Ahmedabad, Oct. 14: The Manmohan Singh government has turned down a probe commission’s request for letters written during the Gujarat riots by the then President, K.R. Narayanan, to his Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Narayanan had written to Vajpayee between February 28 and March 31, 2002, expressing anguish at the way the violence was being handled. Earlier this year, Narayanan, whose term expired in July 2002, told a news magazine that the Vajpayee government had ignored his request for immediate army deployment with powers to shoot.

Jugal Kishore, an under-secretary in the ministry of personnel and public grievance, today handed over a letter from the Centre to the Nanavati-Shah Commission, which is investigating the Gujarat violence. The letter said the documents could not be produced as they are “strictly confidential and disclosing them will harm the public interest’’.

Rashtrapati Bhavan had earlier refused to send the letters on the ground of privilege after the commission, prodded by riot victims’ advocate Mukul Sinha, had asked for them.

The commission had rejected the plea of privilege, arguing the information would not endanger the country’s security. The President’s office had then referred the matter to the ministry of personnel.

The letter from the ministry, handed today, said the Centre had read each of the documents and “is of the view that they are unpublished official records, relating to affairs of the state, and contain communication made in strict official confidence”. Therefore, in keeping with legal opinion and under the Indian Evidence Act, disclosing them will “injure public interest”.

The letter sought to clarify that the Centre was not claiming privilege on the ground of expediency. But advocate Sinha, representing the Jansangharsh Manch before the commission, believes the Centre is doing precisely that.

Sinha said he is very disturbed as he expected the United Progressive Alliance government to pin down Vajpayee, but fails to understand “why it wants to protect him. That is the real question now”.

The President’s office, he said, took two weeks to take advice on whether or not to provide the documents to the commission. “But it is now clear that the Centre is taking a political decision to protect its political rival, Vajpayee,” he alleged.

Sinha will again argue the matter on October 22, asking the commission to direct the Centre to produce the letters.

“We are going to do everything under the law to force the government to provide the letters,’’ Sinha said.