Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Ahmedabad (Agenzia Fides) - The Hindu extremist leader Narendra Modi, head of the government in Gujarat and a member of the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, launched a three-day fast to assert "his commitment to social and community harmony in Gujarat" . But political leaders, civil society organizations, Christian and Muslim minorities do not believe him. "It is just a show", explains the Jesuit Father, Fr. Cedric Prakash, sj to Fides, Director of the Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace 'Prashant' in Ahmedabad. "Narendra Modi is involved in the human rights violations which took place in 2002 in Gujarat. As Christians, we say to Modi: If you really want to build harmony, you must make justice to the victims. If ten years after the massacres, the victims still ask for justice; if the Christian and Muslim religious minorities remain marginalized and discriminated against in all spheres, especially concerning education and employment, what harmony are we talking about? Harmony is built up with facts, not words".
To Modi’s fast, in Gujarat, the leader of the regional opposition, Shankersinh Vaghela replied: he too has begun to fast, in a unique "duel of fasting". The challenge came immediately after the country's Supreme Court decision to exclude, for the moment, the chief executive of Gujarat from being accused of riots between Hindus and Muslims which took place in 2002. Modi started a hunger strike in a bid to shake off the accusation of "complicity in the massacres". Vaghela, of the Congress Party, started his fast with an opposite aim: to denounce Modi’s " political corruption".
Last July, the Government of Gujarat state in western India, admitted that all evidence related to the massacres of 2002 - when 2,000 Muslims were killed, attacked by thousands of radical Hindu militants - were destroyed (see Fides 1/ 7/2011). The news created bewilderment and indignation among the victims’ lawyers and civil society, also because many of the trials of alleged perpetrators are still pending. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 19/09/2011)
