Modi rescuing 15,000 Gujaratis is myth: Chidambaram

New Delhi: "Myth-making"--this is how Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday dismissed reports that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had ensured rescue of 15,000 Gujarati pilgrims from flood-hit Uttarakhand recently.

"I am sure, if allowed, his managers, handlers would have claimed that he rescued 1.50 lakh", he told a news agency. The Finance Minister said he had done a bit of maths and had come to the conclusion that if 80 Innova cars and four aircraft were pressed into service they could carried only a maximum of 2,300 people, even if cramped. "Secondly, rescue is one thing, transportation is another thing. I think they mixed up transporting people from Dehradun to rescuing them from where the disaster struck," he said. "This is another type of myth-making. These are indicators that when you get into myth-making, you tend to get carried away," he said. Reports of 15,000 Gujaratis have been rescued appeared after Modi had visited Uttarakhand but BJP has clarified that he had never made such a claim. PTI