Modi’s blog on latest court verdict on Godhra riots intensely political: Sibal

New Delhi – Commenting on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime minister Narendra Modi’s blog on the 2002 Godhra riots Communications and Information Technology (IT) Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday said Modi wrote everything with political intentions.

“Everything about this man is intensely political. Where was the expression of pain when his office collaborated with the accused to settle affidavits? Why didn’t he speak if he was so emotive about it? ” Asked Sibal.

“He is saying all this now, because the 2014 elections are just around the corner. He does not care about anything else. A normal reaction to a tragedy is always spontaneous; you don’t have to wait for years to get a reaction,” he said.

He wants to become the prime minister of this country, but we want a PM who is human and who has emotions, not someone whose moves are so calculative,” he added.

Sibal was reacting to Modi’s blog written a day after a court in Ahmedabad upheld the closure of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) report probing the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat. Modi then said it was a “triumph of truth”.

He gave a detailed account of the Godhra Riots in a blog where he stated that he had tried his best to stop the riots and felt a deep pain on failing to do so.

Writing on the blog, Modi mentioned: “I had appealed to the people of Gujarat on the day of the Godhra train burning itself; fervently urging for peace and restraint to ensure lives of innocents were not put at risk. I had repeatedly reiterated the same principles in my daily interactions with the media in those fateful days of February-March 2002 as well; publicly underlining the political will as well as moral responsibility of the government to ensure peace, deliver justice and punish all guilty of violence. You will also find these deep emotions in my recent words at my Sadbhavna fasts, where I had emphasized how such deplorable incidents did not behoove a civilized society and had pained me deeply.”

A local court on Thursday dismissed a petition by Zakia Jafri, widow of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the 2002 riots, challenging the SIT’s closure report.

That report had given a clean chit to Modi and 58 others involved in the riots.

According to reports, Modi had later said: “Yesterday’s judgement culminated a process of unprecedented scrutiny closely monitored by the highest court of the land, the honourable Supreme Court of India. Gujarat’s 12 years of trial by the fire have finally drawn to an end. I feel liberated and at peace.”