Gujarat riots back in focus after apex court order against Modi

The ghost of the 2002 Gujarat riots came to haunt the BJP midway through Elections 2009 with the Supreme Court Monday ordering a probe in to the role of state Chief Minster Narendra Modi along with 50 other politicians and government officials.

The news gave fresh ammunition to the Congress which was quick to demand Modi’s resignation, especially in the poll season which has witnessed continued slugfest between the two parties.

“It is a slap on the face of a constitutional functionary, we are not at all surprised. Modi will not be apologetic, he will not resign and nor will he start feeling that anything went wrong in his state,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.

Privately leaders were taken aback by the apex court’s strong order, but they tried to put up a brave face. “This has become a tradition that a Gujarat related issue is raised before the elections,” Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Arun Jaitley said, a day after he plumped for Modi as the future prime minister.

A grim-faced Modi, however, refused to reply to persistent questions by a TV reporter on whether he had anything to say or would apologise. He tersely said that he has spoken on the issue before.

A bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Asok Kumar Ganguly directed the Special Investigation Team headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director R.K. Raghavan to particularly look into allegations that Modi was involved in the killing of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri in Ahmedabad’s Gulbarga Society arson case.

The SIT was asked to file its report within three months. The decision came on a plea filed by the wife of Ehsan Jafri, who was killed and social activist Teesta Setalvad.

Continuing his tirade against Modi, Congress’ Singhvi asserted: “He should have resigned, not now but seven years ago. But he will not resign. Modi’s greed for power exceeds far more than any morals.”

“It is true that Modi is getting exposed by his conduct”, he said and added that “ultimately this is the true face which needs to be exposed before the public, the true intent of the party which calls itself a responsible opposition.”

The Supreme Court had constituted a five-member SIT to re-investigate as many as nine riots cases of Gujarat, including the killings in Ahmedabad’s Gulbarga Society, in the wake of allegations that the Gujarat Government was functioning in a partisan manner.

Almost 64 people were killed there while more than 1,180 persons died in the Gujarat riots.

Amit Shah is innocent, says Narendra Modi

Gujarat Minister of State for Home Amit Shah is “completely innocent” and all allegations against him have been “fabricated”, Chief Minister Narendra Modi said here Saturday while accepting his resignation.

“Amit Shah is completely innocent. The allegations have been fabricated,” Modi said after arriving in the capital in the morning.

“Amit Shah has sent his resignation to my bungalow. I will complete the formalities after returning from here. I accept his resignation.”

Shah has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his alleged role in the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, accused of being a Lashkar-e-Taiba activist by the police, in a staged shootout in 2005.

“The Congress government in the centre is misusing the CBI to obstruct the development of Gujarat. It is a conspiracy to obstruct the development journey of Gujarat,” Modi said.

BJP snatches Congress bastion in Gujarat

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi got a perfect birthday gift Friday when his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Kathlal assembly seat, a Congress bastion, by over 21,000 votes.

This is the first time the BJP has won the seat, located in Kaira district. Kanubhai Dabhi of BJP bagged 62,120 votes against 40,573 votes of Ghelabhai Jhala (Congress).

Overjoyed BJP leaders termed it the best gift for Modi on his 60th birthday.

“This win is significant as it marks the defeat of the Congress-CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) conspiracy,” he said, in a reference to former home minister Amit Shah, arrested for his alleged involvement in the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.

“Election results would have been declared earlier but the Congress conspired with the Election Commission to get re-polling done in seven booths. But the people saw through the ploy and the BJP steamrolled the opposition in these booths,” he added.

District Congress president Ramsinh Parmar, however, attributed the ruling BJP’s victory to large-scale misuse of official machinery.

The polling in Kathlal was held Sep 13 with over 62 percent of people voting. The by-election followed the death of Congress legislator Gautam Zala, who represented the seat.

GUJARAT CASE

GUJARAT CASE



In the last two years many bomb blasts have occured in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Jaipur. None of the cases were solved. The only case that was solved is that of Gujarat. Why? Because Modi and his establishment took it up as a major endeavor and a challenge. They made sure no riots occured, and even if they would have, the order to the 11 or so investigation teams was to ignore it and keep working. He gave to the investigating teams complete authority and full support - they had money, resources, people and also a chartered plane to pursue whatever they wanted.
For almost 3 weeks the team members did not sleep. They worked round the clock to get to the bottom of the case.
-More than 11 teams were formed within the first few hours of the blasts. One team was asked to handle the investigations into the material used in the bombs. Another team was asked to investigate the use of bicycles. Another team was formed to thoroughly check all the phone calls made in Ahmedabad from certain areas just before and after the blasts. Another team was set up to reach out to all the police informers and gather their opinions on and information of the blasts. One team followed the cyber crime aspect of the case. The overall investigation of the case was assigned to the crime branch of Ahmedabad where more than 100 people started following whatever little leads that were available, from the midnight of July 26.
What has happened and what was uncovered is nothing short of amazing given those three weeks.
Yes, the administration failed the residents in not preventing the attacks, but thankfully this administration did not wallow and start finger-pointing in its aftermath. It went into action from get go. Also, and importantly, it prevented any reactions and went about their work professionally

It is no wonder that Modi has been recognized as No. 1 Chief Minister by the people, thrice in last five years in India Today- ORG MARG Survey, a unique recognition ever achieved by any C.M in the country.

The recent drama that evolved was when Anil Ambani, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Ratan Tata and other industrialists lauded Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the investors" summit in Gujarat, claiming his leadership as "national level material" and wishing that "person like him should be the next leader of the country".

The ever increasing list of his public supporters and admirers now include in addition to above 3 mentioned- Mukesh Ambani, Kumarmangalam Birla, Politicians from completely different ideology CPM Muslim MP from Kerala Mr. Abdullakutti and Trinamool Congress leader Ms. Mamta Banerjee

And the latest addition from Bollywood- PREITY ZINTA! who has said- "Till last year, I didn’t support Modi but today I support him with all my heart. He should be India’s Prime Minister. Look at how he has administered Gujarat. Every politician has something bad to his name but Modi is one politician who also has something good to his name. If we have five states like Gujarat, India will shine.”

ACHIEVEMENTS -

ACHIEVEMENTS -



Honestly speaking, the achievements are so many that if I list down all of them, you will get bored even just going through them. But still here are a few achievements:

- In the past few years, Gujarat has made excellent progress and received various awards for infrastructure building, water distribution, economic freedom, environmental protection, e-Governance, energy conservation, health accessibility, heritage protection, sanitation, software development. The agencies conferring these awards include International Bodies like The United Nations, World Bank, UNESCO, various ministries/agencies of Government of India etc.

-Gujarat ranks number 1 in The Economic Freedom Index as per the research conducted by none other than The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
-Gujarat has only 5% of India's population and 6% of Geographical area but its contribution to India in terms of "Value of Output"is 16.10%
-Gujarat is one of the most Industrialized states of India with 16.2 % share in India's Industrial production and percentage of man-days lost due to labor strife is 0.52% lowest in country
-Gujarat surpassed the target of 10.2 % set by Planning Commission for 10th Five year plan compared to the average of 8.2% for entire country, achieving growth rate of 15% in 1st year itself.
-Gujarat accounts for 54% of India's onshore crude oil production, 50% of India's natural gas production, 46% of India's installed refining capacity, 60% of India's total crude oil import facility
-Gujarat today has one of the best infrastructures in the country comprising of 11 airports, 1 international airport, extensive rail network and a robust road network of over 74,000 km. A total of 17, 763 out of 18,028 villages (98.53 %) are connected with pucca (concrete) roads, the best in the country.
-Gujarat coastline of over 1600 kms , longest in the country, is dotted with 41 ports, which handle over 25% of India's total cargo.
-On Education front, there have been 11 new Universities, 400 new colleges, 1.25 lakhs new teachers, 38,000 new school rooms and the Government has set a deadline of 2010 to ensure a 100% enrolment and 0% drop out rate at primary level.
-Gujarat is now an emerging Global Medical Tourism destination. WHO has appreciated Gujarat's school health program and the Chiranjeevi program bagged International recognition and was appreciated in UNICEF's report.
-Modi's mission of "Water for All" has been a revolution. There has been interlinking of 21 rivers of the state, state wide Water Grid.
- The Jyoti-Gram Yojana to provide 3-phase, 24-hour, uninterrupted power supply to all villages has enabled Gujarat to become the first state in India to achieve 100% electrification of villages.-When other chief ministers accumulate crores of personal wealth as birthday gifts, Modi deposits each and every gift/souvenir received by him in the Government treasury for the cause of "Girl Child Education" and has deposited Rs 287.37 lacs in a period of 5 years. Touched by this, people have directly started donating and have given more than Rs. 11 crores for this.-Gujarat has brought Broadband Connectivity to all village bodies so that "every household can avail the advantages of information technology".