The Supreme Court’s judgement dismissing a petition by Zakia Jafri in connection with the 2002 Gujarat Muslim genocide was deeply disappointing, the Congress said on Tuesday.
Zakia Jafri, the wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, had challenged the report of a Special Investigation Team that had cleared Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the genocide case. Ehsan Jafri was among the 69 people who were killed when a mob went on a rampage in Ahmedabad’s Gulberg Society on February 28, 2002, setting fire to homes.
More than 2000 Muslims were killed in the genocide. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat when the genocide took place in 2002.
Jairam Ramesh, the Congress’ general secretary in-charge for communications, said that his party stands by Ehsan Jafri and his family.
The judgement leaves several fundamental questions unanswered, such as what is the constitutional and moral responsibility of the chief minister and the state government in a case of communal riots, Ramesh said.
“Will the chief minister, Cabinet and state government never be held accountable, even if a State is thrown into a circle of violence and riots?” the former Union minister asked.
Ramesh further said that former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was “so affected by his [Modi’s] lack of action” that he had to publicly remind him to perform his rajdharma, or his sacred duty as a leader.
The Congress leader also referred to the Supreme Court’s remarks about the riots from April 2004, when it said that “modern-day Neros were looking elsewhere” while innocent children and helpless women were burning.
“Why did sections of the BJP, including now member of the Modi Cabinet Smriti Irani protest and call for his dismissal as CM if he was not guilty of any wrongdoing?” Ramesh asked.
