The Hindu : National : Sharad Yadav hits out at BJP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 20, 2005

National

National

Sharad Yadav hits out at BJP

Neena Vyas

Arun Jaitley says criticism was "not unnatural"

NEW DELHI: One more leader of the National Democratic Alliance, this time it was National Democratic leader Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United) has hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership for its handling of the 2002 Gujarat riots, but the party responded by saying that the criticism was "not abnormal or unnatural."

BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley was asked by reporters on Thursday what he had to say about Mr. Yadav's views (expressed in an interview in the latest issue of Outlook Saptahik) that the Gujarat riots were a major factor for the NDA's defeat. He said: "Mr. Yadav was an old Socialist Lohiaite leader and there was nothing abnormal of unnatural about it [the criticism]."

However, Mr. Jaitley did not agree, in response to a question, that the BJP itself had somewhat changed its stance. During the riots and the months that followed the party's stand was that every action had its reaction and that the Godhra burning of the Sabarmati Express coaches led to spontaneous violence by the people. But recently BJP president L.K. Advani described the riots as a "blot" on the BJP, general secretary Pramod Mahajan called it a "black stain," and the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said it was a "national shame."

At the same time the party seems to have come to the conclusion that although the riots helped the BJP win the 2002 Assembly elections in Gujarat, they cost it dearly in the Lok Sabha 2004 polls.

Last week, the former Gujarat Governor, Sunder Singh Bhandari, who was a senior BJP leader and a RSS `pracharak,' criticised the Gujarat Government for delaying action to control the rioting mobs. Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu, and now the JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav have come out openly against the NDA for its handling of Gujarat.

Mr. Jaitley said he had read the demand made at the United Progressive Alliance meeting for an investigation into specific riot cases by the Central Bureau of Investigation, but he was concerned about what procedure would be used to do this. He pointed out that law and order was a State subject, that there were certain principles of federalism, that consent of the State Government would be needed to start a CBI investigation, and finally, how could cases already under trial be handed over to "another agency for investigation just because a partner of the UPA was demanding this."

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National