BANGALORE, Jan 3: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today ruled out dismissal of the Keshubhai Government in Gujarat as the law and order situation in the State was ``under control.'' The BJP national executive in Bangalore too gave a clean chit to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Gujarat Government.Talking to reporters at Bangalore, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said: ``I am not aware of any demand by the opposition parties to invoke Article 356 in Gujarat but they (opposition) only wanted the State government to be warned''.
In statements released this morning from Chennai and Kochi, ally AIADMK chief Jayalalitha and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha demanded that the Centre should either make the Gujarat Government live up to its constitutional commitment to ensure the security of the minorities or dismiss it.
But the national executive of the BJP in Bangalore was equally categorical in ruling out the dismissal of the Gujarat Government. It gave a clean chit to both the Vishwa HinduParishad and the Gujrat Government on the attacks on Christians in the State. ``The Sangh Parivar has no relations whatsoever with Hindu Jagran Manch which was involved in Broach riots,'' party spokesman Venkaiah Naidu said today. Both RSS and VHP chiefs have already condemned the incident and the matter should be closed here, he said.He also said that there was no laxity on part of the Gujarat Government and there was no question of replacing Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel.The political resolution adopted at the national executive termed the Gujarat incidents ``extremely unfortunate.''``Any attempt on a place of worship, whether a church or a temple, is deplorable and cannot be condoned. We congratulate the State Government on taking prompt action against the wrong-doers,'' the resolution said. Cautioning the people against certain ``vested interests'' which were systematically trying to blow stray incidents out of proportion, the resolution said the manner in which a sustained campaign had been launched toproject these incidents as a plot against minorities itself smacked of a conspiracy.
The resolution said that the BJP and its governments at the Centre and in the States were committed to social harmony and security for all sections of the society. It claimed there were ``negligible incidents'' of communal violence last year as compared to those during the last 10 years.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.