Remove Modi, say NDA partners

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may find asking for Jagdish Tytler's resignation over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots a costly proposition, with its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners demanding that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, too, follow suit owning moral responsibility for the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Rajiv Ranjan Singh "Lallan", Janata Dal (United) leader and Lok Sabha member from Bihar, today demanded that the BJP get Modi to resign.

"We have consistently raised our voice against the injustice done to minorities everywhere, including Gujarat, where many people died during the riots. We had earlier also demanded that Modi resign," he said.

In fact, right after the 2004 Lok Sabha election debacle, Digvijay Singh (JD-U) had said the Gujarat riots had contributed to his party's rout in Bihar.

However, the JD(U) demand seem essentially aimed at the upcoming Assembly elections in Bihar in November.

The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, too, raised a demand that Modi give up the chief minister's chair.

Dinesh Trivedi, Trinamool member of the Rajya Sabha, said Tytler's resignation showed that Modi too could be asked to resign on moral grounds. "Tytler resigned on moral grounds, so can Modi," said Trivedi.

Tathagat Satpathy of the Biju Janata Dal said riots, whether they targeted Muslims or Sikhs, were an injustice done to them.

The BJP, however, refused to link Tytler's resignation with demands that Modi, too, resign from his post. "No court of law has indicted the Gujarat chief minister directly in the riots and till such time there is nothing morally wrong in Modi staying as chief minister," said VK Malhotra, BJP parliamentary party spokesperson.

The BJP has, however, been facing more and more flak over the Gujarat riots, and were quite defensive even while debating the adjournment motion on the Nanavati commission report and the government's action-taken report.

"If the Nanavati panel probing the Gujarat riots says something on Modi then the BJP will be in big trouble politically as well as their allies, this demand for Modi's resignation is only an insurance policy," said a senior BJP leader.