http://www.telegraphindia.com/1031125/asp/frontpage/story_2609709.asp
Mobbed, Modi shows 'civilised' face
- One-and-a-half years after the riots, CM expresses
regret
The Telegraph
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
New Delhi, Nov. 24: Narendra Modi can't seem to shake
off the ghost of Godhra.
Possibly, in frustration over another row of raucous
protests today by social activists led by Nafisa Ali,
the man who has been called the Butcher of Gujarat
after the carnage in February-March 2002 said he
wished the bloody riots had not happened.
"What happened one-and-a-half years ago is something
that should not have happened in a civilised society,"
Modi said after demonstrators led by Ali blocked the
entry of the Gujarat chief minister to the venue of
the India Economic Summit being organised here by the
Davos-based World Economic Forum (WEF) and the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
It is the closest Modi has ever come to expressing
regret over an incident that has pitchforked him to
the top of the popularity charts within the saffron
brigade.
The slogan-shouting demonstrators disrupted
proceedings for almost 45 minutes, protesting against
the decision to invite Modi to address the annual
event that gives ministers, bureaucrats, top
industrialists and foreign delegates the opportunity
to debate the state of India's economy and its reform
process.
Shouting slogans like "Mass murderer Narendra Modi
down, down", the protesters - who slipped into the
venue and came together just before Modi arrived -
slammed the WEF and CII for inviting the chief
minister to address the meet.
"We want the BJP and those people who support people
like Praveen Togadia and Modi to know that the people
of India will not tolerate such persons and allow them
to repeat what they did in Gujarat," said Shabnam
Hashmi,
one of the activists of the NGO that goes by
the name Anhad (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy).
Modi was invited to talk about good governance which
the irate activists said was a travesty. "How can the
CII and WEF even think of inviting someone who has
been questioned about the quality of his governance by
none less than the Supreme Court of India. The
National Human Rights Commission has also questioned
the quality of governance in Gujarat," Hashmi said.
In his speech later, Modi said: "Gujarat is known for
good governance and a forward looking and responsive
administration."
"It is wrong to project the state as unsafe for
investment. We have signed MoUs worth Rs 66,000 crore
with foreign companies during the last Navratri.
Chinese and US companies have also shown interest in
starting projects in the state."
"Ahmedabad is the most peaceful city in the world and
minorities like Parsis and Muslims are prosperous,"
the Gujarat chief minister said.
Today's incident is the third time that Modi has been
heckled when invited to address a gathering of
industrialists. The first was in January this year
when a former JNU and Oxford student activist, Jairus
Banaji, wormed his way into a CII conference in Mumbai
and demanded to know why the industry forum was feting
a "murderer who had blood on his hands".
At another conference in Delhi in mid-February,
industrialists Rahul Bajaj and Jamshyd Godrej
expressed concern over law and order in Gujarat,
prompting Modi to upbraid them. Today, Ali was seen
urging Bajaj to join the protests - but the
industrialist declined.
Most participants were unmoved by the protests.
However, a few supported them. Vijay Mahajan, head of
consultancy firm Basix India, said: "I refuse to hear
Modi speak and preach (to) us on a subject like best
practices. This is complete nonsense."
In an attempt to clear the air after the
demonstration, the CII director-general said: "It
seems Davos is in Delhi. Protests in India are very
normal activity. It is a free country and sections of
society have a right to express their views."
Later, asked about the protests, Modi said: "I don't
know anything about it."
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