Centre unconcerned about common man, says Modi

Mumbai, July 17 (UNI) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today came down heavily on the Centre saying that they did not have any feelings towards the common man dying in the streets in bomb blasts and other terrorist activities.

Mr Modi who was addressing a gathering at Shanmukananda Hall in Central Mumbai today further said that when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Mumbai after the ghastly serial bomb blasts on the local trains on July 11, he had stated that the neighbouring country had a hand in these blasts. However, when he reached Delhi, he had changed his statement and said that these were small incidents which happen on and off and there was no need for panic.

The Prime Minister as soon as he arrived in Russia for the G-8 countries meeting, gave another statement about there being no need to bring back the POTA law in the country. ''All these statements point towards a nation whose leadership was weak and undecided, thus giving a fillip to those people wanting to destabilise our great nation,'' he said.

Mr Modi urged the Prime Minister that if the Centre was unable to enact such stringent acts to tackle terrorism, then they should hand over the power to the state governments so that the states could enact such laws to fight terror.

After 9/11, America, France, Japan and Bangladesh have come out with strong laws to fight terrorism in their respective countries, but in our country, UPA government is going backwards by repealing a stringent act like POTA, Mr Modi said.

Meanwhile, earlier BJP senior leader Gopinath Munde urged the Maharashtra government to appoint a special court to conduct the trial for these blasts cases. He also said that the government should ensure speedy trial too.

Recalling the 1993 bomb blasts, in which 257 people lost their lives and hundreds other injured, Mr Munde said, ''even after 13 years we are still awaiting the judgement''.

UNI ST/GS YA HT2255