On 9th April, a Gujarat court confirmed that the SIT had found no evidence against Mr Modi or 57 others in a case based on the 2002 communal riots filed against them by Zakia Jafri, the wife of former Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri, who was killed by a rioting mob on February 28, 2002. While Mr Jafri’s wife claims that Mr Jafri had called the police control room and also Narendra Modi , who denied help, on the face.
Justice H Suresh, who was a part of a people’s fact-finding committee that travelled to Gujarat in May 2002, just months after communal violence, leaving 1200 people dead. The retired Bombay High Court judge has claimed that Mr Haren Pandya, the then Gujarat Home Minister, had told his panel that Mr Modi had asked policeman to give rioters a free hand. Justice Suresh is of the idea that Mr Pandya’s statement has been completely neglected by SIT. Incidently, Haren Pandya was stripped of his minister’s post ,soon after and was denied ticket to contest upcoming elections. In March 2003, he was murdered in his car while mysteriously!
No matter, what the judgement be, even the biggest supporter of Narendra Modi cannot deny a foul play.No matter, how great leader he has been, helping his state stand top as a financial hub, eyes cannot be closed towards the riots which had shaken the nation and the world, in 2002. His reluctance to help the victims of the riots cannot be denied. In a nation like ours, should there be a space for people against communal harmony , regardless they are great visionary political leaders or religious leaders ? The nation has hundreds of points of discrimination- by way of caste, tribe, religion, state and languages but only one reason to join hands – We are humans and then Indians before anyone else !