This Article is From Apr 16, 2014

Not silent on riots, but no exercise to understand truth, says Narendra Modi

Gandhinagar: Narendra Modi said today that he was never silent on the 2002 riots in his Gujarat, but that no one ever tried to "understand the truth," which he blamed on a conspiracy.

"I was not silent. I answered every top journalist in the country from 2002 to 2007, but noticed there was no exercise to understand the truth. It was an unknown entity causing conspiracies," he told the ANI news agency in an interview. (Highlights of the interview)

The 63-year-old Mr Modi is accused by rivals of not doing enough to prevent the communal violence 12 years ago. A Supreme Court-appointed probe panel found no evidence of his alleged complicity in the riots, and a Gujarat court agreed with that assessment last year.

Today the Gujarat chief minister said he "felt very hurt" by the allegations against him, but gradually learned to cope with them.

Often accused of running an election campaign that has centred around him, Mr Modi, who is also his party's prime ministerial candidate, emphasised that strategic decisions in the BJP were taken not by him but by the party leadership. Like the one to field him from the BJP stronghold of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. (India Votes 2014: Full Coverage)

"Whether it was fighting Lok Sabha polls, the number of seats I would contest from, the decision was not taken by me. My party decided," he said, dismissive of the allegation many of such decisions came at the cost of upsetting senior leaders or the "old guard" in the BJP.

"I don't understand this 'old guard', 'new guard' business. Guards are on the last coach in a train. In our party seniors are the engine," Mr Modi said.

He described as "unprecedented" the pre-election alliance of 25 parties that the BJP has stitched together and indicated that he had an appetite for more. Asked about his recent wordy duel with Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, seen for long as a potential ally of the BJP post elections, Mr Modi said, "I don't believe in 'untouchability' in politics."

In the over-hour-long interview, Mr Modi also talked about his controversial aide Amit Shah, saying it was unfair to describe the former Gujarat home minister as a "chela or acolyte."

"Amit Shah is hardworking, a self-made man. He is what he is on merit, not because of me," Mr Modi said.

Mr Modi, describing himself as a "backroom boy" who has been "closely associated with election arrangements and strategy," has assessed that, "this will be the Congress' worst performance in history and the BJP-NDA's best."
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