Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani on Monday urged Muslims and Hindus of communally-sensitive Gujarat to bury hostilities to avert a repeat of the bloodbath that engulfed the state in 2002.
"It is time for reconciliation for everyone," Advani told supporters after he filed papers that will allow him to contest upcoming parliamentary elections from his home constituency of Gandhinagar, Gujarat's capital.
The wealthy western state, ruled by Advani's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, saw months of blood-letting that left more than 2,000 people dead, mostly Muslims.
The sectarian rioting erupted in late February 2002 after 59 people died when a Muslim mob torched a train carriage crowded with Hindu activists and devotees.
"I believe that the relationship between Hindus and Muslims has been tense for very long and the government is trying to (bring about reconciliation)," Advani said of Gujarat's provincial administration which has been accused by rights groups of turning a blind eye to the riots of 2002.
Advani, often seen as a Hindu hard-liner, said the process of reconciliation must be balanced.
"There will be no attempt at appeasement or discrimination done to any section of the society," he said
The 76-year-old Advani on Tuesday is to embark on a 3,500-kilometre (2,170-mile) drive from Porbandar, birthplace in Gujarat of India's freedom champion Mahatma Gandhi, ending his 16-day electoral journey at the holy Hindu city of Puri in India's east after traversing seven states.
He has already visited 73 of India's 545 parliamentary constituencies on the first leg of his marathon trek, which began March 10 from Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula, and ended Saturday in the Sikh city of Amritsar in the country's north.
India goes the polls in a staggered vote which begins April 20 and ends on May 10.
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