Gujarat Minister of State for Home Gordhan Zadaphia has blamed the Congress for the fresh spurt in violence in the state on Sunday, which cost 21 people their lives, saying the opposition party was trying desperately to break the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.
"Yesterday's riots in Ahmedabad's Gomtipur and Rakhiyal area were planned," Zadaphia told rediff.com "The Congress and the minority community do not want peace. The Congress wants to break the NDA alliance in Delhi by fuelling riots in Gujarat. Political parties in India are in the race for appeasing the minorities. They will not say a word against the Jama Masjid imam's speech yesterday, where he incited Muslims to break India."
According to Zadaphia, the Congress plan is "to continue the rioting, raise the issue in Parliament, force the NDA partners to raise their voices and, in turn, force the Modi government to resign".
Corporators like Badruddin Sheikh and Taufik Pathan and their sons were leading the crowd, he alleged. "The crowd wanted to attack the colonies and kill as many as they can," he said. "It was a serious attack. The railway tracks were full of people with bombs and weapons in their hands."
Asked about six Muslims being shot by the police at point-blank range, he retorted, "What do you expect the police to do when Amar Patil, my constable, was stabbed to death just outside the masjid? At another place six SRP [State Reserve Police] men were injured when the minority crowd attacked them? Do you have any idea of the impact on the morale of the police?"
Zadaphia claimed that Pathan and Sheikh were bent upon disrupting the current high school exams. "They are harassing Muslim students," he said. "In relief camps and Muslim areas they have announced on loudspeakers that Muslim students shall give college exams, but not the 10th and 12th standard exams."
The minister said the 'disruptive elements' were upset because 98 per cent of students have appeared in the exams. "Their supporters are forcing students to get down from buses provided by the government," he claimed. "They are tearing away the entry receipts of the students. What does this mean?"
Zadaphia promised that he would arrest the people who were inciting communal tensions to disrupt the exams. "We will break the 50-year-old negative psyche of such people," he said.
Naresh Rawal, leader of the Congress
in the assembly, dismissed the minister's allegations. "The NDA will be
dismantled soon for other reasons," he told rediff.com "These are bogus
allegations. Modi is failing to maintain law and order. He is the number
one villain in India today. People's perception is that Modi connived with
the rioters. He should go. Let the BJP get a new CM and stop making such
baseless allegations."