Atal Bihari Vajpayee was discomfited by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s decision to make an official visit to Gujarat in the aftermath of the February 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom.
He asked the President: “Do you consider going to Gujarat at this time essential?”
Disclosing this in his book, Mr. Kalam says he faced many questions on his proposed visit, and there were suggestions at “the ministry and bureaucratic level” that “I should not venture into Gujarat at that point of time.”
After describing his visit, the former President writes: “The increasing intolerance for the views of others and increasing contempt for the way of life or religion of others, or the expression of these differences through lawless violence against people cannot be justified in any context”.
