Will Modi go? ‘I don’t think so’

A rattled Modi could not resist intervening: ‘‘Saab, hum bhi wohi kar rahe hain (Sir, I’m doing the same thing)’’. To which the Prime Minister promptly retorted: ‘‘I trust Narendrabhai is doing the same thing.’’ The Chief Minister had little else to do but grin and bear it.

However, when asked whether he was considering a change of guard in the state, Vajpayee said: ‘‘I don’t think so.’’

To a question about the protection and safety of the majority community, Vajpayee said: ‘‘Do you want me to answer that? The majority doesn’t need any security, they are capable of safeguarding themselves. They have the numbers on their side. It is the minorities who need protection.’’

The PM also shrugged off another question on whether the Godhra attack was a challenge to the safety of the Hindu community: ‘‘Don’t simplify the Godhra incident into a Hindu-Muslim issue, it was a much more serious incident. A handful of people try to take advantage of a situation, but not on a permanent basis.’’

The Godhra attack was a conspiracy, he said, ‘‘but it needs to be established who perpetrated it.’’

The Prime Minister also dismissed arguments—recently the refrain of several leaders in the state government, including Modi—that the riots had to be seen in the context of the fact that Gujarat has always been a communal tinder-box. ‘‘That riots occurred in the past and continued for long is no justification for them breaking out now. This should not happen. The attacks on women and children can never be permitted.’’

When asked about the cruelty with which people were killed in the violence in the state, he said: ‘‘Gujarat is an enigma to me also. Why such violence occurred? Why were the killings so gruesome? I am deeply shocked by it, everyone is shocked. I believe a psycho-analysis. Even the tribal areas, which had never seen communal enmity, were affected by cruel violence. The incidents of people being burnt alive are all shocking.’’

On the severe indictment of the Modi Government by the NHRC, he was evasive. ‘‘Such a big tragedy has occurred in Gujarat and there are diverse opinions on it. There’s an inquiry commission already appointed into the violence and there is a legal dispute about another commission also doing its own inquiry. Legal experts will decide that and we should wait for the results.’’

He said he held meetings with the all-party committee on relief and rehabilitation of riot victims and expressed his satisfaction with its working.

He added that he had suggested that such committees be formed at various levels even in rural areas. He urged political parties in the state to bury their differences and make efforts to revive normal life.