Search the Internet          Tips

Opposition accuses PM of doublespeak

Led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the Opposition, during the debate on the censure motion on Gujarat under Rule 184 in the Lok Sabha, said a change in the state's leadership was the need of the hour.

They targeted Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, accusing him of shielding Modi and indulging in "doublespeak" by "shifting" his statements on Gujarat.

The debate began against the backdrop of another jolt to the NDA with the National Conference, which has five members in the House of the People, deciding to abstain from voting on the motion. Just a day before, the Lok Jan Shakti Party headed by Ram Vilas Paswan had pulled out of the alliance on the Gujarat issue.

Attacking Modi for failing to discharge his constitutional obligations, Gandhi asked the Centre to issue a directive to the state government to control communal disturbances without any delay.

Gandhi, leader of the Opposition, also sought the appointment of a serving judge of the Supreme Court to probe within three months the causes of the continuing violence in Gujarat.

Focussing her diatribe on Vajpayee, she said the prime minister was indulging in doublespeak by "shifting" his statements on Gujarat and cited his remarks in Ahmedabad and later in Goa in this connection.

Lashing out at the Gujarat government for its failure to control the riots, K Yerran Naidu, leader of the TDP in Parliament, put forward four demands, including Modi's removal and a central directive under Article 355 to Gujarat to protect the lives and property of the people.

Initiating the debate, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav likened Vajpayee to Emperor Nero fiddling when Rome was burning. "How many more bodies and how many more incidents of arson do you want before you become active?" he thundered.

Describing the violence in Gujarat as a 'blot' on the nation, Yadav wanted the BJP's allies to understand that the question was of the survival not of the government, but of the country.

He said the prime minister could even now ask Modi to quit, or dismiss his government, and save the situation.

Communist Party of India, Marxist, leader Somnath Chatterjee and former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, in caustic comments, said the kind of governance provided by Vajpayee and Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani showed that Hitler was their idol.

Union Sports Minister Uma Bharti, fielded as the NDA's first counter to the Opposition onslaught, defended Modi and charged the Congress with trying to instigate a communal divide and pursue "vote bank politics" and "pseudo-secularism".

Amid vociferous protests and rebuttals from Congress members, she said the Congress out of power was like a "restless soul" and could go to any extent in its "greed for office".

Accusing the Opposition of playing politics, whether on the pretext of the earthquake or communal violence, Anant Geete of the Shiv Sena said none of the Opposition leaders had a word of condemnation for the Godhra incident in which the Sabarmati Express was attacked and burnt.

He said Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi had made only a passing reference to the Godhra carnage while speaking of the violence in Gujarat.

P H Pandian of the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam said his party had decided to abstain from voting on the motion. "We believe the government will take action [in Gujarat]," he said. "This Government is Government of India and not that of NDA or BJP."

Vaiko of the Marumalarchi DMK said a number of riots had taken place when the Congress was in power, but its ministers were not forced to resign.

Supporting the censure motion, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar asked that if terrorists were responsible for the Godhra incident as BJP members had claimed, who was responsible for the mayhem that had been going on in the state for the past two months. "There is political power behind this," he said, adding that the situation could still be brought under control if the government had the will to do so.

S S Palanimanickam of the DMK said Newton's theory that every action has an equal and opposite reaction cannot and should not be accepted in politics. Only the majority community can provide a sense of security to the minorities, he added.

Stating that his own relative had been killed in the recent violence, Praveen Rashtrapal of the Congress quoted state government figures to show that more than 35,000 people had been arrested, but all under bailable offences and only 79 arrests had been made under non-bailable offences.

Demanding the Modi government's dismissal, he expressed surprise that Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists were conducting aartis, mostly on Friday afternoon, and the timings always matched that of the namaaz prayers of the Muslims. This, he said, caused tension regularly.

Accusing both the BJP and the Congress of indulging in vote-bank politics, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda said, "We are fighting both."

He sought to know whether the prime minister had been able to make Modi follow "raj dharma". Had this been done, he said, the riots in the state would have been checked.

Deve Gowda was dejected that after having expressed concern over the riots and wondering how he could show his face abroad, the prime minister spoke a "completely different language" in Goa at the BJP's national executive.

PTI

The Sabarmati in Flames: Complete Coverage

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report