Modi needn’t apologise for 2002: Jaitley
1 April 2014 12:08 AM GMT
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, while interacting with foreign journalists in the national capital on Monday, ruled out an apology from his party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for the 2002 post-Godhra Gujarat riots. He said, ‘Modi does not have to do it to satisfy a fake campaign against him. If he has actually committed any mistake then he should have been prosecuted and punished for it instead of apologising.’
Hinting towards the politics of witch hunt pursued by the Congress party, he said, ‘Those asking for an apology wanted the apology to be an act of confession. If he has actually committed a mistake why apologise, he should have been prosecuted and should be punished for it. We can argue over the kind of expressions one wants to use to satisfy a fake campaign.’ He said that Modi is certainly ‘concerned’ about the violence and is trying to put a system in place so that riots are not repeated. In December last year, Modi had blogged about 2002, saying: ‘I was shaken to the core’. Jaitley claimed that all Gujaratis, including Muslims, have prospered under Modi’s rule.
Hinting towards the politics of witch hunt pursued by the Congress party, he said, ‘Those asking for an apology wanted the apology to be an act of confession. If he has actually committed a mistake why apologise, he should have been prosecuted and should be punished for it. We can argue over the kind of expressions one wants to use to satisfy a fake campaign.’ He said that Modi is certainly ‘concerned’ about the violence and is trying to put a system in place so that riots are not repeated. In December last year, Modi had blogged about 2002, saying: ‘I was shaken to the core’. Jaitley claimed that all Gujaratis, including Muslims, have prospered under Modi’s rule.
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