SIT findings ensure Narendra Modi can't shake off riot taint

NEW DELHI: In a serious blow to Narendra Modi's reputation as an able administrator, the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has indicted him on over a dozen counts for his alleged complicity in the Gujarat riots of 2002।

The confidential report of the SIT, which has been reproduced extensively by Tehelka magazine, has upheld much of the complaint lodged against Modi and his administration by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri who had been killed during the riots.

The SIT submitted its 600-page report to the Supreme Court in May 2010 after it had, among other things, questioned Modi for 10 hours. Its damaging observations against Modi are despite the SIT's admission that several witnesses had declined to testify for what was merely a preliminary enquiry and not a criminal investigation under the law.

Key findings of the inquiry done by former CBI officer A K Malhotra under the supervision of SIT chairman K Raghavan are as follows:

* "The chief minister had tried to water down the seriousness of the situation at Gulbarg Society, Naroda Patia and other places by saying that every action has an equal and opposite reaction," Malhotra reported. "His implied justification of the killings of innocent members of the minority community, read together with an absence of a strong condemnation of the violence that followed Godhra, suggest a partisan stance at a critical juncture when the state had been badly disturbed by communal violence." Raghavan added that Modi's statements were "sweeping and offensive coming as it did from a chief minister, that too at a critical time when Hindu-Muslim tempers were running high."

* The report said that Modi's 'controversial' move to place two senior ministers — Ashok Bhatt and I K Jadeja — in the Ahmedabad city police control room and the Gujarat state police control room during the riots with "no definite charter" fuelled the speculation that they "had been placed to interfere in police work and give wrongful decisions to the field officers."

* The report affirmed that police officers who took a neutral stand during the riots and prevented massacres had been transferred by the Gujarat government to insignificant postings in a highly 'questionable' manner.

Modi blows own trumpet, heaps sarcasm on state

Attempting to project Gujarat as larger than country, he said even India had reached 50 years of its independence but the event went unnoticed while celebrations of Gujarat's 50th year seem to be surpassing all records. Speaking in Gujarati, Modi used the typical Amdvadadi jargon to take swipes at the Centre and other Congress-ruled states.

He said "mey badha booch band karee karee deedha che, chowkidar banee ne baitho choo ke koi Panjo nahin mari sake," (I have corked all the holes, so that no 'hand' can dare to grab the treasure), a clear reference to keeping Congress at bay from his state. He did not spare even Mahatma Gandhi. "Giving is in Gujarati culture, we have learnt from Gandhiji to give away everything, (indirect reference to conceding to the demand of Pakistan)," he said.

He quickly added that even Sardar Patel, the Gujarati ideal appropriated by BJP, had the same quality of being generous. The comment came as he said that Gujarat had now become a power surplus state and was supplying electricity to Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Taking at a dig at Maharashtra from which Gujarat was carved out, he asserted his state had left the big brother far behind. "Does anyone have a health card in your state? In my state every farmer has a health card for his soil. We have cataract and dental treatment camps for cattle, you must be having it for humans in your state," he said condescendingly.

Gujarat HC decision on Feb 23 on riot panel summons to Narendra Modi

GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat High Court is expected to decide Feb 23 whether or not Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and others should be summoned before the Nanavati-Mehta judicial commission probing the 2002 riots cases.

The development comes after rights group Jan Sangharsh Manch's lawyer Mukul Sinha sought the final hearing on the issue. The bench of Chief Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya and Justice Akil Kureshi has kept the matter for final disposal on that date.

JSM filed a petition in high court seeking directions to the commission to summon the chief minister, three of his staff members in the chief minister's office, former minister Gordhan Jhadafia and others for cross examination.

The demand comes after disclosure of CDs prepared by Indian Police Service officer Rahul Sharma containing call details of Modi and the others with some accused in the riots case.

The Nanavati commission had earlier refused to call the chief minister but later clarified that the decision of not summoning him and others was not final and it may call them, if required.

Congress MPs boycott meeting called by Modi

GANDHINAGAR: Congress me-mbers of Parliament on Saturday boycotted a meeting called by chief minister Narendra Modi to discuss "pending issues" with the Government of India.

Bharatsinh Solanki, MP from Anand and minister of state for railways in the Union government, told TOI that it has been Modi's style to call a meeting "without consulting us only to rake up non-existent issues against the Centre". He added, "The UPA government has given more help to Gujarat than demanded. One can check the records."

Of the 26 Congress MPs in Lok Sabha, 11 are from Gujarat. It has three Rajya Sabha MPs out of 11. Addressing the all-BJP gathering, Modi urged MPs to take up Gujarat's pending projects with the Centre, handing over a list of 67 "most urgent projects in a book to the MPs pending with different Union ministries at the Centre for the last several years", an official note issued at the end of the meeting said. The meeting is a routine exercise, called before each budget session of Parliament. Modi asked the MPs to "highlight the Centre's partisan policies and political vendetta towards Gujarat".

While most BJP MPs from Gujarat attended the meeting, senior leaders LK Advani, MP from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, and Arun Jaitley, who represents Gujarat in the Rajya Sabha, did not turn up. All Gujarat ministers and senior secretaries attended the meeting. "The state has spent Rs 20,000 crore on the Centre's education for all scheme under the mandatory Right to Education Act, including capital expenditure of Rs 7,000 crore and revenue expenditure of Rs 1,300 crore on building 80,000 new classrooms, appointment of 90,000 teachers, but received only Rs 700 crore assistance from the Centre," Modi said.

Modi said the Centre has refused to provide "domestic coal linkage" to Gujarat's coal-based power plants from Orissa coalfields. He demanded "fuel subsidy" of Rs 440 crore, incurred by the state on account of costlier imported coal. Other issues he asked the MPs to take up included refusal to block gas in Panna-Mukta-Tapti basin to GSPC. Modi called for "early decision" on new highways and railway up-gradation projects along the DMIC, adding, "Being a border state, the Centre should seriously take up the case of vessel traffic movement in the Gulf of Kutch."