New Delhi, March 11
An angry and determined Opposition today staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha after Home Minister L.K. Advani rejected its demand for his and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation and setting up of an inquiry by a Supreme Court judge into the recent carnage in the state.
Opposition members, who earlier charged the Centre with not taking appropriate steps in controlling the carnage in Gujarat and demanded the resignation of Mr Modi and Mr Advani, accused the Home Minister with making an “irresponsible” statement on the issue and staged a walkout.
The Opposition’s action came after a 45-minute reply by Mr Advani to a two-day short duration discussion in which he assured to punish all those, including police officers, found guilty by the judicial probe by the state government.
Terming the violence as “disgraceful”, Mr Advani said it was a matter of distrust for the BJP government as the clean image of communal harmony during its four-year rule had been put to “shame”.
“For us, it is certainly a black mark,” the Home Minister said and pointed out that the carnage had, in fact, affected the country’s reputation globally.
To the Opposition’s demand for setting up an inquiry by a Supreme Court judge, the Home Minister said already a judicial inquiry had been constituted by the state government and it was not possible to have a parallel probe.
The Home Minister was critical of the tendency of opposition parties to be “selective” in criticising the violence and said this was not right.
He disagreed with the Opposition criticism that senior police officers remained mute spectators to violence and listed several incidents where the police had come to the rescue of people.
Mr Advani said the majority of people killed in police
firing belonged to the majority community contrary to claims that more people from a minority community were killed in the firing.
“I have condemned violence in an unqualified manner,” Mr Advani said, adding that all those, including police officers, if found guilty of dereliction of duty by the inquiry would face the consequences.
The Home Minister said this was the first time that nearly 100 people had been killed in police firing and this showed the state administration and police had not remained a silent spectator.
Though he was not comparing the 1984 killings with the Gujarat incident as “two wrongs did not make one right”, Mr Advani said not a single person was killed in police firing during 1984 even though more than 1,000 persons were killed in the riots.
On the Opposition demand for his and Mr Modi’s resignation, Mr Advani said it had become a habit for political leaders to demand the resignation.
He said the Modi government had, in fact, brought the situation under control within 72 hours after the outbreak of violence.
Mr Advani said twice in the past he had contemplated resigning, including once during the Amarnath killings.
But he was prevented from doing so by the Leader of the House Jaswant Singh and Leader of the Opposition Manmohan Singh saying such a step would only help terrorists. Earlier the government came in for strong criticism from a united Opposition and even some of its allies on the handling of the situation in Gujarat.
While the Opposition expectantly took the government to task for not taking appropriate steps, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), one of its key allies in the coalition, did not also mince words in accusing the state government of failing to control the riots.
In the resumed short duration discussion, speakers from the Opposition benches described the incidents as state-sponsored and demanded immediate dismissal of the Modi while blaming the Centre squarely for the delay in rushing troops.
Joining the Opposition members in attacking the BJP government in Gujarat, TDP member C. Ramachandraiah said undoubtedly the state government had failed in getting information and in controlling the incidents.
Asking the government to do introspection as to why such incidents occurred regularly, why the House has to discuss such matters often and why it failed to control the incidents, the TDP member said never in the past a state administration had been alleged to have colluded with lawbreakers.
