The Hindu : BJP may have been behind Godhra attack: Waghela

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 15, 2002

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BJP may have been behind Godhra attack: Waghela

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD Aug. 14. The Gujarat Pradesh Congress president, Shankarsinh Waghela, has expressed the suspicion that the BJP itself could be involved in burning alive the `kar sevaks' in the Godhra train tragedy to play the Hindutva card in the Assembly elections.

``I know these BJP people... They can go to any extent for the sake of power. I will not be surprised if it is revealed later that the BJP itself was involved in setting fire to the train,'' Mr. Waghela, one of the founding leaders of the State BJP and its one time president, said.

He was addressing a largely-attended rally of the State Youth Congress here today as a run-up to the Assembly elections. The rally presided over by the national Youth Congress president, Randeep Singh Surejwala, was attended by senior leaders in yet another show of unity in the party.

The BJP, Mr. Waghela said, demanded votes in the name of Hindutva, but had `failed to protect the interests of the Hindus. Be it the Godhra train tragedy or the attack on the Amarnath yatris, the Hindus were at the receiving end''. The BJP Government at the Centre also ``cheated'' the Kashmiri Pandits. ``Who prevented the Government from rehabilitating the Kashmiri Pandits,'' he asked and said it was under the BJP administration that the situation in Kashmir deteriorated.

Reminding the people that the rally was being held in the parliamentary constituency of the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, he said it was time for his voters to tell him that ``we are ashamed to be represented by a gutless Home Minister who keeps watching when the yatris to the Amarnath shrine get killed and Parliament and the Kashmir Assembly attacked.''

Turning to the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, Mr. Waghela said no one was safe in the State under the BJP administration. The ``misrule and maladministration'' by the BJP had cost it dearly. From the top berth in respect of industrial and economic development, Gujarat had been pushed down to the 10th spot. A State that during the Congress regime was considered economically sound, was now surviving on overdrafts.

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BJP may have been behind Godhra attack: Waghela