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.
