Modi: Will he face questions?

Ahmedabad, July 21: Now Narendra Modi can be grilled, too.

The Gujarat government has extended the “scope” of the panel probing the Godhra train burning and its aftermath, in an attempt to scuttle the Centre’s proposed move to set up a commission to investigate the Modi regime’s handling of the riots.

In an official statement today, the government said it has “extended the jurisdiction” of the probe being conducted by Justice (Retd) G.T. Nanavati and Justice (Retd) K.G. Shah.

The move implies Modi will have to depose before the commission, which his government set up in 2002, whenever he is summoned. Apart from the chief minister, top politicians and officials have also come under the commission’s purview.

The notification extending the “scope of the terms of reference” of the commission has come in the wake of a departmental probe railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav recently ordered into the February 2002 fire in the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express.

Fifty-nine people died in the blaze that triggered the riots.

Asked why the decision has come at a time when the commission is about to wind up its probe, a senior official in the chief minister’s office said: “It is because the National Human Rights Commission and several NGOs had criticised the state government. The communal riots are a blot on the government. Obviously, the government wants to come clean.”

The Opposition Congress said the move reveals Modi’s desperation. State party chief B.K. Gadhvi said the Modi regime widened the inquiry panel’s scope so that it could absolve the government.

The Modi government, Gadhvi added, has tried to pre-empt the central government from setting up a new inquiry panel to specifically look into allegations that the riots were state-sponsored.