PM Modi says political foes created false narrative on 2002 Gujarat riots to defame him

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has opened up about the 2002 Gujarat riots in his podcast with Lex Fridman. Talking about the incident, he said that his political opponents in power at the centre created false narratives on the Godhra riots and wanted him to be punished, but the courts cleared his name. He pointed out that no riot has been reported in Gujarat in the last 22 years.

Modi said the perception that the 2002 riots were the biggest riots ever in Gujarat was an attempt to push misinformation.

 "If you review the data from before 2002, you will see that Gujarat faced frequent riots. Curfews were constantly being imposed somewhere. Communal violence would erupt over trivial issues such as kite flying contests or even bicycle collisions," Modi said.

The prime minister said the riots in Gujarat in 1969 continued for more than six months, and that was an era when he was nowhere on the political horizon.

He pointed out that the Godhra train burning incident took place barely three days after he was elected as a legislator of the Gujarat Assembly.

"It was a tragedy of unimaginable magnitude, people were burned alive. You can imagine, against the backdrop of incidents like the Kandahar hijacking, the attack on parliament, or even 9/11, and then to have so many people killed and burned alive, you can imagine how tense and volatile the situation was," he said.

Talking about the violence, he noted that everyone wanted peace in Gujarat and wished nothing should happen in the state.

Modi, who was the Gujarat chief minister at that time, said the big incident at Godhra was the sparking point and erupted violence. 

"At that time, our political opponents were in power, and naturally, they wanted all allegations against us to stick. They wanted to see us punished. Despite their relentless efforts, the judiciary analysed the situation meticulously twice and ultimately found us completely innocent," Modi said.

The prime minister said the most important thing was that Gujarat, which used to witness violence almost every year, has not seen riots since 2002.

"Over the past 22 years, there hasn't been a single major riot in Gujarat. Gujarat remains completely peaceful," Modi said.

The prime minister added that his approach has always been to avoid vote bank politics.

"Our mantra has been, sabka saath sabka vikas aur sabka prayas. We have moved away from the politics of appeasement practised by our predecessors to the politics of aspiration," Modi said during his over three-hour interaction.