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Indian Parliament Adjourns In Chaos, Major Ally Toughens Stand
NEW DELHI, April 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Opposition parties intensified demands Monday to sack the Chief Minister of Gujarat state, which led the Indian parliament to adjourn in bitter acrimony.
The troubles of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee mounted further when the largest partner of his coalition government vowed to press for ousting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for inept handling of anti-riot measures, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
India’s Supreme Court added to Vajpayee's woes, telling his government and his ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party Monday to reply to a public demand for a special probe into the riots.
Parliament adjourned in uproar, with opposition MPs demanding Modi's sacking and a debate on a legislative motion to censure Vajpayee's government for the sectarian violence.
Monday's disruption signaled a stormy parliamentary session ahead for Vajpayee's BJP-led coalition government. The Indian Parliament resumed its sessions after a three-week recess.
Once question time began, opposition members leaped to their feet, asking that the government respond to a total of 56 proposals to convene the censure debate.
When the government rejected the proposals, the opposition MPs stormed the well of the lower house, forcing the speaker to adjourn proceedings.
Similar scenes also resulted in suspending the upper house. The Gujarat debate, and especially the issue of Modi staying in power, poses a threat to Vajpayee's wobbly coalition's majority in parliament's elected 545-seat lower house, reported AFP.
The government's biggest ally, the regional Telugu Desam Party (TDP), stopped short of withdrawing support from the coalition. But on Monday it said it would not budge from its stand demanding the sacking of Modi.
TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu said Modi's dismissal would restore the confidence of Gujarat Muslims in their BJP-run provincial administration.
"The secular fabric of the nation is being affected by the events in Gujarat and it is incorrect to say the events in Gujarat are only confined to the state," Naidu said.
"It has now become a national issue as it is affecting the country's prestige and image, and we therefore stand by our demand for the removal of Modi."
Naidu said the TDP, which has 28 MPs in parliament's lower house, was still mulling its support for Vajpayee's government.
"But as far as our demand for Modi's removal goes, there is no change.....We would continue to fight until the change of Gujarat leadership is effected," he warned.
Modi, accused of turning a blind eye to the bloodbath and massacres against Muslims, offered his resignation to the BJP leadership at the weekend. It was rejected, and the BJP directed him to seek a fresh mandate in early elections, if necessary.
That decision infuriated the combined opposition and caused a potentially-damaging rift between the Hindu nationalist BJP and its coalition allies.
India's main opposition Congress party said the BJP's plans to hold polls in Gujarat was a sinister plot to exploit the current animosity of the state's Hindu community against local Muslims.
"This is (BJP's) machiavellian attempt to exploit the communally-charged atmosphere in Gujarat which is reminiscent of steps taken by Adolf Hitler after the stage-managed fire in the Reichstag (German parliament)," party spokeman Jaipal Reddy said.
“What kind of government is this? They want to hold elections in Gujarat?" Reddy added.
"Today Gujarat is burning, tomorrow the country will burn," shouted the Congress' Satyavrad Chaturvedi in parliament, reported BBC’s online news service.
Newspaper editorials also attacked the move describing it as a "cynical ploy".
"This takes the politics of opportunism to new levels of insensitivity," The Indian Express said.
The BJP's Gujarat chapter Monday said Modi would decide Wednesday whether to dissolve the state assembly and call for elections.
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