Ahmedabad: Narendra Modi, often attacked over the 2002 post-Godhra riots under his watch as Chief Minister, on Friday said he feels “liberated and at peace” in the wake of the clean chit given by a local court to him, claiming he was “shattered” by the blame laid at his doors for those killings.

Modi, who had avoided media questioning on the issue for over a decade and had never apologised for the riots, on Friday came out with a long statement in a blogpost saying he was “shaken to the core."

“'Grief’, ‘Sadness’, ‘Misery’, ‘Pain’, ‘Anguish’, ’Agony’— mere words could not capture the absolute emptiness one felt on witnessing such inhumanity,” he said in his blog.

“This is the first time I am sharing the harrowing ordeal I had gone thorugh in those words at a personal level,” he said in the blog.

The 63-year-old BJP’s prime ministerial candidate has consistently refused to refused to express regrets for the riots that killed nearly 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.

On Thursday, a Metropolitan Magistrate court here upheld an SIT clean chit given to Modi in the Gulberg Society massacre in which former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people burnt alive during the riots.

“The Gujarat government had responded to the violence more swiftly and decisively than ever done before in any previous riots in the country.

“Yesterday’s judgement culminated a process of unprecedented scrutiny closely monitored by the highest court of land, the Honourable Supreme Court of India. Gujarat’s 12 years of trial by the fire have finally drawn to an end. I feel liberated and at peace,” he said.

Thanking the people who stood by him in these “trying times” through the “facade of lies and deceit”, the Chief Minister said “with this cloud of misinformation firmly dispelled, I will now also hope that the many others out there trying to understand and connect the real Narendra Modi would feel more empowered to do so.”

Emerging from “this journey of pain and agony”, he said he prayed to God in all humility that no bitterness seeped into his heart.

“I sincerely do not see this judgement as a personal victory or defeat, and urge all — my friends and especially my opponents — to not to do so as well,” he said.

Modi, who has the image of a hardline Hindutva proponent and describes himself as a Hindu nationalist, said those who derive satisfaction by perpetuating pain in others will probably not stop their tirade against him.

“I do not expect them to. But, I pray in all my humility, that they at least now stop irresponsibly maligning the 6 crore people of Gujarat,” he said.

He said he fasted 37 days for sadhbhavana (harmony), choosing to translate the positive judgement into constructive action, reinforcing unity and sadbhavana in society at large.”

“I am deeply convinced that the future of any society, state or country lies in harmony. This is the only foundation on which progress and prosperity can be built. Therefore, I urge one and all to join hands in working towards the same, ensuring smiles on each and every face,” he said. — PTI

NEW DELHI: A day after the Central government cleared an inquiry into alleged illegal spying on a woman on the orders of the Gujarat government, the war of words between the Congress and BJP continued, with the former terming it a “genuine need”.

Snooping on the girl was done at the behest of ‘saheb’ not only inside but outside Gujarat also. An all-India inquiry was a genuine need," Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed tweeted.

BJP had on Thursday likened the setting up of the judicial Commission of Inquiry to probe charges of spying on the woman in 2009 to a witch-hunt.

Investigative websites Cobrapost and Gulail had in November played out to the media tapes in which Modi’s aide and then Gujarat home minister Amit Shah is purportedly directing a senior police officer to monitor the movements of the woman.

Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Friday said the Centre’s move was a "political vendetta" and the Congress has “stooped to a low level of politics over the issue”.

Contending that the inquiry commission was an insult to states and amounted to an encroachment of their jurisdiction, Singh said, "Congress has resorted to a low level of politics after it failed in the contest against Narendra Modi in the recent Assembly polls, in which the party lost (to BJP) in four states."

"It (the decision) proves that the Centre is ready to break any federal structure for political mileage. We will protest against it at all levels," he said. — PTI

Kejriwal questions timing of CNG price hike

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister designate Arvind Kejriwal on Friday questioned the move by the Centre to hike CNG prices when a new government was to assume power in Delhi in two days’ time even as he suggested that autorickshaw fares in the national capital may be revised as a result of the steep increase.

He said he would examine the files and also ask the Centre about the reason for its haste in increasing the prices.

“What was the need to increase CNG prices when a new government is to take over in Delhi. It raises suspicions about their intention. I will look at the files once I take over tomorrow and see if the hike can be rolled back,” Kejriwal said.

The compressed natural gas, or CNG, rate in the national capital was on Thursday raised by a steep Rs 4.50 per kg in a second increase in rates in three months.

CNG will now cost Rs 50.10/kg in Delhi and Rs 56.70/kg in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad, Indraprastha Gas Ltd. (IGL) has said. The hike came into effect from Thursday midnight.

When told that autorickshaw drivers were unhappy with the hike and planning to go on a strike, Kejriwal said, “They have been associated with us for a long time... When I take charge tomorrow, I will hold consultations with them and try to find out a solution. If necessary, we cannot rule out the possibility of a hike in auto fares in Delhi.”

Meanwhile, commenting on a sting operation carried out by a news channel purportedly showing that files were being torn, the Aam Aadmi Party leader said it was the Chief Secretary’s responsibility to take care of files.

“This also shows there is large scale corruption in these departments and officials who are seeking transfer are understood to have been involved in it,” he said. — PTI

AAP MLAs to take Metro to swearing-in venue

Ghaziabad: Seeking to send out a message of austerity, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal will on Saturday be taking the Metro to Ramlila Maidan to take oath as the Delhi Chief Minister.

“I will take the metro to reach Ramlila Maidan for the oath-taking ceremony,” Kejriwal said in Kaushambi on Friday following a ‘Janta Darbar’.

Not just the Chief Minister-designate, all AAP MLAs would be taking the metro to the venue, sources said.

Asked about the janta darbar, Kejriwal said, “It shows that the system, from top to bottom, has collapsed and needs to be amended. That is why the people are coming to the Chief Minister with their problems.”

“It is a sad situation, peoples’ expectations are very high and their problems have to be solved. We will need to work hard,” he said.

He, however, insisted that 90 per cent of the problems were of a local nature and could be solved through regular neighbourhood meets or ‘mohallah sabhas’.

The “people will then approach the CM with solutions to other problems and not come with their problems,” he averred. — PTI

LUCKNOW: A senior Uttar Pradesh official has stoked a controversy by saying nobody dies of cold, remarks that have been attacked as “insensitive” and condemned by opposition parties in the context of deaths of children in Muzaffarnagar relief camps.

Taking exception to the comments by Principal Secretary (Home) A.K. Gupta, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday asked officials to keep a check on their use of words and ensure nobody’s feelings get hurt.

“Use of words by officials or partymen, whether it is about the government’s drawbacks or the party’s achievements, should be such that nobody’s feelings get hurt,” he told reporters here.

He was replying to a question on remarks of Gupta that no one dies due to cold otherwise people would not have survived in Siberia, one of the world’s coldest regions.

The bureaucrat had said, “The cause of death could be because of food poisoning or pneumonia. Pneumonia happens due to cold, but cause of death is not cold.”

He had said, “We have a report that two, three or four persons died because of pneumonia, but nobody said they died due to cold....”

Condemning the bureaucrat’s comments, opposition parties hit out at the Samajwadi Party government, with BJP saying, “When the administration becomes insensitive, this is what then comes out.”

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said that instead of accepting their fault and making a correction, the authorities in Uttar Pradesh were blaming others and making most insensitive comments.

Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh termed the statement as most irresponsible and insensitive.

Taking a dig a at Gupta, he said, “If pneumonia does not happen due to cold, what is the reason. Tomorrow, they would say that a person was not killed after being hit by bullet, but due to excessive bleeding.”

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also criticised Gupta for his remark, saying that the bureaucrat should be sent out in the cold with lesser clothes.

“Can’t die of the cold!!!! Send him out in a few less clothes and let’s see if he isn’t singing a different tune pretty damn quick,” Mr. Abdullah wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.

Replying to questions, Akhilesh Yadav said, “Sometimes, during question-answer sessions, there could be a change in language used... I think officials should keep a control over what they speak.”

The Chief Minister said that this was especially so when it came to bureaucrats or party people talking to TV channels which record their byte and show controversial portions repeatedly.

Asked what action would be taken against the Principal Secretary for his irresponsible statement, Yadav said, “Ab ho gaya (It has happened),” while moving on to another question. — PTI

Muzaffarnagar: As many as 30 families have been booked for allegedly living in relief camps in Sanjak village in Muzaffarnagar despite not being riot victims, the police said on Friday.

According to Sub-Divisional Magistrate Rajnikanth, these families from Kinoni village in Muzaffarnagar, which was not affected by riots, were living in the make-shift camps set up for the riot victims.

The families, who claim to be affected by communal riots that took place in September, were asked to leave the camps but they refused, he said.

A case of encroaching on government land has been slapped against them, the police said.

Over 60 people were killed and thousands displaced in the riots in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas. — PTI

NEW DELHI: In the first major poll exercise after the party’s drubbing in recent Assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi on Friday held a strategy session with top leaders and Chief Ministers of 12 Congress-ruled sates to make the party fighting fit for the Lok Sabha polls.

The day-long exercise that commenced in the morning saw full attendance of Congress Chief Ministers along with senior leaders A.K. Antony, Sushilkumar Shinde, P. Chidambaram, Ahmed Patel, Jairam Ramesh, Digvijay Singh, Janardan Dwivedi, Kapil Sibal and K.B. Thomas.

Having lost the polls in Delhi and Rajasthan, Congress is currently in power in 12 States — Manipur, Mizoram, Assam, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala and Meghalaya.

With the election defeats rankling in memory, the party is keen to work out the strategy to retain the States where it is in power at present as there seems little possibility of it doing very well in the States already ruled by BJP as the Assembly elections showed.

While BJP bettered its performance in Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Madhya Pradesh, it managed to retain Chhattisgarh despite Congress doing well in Bastar riding over a sympathy wave after the Maoist massacre of its leadership.

The margin with which BJP wrested power from Congress in Rajasthan has also come a surprise for Congress. In Delhi while BJP managed to somewhat weather the AAP storm, Congress was virtually wiped out.

So “home is where we gather grace” seems to be mantra of the meeting as the party is keen to retain Congress-ruled States. The role of Chief Ministers like Virbhadra Singh in Himachal Pradesh and Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana could be important as such.

The meeting being held at 15, Rakabganj Road, also known as Congress War Room, to work out poll strategies will discuss the future course for the party in the wake of the passage of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill.

The issue of price rise and steps to arrest it will be taken up in detail at the conclave which will also discuss the food security issue.

Party-ruled Haryana and Uttarakhand were among the first to launch the scheme, which UPA believes is a gamechanger for 2014 Lok Sabha polls. — PTI

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations has expressed hope that reinforcements, including troops and critical assets such as helicopters, will reach strife-torn South Sudan within the next two days, as it seeks to protect civilians in a conflict which has killed over 1,000 people.

“We are in desperate need for improved capacity and strength to be able to implement the mandate (to protect civilians) in a much more proactive way,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Hilde Johnson told a video news conference from Juba, South Sudan’s capital.

She noted that over 50,000 civilians have already sought refuge at UN bases and stressed the need for “unprecedented speed” to bring in additional troops and helicopters.

“But let me underline: all peacekeepers are under the instruction to use force when civilians are under imminent threat.”

The Security Council had two days ago authorised almost doubling the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to nearly 14,000 personnel through the transfer of units if necessary from other UN forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Darfur, Abyei, Cd’Ivoire and Liberia.

The UNSC action came days after two Indian peacekeepers were killed and one wounded when 2000 rebel Lou Nuer youths attacked a UNMISS base manned by only 43 Indian soldiers and giving refuge to South Sudanese civilians.

Tensions within South Sudan, the world’s youngest country which only gained independence in 2011, after seceding from Sudan, burst out into open conflict on December 15, when President Salva Kiir’s government said soldiers loyal to former Deputy-President Riek Machar, dismissed in July, launched an attempted coup.

Kiir belongs to the Dinka ethnic group and Machar to the Lou Nuer. The conflict has been increasingly marked by reports of ethnically targeted violence.

“We are working round the clock to get assets in that can assist us in the current crisis as quickly as ever possible. We’re working on 48-hour delivery of several of the critical assets that we need,” Johnson said, adding that such assets include both troops and critical assets such as helicopters.

She said UNMISS is investigating reports of extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions, mistreatment, abuses and mass rapes, stressing that it is essential that all perpetrators be held accountable.

“We are expecting action to follow,” she added, welcoming Kiir’s order two days ago for the arrest of anyone involved in atrocities and for them to be held accountable.

Johnson noted that UNMISS had been unable to verify reports of a massacre and of a mass grave being found in Bentiu in the north with 75 bodies, but that in any case the number had been exaggerated from between 30 and 50.

“I call upon the political leaders of South Sudan to order their forces to lay down their arms and to give peace a chance and to do so urgently,” she said, recalling the decades of violent struggle that have marked South Sudan’s march to independence and stressing that its ethnic diversity should be a source of strength and unity, not of discord.

“These past 11 days have been a very trying time for South Sudan and for all citizens of this new-born nation,” she added.

“What happened this last week has for many of them brought back the nightmares of the past. The nation that was painstakingly built over decades of conflict and strife was at stake. And for us one of the most important things is to have those nightmares end.”

Despite the challenges, she said UNMISS is “maintaining and increasing our footprint across the country,” moving available assets to the most volatile areas.

“At this point in time the military is overstretched with current protection obligations related to the civilians in our camps and making sure they are safe,” she noted.

“We are also doing some patrols now by day and night in the neighbourhoods in Juba to try to create a more protective environment to people so that they can return to their homes.”

Johnson also said that fighting was currently going on in Bor, capital of Jonglei state north of Juba, where government forces control the airport and key crossroads, and added that the Mission fully supports the efforts of President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn who visited Juba in a bid to broker a peace. — PTI