Congress has stepped up attack against the PM Modi after the ex-RAW chief AS Dulat revealed that the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had called the Gujarat riots ‘our mistakes.”
Congress party asked Modi to ‘respect the words’ of Vajpayee and offer an apology to the country for the Gujarat riots that had killed more than 2000 people, with most of them being Muslims.
Dulat, in his interview to a channel, had recounted his conversation with Vajpayee, who according to him, had said “woh humare se galti hui hai(it was our mistake)” about the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Dulat claimed he had met Vajpayee even after the BJP’s defeat in 2004 Loksabha elections.
“I said: Sir, Yeh kya hua? So he laughed heartily and said: Unko (Congress) bhi nahi maloom yeh kya hua! He said even Congress has been taken by surprise, not just us. And then along the way, Vajpayee said: Shayad hamare se Gujarat mein galati ho gayi. And then he got a bit serious and sad. I did not ask him anything further,” Dulat said.
BJP on Friday said there was no need for Modi to apoligise as the judiciary had exonerated him.
BJP’s spokesperson and the newly elected Rajya Sabha MP, MJ Akbar said, ” I think time as well as all that has happened has made that question completely irrelevant. Congress has used every method and every strata of the administration, as well as the courts and every court, including Supreme Court, has done 10 years or more of the most thorough investigation… and found nothing against the present honourable Prime Minister. “In fact, Congress should apologise for raising questions about his integrity.”
Dulat in his interview during the release of his new book had also talked about how the the former CM of Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, had opposed Vajpayee government’s decision to release three dreaded terrorists in exchange of 155 passengers kidnapped on board IC-814 in Kandahar.
Critics say that Dulat’s revelations will caused serious embarrassment to the Modi government, already grappling with credibility crisis due to its ministers and top party leaders’ involvement in various scandals and corruption cases. The union foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan’s CM Vasundhara Raje and her son Dushyant Singh are embroiled into what’s being termed as Lalitgate scandal.
Two of BJP’s ministers in Maharashtra government are facing serious corruption charges, while the opposition is gunning for the union HRD minister Smriti Irani’s resignation in an alleged fake degree row.
(Photo: Gujarat riots. courtesy The Hindu)