INDIA: Opposition MPs forced India's parliament to adjourn yesterday after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which heads the federal coalition, declined to dismiss western Gujarat's chief minister for presiding over the country's worst religious bloodletting in over a decade.
Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee's 24-party government barely survived a weekend revolt by its allies over its refusal to remove Gujarat chief minister Mr Narendra Modi over charges of conniving in the continuing seven-week old pogrom in which over 820 people, mostly Muslims, have died. Senior federal ministers over the weekend staunchly defended Mr Modi, who also belongs to the BJP. Sporadic outbursts of violence continue to erupt across Gujarat, where troops were deployed at the weekend to prevent mobs of Hindus attacking and killing Muslims.