New Delhi: Hailing the Supreme Court’s verdict that gave a clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s top decision-making body – the national executive – has supported “strict legal action” against those “guilty” of conspiring against him.
This comes days after Gujarat Police arrested activist Teesta Setalvad and former IPS officer R.B. Sreekumar for alleged criminal conspiracy, among other charges. The Supreme Court had censured the two and another IPS officer, Sanjiv Bhatt, in its verdict.
A political resolution adopted at the executive meeting in Hyderabad Saturday “saluted” Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “demonstrating political tolerance, maturity, large-heartedness and faith in democracy and the Constitution for years” while he was being “maliciously targetted” as the then Gujarat chief minister.
The resolution welcomed the Supreme Court’s “historic verdict” that upheld a clean chit to Modi in the riots. It said “vendetta politics of the Congress-led opposition, some so-called NGOs and intellectuals and even a section of the foreign-run media — forming a complete ‘ecosystem’ — were the part of the conspiracy”.
“Simultaneously, this executive strongly condemns such conspiratorial vendetta politics and demands that Congress and its allies immediately apologise to the entire nation for their complicity in this heinous conspiracy,” it said.
“This decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court has also exposed a large political conspiracy against the Hon’ble Prime Minister, as the Hon’ble Supreme Court has ordered strict legal action against these conspirators. The Bharatiya Janata Party wholeheartedly welcomes this decision of the Supreme Court and supports strict legal action against the guilty,” the resolution stated without naming Setalvad or the two IPS officers.
On 24 June, a Supreme Court bench of justices A.M. Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravikumar accepted the closure report filed by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) in February 2012, on a complaint filed by Zakia Jafri, whose husband and Congress leader Ehsan Jafri was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre during the post-Godhra riots.
The SIT had given a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who during the riots was Gujarat chief minister — and over 60 senior Gujarat officials.
The SC was hearing a petition filed by Zakia Jafri and activist Teesta Setalvad against the SIT’s closure report.
In its judgement, the court came down heavily on the petitioners for keeping “the pot boiling” in the case for an “ulterior design”. It went on to say that “all those involved in such abuse of process, need to be in the dock and (should be) proceeded with in accordance with the law”.
Following this, the Gujarat government filed an FIR against Setalvad and the two former IPS officers. Setalvad and Sreekumar were arrested.
Bhatt is already serving a life sentence since 2019 for a custodial death case.
The recent government formation in Maharashtra by the BJP and rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde also found a mention in the resolution.
The resolution emphasised the “BJP never craved power”. “For the development of Maharashtra and the welfare of the people of the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party has supported Eknath Shinde as Chief Minister and Devendra Nath Fadnavis has taken oath as Deputy Chief Minister from the BJP.
“Due to the opportunistic and unprincipled alliance of the ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)’ in the state, the development of Maharashtra was stopped and the people were facing massive corruption and misgovernance,” it said.
BJP’s three-decade-old partner Shiv Sena formed the MVA with the ideologically mismatched Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party after it was denied the chief minister’s post in 2019, even for half the term.
The political resolution also praised Modi for his Covid-19 strategies, welfare policies and leadership that saw India emerging on the world forum.
“The recent visit of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to Germany, Denmark, France, Japan, and UAE; participation in the Indo-Nordic Summit, QUAD, and G-7 has not only broken new ground but also shows India’s willingness to proactively forge partnerships in new areas.
“It represents an India booming with newfound confidence under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as it has come out of cold war hangovers by engaging with every country without reservations,” the resolution said.
India’s role in the Ukraine crisis also found specific mention in the 13-page resolution. “The manner in which different countries appealed to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to take the initiative in resolving the crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine war and the way Russia-Ukraine gave a window during the war so as to facilitate the evacuation of Indians from the war zones shows the growing stature of India at the global level,” it said.
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