The Hindu : NCM in a bind over tapes of Modi's speech

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 17, 2002

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Other States - Gujarat

NCM in a bind over tapes of Modi's speech

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI SEPT. 16. Anxious to keep away from the rough-and-tumble of politics, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) today finds itself in a bind as the Gujarat Government is yet to respond to its demand for the tapes/transcript of the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi's speech during the first leg of the controversial `gaurav rath yatra'.

Nearly a week after the NCM asked the State administration for a copy of Mr. Modi's speech in which he reportedly distorted the family planning slogan to rail against the minority community, the commission is yet to decide its next move but is certain that it does not want to ask the BJP for the text.

At today's `routine' meeting of the NCM, members apparently decided to give the State Government `reasonable time' to respond before taking further action.

They refused to disclose how long the commission would wait for a formal response from the State administration which is said to have already communicated verbally its inability to do the needful as the `yatra' was a political function and was not organised by the Government.

As to why the NCM had not asked the BJP for the tape/transcript, the official line was ``we do not write to political parties if we can help it'' as it could well open a Pandora's box.

On whether it would use the `tape' of the speech acquired by a television news channel, the official stance is that ``we do not go by what comes in the media'' though there were instances when the commission used media reports.

Though the commission can issue summons — a measure it had resorted to earlier this year when the Gujarat Government did not respond to its queries on the communal violence — this is something that the NCM does not want to rush into for fear of fuelling the controversy.

In fact, the commission is apparently drawing considerable satisfaction from the fact that by just asking for the text of Mr. Modi's address, the Chief Minister had been forced to tone down his subsequent speeches. ``We were the first to react. We acted as a watchdog, forcing even the BJP president, M. Venkaiah Naidu, to rein in Mr. Modi.''

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NCM in a bind over tapes of Modi's speech