MUMBAI, 28 October 2007 — The Maharashtra State Congress Committee on Friday demanded a narcoanalysis test on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the genocide in Gujarat in 2002. The state Congress spokesman and General Secretary Hussain Dalwai also demanded the immediate arrest of Modi. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also sought the arrest and action against Modi and those guilty for the heinous crime against humanity.

Speaking to the media, Dalwai said that the President of India should remove Modi from the post of the chief minister of Gujarat, arrested and tried. Apart from Modi several leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and militant Hindu organizations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal (BD) were openly involved in the genocide in which hundreds of innocent Muslims were massacred, he said.

"It has now become transparently clear that five years ago the Modi government had indulged in genocide. Modi is not a development personality as he claimed, but a destructive personality. If the BJP has dignity and respect, then it should immediately sack Modi," Dalwai stated.

"I was restless and disturbed after I saw the special report "Operation Stigma" telecasted by Aaj Tak news channel and I could not sleep the whole night. The then federal Home Minister and BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani was aware of the genocide that took place in Gujarat in 2002 and he would definitely remember the incidents that took place," Dalwai said.

The sting operation conducted by Tehelka newspaper, caught the accused responsible for the post-Godhra riots speaking with great pride as to how they massacred the Muslims, ripped the stomach of a six-month pregnant Muslim woman, and how they cut to pieces the body of former Congress Member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri and later burned his body in the Gulmarg Society in Ahmedabad.

Dalwai, not satisfied with the judicial verdicts in the riot cases, pointed out that some accused were initially sentenced to death, the punishment was later reduced to life imprisonment and then all the accused were honorably acquitted.

The NCP too trained their guns on Modi, concurring with the demands made by its ally the Congress party. "It's a shame and disgrace that for the first time in the history of independent India, the Gujarat government had not only encouraged, but promoted and shamelessly defended the 'butchers of Gujarat". The state government also ensured the barbaric killings of Muslims," said NCP General Secretary D.P. Tripathi.

Tripathi also blasted the Congress-led DF government in Maharashtra, in which NCP is an alliance partner, for the delay in taking action on the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission report in the 1992-93 communal riots in Mumbai. "The NCP wants the law of the land amended so that the findings of the Srikrishna panel report accepted by the state government are acted upon in a time-bound manner," he said.

The NCP leader blamed the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) for the delay stating that the CBI has its own style of investigations which differed from that of the state government agencies.

"Implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report is part of the NCP's election manifesto and the NCP is committed to take action, though there are some technical and legal problems that are to be solved," Tripathi said.