Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as also the Gujarat carnage were
blots on the secular image of the country.
"I feel both are blots on the secular image of the country. Such things should not happen," he said at a press
conference in
Mumbai.
He said as an opposition party, Congress had forced the NDA government to take strong action against the Gujarat government in the aftermath of the riots.
Singh also rubbished BJP chief Rajnath Singh's claim that he was consulted before the release of Kandahar terrorists saying the remark was 'total untruth'.
"The statement of Rajnath Singh which says that I as leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha was consulted before the decision on releasing the Kandahar terrorists, is total untruth," he said.
Citing a television interview given by L K Advani in which he had said that he was not aware of the decision to release the terrorists, Singh said "do you believe that BJP had greater faith in me than its home minister (Advani)?"
Singh said the Congress, which was in the opposition then, criticised the conduct of the government in handling the
Kandahar episode.