By Prerna Lau Sian @PrernaSian
Former Kent University Student
Narendra Damodardas Modi has been democratically elected as the Chief Minister of Gujarat for four consecutive terms with an absolute majority. Due to his great economic policies, Gujarat has flourished under his leadership where from 2001-2010, Gujarat had recorded an annual growth rate of 10.97%, the highest amongst all Indian states. In addition, rates of females in education have also improved and from 2001 to 2011, maternal mortality declined by 32%. The Labour Bureau of India says Gujarat has the lowest unemployment rate in India at 1%. In three opinion polls conducted by news agencies and magazines, Modi was the preferred choice amongst Indians for Prime Minister and spiritual leaders including Swami Ramdev have shown Modi their support.
Unfortunately, there has been a hate campaign against Modi due to the uninformed media over the Godhara riots. On the morning of 27 February 2002, the report of the Justice Tewatia Committee found that a Muslim mob of 2000 attacked a train full of Hindu pilgrims, mostly women and children, returning from the holy city of Ayodhya. The mob used petrol bombs, acid bombs and swords and to ensure no one escaped, they surrounded the train from both sides and poured petrol to set the train on fire. As a result, 58 people including 25 women and 15 children were murdered. The Trial Court on 22 February 2011 established that the burning of the train was done with pre-planning by radical Islamist mobs and convicted 31 Muslims for the carnage. Although these arrests were made, the majority escaped with a list of Congress leaders featuring on the list of the accused (Memud Hussain Kalota, Convener of the District Congress Minority Cell and President of the Godhra Municipality, Salim Abdul Ghaffar Sheikh, President of the Panchmahal Youth Congress and Farouk Bhana, Secretary of the District Congress Committee).
Narendra Modi had been accused of initiating violence against Muslims during the riots together with police and government officials. In 2012 a Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court of India cleared Modi of complicity in the violence. The report of the Special Investigation Team led by former CBI Chief RK Raghavan also noticed that the Gujarat Police tried everything to prevent the riots. Fearing communal clashes after the Godhra train carnage, measures were taken to stop violence and the Gujarat administration imposed curfews in several areas. The Special Investigation Team also rejected Indian media allegations and insinuations that Muslims were killed in police firing. The Times of India were also noted to have further carried many false slanderous stories whereby they later tendered an unconditional apology to Modi and to the Gujarat Government.
Narendra Modi was banned from entering the United States in 2005 and he was boycotted by Britain in 2002. This boycott is now being lifted as British MP Barry Gardiner has written to Modi, inviting him to visit the House of Commons and speak on ‘The Future of Modern India’. Gardiner stated that he invited Modi because he is the Chief Minister of a state that has more FDI with Britain than the rest of India put together. In addition Gardiner said Modi’s “integrity, ability to administer and govern and strategic political thinking is of the highest order”. He called him “a secular leader whom has the overwhelming support of all communities in Gujarat… proven time and time again in state elections”. However despite these great things and the fact that Modi is tipped as the next Indian Prime Minister, the English media have already started another witch-hunt against him. Savitri Hensman writing for the Guardian calls Modi an “unashamed Hindu nationalist, extremist and far right”. Where shame comes into being a Hindu nationalist is mind-boggling. Furthermore, when the former Prime Minister of India and BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power, there were no extremist or far right policies being implemented. Amol Rajan writing for the London Evening Standard also calls Modi “Islamophobic”. It is difficult to comprehend that Muslims would vote for Modi if he was indeed “Islamophobic” as Modi did not win four majority elections with Hindu votes alone. Some members of the Sikh community have also taken it upon themselves to discredit Modi, describing him as “genocidal”. A riot where both sides suffered losses and acts of criminality is hugely different from genocide. Again, the fact that Modi was cleared of any involvement in the riots also has failed to feature in these campaigns and petitions.
India had jurisdiction to try its own cases and as a sovereign democratic nation, the rulings of its courts are valid and should be upheld by foreign jurisdictions. India wouldn’t refuse British democratically elected leaders entry if they had been cleared and convicted by an English court of law, so who are we to condemn Modi when he has been tried and cleared. There are other leaders who have blood on their hands and who have actually perpetrated acts of genocide against minorities that are still allowed into the UK. Hindus have been ethnically cleansed in Pakistan and Bangladesh, yet their leaders are still allowed to enter Britain and we openly give these nations huge amounts of aid and arms. To date, in Bangladesh, 1500 Hindu houses and more than 100 temples and places of worship have either been burnt or damaged. In 1947 the population of Hindus living in Bangladesh was 33% and now it has been reduced to a mere 8%. When Pakistan came into existence in 1947, 24% of the population were Hindu and now the Hindu population is just below 2% due to ethnic cleansing and/or forced conversion to Islam. Furthermore, Kashmiri Muslims drove out over 300,000 Kashmiri Pundits from their homes in January 1990, raping and murdering more than 1,100 pundit women. Yet the Essex born Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, who has failed to protect Hindus in Kashmir has never been held to account like Modi has. The hypocrisy of the USA and the UK who want to ban Modi from entering the UK only serves to undermine the Indian judicial process and weaken India’s judicial institutions.
Overall it is evident that Modi is targeted because he unlike many others is actually proud to be a Hindu. The media created a frenzy when Modi stated that “I am a nationalist; I am patriotic; nothing is wrong; I am a Hindu; nothing is wrong; so I am a Hindu nationalist”. Being proud to be a Hindu and sticking up for the rights of Hindus has become something that Indians are ashamed of and forever trying to hide. For once, there is a strong patriotic leader who is actually helping India to prosper instead of pocketing the wealth for himself. People don’t want India to succeed and the fact that Narendra Modi is helping Gujarat prosper and could help India as a nation to grow, is making those trying to exploit it very uneasy. With Modi recently being made BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, this prospect seems ever closer.