FILE - In this Dec. 8, 2013 file photo, Narendra Modi, leader of India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its prime ministerial candidate for next year's national elections, gestures at the party's office in New Delhi, India. An Indian court on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013, rejected a petition seeking the prosecution of Modi in the killing of a former lawmaker and other Muslims during riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das, File)
NEW
DELHI - A Hindu nationalist party's prime ministerial candidate on
Friday rejected criticism that he did not do enough to prevent the
killings of nearly 1,000 Muslims during riots in the western state of
Gujarat in 2002.
Narendra Modi, the top state elected official, said in his blog that he was shaken to the core by the violence and his government had responded to the violence more swiftly and decisively than had been done in any previous Hindu-Muslim riots in India.
He is the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate for national elections to be held before May.
"'Grief', 'Sadness', 'Misery', 'Pain', 'Anguish', 'Agony' - mere words could not capture the absolute emptiness one felt on witnessing such inhumanity," he wrote.
India's Information Minister Manish Tewari, a Congress party leader, said Modi had taken 11 years to get his emotions together "but still not a word of regret."
Political rivals and human rights groups have accused Modi of looking the other way while his state suffered from one of India's worst outbreaks of religious violence. They have been demanding an apology from Modi.
The riots occurred after a fire killed 60 passengers on a train packed with Hindu pilgrims. Hindu extremists blamed the deaths on Muslims, but the cause of the blaze remains unclear.
Courtesy:canada dot com
Narendra Modi, the top state elected official, said in his blog that he was shaken to the core by the violence and his government had responded to the violence more swiftly and decisively than had been done in any previous Hindu-Muslim riots in India.
He is the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate for national elections to be held before May.
"'Grief', 'Sadness', 'Misery', 'Pain', 'Anguish', 'Agony' - mere words could not capture the absolute emptiness one felt on witnessing such inhumanity," he wrote.
India's Information Minister Manish Tewari, a Congress party leader, said Modi had taken 11 years to get his emotions together "but still not a word of regret."
Political rivals and human rights groups have accused Modi of looking the other way while his state suffered from one of India's worst outbreaks of religious violence. They have been demanding an apology from Modi.
The riots occurred after a fire killed 60 passengers on a train packed with Hindu pilgrims. Hindu extremists blamed the deaths on Muslims, but the cause of the blaze remains unclear.
Courtesy:canada dot com
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