Sir,
In reference to your statement, “the fact is- that Modi frantically called the Army to Ahmedabad within 1 hour of the start of the riots. The Hindu- published from Chennai reported in its issue dated 1st March 2002- Friday- that Modi “Frantically called the Army to Gujarat”.
Link:http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/03/01/stories/2002030103030100.htm”
The merriam-webster dicitionary defines the word ‘Frantically’ as:
1)a archaic : mentally deranged
b : emotionally out of control
2): marked by fast and nervous, disordered, or anxiety-driven activity,
of which none mean either ‘timely’ or ‘instantaneously’, countering the point you are trying to make. Also, nowhere is it mentioned in the article published in ‘The Hindu’ that Modi called the army within one hour. To quote the article, which was published on Friday, Mar 01, 2002,
“The Army units, frantically called by the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, as the situation seemed to slip out of hand, started arriving in Ahmedabad and are likely to be deployed in the city on Friday.” which implies that the army was called on 1/3/02, whereas the riots started on 27/2/02. Two whole days late. Modi did delay calling the army.
To which we reply:
The context of the use of the word gives its intended meaning. The dictionary meaning of the word may be anything, what The Hindu intends here is obvious to one and all- and that is, as quickly as possible. Second point is- that the time of 1 hour is not mentioned in The Hindu. It is mentioned in India Today weekly dated 18 March 2002.
http://www.indiatoday.com/itoday/20020318/cover2.shtml
The second meaning of frantically quoted by you yourself says “marked by FAST and nervous, disordered, or anxiety-driven activity”. This is a clear proof that it was VERY FAST.
“The Army units, frantically called by the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, as the situation seemed to slip out of hand, started arriving in Ahmedabad and are likely to be deployed in the city on Friday.” which implies that the army was called on 1/3/02, whereas the riots started on 27/2/02. Two whole days late. Modi did delay calling the army.
This is again wrong. Riots started on 28 February at 11 AM, not 27 February. The Army was posted on the border and called after the riots began. Between 27 February and 28 February the government had deployed entire police force, reserve police, CRPF personnel, Rapid Action Force. Riots began on 28 February at 11 Am and Army was called frantically at 12 noon, within 1 hour. The statement ” “The Army units, frantically called by the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, as the situation seemed to slip out of hand, started arriving in Ahmedabad and are likely to be deployed in the city on Friday.” DOES NOT IMPLY at all that Army was called only on 1st March. The Army was called on 28 February itself and it started arriving on 28 February itself (Thursday) and arrived so quickly on 28 February that The Hindu had time to report its arrival on 28 Feb night and publish it the next day. Friday was 1st March 2002. In its issue of Friday, The Hindu already reported that Army had started arriving (On 28 Feb night). Far from proving that the Army was called only on 1st March, this only proves that the Army was called on 28 February 2002 itself, and that too frantically. You are hell bent on crucifying Narendra Modi by hook or by crook hence you forcibly tried to shift calling of Army to 1st March from 28 February, when it was called on 28 Feb itself, and forcibly put the beginning of riots to 27 February, when the riots started on 28 February.
As a final point, we would like to say that all charges against Narendra Modi and Gujarat Government started coming in the media AFTER the riots, not during the actual reporting of the riots. One reason for this was that the media wanted Narendra Modi to sack some minister, dismiss some police official etc, but because he refused to make anyone scapegoat, the media finally targeted none other than the Chief Minister himself.