Modi's letter on Sir Creek unsubstantiated, mischievous: PMO

Responding to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s allegations on the the Sir Creek issue with Pakistan, the PMO today said that Modi’s claims are “unsubstantiated” and “mischievous”. “The contents of the letter and the timing of its release to the public, even before it was formally received in this office, raise questions about the motives behind its issue. The writing and release of this baseless letter by the Chief Minister of Gujarat in his “personal” capacity, a day before elections in the state, is mischievous,” the PMO response said.[caption id=“attachment_555108” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Image courtesy PIB[/caption] “The allegation in the letter that Sir Creek is about to be given to Pakistan is untrue. Therefore, the other conclusions drawn by Modi from this alleged fact are also not real,” the response said, adding that the Gujarat chief minister wrote the letter “without making any efforts to ascertain the facts from the government of India”. “These discussions have been carried out by successive governments of India since the dialogue process began in 1998, and continued after Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore,” the response said. Modi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying that the government should not even consider handing over Sir creek to Pakistan, as this would severely impact the security of Gujarat. The Centre is supposed to take a decision in this regard on 15 December. Modi signed the letter as a ‘citizen of Gujarat’ rather than as chief minister, because the model code of conduct is in force in the state, which will begin going to polls on Wednesday. In the letter Modi said that the people of the state need to have a say in the matter because although the decision was one that fell within the realms of international diplomacy, Gujarat would be directly affected in the event that Sir Creek was handed over. He also said that the Centre needed to postpone the date of the decision altogether.