Clean Chit to Modi: Congress Campaign Fails

A prolonged campaign-more than a decade- by the Congress Party, the Central Government and some social activists against Narendra Modi to implicate him in the 2002 riots of Gujrat has failed.  The court of Ahmedabad has rejected the petition filed by Zakia challenging the closure report of the Special Investigating Team appointed by the Supreme Court of India. The closure report of the SIT maintained that there is no evidence to suggest any involvement of the Gujrat chief minister Narendra Modi in the riots nor there is evidence to suggest that he was involved in any conspiracy.

It is strange that the Congress and others who are crying hoarse to establish the involvement of Narendra Modi without any basis whatsoever. How a chief minister of a state can ask his police to go slow in controlling riots? The backlash of burning of the train coach in Godhara was so strong that the riots could not be controlled immediately. It is possible that the state police and its men and officers who were in the field combating rioters might have not acted with a firm hand. But how a chief minister can be blamed for  such act.

Politically, the Congress is desperate to frame Narendra Modi  in some case or the other before the next general elections to the Lok Sabha. The motive of the Congress led UPA Government at the Centre      is clear. The Congress Party and its leaders are nervous on the eve of the polls because of the tremendous response the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate is getting across the country. It is because of this nervousness that the Congress led government at the Centre is going to appoint a commission to inquire into the surveillance of a woman by the state government that was done at the written request of the woman’s father. As Arun Jaitley has rightly said this move of the government is against federal structure of our Constitution. Not only that any such move would amount to infringing upon the state government rights.

The SIT closure report on Gujrat riots clearly says that there is no ground to initiate any prosecution of the chief minister. How then the Congress and some social activists and NGOs who spent crore of rupees in maligning the image of Modi are still trying to find some reason to repeat the charge against the Gujrat chief minister.

Had Narendra Modi’s intention were dubious, Gujrat might have witnessed violence on communal lines in the ensuing years since 2002. But no communal riots took place in the past 11 years or so after the 2002 violence. Instead of  giving credit to he chief minister for maintaining peace and communal harmony in Gujrat f during all these years, the Congress continues to harp on 2002 riots painting Narendra Modi as anti- Muslim. This is going to backfire since people have understood the game of the Congress . Even a large section of the Muslim community and clerics have openly said that they are not against  Narendra Modi. The Muslims are gradually realizing that the Congress has used the community only for election purposes and all that goes in the name of the Congress Party and its governments concern for the community are bogus.

It is better that the Congress stops witch hunting and try to adopt a positive attitude towards politics. If it does not change its dirty game tricks, the Party is likely to face rout in the next elections.

~R. K. Sinha