Bhopal: Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha claimed Friday the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was set to dismiss Narendra Modi who was then Gujarat Chief Minister after the 2002 post-Godhra riots, but withheld the decision as then Home Minister LK Advani threatened to resign from the Cabinet on the issue.
Speaking at a meet-the-press programme here, the former Union Finance Minister also dismissed as a non-issue the controversy over the alleged misuse of ‘INS Viraat’ by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
“After the communal riots in Gujarat, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had decided that then state Chief Minister Narendra Modi should resign. While going to the national executive committee meeting in Goa in 2002, Atal ji had made up his mind that the Gujarat government would be dismissed if Modi ji refused to resign,” claimed Sinha.
“There was a meeting within the party. According to my information, Advani ji had opposed this (dismissing the Modi government) and he told Atal ji that if Modi ji is dismissed then he (Advani) would resign from the government. So, he (Vajpayee) withheld the decision and Modi ji continued,” Sinha added.
Sinha, a member of the Vajpayee cabinet, hit out at Modi for raising the issue of Pakistan in the general elections. “It is unfortunate that the issue of Pakistan is being raised in the elections. Are we a country of Pakistan’s category? There is no talk about China, which must be feeling happy with the Pakistan rhetoric,” claimed the former Foreign Minister. “This is being done because China’s mention doesn’t generate a reaction like that of Pakistan does,” he added.
Accusing the Modi government of playing ‘mischief’ with statistics, Sinha said GDP data during the previous UPA government was higher than during the current NDA government. “The next government will get a broken economy,” the bureaucrat-turned-politician pointed out.
Sinha also said the elections to the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat would determine the future course of country, and whether it wanted to go for social harmony or social divide.
Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh is pitted against BJP’s Pragya Singh Thakur, a 2008 Malegaon blast accused, in the Bhopal seat which will vote May 12.