Myth 18: Narendra Modi never expressed sadness for the post-Godhra riots
Posted on December 23, 2011 - Filed Under 12-Concocted Lies and Myths by the media | 12 Comments
FACT: It is not astonishing to see the media level absolutely false and wrong charges on the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi. But what is astonishing is the extent to which the media goes in putting unbelievable factual errors and sticking to them, and believing its own lies. These days, the livid media and political parties opposed to Narendra Modi have all made full use of the myths and lies concocted on him. Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi has said on ‘secularism’ many times ,”BJP demolished the Babri Masjid, never expressed regret for the Gujarat riots, idolizes M S Golwalkar”. BJP never demolished Babri Masjid, it was demolished by the overwhelming Hindu society, karsewaks in Ayodhya. BJP leaders were very very upset at the demolition because of the damage it did to the BJP’s secular record. And the much-repeated nonsensical claim that Narendra Modi never expressed regret at the Gujarat riots is absolute rubbish.
Narendra Modi has expressed regret for the riots and termed the riots as ‘unfortunate’ . In an interview to Aaj Tak‘s Prabhu Chawla on its program Seedhi Baat, the excerpts of which were published in India Today weekly dated 4 Nov 2002, Narendra Modi was asked “Prime Minister Vajpayee and Home Minister Advani have said that whatever happened in Gujarat was wrong” to which he said, “I say the same thing. The communal riots in Gujarat were unfortunate and we are sad they took place.”
See link: http://www.indiatoday.com/itoday/20021104/conf.shtml#co
After the 2002 Gujarat riots Narendra Modi made a statement in the State Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) in March 2002. One paragraph from that statement is: “Are we not supposed to soul-search ourselves? Whether it is Godhra incident or post-Godhra it does not enhance the prestige of any decent society. The riots are a stigma on humanity and do not help anyone to hold his head high. Then why is there a difference of opinion”.
When Narendra Modi went on his “Sadbhavana fast” in Gujarat in 2011, some newspapers said, “In a statement interpreted as his first sign of regret over the 2002 post-Godhra violence, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Friday said the pain of anyone in the state is “my pain” and he had a duty to do justice for everyone.”Constitution of India is supreme for us. As a Chief Minister of the state, pain of anybody in the state is my pain. (Delivering) Justice to everyone is the duty of the state,” Modi said on the eve of his three-day fast.”
It wasn’t merely this paper, almost the entire media said the same thing. What a ridiculous interpretation from the media, and how factually incorrect it reported! The entire self-styled secularists and activists have carried on this myth in their hate-campaigns against Modi. Gujarat Congress leaders too have repeated this terrible lie. The BJP’s public relations work truly doesn’t seem to be up to the mark. How it allowed such a massive to crop up without ever bothering to try to bring out the truth is beyond comprehension.
What is correct is that Narendra Modi has not apologized for the Gujarat riots, and rightly so. Why should he? Apology is given when someone does something wrong, makes a mistake and asks for forgiveness for a mistake. What wrong has Narendra Modi done? He actually has done an excellent work in controlling the 2002 riots, his administration saved more than 24,000 Muslims and many Hindus too, the riots were controlled in 3 days while weeklies like India Today and Outlook predicted weeks of violence on 28 Feb,he frantically called the Army to Ahmedabad on 28 Feb 2002, ordered preventive arrests of 827 people on 27 Feb itself, gave ‘shoot-at-sight’ orders in Godhra on 27 Feb itself (primarily aimed at Hindus who could have retaliated in Godhra). His government spent more than 204 crores rupees on relief and rehabilitation measures, built houses, opened relief camps, etc. Strong action was taken against the rioters, with as many as 35,552 arrests made as of 28 April 2002, including 27,901 Hindus. Already, in just 10 years at least 249 people have been convicted in at least 19 cases for the riots, including 184 Hindus and 65 Muslims (including 31 Muslims for Godhra and 34 for post-Godhra). The media’s argument often is “The Congress has apologized for the 1984 riots. Will the BJP apologize for the 2002 Gujarat riots?” This was asked by Arnab Goswami to BJP leader Nalin Kohli on 16 May 2009 on TV after the BJP’s massive debacle in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
There is absolutely no need to equate the two. Firstly there is not a single parallel between the post-Godhra riots of 2002 and the 1984 riots. We have seen the contrasts between these two riots. Secondly, Congress apologizing for the riots is not an action of credit. Apologizing means accepting culpability in the 1984 riots in which 3,000 Sikhs were killed. Is the sin of killing 3,000 forgivable by merely issuing an apology? Accepting culpability for the death of 3,000 people means the party deserves severe punishment. 3,000 murders cannot be pardoned and condoned by an apology. The then Congress Government took no action against the rioters, hardly any arrests were made and hardly 16 people have been convicted in 7 cases or 30 people in 12 cases as claimed by CNN-IBN in 28 years. For what should the BJP or Narendra Modi apologize? They have done absolutely nothing wrong, controlled violence in Gujarat in record time even after a shocking massacre like Godhra, while it took previous Congress Governments several months to stop riots in 1985 and 1969 even without any cause like Godhra.
It should be remembered that not a single English newspaper actually accused the Chief Minister Narendra Modi of any wrongdoing on the actual days of the riots, i.e. 28 Feb 2002 (Thursday), 1st March 2002 (Friday) and 2nd March 2002. As a matter of fact, not a single newspaper, except for The Indian Express, accused the police of any inaction on the day of the worst violence i.e. 28 February in its report the next day. All English newspapers, like The Hindu, The Tribune etc reported that the violence was out of control, the police were overwhelmingly outnumbered, the fire brigade ran out of water, and still the police did its best, arrested 700 people on 28 Feb, shot dead at least 10 people in police firing, the Chief Minister Narendra Modi frantically called the Army units to Ahmedabad, etc.
See the report of The Hindu, and The Telegraph dated 1st March 2002 covering events of 28 Feb. Do any of them accuse Narendra Modi or the police of any deliberate culpability? After this day, 28 Feb, no one, not even The Indian Express accused the administration or police of any inaction. In fact, The Indian Express reported on 2nd March 2002 that on 1st March 2002 (Friday, the second day of the riots), “The police, its credibility at its lowest, tried to salvage its reputation intervening in some clashes by opening fire. 20 were killed in police firing across the state, 12 in Ahmedabad.” All accusations on Narendra Modi and demands for his resignation, dismissal started AFTER the riots. This was because, the media wanted some scapegoat to be made for the riots. It wanted Modi to sack a few police officers, drop a minister or two. But Modi did nothing of the sort. He did not blame anyone, did not make anyone a scapegoat. In an interview to NDTV broadcast on 20 March 2004, Narendra Modi said to Shekhar Gupta (Editor of The Indian Express), “You all wanted that someone be made scapegoat. I did not do that. I allowed you to break all pots on my head alone. You have all decided, all these riots happened under this man (Narendra Modi). Until this man is removed from the Chief Minister’s post, we will not rest in peace. My best wishes to you in your mission.” Narendra Modi did not resign, and the BJP did not dismiss him, so the media was livid.
April 18th, 2013 at 5:05 PM
It’s near impossible to learn all the facts when riots are in full swing. Obviously it’s only after the riots that you can find out more about what happened within the government’s camp.
I have read numerous articles about Modi’s innocence and numerous articles about his guilt.
We cannot know the truth when there are so many conflicting stories presented to the public. Your details about the so called truth have solid grounds, yes. But they are all based on the first reports to have come out during the violence.
There have been many who have gotten away with this horrible incident because of political maneuvering and please note i am not talking about modi in particular. This is the main reason why this massive cloud of doubt rests over modi in my mind. There have been too many lies and injustices done in the subsequent trials of this catastrophe.
The tehelka expose’ might not be fully true and it’s completely possible that the interviewers were boasting about modi’s role but it is an undeniable truth that most lies always have a hint of truth in their execution. Plus the twisting of words by the media has not helped the common man’s perception of the truth.
What can be taken away from the multitude of articles is that the police did not stop the rioters initially and this casts a massive cloud of guilt over the Gujarat government. It was only after the situation got incredibly out of hand we saw action being taken.
Official have been quoted a number of times but in our country how often have the official records been tainted with lies?
My final decision would be i give Modi the benefit of doubt but the people who surround him keep questioning by decision to give him the benefit of doubt.
March 18th, 2013 at 4:32 AM
he is admin guy who can run the government with integrity and vision…………………we all r with him””””’nd we assure every community that he will not b partial……..for instant he himself belongs to bacword caste but he never played backward card.