'Gadkari misconstrued'

BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Monday issued a clarification on an interview with the BBC Hindi on Monday, where he reportedly said the Congress government at the Centre alone could not be blamed for the 1984 Delhi riots. A HT report.

BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Monday issued a clarification on an interview with the BBC Hindi on Monday, where he reportedly said the Congress government at the Centre alone could not be blamed for the 1984 Delhi riots.

HT Image

"Some people might be involved in those riots but it would not be entirely correct to say that the riots were initiated by the government," he reportedly said.

On Monday evening, the BJP clarified that Gadkari had been misrepresented and that there could be no parallel between the 1984 riots — where no one was killed in police firing — with Modi's performance as a Chief Minister in the Gujarat riots.

The context: Gadkari mentioned the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the interview when he was asked about the state government's alleged complicity in the Gujarat riots.

He then went on to explain that "nobody could manipulate or organise such incidents".