ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

PM will leave for Dangs on Saturday evening

The extraordinary Cabinet meeting notwithstanding, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will leave for the trouble-torn Dangs district in Gujarat Saturday evening.

The Cabinet meeting to approve the Ninth Plan, originally scheduled for January 10, has been advanced a day. Vajpayee, his officials said, would chair the meeting in the morning before he leaves.

Accompanied by senior officials, he will halt at Vadodara for the night, and reach reach Ahwa, the headquarters of Dangs, by helicopter Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya said the Christian attacks issue has been blown out of proportion. The state government had condemned the incidents, and now Ahwa is completely peaceful.

Pandya alleged that the Congress, smarting under the defeat in the Bharuch Lok Sabha by-election, had started a smear-campaign against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government by politicising the issue.

Pandya said the state government had Thursday transferred the collector of Dang to ensure a fair and free atmosphere, as different investigating teams were visiting the affected areas.

He said the decision to permit the Hindu Hanjagran Manch rally on December 25 was taken by the collector.

Four companies of state reserve police have been deployed in the district and the situation was being monitored round the clock. So far, 150 people have been arrested in 30 registered offences.

The minister claimed the damages reported in the media were highly exaggerated. According to him, the total damage to property was less than Rs 400,000. The local administration had already paid compensation in some areas.

The state government, without fear or favour or political consideration, has taken concrete steps to reassure and assuage the feelings of all minorities, he said.

The Christian community had always reposed faith in the government and their current reaction could be attributed to the exploitation of their misplaced anxieties by a highly-disgruntled Congress party, which was now fishing in troubled water, he added.

Pandya said it was ironic that the Congress, which was fanning communal issues, was pontifying on the situation like the ''devil quoting the scriptures.''

Dangs violence isn't good for Indian culture, says Sonia

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report