He said that it was a positive development that officials and people in Gujarat were now showing courage to speak up truth on the carnage.
“I am glad that people are standing up to say what they feel and such allegations have been in the air for quite some time”, said home minister while addressing a press conference here.
Chidambaram said that Bhatt had made the statement before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) much earlier, but it was not taken seriously at that time.
“Today, I read that another IAS officer has made such a statement. But anyone who has closely followed what was happening in Gujarat knows that a number of people were willing to speak the truth but were afraid to speak”, Chidambaram said.
The minister however said that the veracity of the statement would know only after an impartial and investigations.
Bhatt, who was part of the state intelligence set up then, blamed Modi for the communal carnage, saying the chief minister wanted Muslims to be taught “a lesson” for the Feb 27, 2002 Godhra train burning .
Addressing several election rallies the home minister also said that West Bengal was among the “worst governed states” in the country and that its administration was sub-standard.
Chidambaram also said the state’s financial health is in a mess and that its law and order situation was deteriorating, two days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh observed that West Bengal has slipped into the morass in ‘all fields,’– agriculture, industry, investment, health and education.
Meanwhile CPI(M) has dismissed Chidambaram’s charges as “rubbish”. “There is a concerted effort to malign the Left Front as they (Congress) have made an alliance with the main opposition. The Trinamool Congress-Congress combine is speaking all types of rubbish,” CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose said.