PM's remarks on Shah biggest joke of 2011: Modi

GANDHINAGAR: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying his remark on Amit Shah was the "biggest joke of 2011".

"Prime Minister tried to associate Gujarat in his press conference to wash off the stains on himself. This is the joke of the year 2011. This is laughable," he said.

In a veiled reference to Shah during his interaction with TV editors yesterday, Singh said, "The Opposition parties, particularly BJP has taken a hostile attitude and the reasons that have been given frankly I cannot mention it in public... because you have taken some decision against a particular person, who was a minister in Gujarat, you must reverse it. I don't want to add further."

"Instead of blaming any minister from Gujarat or the state government, the prime minister should give true facts about his failures before the people of India," the Gujarat chief minister said.

Singh made the comments while blaming the Opposition for the delay in introduction of the Constitution Amendment Bill on Goods and Service Tax (GST).

Shah, a former minister of state for home in the Modi government, was arrested by CBI in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and is now out on bail.

Criticising Singh for blaming the BJP for delay in the economic reforms, Modi said, "Now when the prime minister has accepted his helplessness in running the government, he should put forward true facts on his government's failure to carry forward economic reforms and GST. BJP and Gujarat government has always shown a positive attitude toward economic reforms and GST."

Modi demanded that the Union government make public, the proceedings and minutes of meetings held during the last two years of the empowered committee formed for implementation of GST.

It will become clear that only talks of reforming the system have been discussed in the meetings and nothing concrete has taken place, he said.

Modi said during a meeting with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on the issue of GST a year ago, he had told him that GST cannot be implemented unless information technology network is installed in the entire country.

"Mukherjee, in the meeting, itself had instructed his staff members to form a task force for implementation of information and technology network in the entire country. However, no progress has been made on the issue after one year," he said.

Not only non-Congress state government but those who are supporting the UPA have also made it clear to the Centre that it should not play with the states' interests on the issue of GST, he said.

PM dragging Gujarat into GST debate joke of 2011: Modi

GANDHINAGAR: Chief minister Narendra Modi said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's attempt to drag Gujarat in an effort to save himself was the biggest joke of 2011. Modi was reacting to Singh's press conference before television editors on Wednesday.

The PM had said the BJP was stalling the constitutional amendment on the goods and services tax because it wanted Congress to reverse the decision on "a Gujarat minister". Amit Shah, former Gujarat home minister, was arrested in 2010 for masterminding the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.

Modi termed PM's statement a "futile attempt to clear the blemish on the PM".

Congress declines comment on Godhra verdict, blames Narendra Modi for riots

Natarajan said the communal violence that followed the train carnage was a "blot on democracy".

"In political sense, whatever the judgement with regard to Godhra incident, the communal violence that erupted in Gujarat (post the train carnage) remained a blot on democracy...It is a blot on the record of Narendra Modi for which he will always have to answer the people of the nation," she said.

Reacting to BJP's claim that the judgement vindicated the party's stand that the train was set on fire from outside, Natarajan said, "It still does not take away the fact that Modi and his government were single handedly responsible for the riots that took place post the train carnage."

She said, "We have to remind ourselves that whatever the judgement says, this is the first court and there are other courts. I am sure that the litigants affected will have other recourse."

31 people were convicted and 63 others, including the main accused Maulvi Umarji, were acquitted by a special court in Ahmedabad in the February 27, 2002 Godhra train burning incident that left 59 people dead and triggered violence in Gujarat, which claimed over 1,200 lives, mainly Muslims.

The sentencing would be pronounced on February 25 after arguments on the quantum of punishment by the special court that accepted the theory of conspiracy behind the burning of the coach of Sabarmati Express carrying kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya.