AIADMK's decision to attend Narendra Modi's fast 'wrong': CPI(M)

The CPI (M) today criticised the AIADMK's decision to send representatives to Ahmedabad where Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi began a three-day fast for peace, unity and harmony.

"We disagree with the AIADMK's decision to send emissaries there. We think it is a wrong decision," CPI (M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters when asked about its Tamil Nadu election ally Jayalalithaa's decision to send party leaders M Thambidurai and V Maitreyan to Modi's fast venue yesterday.

Criticising the Gujarat Chief Minister's fast for communal harmony, Yechury said, "In the recent political history of our country, we have not seen an enactment of such an irony" as Modi, he alleged, was the "person who presided over the worst communal genocide in the country that happened in Gujarat in 2002.

"There can not be anything that is more ironical."

The CPI (M) leader said the BJP leader's fast is "an effort to distract public attention and to misinterpret the Supreme Court directive in the Gulbarga Society case."

"The Supreme Court direction actually goes a step forward of what has been asked by the victims. The victims have been asking for filing of an FIR against Modi. The Supreme Court has ordered the trial court to proceed on a trial on the basis of a report filed by the amicus curie. So it has gone much beyond the stage of an FIR. And the trial has to proceed now," Yechury said.

He also alleged that Modi is sitting on fast to emerge as Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP which is facing severe inner struggle on the issue.