Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi (Pic: http://www.narendramodi.in)
For the first time in the history of independent India, a serving chief minister was summoned to answer grave questions over his government’s alleged complicity in mass murders. The chief minister is Narendra Modi, the state is Gujarat and the massacre dates to 2002 when more than a 1000 people, predominantly Muslims, were killed in response to the murders of 50 Hindu train passengers. Both acts betrayed premeditation.
Modi is easily India’s most polarizing politician who is largely loved at home and reviled outside his state. The Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted under direction from the country’s apex Supreme Court, is going about establishing who did what and when as well who knew what and when. Modi having been at the helm of affairs in 2002, as he is now, was directly responsible for ensuring the safety and security of citizenry. Whether or not he was personally complicit is a matter yet to be legally established. What needs no confirmation, however, is that law and order was forsaken for weeks for a mob rule. Those are the bare facts.
Now a couple of observations. Eight years after the horrific violence, Modi was finally asked to explain what happened in the days and hours leading up to the 2002 killings and what it is that he did and did not do as the state’s leader to stand in the way of blood thirsty mobs. His questioning lasted nearly ten hours in two parts on March 27. After the first session, Modi came out to quickly brief the media.
Looking at his body language one could be forgiven for thinking that it was Modi who had just exhaustively interrogated the SIT and not the other way around.
Modi, who is his own best spinmeister even managed to slip in a bit of humor. “Beech mein aap ko thoda masala dene aa gaya (I came out to give you some juice),” Modi said to an ever eager media waiting outside the SIT office in Ahmedabad. Those who study body language would tell you a lot about Modi’s that day. What I can tell you watching him online on news channels is that the man’s self belief boggles the mind. And this is not a compliment.