Kocheril Raman Narayanan 1921 – 2005
10th President of the Indian Republic
May his soul rest in peace
Quote of the day
"There was governmental and administrative support for the communal riots in Gujarat. I gave several letters to Prime Minister Vajpayee in this regard on this issue. I met him personally and talked to him directly. But Vajpayee did not do anything effective.
I requested him to send the army to Gujarat and suppress the riots. The Centre had the Constitutional responsibility and powers to send the military if the state governments asked. The military was sent, but they were not given powers to shoot. If the military was given powers to shoot at the perpetrators of violence, recurrence of tragedies in Gujarat could have been avoided.
However, both the state and central government did not do so. Had the military been given powers to shoot, the carnage in Gujarat could have been avoided to a great extent. I feel there was a conspiracy involving the state and central governments behind the Gujarat riots" ~ K R Narayanan
3 comments:
I'm sure this quote is going to come up many a time in the future too. I admire Narayanan for coming up this candid on this issue. Good that you thought of highlighting it.
You are right Anand. It made it to rhe Hindu editorial today.
did u read an article by a p.sainath in the hindu abt narayanan...there are some anecdotes about k.r.n and also a speech he gave some years back for I-Day.i think u will like it.
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