Like Lord Shiva Who Held Poison in Throat, Modi Endured Pain for 19 Yrs: Amit Shah on 2002 Riots

Welcoming the Supreme Court verdict which dismissed a plea challenging the clean chit given by an SIT to then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots case, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the truth had come out “shining like gold”.

In an interview to news agency ANI, Shah said Modi had silently endured pain for 19 years like “Lord Shiva who swallowed poison and held it in his throat”.

“The Supreme Court has dismissed all allegations. You can say in a way that the allegations were politically motivated, this has also been proved. It was a battle of 19 years, such a big leader without saying a word, endured pain like Lord Shiva who drank poison and continued to fight. Now the truth has come out as glittering gold,” Shah said.

The apex court had on Friday upheld the SIT’s clean chit to the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the 2002 communal riots in the state, saying there is no tittle of material to show the violence after the Godhra train carnage was pre-planned” owing to the criminal conspiracy allegedly hatched at the “highest level” in the state.

Observing that inaction or failure of some officials of one section of the administration cannot be the basis to readily infer a pre-planned criminal conspiracy by the authorities or to term it as a state-sponsored crime against the minority community, the court dismissed a plea by slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri’s wife Zakia, terming it as “devoid of merits”.

Ehsan Jafri, a former Congress MP, was among the 68 people killed at Ahmedabad’s Gulberg Society during the violence on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra train burning that claimed 59 lives.

“I have closely seen Modiji endure this pain, facing the allegations despite being on the side of truth and because the judicial process was underway, he did not speak. Only a man with a strong heart can do this. The interview we are doing today, I could have done in 2003 as Gujarat Home Minister and later as party chief. But till the judicial process was completed, Modiji did not say anything so that there was no influence. He endured it all silently,” Shah told ANI.

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