NEW DELHI, May 30: India's former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was "anguished" over Hindu-Muslim bloodshed but indecisive due to political compulsions from his right-wing base, his government's legal adviser said.
Soli Sorabjee, who resigned last week as attorney general after Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist-led coalition lost power, said the premier was "actually very anguished" when riots broke out two years ago in the western state of Gujarat.
"He was very upset about it. But unfortunately he did not take any decisive action," Sorabjee, who was appointed by Vajpayee, told the weekly magazine Outlook. "Because, I suppose, of his own political compulsions. Gujarat was a BJP government, Narendra Modi was the chief minister, there may have been other reasons," he said.
Modi, a member of Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party, was accused by human rights groups of turning a blind eye to vigilante attacks on Muslims that left 2,000 people dead. The violence broke out after an allegedly Muslim mob torched a train carrying Hindu activists into Gujarat, killing 59.
Vajpayee had been under pressure to dismiss Modi but the state leader was supported by hardliners in the BJP. Sorabjee said that Vajpayee's "stature would have gone up if he'd taken firm action instead of only verbal condemnation of what had happened in Gujarat."
India's new left-leaning government has promised tougher action to prosecute those behind the Gujarat violence. Sorabjee described Vajpayee was a "very quiet man with basic decency, no confrontations" who "sat quietly and listened" to advice.
The former attorney general said Vajpayee was also anguished when Hindu fundamentalists close to the BJP burnt effigies of Pope John Paul II during the pontiff's visit to India in November 1999. "He slapped his forehead in disgust and said, 'They are mad. What sort of behaviour is this?'" Sorabjee said. -AFP
