Gujarat riots: ‘Hang me if I am guilty’,says Narendra Modi

The Godhra train carnage (Sabarmati Express – 27 February,2002) in which scores of Hindu kar sevaks were burned alive was the ostensible reason that led to the riots. The Hindu sevaks were returning from Ayodhya after a yagya in the wake of the destruction of the Babri masjid.

The rampage had lasted days,leading to the kind of rape,killings and pillage not seen since the days of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Watch the video: Hang me if I am guilty,says Modi

Modi said this in an interview with Shahid Siddiqui,editor of the Urdu weekly,Nai Dunyia.

According to Modi,“Agar main gunehgaar hoon toh mujhe phaansi par latka do”.

Shahid Siddiqui is an MP of the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party from Lucknow.

Furthermore,Modi has demanded that if he was proved innocent,the media should apologise for tarnishing his image,while clearly stating that he was only concerned about Gujarat and its development,rather than becoming the next Prime Minister.

Modi,who had steadfastly declined to answer questions on his alleged role in the post-Godhra violence,has refused to apologise for the riots and instead would prefer to be hanged if found guilty.

“Whatever I had said at that time you can check that. In 2004,I had given an interview in which I had said why should I apologise. If my government had done this,I should be hanged in public in such a way that it remains a less the next 100 years so that nobody dares to do it (such a crime),” he has said in an interview published in Urdu weekly Nai Duniya.

Modi refuses to apologise for 2002 post-Godhra riots

Though much of what Modi has said had been said on earlier occasions,it is significant that he had given an interview to a Urdu weekly,edited by Shahid Siddiqui,a former MP who is now with Samajwadi Party.

He was asked a question whether he was prepared to apologise for the post-Godhra riots in which more than 1,000 people,majority of them Muslims,were killed like Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh apologised for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Siddiqui said today that it was free-wheeling chat by him with Modi. He said he told the Chief Minister’s office before the interview that he should be allowed to put all questions related to the 2002 violence and he should not quit in the middle.

He said the thought of interviewing Modi came to him when Salim Saab (Salman Khan’s father) suggested to him that there should always be a dialogue. Siddiqui said that for him politics and his profession of journalism are separate and this interview has nothing to do with his party.

Modi said in the interview that those who were talking about his apology were fanning trouble. “If Modi had committed the crime then hang him. But if I am being accused because of political compulsion,then I have no answer.”

Asked if he felt sad about what had happened and whether he felt like regretting or apologising,the Chief Minister said “what is the meaning of apology now. I took responsibility then,regretted what had happened and I apologised. You can see what I had said in 2002.”

He accused the media of having done injustice to him for last 10 years and they should apologise to him.

Modi has been attempting an image make over and had conducted a Sadbhavana fast last year in Ahmedabad and replicated it in some other cities in Gujarat.

The Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team has given a clean chit to Modi regarding his role in riots.

However,petitioner Zakia Zafri,wife of ex-Congress MP Eshan Zafri killed in Gulburg society case has decided to file a protest petition against the clean chit given to Modi by the SIT.

Congress dares Modi to let an FIR be lodged against him

New Delhi: Ridiculing Narendra Modi’s remark that he should be hanged if found guilty in Godhra riots case,Congress today dared the Gujarat Chief Minister to allow an FIR to be lodged against him if he really wanted an investigation to proceed against him.

“If FIR has not been filed against the chief minister of the state for the last 12 years,how do you hold him guilty…who is going to hang him,” senior party leader Kapil Sibal told reporters here.

Sibal felt the statement given by Modi to an Urdu daily was made keeping the forthcoming Gujarat elections in mind.

“I was surprised to see the statement because you have to follow a procedure before being proved guilty…the statement has been given keeping the Gujarat elections in mind. The reality is justice was not delivered in this (1992 riots) case,” he said.

Holding that there is no dearth of evidence in the matter,Sibal said Modi must,in the first place,make a statement that “I and no other agency will raise an objection if an FIR is lodged against me in any police station in Gujarat”.

He regretted the fact that no FIR could be lodged against him despite the best efforts of the civil society groups.

Referring to a Supreme Court ruling,he said whenever a statement is made for the commission of a cognisable offence,FIR is mandatory. “But it does not seem to be mandatory in Modi’s case because civil society has been fighting for this…for an FIR so that an investigation could start,” he said.

More pics: Gujarat Riots

Centre conspiring against Narendra Modi: BJP

New Delhi: BJP today charged the Congress-led Centre with conspiring against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi by trying to malign him during the past decade.

“There is an attempt by this government to defame the Gujarat Chief Minister and the Gujarat government. It is a well-planned conspiracy…to malign the BJP government which is doing good work (in Gujarat) and has put forth Gujarat as a model state in the country,” BJP leader Rajnath Singh said.

The former BJP President was reacting to Modi’s interview to an Urdu daily in which he said he should be hanged if hewas found guilty in post-Godhra riots.

Singh said “no one has held him (Modi) guilty. No court has held him guilty. There is no question of hanging.”

“He is being deliberately troubled by this government. There is an attempt by the central government to malign him (Modi) and Gujarat government.”

Rajnath Singh,however,said such attempts by Congress will not help and nor continue for long. “Despite their best efforts in the last ten years,they have not been successful in defaming the Chief Minister and Gujarat,” he said.

Modi’s remarks made with Gujarat polls in mind: Cong ministers

New Delhi: Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks that he be publicly hanged if found guilty of Gujarat riots today drew sharp reactions from Congress Union ministers who said they were made with assembly elections in mind and noted that “kangaroo justice” could not decide on such cases.

“We don’t believe in kangaroo justice. Whatever the law is in the country will prevail. Courts will decide. Agencies which are working for the courts will have to decide to place the material before the courts…I don’t think that we either in the streets can decide or Modi can take a decision by himself,” Law Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters here.

He said the issue of a person’s guilt will be decided by the courts through the laid down norms of jurisprudence.

“This is something that has to be decided by the courts and I am sure all of us – I don’t know about him – but we all have faith in the courts of the land and they will do what,they believe,is the right thing to do.”

Asked whether the Gujarat CM was trying to ‘improve’ his image,he said Modi should improve on his conduct,not his image.

Corporate Affairs Minister M Veerappa Moily said statements like this were “highly irresponsible and repressive”.

“It is for the judiciary to say whether to take steps to punish people. Saying that let them hang me,is highly irresponsible and repressive,” he said.