Former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has claimed then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was set to dismiss Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gujarat Chief Minister at the time, after the 2002 post-Godhra riots, but withheld the decision as Home Minister LK Advani had threatened to resign from the Cabinet on the issue.
Speaking at a meet-the-press programme in Bhopal, the former Union finance minister also dismissed as a non-issue the controversy over the alleged misuse of INS Viraat by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
"After the communal riots in Gujarat, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had decided that then state chief minister Narendra Modi should resign. While going to the national executive committee meeting in Goa in 2002, Atal ji had made up his mind that the Gujarat government would be dismissed if Modi ji refused to resign," he claimed.
"There was a meeting within the party. According to my information, Advani ji had opposed this (dismissing the Modi government) and he told Atal ji that if Modi ji is dismissed then he (Advani) would resign from the government. So, he (Vajpayee) withheld the decision and Modi ji continued," Mr Sinha said.
In reply to a query on PM Modi's allegation that late PM Rajiv Gandhi used INS Viraat as a "personal taxi", Mr Sinha said these are non-issues and that former naval officers had already issued clarifications on it.