India election 2014: The woman calling for Narendra Modi to take responsibility for mass murder

http://tinyurl.com/qh4hjqf

Politician's wife calls for Narenda Modi, the front-runner to be the next prime minister, to be convicted for abetting mass murder whilst serving as chief minister during 2002 Gujarat riots


Zakia Jafri, wife of the late veteran Muslim politician Ehsan Jafri Photo: Simon de Trey-White
Dean Nelson

By Dean Nelson, Ahmedabad

2:00PM BST 13 Apr 2014

Minutes before he was hacked to death by a Hindu mob, veteran Muslim politician Ehsan Jafri reached for his phone and dialled one last number.

For the dozens of neighbours also cowering in his home, it seemed like their only chance.

At the other end of line, Mr Jafri told them, was Narendra Modi, the powerful Hindu politician who is widely expected to become India’s new prime minister next month.

Back in 2002, though, he was the chief minister of Mr Jafri’s home state of Gujarat, and arguably the only man who could save them from the crowds outside.

By the time Mr Jafri finished the phone conversation, however, he knew they were doomed.

Far from offering help, Mr Modi had taunted him and even expressed surprise that he was still alive, Mr Jafri told those around him in his final moments. “No help will come,” Mr Jafri added.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Jafri’s wife, Zakia, watched in horror from a balcony as rioters marched her husband naked from their home and chopped off his fingers, hands, arms and head.

12 years after the riots which left more than 700 Muslims dead, Mr Modi is cruising to become the leader of the world’s largest democracy, which will declare results from its mammoth nine-phase general election on May 18.

Pedestrians walk past a billboard for the Bharatiya Janta Party, picturing its candidate Narenda Modi as the third phase of voting for national elections commences (Prashanth Vishwanathan/ Bloomberg)

Mrs Jafri, however, wants him prosecuted for abetting mass murder, over what was one of India’s worst-ever outbreaks of communal violence.

Now 75 and crippled with diabetes, she seems a feeble opponent to Mr Modi, 63, who is already being courted by other world leaders. He might, however, be unwise to underestimate her. On Friday she won another round in her fight to reopen a judicial inquiry that exonerated him of any responsibility for the riots.

Last week, she and her former neighbours held a campaign meeting in the charred ruins of their abandoned homes in the Gulbarg Housing Society in the Gujarati city of Ahmedabad.

It was here, on February 28, 2002, that the mob attacked, following rumours that Muslims had been responsible for the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire at Godra the previous day.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mrs Jafri told how she saw the mob trying to force her husband to sing Hindu prayers. When he resisted “they beat him with swords,” she said. “They chopped his hands and arms bit by bit.”

Her claim that Mr Modi should be held to account for the massacres is based on conversations with Indian police officers, who told her they had been ordered to stay at home during the rioting.

Admittedly, some fellow Muslims question the point of pursuing the case now. They point out that Mr Modi had only been in his post as minister of Gujarat for a few days when the riots broke out, and had yet to master the levers of government.

A Hindu mob waving swords at an opposing Muslim mob during communal riots in Ahmedabad, former capital of the Indian state of Gujarat (Sebastian D'Souza/ Getty)

Mr Modi, who still holds the post now, denies speaking on the telephone to Mr Jafri that day. While he offered his resignation as minister in the wake of the riots, he has never publicly apologised for failing to save Muslims or visited the survivors, for fear opponents would make political capital of it.

The Gulbarg survivors, however, say his decision to visit the scene of the Godra train fire incident and to remember only Hindu victims still rankled with them.

“I lost everything, my son, my house,” said Rupaben Mody, another witness to the massacre. “I don’t want him to be prime minister and all I can do is appeal to the people of India to support a mother’s struggle.”

To date 117 rioters have been jailed for life for the killings, including Maya Kodnani, Mr Modi’s former minister for women and child development. She was convicted of orchestrating the massacre of more than 90 Muslims.

But for Mrs Jafri, the ultimate responsibility still lies with Mr Modi. “Why does an old lady still want to fight against this powerful man?” she said. “Because I’m on the path of truth. I will fight for justice, and I will win.”