Wednesday, 02 March , 2005, 14:10
Thiruvananthapuram: Two years after stepping down from office, former president K R Narayanan has severely criticised former prime minister A B Vajpayee for the way he handled the post-Godhra situation.
"He (Vajapyee) did not do anything effective. I had sent him letters. I had talked to him directly. Had military been given powers to shoot, the carnage in Gujarat could have been avoided to a great extent," Narayanan said in a free-wheeling interview to Congress MLA P T Thomas carried by a recent issue of Malayalam magazine 'Manava Samskriti'.
Holding that there was a conspiracy involving the state and Central governments behind the 2002 Gujarat riots, he said if the military was given powers to shoot at the perpetrators of violence, the Gujarat riots could have been avoided.
"I had asked military to be sent to suppress the riots. The Centre had the constitutional responsibility and powers to send military if the state governments asked. The military was sent."
"But if the military was given powers to shoot at the perpetrators of violence, recurrence of tragedies in Gujarat could have been avoided. However, both the state and Central government did not do so," Narayanan said.
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