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Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi slammed Home Minister P C Chidambaram's "saffron terror" remarks and asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek an apology for them.
Speaking at Garib Kalyan Mela held in Vadodra, Modi came down heavily on Chidambaram for using the police officers' forum for making such a statement and said "it is a great insult to the people of India who never attacked any other country and are known for its peaceful civilization". Which foreign force compelled the Home Minister to make such a statement?"
He said even the Britishers, during their rule over India, had not made such remarks. Modi said "a committee having Jawaharlal Nehru as its member had approved the inclusion of saffron colour in Indian tricolour. Then, why is the Union Home Minister raising this issue? Terrorism has no colour". Modi threatened to launch a statewide campaign against the Home Minister's remarks and asked the people to hold rallies across the state and send letters and e-mails to the 'Delhi Sultanat' (Government of India) protesting the utterances.
Addressing a function of DGPs in Delhi on Wednesday, Chidambaram had said a new phenomenon of "saffron terrorism" involved in many bomb blasts has been uncovered. His comments came against the backdrop of investigators finding links between Hindu extremist outfits and at least five bomb blasts in recent years - at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid, at Ajmer, Goa, Malegaon in Maharashtra and Modasa inGujarat.