Author: PTI
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: June 2, 2002
Irked over beleaguered Chief Minister
Narendra Modi's reported 'coup' of masterminding a public felicitation
by a minority Congress MLA, Gujarat congress on Saturday asked party high
command to take stringent disciplinary' action against the legislator as
he had even 'defied' the diktats of Sonia Gandhi, reports PTI.
"This is a very serious matter.
The action of the MLA was in clear defiance of party stand and Sonia's
directives to boycott Modi's public function," Gujarat Pradesh congress
president Amarsinh Chaudhary said.
He said that a formal recommendation
has been made to the high command to take stringent action against Wankaner
MLA Khurshid Haider Pirzada.
In a defiant stance, Pirzada felicitated
Modi at a function on Friday evening at his constituency in Rajkot district
on behalf of Momin Shia sect throwing shoekwaves in party circles and taking
a large section of minorities by surprise.
A visibly upset Chaudhary said that
party legislator's action has hurt the people of Gujarat and minorities
in particular at a time when some corrective steps were taken to heal the
injury meted to the battered community during riots.
Post-Godhra insane rage, Modi was
virtually considered a 'political pariah' by the congress for his 'inept
handling of the riots' and the party had been going all raucous in demanding
his ouster.
Earlier in the day, an equally angry
congress Legislative Party leader Naresh Raval said that he had spoken
to the MLA and asked him to explain in writing the factors behind his decision
to felicitate Modi.
