Prime Minister Narendra Modi silently "endured false allegations" that linked him to the 2002 Gujarat riots for 19 years, Home Minister Amit Shah told news agency ANI a day after the Supreme Court exonerated PM Modi and upheld the SIT’s findings in the riots.

“Only a strong-willed person could’ve taken stand to not say anything as case was sub judice. He always believed in the law and upheld the Constitution,” Shah said in the interview and added that Modi suffered through the “19-year-long battle against the case”.

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the Special Investigation Team's (SIT) clean chit to 64 people, including PM Modi, in the 2002 Gujarat riots case. The court dismissed a plea by late Congress MP Ehsan Jafri's wife Zakia Jafri stating that the plea was “devoid of merit and tried to create sensation by making false revelations”.

Jafri was among 68 people killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre on the first day of the three-day riots in 2002.

Shah accused “a trio of opposition parties, ideologically motivated journalists and some NGOs” of spreading allegations against PM Modi, who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He added that the trio had a strong ecosystem that spread lies and eventually everyone started believing the lies to be true.

Shah said that the incident of Godhra train that was set on fire in which 60 people were killed triggered the riots. He said, “I saw a 16-day-old child, sitting in her mother's lap being set on fire. I did the cremation with my own hands.”

Shah said people were angered and there was an outrage. "However, there were other riots which were politically motivated," he added.

"People (officers-administration) had tried their best and did a good job, but there was widespread anger due to the incident (Godhra train burning), and no official forecast indicated that there will a reaction of such a great magnitude,” he told ANI.

Shah also clarified that there was no delay on the part of the Gujarat government in calling in the army to deal with riots.

On the Supreme Court’s latest ruling, Shah said that the top court has made clear that these appeals were made to keep the pot boiling and dent the image of the BJP, but now all allegations have been removed.

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He also took a jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who is being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald case.

Shah said, "Modiji didn't do drama while appearing before the SIT. No party members from the country came out in his support to demonstrate. He didn’t call MLAs-MPs to stage dharna. We had nothing to hide so if the SIT wanted to question CM, he was ready to cooperate. Why protest?”

Speaking on why the appeal was made, he said this was only done to “target Modiji”. “It was done to tarnish his image and show that he was involved in the riots. However, the truth remains, and this long battle has been fought by Modiji with extreme patience after enduring all allegations and today, he has won, and no allegations hold true against him or the BJP party,” he said.

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)

First Published:Jun 25, 2022 2:50 PM IST