Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s description of Dadri lynching and opposition to Ghulam Ali’s concert in Mumbai as “unfortunate” today led ally Shiv Sena to rake up his past when he was Chief Minister during the 2002 Gujarat riots and Congress to allege he suffered from “selective amnesia.”
As the unease between Maharashtra’s ruling allies BJP and Shiv Sena grew, Sena MP Sanjay Raut made a controversial reference to the post-Godhra riots, saying Modi “is known and respected due to Godhra and Ahmedabad.”
“If the Prime Minister has made such a statement (on Ghulam Ali), it is unfortunate,” Raut said.
“The world knows Narendra Modi due to Godhra and Ahmedabad and we respect him for the same reason. If the same Narendra Modi has called the controversy surrounding Ghulam Ali and (former Pakistan minister) Khurshid Kasuri unfortunate, then it is indeed unfortunate for all of us,” he told reporters in Mumbai.
Raut, however, seconded Modi’s views on Dadri lynching and said the incident was “highly unfortunate and it should not have happened.”
Breaking his silence, Modi today described the Dadri incident and opposition to the concert by Pakistan singer Ghulam Ali from Shiv Sena as “undesirable and unfortunate” and that his government had nothing to do with them but accused the opposition of indulging in “pseudo secularism” and politics of polarisation.
