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Saturday,
April 6, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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PM disturbed at Modi’s invincibility New Delhi, April 5 Mr Vajpayee also found it bewildering during his day-long trip to Godhra and Ahmedabad yesterday that the administrative machinery had failed to perform its bounden duty in quelling communal riots on the reported plea of awaiting directions from the very top. The Prime Minister was generally unhappy with the turn of events and the overall handling of the incidents in Gujarat. It is in this context that his calculated observation of holding the political leadership and the administration directly responsible for not bringing the delicate and sensitive issues under control expeditiously assumes significance. Mr Vajpayee’s message was direct that the minorities and underprivileged sections had to be protected as the majority had the means and wherewithal to defend itself. He was categoric that the state will do everything to ensure the safety and security of the minorities. Clearly, serious aberrations have crept into the administration which did not require the green signal from the political bosses to control a potentially dangerous situation, according to authoritative sources. They said the Prime Minister was amazed that the administration did not discharge its responsibility and directed them to perform their duty diligently. The Prime Minister’s team was left in no doubt that Mr Modi sought to deal with matters personally at his own level rather than functioning as a team and taking his senior and seasoned ministerial colleagues into confidence in tackling the communally surcharged atmosphere in the state. Some of Mr Modi ministerial colleagues did not hedge in conveying their resentment in private that the Chief Minister kept them out of the loop and did not even consult them, leave alone taking them into confidence. They contended it might not have been incumbent on the Chief Minister to take the Opposition into confidence but Mr Modi could have at least heard them and senior party colleagues on the measures required to bring about normality in Gujarat. Resentment to Mr Modi’s style of functioning is growing within his own Council of Ministers. The unhappiness is discernible and the Chief Minister being isolated by and by is not being ruled out. The Prime Minister’s team found that certain ministers of Mr Modi’s team who had allegedly done their bit in fanning communal tension had been asked to steer clear of catching Mr Vajpayee’s eyes. That helped stave off further embarrassment to Mr Modi. Though Mr Vajpayee said at his press conference in Ahmedabad yesterday that he did not think Mr Modi was on his way out as Chief Minister, it was apparent he had not gone to Gujarat to defend the indefensible. 
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Indefinite curfew in Lunawada
Ahmedabad, April 5 However, details about any casualty were not immediately available. Rioters set ablaze a kiosk, an auto-rickshaw and a truck in the Mandavi Bazar area of Lunawada. As people ran helter-skelter and shopkeepers downed their shutters, rival groups also threw stones at each other. Army and Rapid Action Force companies were immediately despatched to the site to restore law and order, the reports added. Three persons were arrested in connection with the rioting. In Ahmedabad, curfew was relaxed today from 10 a m to 6 p m in the Khadia, Kalupur, Dariapur, Shahpur, Gaekwad Haveli, Vejalpur and Karanj police station areas. The ban on pillion-riding continued to be in force. In the sensitive Gomtipur area, the curfew was relaxed for women from 10 a m to 2 p m while night curfew will continue partially or fully in sensitive areas under four other police stations. Last night, the police fired two rounds, burst two teargas shells and rounded up six persons to quell two groups engaged in a pitched battle in Vadodara’s Madar Jhampa Road area under Nawapura police station. The police also seized a large cache of acid bulbs, stones and other “missiles” commonly used by rioters. No casualties were reported in the incident. The authorities lifted day curfew from 5 a m to 8 p m in all six police station areas of Vadodara city today. In Bharuch, peace prevailed and a 12-hour curfew relaxation was given from 7 a m today while in Ankleshwar town in the same district, only a two-hour relaxation was given to women from 10 a m to enable them to buy essential commodities. Violence continued in the state since yesterday afternoon despite the visit of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, taking the death toll to 60 in the second round of violence since March 15. The Gujarat violence, which is continuing since February 27, has so far claimed 782 lives, according to official sources. On February 27, as many as 58 persons were burnt alive inside the Sabarmati Express at Godhra railway station by miscreants. The death toll in the train carnage rose to 59 two days ago after one of the injured succumbed to his wounds. Gujarat Minister of State for Home Gordhanbhai Zadaphiya had put the death toll at 668 in the communal violence triggered by the Godhra carnage.
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