Mumbai, March 29 (Agencies): Senior BJP leader L K Advani has ruled out an apology over the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat. “You are talking of regret and apologies. I understand there have been many riots in Hindustan. It is very often that handling of a situation...is lack of governance. The issue of an apology does not arise. But it is sure that riots are a sad issue,” Advani said.
He was speaking at the ‘Face the Press’ programme where he answered questions from leading journalists including N Ram of The Hindu, Star India CEO Uday Shankar and Kumar Ketkar of the Dainik Bhaskar Group here. “I do not want to say anything about Atalji. If he had said (it) in some context, it must be correct,” he said when asked about former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s advice to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to follow ‘raj dharma’ in wake of the riots.
“Let me say that what happened in 1984 was not a riot, it was (a) one-sided carnage,” Advani said in reply to questions on the Congress apologising for the 1984 riots and added that in case of Gujarat, “Godhra happened first, then there was a reaction”. He said that if anyone in the government had done anything wrong, then the matter would be examined by the court.
On the demolition of Babri Masjid, Advani said the Hindutva outfits had failed to anticipate the “impatience of the people” and hence it was necessary for the movement to have been planned properly. He added that the demolition was not planned and had taken the leaders “totally by surprise”.
