Centre conspiring against Narendra Modi: BJP

"There is an attempt by this government to defame the Gujarat Chief Minister and the Gujarat government. It is a well-planned conspiracy...To malign the BJP government which is doing good work (in Gujarat) and has put forth Gujarat as a model state in the country," BJP leader Rajnath Singh said.

The former BJP President was reacting to Modi's interview to an Urdu daily in which he said he should be hanged if he was found guilty in post-Godhra riots.

Singh said "no one has held him (Modi) guilty. No court has held him guilty. There is no question of hanging."

"He is being deliberately troubled by this government. There is an attempt by the central government to malign him (Modi) and Gujarat government."

Rajnath Singh, however, said such attempts by Congress will not help and nor continue for long. "Despite their best efforts in the last ten years, they have not been successful in defaming the Chief Minister and Gujarat," he said.

Modi, who had steadfastly declined to answer questions on his alleged role in the post-Godhra violence, has refused to apologise for the riots and would instead prefer to be hanged if found guilty.

"Whatever I had said at that time you can check that. In 2004, I had given an interview in which I had said why should I apologise. If my government had done this, I should be hanged in public in such a way that it remains a lesson the next 100 years so that nobody dares to do it (such a crime)," he has said in an interview published in an Urdu weekly.