New Delhi, May 3: The Congress has reacted cautiously to the Vadodara communal violence and refused to be drawn into a debate on whether the Narendra Modi government should be sacked.

Aware of the BJP’s demand for the dismissal of the Jammu and Kashmir government after the recent Doda massacre, party spokesperson Rajiv Shukla went only as far as to say the Gujarat government should “immediately control the violence and prevent its spread”.

“The Modi government is showing no interest in controlling the riots even as the Centre is providing every kind of help. The administration went ahead and demolished a 200-year-old dargah when it could have found a way out and not allowed things to come to this pass,” Shukla said.

That the Congress would underplay the episode was evident in the decision to send a lightweight, Manish Tiwari from Delhi, to do a spot check. Tiwari is an AICC secretary who assists the general secretary in charge of Gujarat, B.K. Hari Prasad.

Prasad was busy with the elections in Pondicherry.

Shukla said Congress president Sonia Gandhi was “in touch” with central ministers and her party functionaries in Gandhinagar from Rae Bareli.

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CPI leader A.B. Bardhan, who called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today, said the Centre should not remain a “mere onlooker” and take steps to bring the violence in Gujarat under control.

But Singh said that though the government would monitor the situation, he could send the army to Gujarat only on a state government request.