Chairman of the Press Council of India, Markandey Katju has made the war of words international as he has written an anti-Modi article in Pakistan’s national daily saying Muslim in Gujarat are living in fear and they have been victimised.
The BJP has called the act anti-national and have re-iterated its demand for his termination from his post.
Expressing his views in Pakistan daily, The Express Tribune, Katju raised questions over the killings of over 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning incident.
The former Supreme Court judge claimed that Muslims in Gujarat fear that if they speak out against what happened in 2002, they may be attacked and victimized by the ruling BJP government.
He also opined that while Modi is being projected as an honest mass leader and the most powerful contender for the Prime Minister’s post, he is disliked by Indian Muslims.
Katju further wrote that those in the minority, who support him, do so as they fear for their lives.
He also refuted arguments by BJP workers and Modi supporters that Gujarat riots were a ‘spontaneous’ reaction of the majority community members to the killings of 59 people in Godhra.
The PCI chief also demanded a thorough probe to unravel the truth.
While agreeing that those responsible for the Godhra incident must be identified and punished, he said that nothing can justify the killing of thousands of innocent Muslims in Gujarat.
“Muslims are only nine percent of the total population of Gujarat, the rest being mostly Hindus. In 2002, Muslims were massacred, their homes burnt and other horrible crimes committed against them,” he wrote.
Comparing the Gujarat riots with the killing of Jews in Kristallnacht in Germany in November 1938, Katju said that he believed that it was planned and executed by the authorities using fanatic mobs.
Katju held Modi responsible for the killings of Muslims in 2002 since he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat at that time, he claimed.