FACT: The claim that Narendra Modi never expressed sadness at the Gujarat riots until December 2013 is factually totally incorrect.
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.”
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 (16 Sept 2011) 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.”
This was a report of news agency PTI (Press Trust of India), and this government-owned agenct made this incorrect claim. Almost the entire media said the same thing. It was and is a ridiculous interpretation, factually absolutely incorrect! The 2011 statement was not the ‘first sign of regret’, he had directly expressed sadness and condemned riots many times before, right from 2002.
What is correct is that Narendra Modi has not apologized for the Gujarat riots, and rightly so. 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.
The riots were controlled in 3 days while weeklies like India Today and Outlook predicted weeks of violence on 28 Feb 2002, he frantically called the Army to Ahmedabad on 28 Feb 2002, ordered preventive arrests of 827 people on 27 Feb itself, and 21,000 people later, gave ‘shoot-at-sight’ orders in Godhra on 27 Feb itself (primarily aimed at Hindus who could have retaliated in Godhra), and took various other steps to prevent and control the violence, details of which we have seen earlier, and was given a ‘thorough clean chit’ by the Supreme Court-appointed and monitored SIT, under the UPA rule, and the SIT’s clean chit was upheld by all courts- trial court in Dec 2013, later by the Gujarat High Court and finally by the Supreme Court of India in June 2022.
An argument is often made: “The Congress has apologized for the 1984 riots. Will the BJP apologize for the 2002 Gujarat riots?”
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 people forgivable by merely issuing an apology? 3,000 murders cannot be pardoned and condoned by an apology. The concerned people deserve severe punishment.
The Congress leader and former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh reportedly said in 1999 before the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi (where he contested and lost from South Delhi to BJP’s Vijay Kumar Malhotra) that “1984 riots were done by RSS” and he has not yet apologized to RSS or to anyone for this ridiculous statement. It is this strange charge which was a big reason for his defeat in South Delhi. http://www.rediff.com/election/1999/sep/02man.htm
There is absolutely no need to equate the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the 2002 Gujarat riots. Firstly there is not a single parallel between them. We have seen the contrasts between these two riots. The then Congress Government took no action against the rioters, hardly any arrests were made and hardly 30 people in 12 cases have been convicted as claimed by CNN-IBN in 28 years, till August 2012, while there have been a world record 488 convictions for the 2002 violence in Gujarat- 374 Hindus and 114 Muslims (34 for Godhra and 80 for post-Godhra attacks on Hindus). The Narendra Modi-led BJP Government 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. 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. None of them accuse Narendra Modi or the police of any deliberate culpability.
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.
To read the full chapter, read the book “Gujarat Riots: The True Story”.
https://www.amazon.in/Gujarat-Riots-True-Story-Truth/dp/1482841649/
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