& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Censure motion in Indian parliament over Gujarat riot

Junior minister offers to resign

AP, New Delhi
Parliament debated a motion yesterday to censure the government over its handling of India's worst Hindu-Muslim violence in a decade, which has killed more than 900 people.
The opposition-sponsored motion said the house expresses "grave concern over the failure of the administration in ensuring the security" of Muslims in Gujarat state.
The censure vote was expected last night.
"The government in New Delhi has been turned (into) a passive spectator, while a partisan chief minister has besmirched the fair name of Gujarat," said opposition leader Sonia Gandhi.
"The prime minister's shifting
statements have shocked us all. One day he offers sympathy, the next day he condemns the whole (Muslim) community," she said.
Gandhi called on Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to sack Gujarat's top elected official, Chief Minister Narendra Modi, for violating the secular character of the Indian constitution.
Opposition parties and human rights groups have accused Modi and his administration of not doing enough to stop Hindu rioters from killing Muslims and destroying their homes and businesses.
Thousands of people yesterday held a rally outside Parliament demanding an end to the sectarian violence. They also called for Modi's dismissal and appealed for peace in the state.In Parliament, Gandhi alleged that hundreds of Muslim women had been raped, yet police had registered only one rape case. Former defense minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, who began the debate, accused the prime minister of acting under pressure from Hindu rightwing groups.
Yadav waved photocopies of compensation checks given to Muslim riot survivors by Modi's government. Some were as low as 700 rupees, which Yadav called "a cruel joke.”
Losing the vote would not bring down the two and a half-year-old government, but the dispute over the continuing killings has already exposed fissures in the National Democratic Alliance.
Some key allies have demanded that Modi be fired, and one member of the coalition announced it would abstain from the voting.
Omar Abdullah, junior foreign minister, offered to resign yesterday after his National Conference party, which governs Muslim-majority Jammu-Kashmir state, decided to abstain, rather than vote with the government.
"It was morally untenable for me,"Abdullah said of the dilemma of remaining a minister while standing by his party's decision. Vajpayee has not made a decision on the resignation offer, Abdullah said.