Bring Modi to justice, urges meeting hosted at UK Parliament

Ahmedabad, February 28, 2014: ‘There is international consensus that Narendra Modi was responsible for the 2002 genocidal attacks in Gujarat,’ wrote Anish Kapoor.

Speakers at a meeting in the Houses of Parliament in the United Kingdom have discussed the role of Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate for the far-right Bharatiya Janata Party in India’s forthcoming elections.

The Feb. 26 meet hosted by John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington, was supported by Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North.

Most speakers referred to the anti-Muslim riot in Gujarat that took place twelve years ago, killing over 1,500 (including three British nationals), and displacing some 200,000 people.

At the meeting Suresh Grover of The Monitoring Group outlined key events during the ‘orgy of violence’ in 2002 and ‘Narendra Modi exposed: challenging the myths surrounding the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate’, an extensively researched report, was launched.

Professor Chetan Bhatt, Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the London School of Economics, spoke of Modi’s links with the ‘Hindutva’ movement, which uses the guise of religion for its extremist brand of politics, and its ‘deliberate attempt to suppress freedom of speech’ in this country.

Pragna Patel, of Southall Black Sisters, spoke on this movement’s disturbing attitude to and treatment of women, including sexual violence ‘unprecedented in nature’ in 2002.

Professor Gautam Appa, emeritus professor at the London School of Economics, exposed the inaccuracy of claims often made by BJP supporters that the Supreme Court has cleared Modi of responsibility and that Gujarat is a model of good governance and prosperity.

‘There is international consensus that Narendra Modi was responsible for the 2002 genocidal attacks in Gujarat,’ wrote Anish Kapoor.

‘India’ s long history of cultural and ethnic tolerance is gravely in peril with the rise of this politician whose association with the fascist right cannot any longer be hidden.

Modi is a serious danger to peace in India and beyond. I strongly support the campaign to expose the threat he and his supporters present.’

An Early Day Motion to the House of Commons was announced, and a delegation of MPs to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office asking that there should be no engagement with him until he has been held legally accountable for his role in the violence. The meeting also heard that action is underway for an international tribunal on genocide in Gujarat.

– press release