Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha Friday claimed the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee바카라 웹사이트was set to dismiss Narendra Modi, Gujarat Chief Minister at the time, after the 2002 post-Godhra riots, but withheld the decision as Home Minister L K Advani had threatened to resign from the Cabinet on the issue.
Speaking at a meet-the-press programme in Bhopal, the바카라 웹사이트former 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," said Sinha.
"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," he claimed.
"There was a meeting within the party. According to my information, Advani ji had opposed this (dismissing the Modi바카라 웹사이트government) 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," Sinha바카라 웹사이트said.
In reply to a query on Modi's allegation that바카라 웹사이트 Gandhi used INS Viraat as a "personal taxi", Sinha said these바카라 웹사이트are non-issues and that former naval officers had already issued clarifications on it.
"It is not as per the dignity of a prime minister to speak lies like this," Sinha said, adding the Lok Sabha polls were being fought on the Modi government's performance and not on the country's history.
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. He hyphenated our country with Pakistan.
"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.바카라 웹사이트
"This is being done because China's mention doesn't바카라 웹사이트generate 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," the바카라 웹사이트bureaucrat-turned-politician said.
Sinha blamed Modi for lowering the language of the바카라 웹사이트political discourse.
"It is expected from a PM to use dignified language바카라 웹사이트but this is not happening," Sinha alleged.
He said the elections to the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat바카라 웹사이트would 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 the바카라 웹사이트BJP's Pragya Singh Thakur, a 2008 Malegaon blast accused, in바카라 웹사이트the Bhopal seat which will vote on May 12.
(PTI)
