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Clean chit on expected lines: Gowda

The former Prime Minister said here: “I am not surprised but certainly disappointed by the contents of the report submitted by the Nanavati-Mehta judicial commission, appointed by the Gujarat government to probe the Godhra tragedy and the communal holocaust that followed it across the State. While the ‘clean chit’ given by the Commission to Mr. Modi, members of his then Council of Ministers and police officers is on the expected lines given the Chief Minister’s track record in managing and manipulating facts, the assertion of a ‘pre-planned conspiracy’ by Muslims to set ablaze the Sabarmati Express is certain to further polarise the nation, already reeling under the impact of terrorist attacks and assault on the Christian community.”

Mr. Gowda demanded the institution of two separate inquiries by sitting judges of the Supreme Court — one to probe all aspects of Gujarat violence, including the Godhra train fire, and the other into the systematic violence against Christians across the country.

The government should also seriously consider establishing a national truth and reconciliation commission to probe all incidents of communal violence in the past and thereby restore the faith of all sections, particularly the minorities, “in our secular democratic system and thus bring back into the mainstream all alienated Indians.”

PTI reports from

New Delhi:

The Congress said on Friday that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi cannot get rid of charges of genocide.

“He is guilty of genocide. In any other country, international court would have hanged him,” Congress media department chief M. Veerappa Moily told reporters here. “It has not happened. He is fortunate. There is too much democracy in our country.”