The Hindu : Advani asks Modi to concentrate on governance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 08, 2002

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Advani asks Modi to concentrate on governance

By Manas Dasgupta

L.K. Advani

AHMEDABAD July 7. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, today refused to give a clean chit to the Narendra Modi Government in Gujarat and asked it to "concentrate on governance''.

Talking to mediapersons on his first visit to Gujarat after being elevated to the new post, Mr. Advani said the Government "performed well'' in containing communal violence, but had taken too long a time to do that.

It would have done the State Government credit if the violence had been contained in two to three days, he said, but asserted that some "vested interests'' wanted to prolong the crisis. Refusing to identify these elements, Mr. Advani said peace was not mere restoration of normality, but the Government had so far not been able to achieve even this.

Pointing out that normality would return only when the Government succeeded in instilling a sense of security among the people, Mr. Advani, like the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, who had told Mr. Modi to "perform his Raj dharma'', asked Mr. Modi to "concentrate on governance''. A sense of security among all sections was "part of good governance'', he told Mr. Modi, who was also present at the media conference.

Mr. Advani, who cut short his stay here to attend the funeral of Dhirubhai Ambani in Mumbai, said the presence of the former Punjab police chief, K.P.S. Gill, who was deputed as the Security Adviser to the Chief Minister, was of "great help in restoring peace''.

But he ruled out a change of leadership in the State pointing out that since the term of the present Assembly was coming to an end, it would be for the people of the State to decide on the future of the Government. The State Government, he said, would decide the timing of the elections.

Mr. Advani said it was out of the apprehension that the proposed `gaurav rath yatra' by Mr. Modi could lead to another round of violence that the Chief Minister decided to cancel it. "Its aim of restoring peace was good but in case of trouble, the Government would have earned a bad name.'' The adverse report by the National Human Rights Commission was another consideration for cancelling the `gaurav rath yatra'.

But there was no question of cancellation of the traditional `Jagannath rath yatra' on July 12 and said the Centre would give all necessary assistance, including deployment of paramilitary forces to ensure its peaceful passage.

Mr. Advani refused to give much credence to the Forensic Science Laboratory's report on the Godhra train carnage which suggested that inflammable material was poured from "inside'' the burnt coach of the Sabarmati Express and not from outside. Mr. Advani said it would be "amazing'' to think that the women and child passengers killed in the train fire themselves poured the inflammable material. It was known from the beginning that the attackers had climbed up the coach and poured the inflammable material. "You do not need the FSL report to learn about it, on the contrary it proved the theory of the Godhra carnage being a planned deep-rooted conspiracy.''

`War clouds remain'

On Pakistan, Mr. Advani said the "war clouds'' had not totally disappeared though the tension on the borders has eased. He said the incidents of terrorist infiltration from across the border in Jammu and Kashmir had reduced but not totally stopped. But often it was difficult to assess the situation because the Government might come to know about the infiltration much after the infiltrators had entered the country. It was because of this that India had insisted that it needed time to assess whether the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf's actions matched his promises.

Mr. Advani, however, said there had been "much change'' in the language of Gen. Musharraf from Agra to Almaty but it was yet to be seen if he translated the promises into actions. There was no reopening of the proposal for a joint patrolling of the line of control since Pakistan had rejected it. About the stand-off between West Bengal and Bihar over the division of Eastern Railways, Mr. Advani said he would discuss the issue with the Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, tomorrow. The issue should not have been made out to be a conflict between the two States, but it had taken a serious turn because of the passage of a resolution by the West Bengal Assembly to this effect earlier. He said similar demands for shifting of railway headquarters or divisions had been pending from Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Hubli and other centres which needed to be resolved.

Vice-President election

He blamed the Congress for taking a confrontational course on the choice of the Vice-President. Much before the National Democratic Alliance Government took any stand on the issue, it was the Congress, which announced that it would not accept a BJP nominee. It was no use discussing the choice with the Congress after the party had taken such a stand but the BJP would finalise the choice only after consulting its NDA partners and "other Opposition parties''. It was not necessary that the Government's choice should be someone from the BJP, he said.

He said the reshuffle in the Central Cabinet and changes in the organisational level proved the BJP's "greater willingness for experimentation'' and showed that the party possessed both the will and capacity to restructure itself to respond effectively to changing needs. He did not rule out the possibility of more changes which the new BJP president wanted to keep the organisation in "fine fettle".

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