NEW DELHI, 27 October 2007 — Condemning the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s “deafening” silence on the Tehelka exposé into the 2002 Gujarat communal killings and Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s active role in it, the Congress party yesterday demanded that he step down.
“If the constitution of India is to be upheld, if we still call ourselves as a civilized society, if the right to life has any meaning at all, if human rights are to be upheld, Narendra Modi should immediately step down from public office,” Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan told reporters.
An undercover operation conducted by Tehelka weekly has caught Hindu activists who were accused in the sectarian riots as alleging that Modi “sanctioned” the 2002 riots in which over 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.
The ruling party has also slammed allegations by BJP leaders that the exposé was the “work of pre-election dirty tricks department of the Congress party.” Natarajan said the BJP’s response was “callous and irresponsible.”
“The BJP needs to come clean on this issue and explain its position to the nation.”
The BJP asserted that the expose would in no way affect its prospects in the assembly elections, says Gujarat BJP chief Purushottam Rupala.
Elections in the state will be held on Dec. 11 and Dec. 16.
“No effect. We are confident that we will win,” Rupala said Friday, a day after the Tehelka magazine-Headlines Today exposé that has several Hindu leaders not only talking of Modi’s involvement in the riots but also giving a graphic account of the violence and how they killed and looted.
The BJP questioned the timing of the sting operation and said it would in no way affect their prospects in the December elections. Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in the national capital that the BJP had asked the Election Commission to check the attempts at aggravating communal polarization in the state.
In another statement, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said the new revelation was “proof that Modi and democracy are antithetical to each other.”
“He (Modi) considers himself above party and above the state. In Modi’s Gujarat, Modi is not accountable to anybody,” Sibal said, adding that the previous BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government had protected the Gujarat chief minister after the riots.
Pointing out that several cases were pending in the Supreme Court against the accused in the violence, Sibal, himself a senior lawyer, pleaded to the top court that the decisions on the pending cases be taken soon. “We hope and pray that the Supreme Court will decide on the long pending requests before it, expeditiously, to meet the ends of justice and to uphold the majesty and supremacy of law,” Sibal said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati yesterday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to order a fresh Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the riots in Gujarat following the Tehelka exposé.
In a letter to the prime minister, Mayawati stressed the need to bring the guilty to book.
“The manner in which the direct involvement of the Gujarat government and some close allies of the ruling BJP has been brought to light in the sting operation ... clearly shows how the massacre of members of a particular minority was undertaken with evident state patronage,” the chief minister noted.
Mayawati reminded the prime minister of the killing of the Congress’ former member of Parliament, who was burned alive during the Gujarat riots.
“The Gujarat massacre has already put the entire nation to shame; and since the sting operation has thrown light on certain vital facts, it would be pertinent to get the entire issue probed afresh by the CBI,” she said.
While urging the center to publicly condemn the facts brought forth in the sting operation, Mayawati said: “Deterrent action is required in the matter, not only to bring the guilty to book, but to also ensure due justice to the riot victims as also to restore the shaken confidence of the minority community in the Indian secular democratic system.”
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) yesterday demanded that the central government and law enforcement agencies move “expeditiously” to see that the guilty in the 2002 Gujarat communal violence were punished. Pointing out that the graphic details of the massacre of the minority in Gujarat by the perpetrators in the Tehelka-Headlines Today exposé was shocking, the CPM politburo said the footages — shown in the sting operation — have confirmed that the violence was state sponsored.
“Chief Minister (Narendra) Modi and his government were fully responsible for this gross violation of human rights and subversion of the constitution,” it said.
The CPM said there had been “great delay” in disposing the cases pertaining to the Gujarat killings that were pending before the Supreme Court.
“The Tehelka tapes should be taken as prime facie evidence and the Supreme Court and the central government should move expeditiously to see that all those guilty are brought to justice.
“The central government and the law enforcement agencies have a special responsibility in this regard,” the CPM politburo demanded.
