The Hindu : National : Narayanan got his facts wrong, says BJP

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Friday, Mar 04, 2005

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National

Narayanan got his facts wrong, says BJP

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 3. The former President, K.R. Narayanan's allegations against the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, were today described by the Bharatiya Janata Party as ``not based on facts.''

In an interview to a Malayalam magazine, Mr. Narayanan had alleged that the Army — deployed in Gujarat during the riots that followed the burning of a coach of Sabarmati Express in February 2002 — was not allowed to shoot at the perpetrators of the violence. The riots were the result of a ``conspiracy'' between the Centre led by Mr. Vajpayee and the Narendra Modi Government in Gujarat, he had said.

In the morning a close aide of Mr. Vajpayee said the former Prime Minister did not wish to make any comment on Mr. Narayanan's allegations but in the afternoon the BJP deputy leader in the Lok Sabha and the party spokesperson, V.K. Malhotra, said: ``within 24 hours the Army was sent and a few more hours it was deployed. Two hundred people (rioters) were shot dead by police and the Army. It is false to say that the Army was not allowed to shoot.''

Mr. Malhotra questioned Mr. Narayanan's motive behind making such statements now, three years after the riots, when a judicial commission appointed to look into the incidents would soon be submitting its report.

Mr. Narayanan's mention of the "reluctance" of the National Democratic Alliance to give him a second term was not dignified. ``Nobody has the automatic right to get a second term as President,'' Mr. Malhotra said.

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