M A I N   N E W S

Left parties flay BJP’s decision on Modi

New Delhi, June 20
Left parties criticised the BJP Parliamentary Board’s decision today on not replacing Gujarat Chief Minister Narender Modi, saying that the move exposed the Sangh Parivar’s Hindutva agenda.

Mr Modi’s continuation as Gujarat Chief Minister was ‘’untenable,’’ particularly after the Ahmedabad encounter in which four innocent persons, including a college girl, Ishrat Raza, were gunned down by the state police to ‘’gain sympathy for him,’’ CPM and CPI leaders said.

The BJP had called its Parliamentary Board meeting following former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s statement during his just-concluded holiday in Manali that the violence in Gujarat was one of the reasons for the party’s debacle in the general elections.

Talking to mediapersons after the party’s apex body meet, BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu had said all issues, including Gujarat, were discussed but added that there was no proposal to change Mr Modi ‘’at this juncture’’.

Reacting to the BJP’s decision, CPI national secretary Shamim Faizi said retaining Mr Modi was a clear indication that the Sangh Parivar was out to revive the Hindutva agenda.

‘’Vajpayee is a mere tool in this game plan.’’

He said Mr Modi had to be sacked immediately after what had happened in Gujarat on June 15.

The CPI leader said Mr Naidu should know that his party was no more in power and should have waited for a detailed inquiry in the “so-called encounter” before pronouncing him not guilty.

Mr Faizi urged the Centre to order an inquiry into the incident saying that all encounters by the Gujarat police in the guise of protecting Mr Modi from alleged terrorists needed to probed fully.

‘’We demand a detailed probe in not only the June 15 encounter but in all eight other encounters that had been conducted by the state police in the recent past.’’

He said the Godhra incident of burning people alive in a rail coach and Akshardam incidents needed to be probed completely.

CPM Politburo member S. Ramachandran Pillai said the BJP was enacting a mere drama.

‘’There is no justification in Mr Modi’s continuation as Gujarat Chief Minister following the latest encounter,’’ he said.

Mr Modi had no moral right to continue in office and demanded his ouster at the earliest, he added. — UNI