When Congress leaders started missing Narendra Modi during his absence

New Delhi, Sept 24: The National Integration Council (NIC) met on Monday, Sept 24 to take a look on the aftereffects of the Muzaffarnagar riot in Uttar Pradesh which left more than 40 killed and many injured. All Chief Ministers (CMs) of Indian states were invited to attend the meeting in the national capital. However,

along with few other CMs skipped the gathering.

It seems that despite their rivalry, Congress leaders "missed" the Gujarat Chief Minister during his absence at the NIC meet. Speaking about Modi, union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde was quoted as saying, "I feel as a chief minister it was his (Modi's) first duty to attend this meeting."

"The NIC meet happened after two years and was very significant in the present context. I do not know why he did not come," added Shinde.

It was Modi's first duty to attend NIC meet: Shinde

While 16 CMs, mostly Congress-ruled states, turned up to the venue, other 13 sent their representatives. The CMs, who chose to skip the meet, were -- West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, her Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa, Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, Punjab CM Prakash Singh Badal, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and Rajasthan's Ashok Gehlot.

However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, LK Advani were present in the meet. The PM expressed concern on the recent increase in incidents of communal violence, particularly those that happened in Akhilesh-Yadav-led government.

Speaking at the meeting, the PM was quoted as saying, "The state government should lose no time to control communal violence. It should use all means at its disposal to punish those guilty of fanning communal violence and must ensure a speedy crackdown on such elements irrespective of their political affiliations or influence."

OneIndia News