 He did not stand the election for a second Presidential term due to the lack of support from the ruling government.After the demission of Presidential office, he lent his support to alternative globalisation movements like the World Social Forum.After he had left the Presidency, and after the Vajpayee government had been voted out of power in the general elections of May 2004, in an interview on the third anniversary of the riots (in February 2005), he said;
There was governmental and administrative support for the communal riots in Gujarat.