Manmohan Singh lying on Narmada issue, says Gujarat CM

Gandhinagar, Nov 8 : Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Wednesday accused former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of lying to the people of Gujarat on the issue of Narmada.

"It is with deep sadness I am saying this that such a senior person is lying to people of Gujarat on the Narmada project. In his address in Ahmedabad, he said that Narendra Modi never met him on the issue when he was the Chief Minister. It is untrue. Modiji had written to him on the issue and met up with Manmohanji in Ahmedabad too on the issue," he told the media here.

Rupani also distributed copies of correspondence between the then Chief Minister Modi and Manmohan Singh, adding Modi wrote to the Prime Minister on January 17, May 17 and June 21, 2011 as well as on August 3, 2013 and September 7, 2013 as well as raising the issue during Manmohan Singh's visit to Ahmedabad on March 26, 2011 and again had discussed it in a meeting on February 2, 2013, on important issues related to the state, including raising the height of the dam.

Claiming that the previous Congress governments at the centre always were anti-Gujarat and never approved the project in the name of environment, he said he himself as Rajya Sabha member (2006-12), met Manmohan Singh twice in a delegation of Parliamentarians from the state led by veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani.

Asking how Manmohan Singh could maintain that the meetings had not happened, Rupani said: "The people of Gujarat would never tolerate such lies and would take revenge for anti-Gujarat sentiments of Congress." He also demanded clarification from Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi as well as Manmohan Singh on the issue.