Ahmedabad: Narendra Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, has for the first time described in detail his reactions to the 2002 riots in Gujarat that left more than 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslims.
He says his government reacted "more swiftly and decisively to the violence than n ever done before in any previous riots in the country," countering allegations that he did not do enough to check the violence. (
Read full text of the blog here)
The 64-year-old chief minister's comments are made in a blog a day after a Gujarat court ruled that there is no evidence that he conspired with other government officials to fan the violence, a charge that has been levelled at him repeatedly by critics.
"As if all the suffering was not enough, I was also accused of the death and misery of my own loved ones, my Gujarati brothers and sisters. Can you imagine the inner turmoil and shock of being blamed for the very events that have shattered you!" he says.
Mr Modi, currently serving his fourth term as Gujarat Chief Minister, has blogged the communal violence left him "shaken to the core"
He also writes about referring during the violence to ancient scriptures which say that those in positions of power must suffer in solitude. "I lived through the same, experiencing this anguish in searingly sharp intensity," he writes.
The riots began in February 2002 after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was torched in Godhra, prompting a wave of reprisal attacks against Muslims
A special team appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate the role of Mr Modi and 62 other people in the violence said in in 2012 it could find no evidence to prosecute the chief minister. (
No ethnic cleansing or genocide: court judgement)
Zakia Jafri, the widow of former Congress parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri who was killed by rioters along with dozens of neighbours, had filed a protest petition against the team's report in April.
A court yesterday rejected her appeal. (
Modi showed alacrity in calling the army, says court)