New Delhi, May 13
Former Gujarat Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari today caused further embarrassment to the BJP and its leadership by demanding a thorough inquiry into the “failure” of the Modi government in dealing with the post-Godhra riots.
While yesterday Mr Bhandari had created ripples within the saffron party by raising an accusing finger at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the then Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, his today’s demand of an inquiry is bound to aggravate the crisis in the BJP.
“I don’t think the whole thing can be attributed to an individual. If at all, it was a system failure or failure of the administrative machinery. I would like a thorough inquiry into where and how there was a gap,” he told NDTV.
Asked if this meant he was not blaming an individual or the way Mr Modi handled the riots, Mr Bhandari, who was the Governor at the time of the riots, said: “The point is let the inquiry bring out facts. If something is necessary on the basis of the inquiry then only will I be able to say.”
In an interview to a Hindi weekly “Outlook”, Mr Bhandari blamed Mr Modi and the party’s central leadership for their “failure” to respond quick and firmly in acting to control the post-Godhra violence in 2001.
Asked if Mr Advani was the right man to head the party now and on the quarrel between the generation next leaders, the senior party leader said: “Advaniji had been leading the party before also. And very successfully. The party rose to this height in his presidential career.
“So nothing can be attributed to an individual. It is a situation that has developed like that. And this is because of looseness or non-functional organisation which is the reason for this.”
Asked whether some leader of the next generation should have taken over as leader of the party, he said “that would have been better. But I think the situation perhaps was so pressing that somehow the arrangement was to be made.”
