04-26-2005, 04:14 AM
http://www.keralanext.com/news/indexread.asp?id=191102
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India ; Soft on Modi? It's strategy, says Congress:
11 Hours,34 minutes Ago
[India News] New Delhi, Stung by leftists accusations that it was going soft on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress Monday said it was handling a smart enemy the best way it possibly could.
The main Left party backing the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), said in its weekly organ People's Democracy that the Congress was shying away from taking action against Modi.
"We are not at all soft on Modi ... but we cannot be blind to constitutional realities. Modi is the chief minister of an elected government," said Congress leader Salman Khurshid.
"When there are deliberate perversions we would pursue the course of law. But in pursuit of a good cause we cannot be dictatorial."
He asserted that the Congress did not want to make an obsession out of Modi, as part of a "well-crafted and balanced strategy".
"We do not have to play into his hands. Modi is not an easy opponent ... He has a constituency and we cannot permit him to exploit our actions to his advantage."
Khurshid said it was to avoid episodes like the 2002 Gujarat communal violence - which Modi's government is widely accused of abetting - that the government was trying to remove the infirmities and enact a law against communal violence.
In an editorial titled "Yet Another Proof of Blood on Modi's Hands", a commentary on Modi, People's Democracy also commented that the Congress had not taken up with the right urgency the allegations of senior police officer R.B. Sreekumar, who was heading Gujarat's intelligence wing at the time of communal violence in the state.
Sreekumar recently said in a petition to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) that he was denied due promotion because he spoke out against the state government. He accused Modi and senior bureaucrats of verbally ordering him to "target" and "eliminate" minorities.
The "People Democracy" editorial said it was "worrying" that the Congress appeared to be "soft-pedalling" the Gujarat issue.
Khurshid said: "What Sreekumar said was to CAT, not the commission inquiring the Gujarat violence. You cannot act on what is said in one forum by transferring it to another. Eventually, it will come up before the commission and then we will act on it."
Rajya Sabha MP Devendra Dwivedi, a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee, rubbished the CPI-M's allegations as "unnecessary politicisation" by the Left.
"We made Modi's role in the Gujarat violence a national issue. There is no question of going soft on him," Dwivedi said.
He was critical of the Left's view that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh need not have intervened when the US denied visa to Modi.
"It is a state-to-state issue. We cannot allow domestic politics or partisan politics to influence the state. Unlike some parties, we don't believe in the autonomy of a state." <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India ; Soft on Modi? It's strategy, says Congress:
11 Hours,34 minutes Ago
[India News] New Delhi, Stung by leftists accusations that it was going soft on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress Monday said it was handling a smart enemy the best way it possibly could.
The main Left party backing the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), said in its weekly organ People's Democracy that the Congress was shying away from taking action against Modi.
"We are not at all soft on Modi ... but we cannot be blind to constitutional realities. Modi is the chief minister of an elected government," said Congress leader Salman Khurshid.
"When there are deliberate perversions we would pursue the course of law. But in pursuit of a good cause we cannot be dictatorial."
He asserted that the Congress did not want to make an obsession out of Modi, as part of a "well-crafted and balanced strategy".
"We do not have to play into his hands. Modi is not an easy opponent ... He has a constituency and we cannot permit him to exploit our actions to his advantage."
Khurshid said it was to avoid episodes like the 2002 Gujarat communal violence - which Modi's government is widely accused of abetting - that the government was trying to remove the infirmities and enact a law against communal violence.
In an editorial titled "Yet Another Proof of Blood on Modi's Hands", a commentary on Modi, People's Democracy also commented that the Congress had not taken up with the right urgency the allegations of senior police officer R.B. Sreekumar, who was heading Gujarat's intelligence wing at the time of communal violence in the state.
Sreekumar recently said in a petition to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) that he was denied due promotion because he spoke out against the state government. He accused Modi and senior bureaucrats of verbally ordering him to "target" and "eliminate" minorities.
The "People Democracy" editorial said it was "worrying" that the Congress appeared to be "soft-pedalling" the Gujarat issue.
Khurshid said: "What Sreekumar said was to CAT, not the commission inquiring the Gujarat violence. You cannot act on what is said in one forum by transferring it to another. Eventually, it will come up before the commission and then we will act on it."
Rajya Sabha MP Devendra Dwivedi, a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee, rubbished the CPI-M's allegations as "unnecessary politicisation" by the Left.
"We made Modi's role in the Gujarat violence a national issue. There is no question of going soft on him," Dwivedi said.
He was critical of the Left's view that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh need not have intervened when the US denied visa to Modi.
"It is a state-to-state issue. We cannot allow domestic politics or partisan politics to influence the state. Unlike some parties, we don't believe in the autonomy of a state." <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->