The BJP Chief Minister of Goa, an IIT graduate-turned-politician, Manohar Parrikar, in a Walk the Talk interview with the Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Express, Shekhar Gupta, recently televised on NDTV 24x7, has come out strongly and convincingly in defence of his Gujarat counterpart, Narendra Modi on the 2002 riots.
Modi has been relentlessly ridiculed and maligned by a section of the media and his political opponents for allegedly engineering and conniving with the Muslim killings in that riot. They never talk of the post-Godhra carnage as an instant reprisal to the terrible torching of 59 Gujarati pilgrims-men, women and childen, in the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, while returning home from Ayodhya.
The tone and nature of Shekhar Gupta's questions suggested a clear, pre-determined bias against Modi. He insisted that it was Modi's "administrative and political failure", perhaps his "anger" that allowed the carnage, on the plea "what can I do, people are angry". While conceding that it was an "adminstrative failure", Parrikar emphasised that "not defending it does not mean that you put the blame on a particular person...Everyone got "polarised", including the administration and the police. However, "you don't blame the leader". "And Modi at that time had just taken over the govt(4 months). He may not have had that kind of a grip on the administration as he has now...The media should be blamed for it too-they showed the charred bodies...But after that, he has not displayed a single incident of non-governance". After that one "blot" on the administration, there has been no incident of violence in the last 11 years, Parrikar noted.
Responding to Gupta's question on what he called the "Parrikar model" in Goa where "you went and embraced your Catholics", and "Hindus and Catholics came together in Goa under the BJP flag", the CM observed that "a government cannot be complete unless every citizen is included" in the governance. "I am a strong Hindu but my Hindu feeling does not reflect in my decision-making as a Chief Minister. I believe Modi has managed to work in that way. In other words, Modi is fair and has no religious bias.
Parrikar's replies on some other topical matters are equally significant. Referring to the question on govt not taking decisions-"Manmohan Singh doesn't decide", he said, "virtually no one does in the govt." Gupta: "Well, Sonia Gandhi does. Apparently". The reply: "I strongly doubt that...I don't think decision-making has been the hallmark of Mrs Sonia Gandhi or Rahul(Gandhi). Most of the time, they disappear when there is a crisis."
Finally, Manohar Parrikar made it clear that he was in favour of the BJP National Executive meeting in Goa taking the decision on Modi and not postpone it. He added that "this is what the common people and the party cadre feel. I must have spoken to at least 1000 people on this issue at various forums-internet, friends, across the globe, across the country...I got a sense from them that they wanted Narendra Modi. Because the country is headed by a person ... a Prime Minister(from where) no decisions are coming and people see that... I get a feeling that the Congress is run by a coterie...".
Modi has been relentlessly ridiculed and maligned by a section of the media and his political opponents for allegedly engineering and conniving with the Muslim killings in that riot. They never talk of the post-Godhra carnage as an instant reprisal to the terrible torching of 59 Gujarati pilgrims-men, women and childen, in the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, while returning home from Ayodhya.
The tone and nature of Shekhar Gupta's questions suggested a clear, pre-determined bias against Modi. He insisted that it was Modi's "administrative and political failure", perhaps his "anger" that allowed the carnage, on the plea "what can I do, people are angry". While conceding that it was an "adminstrative failure", Parrikar emphasised that "not defending it does not mean that you put the blame on a particular person...Everyone got "polarised", including the administration and the police. However, "you don't blame the leader". "And Modi at that time had just taken over the govt(4 months). He may not have had that kind of a grip on the administration as he has now...The media should be blamed for it too-they showed the charred bodies...But after that, he has not displayed a single incident of non-governance". After that one "blot" on the administration, there has been no incident of violence in the last 11 years, Parrikar noted.
Responding to Gupta's question on what he called the "Parrikar model" in Goa where "you went and embraced your Catholics", and "Hindus and Catholics came together in Goa under the BJP flag", the CM observed that "a government cannot be complete unless every citizen is included" in the governance. "I am a strong Hindu but my Hindu feeling does not reflect in my decision-making as a Chief Minister. I believe Modi has managed to work in that way. In other words, Modi is fair and has no religious bias.
Parrikar's replies on some other topical matters are equally significant. Referring to the question on govt not taking decisions-"Manmohan Singh doesn't decide", he said, "virtually no one does in the govt." Gupta: "Well, Sonia Gandhi does. Apparently". The reply: "I strongly doubt that...I don't think decision-making has been the hallmark of Mrs Sonia Gandhi or Rahul(Gandhi). Most of the time, they disappear when there is a crisis."
Finally, Manohar Parrikar made it clear that he was in favour of the BJP National Executive meeting in Goa taking the decision on Modi and not postpone it. He added that "this is what the common people and the party cadre feel. I must have spoken to at least 1000 people on this issue at various forums-internet, friends, across the globe, across the country...I got a sense from them that they wanted Narendra Modi. Because the country is headed by a person ... a Prime Minister(from where) no decisions are coming and people see that... I get a feeling that the Congress is run by a coterie...".
