Gujarat riots: Narendra Modi's anguish an act, victims say

AHMEDABAD: Narendra Modi may have felt "liberated and at peace" by a court's endorsement of the 2002 clean chit, but the pogrom's actual victims say his words offer them neither solace not liberation from trauma. After the verdict was delivered, Modi posted a blog in which he said he was "shaken to the core" by the events of 2002. The victims don't believe that. Their skepticism about his anguish is shared by activists and the principal opposition party in Gujarat. "Modi never protected people during the riots," said Imtiyaz Khan Pathan, a survivor of the Gulbarg Society massacre. "His police continued to target Muslims in 2002 for months. He now claims that he was pained, but his actions till date tell a different story." Pathan said Modi never visited the victims and his administration was hostile to survivors and unwilling to give compensation for deaths and the loss of property. "His expression of grief is not going to appeal to us," Pathan said. "Those who killed our dear ones must be punished; that's what matters." Pathan's sentiments find resonance in Sharif Malek, a survivor of the Naroda Gam massacre. "No Muslim in Gujarat is going to believe that Modi felt pain because of the killings of 2002," Malek said. "His political ambitions make him utter false words like these. Had he been sensitive, his government would have rehabilitated the affected people." Malek dismisses Modi's assertion that he focused on rehabilitation, peace and justice as humbug. "The rehabilitation colonies at present are in very bad shape. On what basis can Modi say that he suffered during the riots?" Malek said. Teesta Setalvad, an activist, said that the blog of the chief minister was about himself, not about the survivors of Godhra or the post-Godhra reprisal killings. "From 2002 and thereafter Modi has symbolized discriminatory governance," she said. "We had to go to court to get the state government to supply minimal food, water, milk and rations to relief camps. Until then they were run by community initiatives." Arjun Modhwadia, the Gujarat Congress president, said: "It's like shaitan quoting the Bible. Why does he suddenly remember the regret after 12 years? During the riots he spread venom through his speeches. He also undertook the Gaurav Yatra where the worst riots had broken out in the state." Activist and lawyer Mukul Sinha called Narendra Modi an imposter. Sinha said: "The man who presided over the most brutal killings of over 1,000 innocent men, women and children and had actually held a Gaurav Yatra in September 2002, within seven months of the massacre to celebrate it, now wants us to believe that he was shaken to the core!"   TOI