M A I N   N E W S

Rahul attacks Modi over Gujarat riots

New Delhi, March 16
Rahul Gandhi today sought to boost his party’s morale by affirming that there would be a Congress-led UPA-III even as he hit out at Narendra Modi for “inexcusable failure” of governance during the 2002 riots for which he demanded “legal accountability”.

Seeking to control damage resulting from his earlier comments on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, he said he completely shared the sentiments of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had apologised and party president Sonia Gandhi, who had expressed regrets.

Debunking opinion polls predicting heavy losses to the Congress, Rahul acknowledged there was a “certain amount of anti-incumbency against us”, but maintained it would do better than the 2009 elections when it won 206 seats in the face of similar grim predictions. Refusing to hazard a guess about the number of seats the Congress expected in the Lok Sabha elections saying that he was not a “soothsayer”, he said, “The Congress is fighting a challenging election and we will win it.” Sharply differing with the views expressed by senior party leader and Finance Minister P Chidambaram that the Congress was an underdog and faced an uphill task, he said, “No it is not an underdog...it is not facing an uphill task.”

He spoke about the election prospects, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the 2002 Gujarat riots and 1984 anti-Sikh riots, BJP’s record on corruption and some aspects of his personal life during an hour-long interview with the Editor-in-Chief of a news agency at his residence.

In his sharpest attack on Modi over the post-Godhra riots, he dismissed the talk of a clean chit to the Gujarat Chief Minister as “politically expedient”, but “far too premature”. He was answering a question on BJP’s contention that Modi had been given a clean chit by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT and the courts and, therefore, he had nothing to answer for or apologise for about the post-Godhra riots. — PTI

On 1984 anti-Sikh riots

The Prime Minister has apologised and the president of the Congress (has) expressed regret. I share their sentiments completely

what he said