On the violence in the state in the past month
“You must remember that Gujarat has a history of communal violence. Sometimes even kite-flying competitions and cricket matches are enough to provoke violence. But what happened in Godhra and afterwards is numbing. The Government took decisive action and we were able to bring the situation under control in 72 hours.”

On the government’s inability to stem violence
“After the intial violence was brought under control, there were no clashes anywhere in the state from March 3 to March 15, even though communally sensitive issues like the puja in Ayodhya was topmost in the news at that time. After that there have been some incidents but they have nothing to do with the original incident. Such incidents happen regularly in all parts of the country.”

On his claims of normalcy
“Nearly 1,000 Moharram processions including over 100 big ones were taken out in Gujarat last week. Nearly 4,000 Hajis coming from Saudi Arabia have gone back to their native places in 22 districts. The attendance of students at the state secondary board examinations was about 98 per cent and gram panchayat polls were held in 1,700 villages . What more proof does one want of the fact that things are under control?”

On his controversial statements
“After the riots began, I was quoted as saying that every action has an opposite reaction. The fact is I never said anything of that kind but one newspaper had a headline that said I had. I later wrote to the editor of the newspaper asserting that I had never said it. The electronic media was there at that press conference of mine. You can check the tapes.”

On charges that He acted more like a pracharak
“People who say such things said more or less the same things during the earthquake also, that the state Government was more keen to provide succour to a particular community and not others. I don’t look at the religion of the dead. Such canards are spread by people who do vote-bank politics. Ultimately, they will be the bane of this country.”

On charges made by the human rights commission
“I don’t want to enter into debate with the nhrc, but I think they could have waited before rushing to conclusions. The state Government had given the commission time on March 27 to hear its views, but even before this happened, they went to the press.”

On whether he wants to go in for early polls
“Some people have been saying that I want to take advantage of the situation and opt for early assembly elections. Right now my priority is to bring back normalcy in the state. I have a mandate to rule until February 2003 and I intend to be chief minister until then.”