By Zeeshan Ahmed, IndiaTomorrow.net,
Ahmedabad, 27 Sep 2014: Reacting to a US court’s Thursday summons to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with his alleged role in the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat when he was chief minister of the state, human rights activists here say that the summons will not hit Modi because of his position as PM but it will certainly hurt his image.
US laws allow any American citizen to file a case against anybody in the world with regard to human rights violations even outside America.
Speaking to IndiaTomorrow.net, human rights activist Prof J S Bandukwala said that issuing of summons was not dangerous for Modi because of his position as PM.
“But it will certainly hurt his image”, he said. Mr Bandukwala himself is one of the victims of the 2002 communal riots.
He said that RSS and Bharatiya Janata Party had built an image of Modi as if the United States and its President Barack Obama were desperate to welcome Modi.
Mr Bandukwala said that all this was a propaganda. About the hype regarding 18,000 Indians likely to attend Modi’s function in New York, Mr Bandukwala said that this crowd was very small compared to the Indian population in New York and nearby cities.
Another human rights defender Father Cedric Prakash said that if Modi had a right to invite Americans to invest in India by saying “Make in India”, the United States also had the right to look into the human rights violations in India and issue summons to people in India.
“We respect the US court action regarding issuing of the summons”’, asserted Fr Prakash who runs an NGO, Prashant.
The issuing of summons against Modi coincides with his arrival in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.
The summons was issued on a petition by US-based NGO, American Justice Centre (AJC), under Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA).
About 1200 persons, according to official figures, and most of them Muslims, were killed in 2002 anti-Muslim riots when Modi was chief minister of the state.
Zakia Jafri, one of the riot survivors and widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri killed brutally in the riots, had filed a case in the court alleging an overarching conspiracy to kill Muslims in the riots and had named Modi as top accused in her petition. The matter is currently pending before the Gujarat High Court.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team, however, had given clean chit to Modi.
