'Clean chit to Narendra Modi is a slap on Nitish Kumar's face'

Patna, Dec 27: Senior BJP leader Sushil Modi on Friday said that the clean chit given by a Gujarat court to

in the 2002 riots was a "strong slap" on the face of "pseudo secular" leaders like

and asked the Bihar Chief Minister to tender an apology for breaking the alliance.

"The verdict of a Gujarat Metropolitan court upholding the SIT report giving a clean chit to Narendra Modi is a strong slap on the face of pseudo-secular leaders like Nitish Kumar who severed ties with the BJP in his name," Sushil Modi told reporters.

Sushil Modi said the verdict was a blow to pseudo-secular leaders like Nitish

"Kumar, who broke the alliance with the BJP and disrespected people's mandate, should seek an apology from the public for this step in the name of Narendra Modi and accusing him for the 2002 riots in Gujarat," Modi, who was the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar in the NDA regime, said.

"After the court verdict, so called secular leaders like Nitish Kumar should reconsider their opinion about Narendra Modi," the BJP leader, flanked by bureaucrat-turned party leader R K Singh, said.

He, however, categorically said there was no going back with the JD(U).

"The question of going for an alliance with the JD(U) again does not arise," he said.

When asked that JD(U) leaders were saying that despite the court's verdict, perception about Narendra Modi as a 'communal' leader persisted, Sushil Modi said, "Can it be bigger than the court's order?"

Coming in defence of the BJP prime ministerial candidate, he said the SIT, which was constituted by the Supreme Court, did not consist of any Gujarat official and did not find Modi's involvement in the 2002 riots, and that the Ahmedabad court has put a seal of approval on it.

Zakia Jafri, wife of a former Congress MP, did not make any charge in front of the Nanavati Commission and came out with allegations after four years of the incident, Sushil said, accusing the Congress of "provoking" some NGOs to go after Modi after they failed to fight him politically.

Both Sushil Modi and R K Singh criticised the Union Cabinet for approving a commission of inquiry into the snoop controversy against Narendra Modi when a state probe was already on.

PTI