Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi today wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
today demanding that a visiting parliamentary delegation from
Germany should apologize for allegedly having tarnished the
image of a democratically-elected head of a state.
The delegation members, who had visited the state to
study the status of minorities, reportedly justified the
European Union`s decision of not granting visa to Modi.
The Chief Minister of Gujarat has a radical tone to his
politics and is described as dictatorial. He has a wrong
perception of religious freedom, members of Christian
Democratic Union (CDU) of ruling coalition of Germany had
reportedly told the media during their visit here yesterday.
Modi, in his letter to the PM, requested him to take up
the matter with the German Ambassador to India and he should
be asked to direct the public officials to apologise for
making such remarks.
"Recently, a German parliamentary delegation visited
Gujarat and issued statements to the news media that were
maleficent in nature and were tarnishing the image of Chief
Minister, the state of Gujarat and India. CM has said that the
delegation should apologise for the matter," a state
government release said.
Modi demanded that either the delegation members
should apologise or issue a clarification if they have not
made any such statement to the media.
"The CM appreciates the free press in the country but
it does not give any public official of a foreign government a
right to tarnish image of any elected head of government of
the country."
"In the Centre also, statements were made based on
German delegation`s interaction on its single day visit to
Ahmedabad city and (the delegation members) are implying that
rule of law does not prevail in India," Modi said in the
release.
PTI
