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Relief for riot victims politically motivated: Minister

Special Correspondent

GANDHINAGAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat has flayed the Congress-led UPA government’s special package of assistance for the 2002 riot-affected people in the State. The Health Minister and government spokesman, Jaynarayan Vyas, on Saturday described the package as “politicallymotivated” keeping in mind the coming elections to the Lok Sabha.

Mr. Vyas questioned the intentions behind exclusively picking up the Gujarat riot victims for assistance on a par with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, and said the same yardstick should have been applied to victims of all communal riots in different parts of the country since then. He wondered why the Gujarat riots were taken up by the Centre as a special case when the instances of communal riots in other parts of the country were not considered.

Mr. Vyas said the terrorist attack on the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar, in which more than 30 people were gunned down, , should also have been considered a “spill-over” of the riots and the next of kin of the victims should have been given the benefits of the package. The Centre’s refusal to give any benefits to the majority community victims of the riots proved that it only aimed at taking advantage of the minority vote bank in the Lok Sabha elections.

The Minister said the people of Gujarat would not be misled by the Centre’s “politically motivated gesture’s.” . He said the Centre should act as a national government and consider all the people in the country as one instead of discriminating on the basis of castes, communities and the ruling parties in the States.

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