Salem arrest sparks off blame game in state

The arrest of underworld don Abu Salem seemingly came handy for caretaker Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who termed the communal flare-up in Baroda, on the occasion of Ganesh visarjan, as "an immediate reaction to the arrest."

Addressing a public gathering in tribal-dominated Unnai during his prestigious Gaurav Rathyatra on Saturday, Mr. Modi said, "A handful of fundamentalists in Baroda were miffed at the arrest of main accused in the Mumbai blast and thus attacked the Ganesh visarjan procession,"

Four people were killed and over 30 injured in violence at Baroda during Ganesh visarjan on Friday. "More than one lakh community Ganesh visarjans have taken place and about 12,000 in Surat alone over a span of 10 days. However, violence triggered off immediately after news of arrest of Abu Salem," the Chief Minister said.

Mr. Modi also hit out at the Congress and asked, "Why is the Congress, which has ‘connections’ with pseudo-secularists, tight lipped about Baroda violence?" Mr. Modi sang praises of Muslims in Kutch, who had openly criticised the Godhra violence and exhorted state Muslim leaders seeking peace to openly condemn the happenings in Baroda.

Mr. Modi said, "Muslims must also portray their daring to condemn the violence so that the sinister attempts of handful anti-social elements to disrupt peace is rendered futile." Elaborating on Yatra, he said while some people go on a yatra to visit Lord at Amarnath or Somnath, he had taken out this yatra for "darshan" of five crore peole of Gujarat.

Republished from TheAsian Age