudhary said five days before the felicitation function held at Chandrapur village near Wankaner yesterday, he had telephonically asked Mr. Pirzada to stay away from the function in keeping with the party president, Sonia Gandhi's call to boycott all public functions of Mr. Modi.

He said Mr. Pirzada had told him that he would ``consult'' his supporters before taking a decision. Since he was not available on phone for the last few days, Mr. Chaudhary again wrote him a letter on Thursday not to attend the function but apparently ignoring the party's directive he went ahead with the programme. He not only attended the function organised at his behest by the local Momin Youth Association, he also presided over it and felicitated Mr. Modi.

The party president was not sure if Mr. Pirzada was ``inching towards the BJP,'' but said his defecting to the ruling party would be no loss to the Congress. On the contrary, he claimed, a large number of BJP MLAs were keen to join the Congress, considering the political situation in the State. A decision on accepting them would be taken at an appropriate time.

The official media, however, described the Chandrapur function, where three Muslim leaders were also in turn felicitated by Mr Modi for their contributions in various fields, as an ``example of Hindu-Muslim unity'' in the State.

Mr. Pirzada had told the gathering that it was not fair to blame the Chief Minister for the failure of the police administration to protect the minorities and said the Momin community and the minorities in general could not join in the ``hate campaign'' against Mr. Modi.When contacted, Mr. Pirzada said he had invited Mr. Modi because he was the Chief Minister. ``What if he belonged to the BJP?'' he asked.

He did not feel that he had violated party discipline by attending the felicitation function and said he would explain his position to the party leadership.

Meanwhile, Mr. Chaudhary has demanded Mr. Modi's resignation for the indictment of his administration by the National Human Rights Commission.

He urged the security adviser to the Chief Minister, K.P.S. Gill, to take action against police officers who were inactive or in whose presence Muslims were persecuted.

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