"I was surprised to see the statement because you have to follow a procedure before being proved guilty...The statement has been given keeping the Gujarat elections in mind. The reality is justice was not delivered in this (1992 riots) case," HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said.
Law Minister Salman Khurshid was more caustic. "We don't believe in kangaroo justice. Whatever the law is in the country will prevail...I don't think that we either in the streets can decide or Modi can take a decision by himself."
Sibal wondered "if FIR has not been filed against the chief minister of the state for the last 12 years, how do you hold him guilty...Who is going to hang him?"
Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily said statements like this were "highly irresponsible and repressive".
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh utilised the statement to allege that it showed that Modi would never seek an apology.
"In the state of Mahatma Gandhi, there is a CM who is known for his ego and arrogance. Modi is fully arrogant. Even his partymen feel it. We don't believe that he will ever seek an apology," he said.
But the BJP accused the Congress-led Centre of conspiring against Modi and making repeated attempts to malign him during the past decade.
