Riot comment sparks BJP fire

Gandhi yesterday said that the Narendra Modi government was responsible for "abetting and pushing" the 2002 Gujarat riots

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday was predictably unimpressed by Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s first television interview, in which he had alleged that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was responsible for the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, said Rahul was mistaken to believe that the state was not involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Jaitley said while Congress leaders were seen leading mobs in 1984, the Gujarat Chief Minister was present on the ground trying to dispel the rioters.

On Monday, in his interview, Rahul had said that unlike 1984, where the Congress government at the Centre tried to control the riot, the BJP government in 2002 did not come to the aid of the riot victims.

“Congress leaders were seen leading the mobs. Sikhs were massacred at thousands of places. No where did the police fire a single bullet to disperse mobs…In Gujarat, thousands of people were arrested. The badly over-powered police fired at several places. The chief minister of the state government personally went through several inquiries including the Supreme Court-constituted SIT and no evidence was found against him,” Jaitley wrote in a blog post.

Questioning Rahul’s claim that he did not believe in dynasty politics, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad asked Gandhi to then explain the concentration of power in his hands and the chorus around his name for being declared the prime ministerial candidate.

“But, in contrast, Modi was born in poverty and he has come up to the level of becoming the prime ministerial candidate due to his hardwork, integrity and record in governance,” Prasad said.

Gandhi’s statement that he wanted to bring India’s manufacturing sector on par with China’s also came under the scanner of the BJP. Jaitley said the UPA government had failed to make the manufacturing sector attractive. He said to make manufacturing in India competitive, the industry needed modest interest rate schemes, better infrastructure, a globally competitive tax system and flexibility in labour laws.

Jaitley asked, “What has Rahul to offer to this country?” He added: “Is he too confused to get into the specifics and therefore goes into the generalities?”