[In the days following the train attack, riots
rippled across Gujarat, in western India, fed by a strike called by Hindu
groups and encouraged by some of Mr. Modi’s close associates. Initial
investigations by Gujarat authorities were so suspiciously incompetent that the
Indian Supreme Court ordered special police units to redo the investigations,
which eventually resulted in hundreds of convictions.]
By Gardiner
Harris and Hari Kumar
 |
|
Sanjeev Gupta/European Pressphoto Agency
Supporters of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party
held posters of its leader,
Narendra Modi, on Thursday after a court rejected a
petition seeking
his prosecution.
|
NEW
DELHI — The fiery leader of India’s leading opposition party, a man
labeled a mass murderer by some and a potential savior by others, won a victory
Thursday in one of the many controversies dogging him as he seeks to become India’s next
prime minister, but faced a setback in another.
An Indian court rejected a petition seeking the
prosecution of opposition leader, Narendra Modi, head of the Bharatiya Janata
Party, for his role in riots in his home state,
Gujarat, in 2002 that killed more than 1,000 people, largely Muslims.
But the government ordered a formal
investigation into allegations that Mr. Modi’s top lieutenant, using state
intelligence and security officers, oversaw wide-ranging surveillance of an
Indian woman on behalf of Mr. Modi.
Top members of Mr. Modi’s party hailed the court
decision, but denounced the government-ordered investigation as a politically
motivated witch hunt.
In response to the court judgment, Arun Jaitley,
the leader of the opposition in the upper house of Parliament, said in a
Twitter post, “The verdict has proved that propaganda can never be a
substitute for truth.” But after the government’s announcement of the spying
investigation, he told reporters, “This action is politically motivated.”
The petition seeking Mr. Modi’s prosecution was
filed by Zakia Jafri, the widow of Ehsan Jafri,
a Muslim lawmaker in the governing Indian National Congress party who was among
69 killed — some burned alive — during the riots when a Hindu mob attacked a
Muslim enclave in the city of Ahmedabad.
Neither case is likely to derail Mr. Modi’s
growing popularity in India, since his tough-guy image is a big part of his
appeal. But taken together, the cases demonstrate why he may be the most
controversial politician in India’s history.
The most serious allegations against Mr. Modi
concern the 2002 riots, which began in February of that year after Muslims set
fire to a train carrying Hindu pilgrims who were returning from a visit to a
shrine. Fifty-nine Hindus were burned alive.
In the days following the train attack, riots
rippled across Gujarat, in western India, fed by a strike called by Hindu
groups and encouraged by some of Mr. Modi’s close associates. Initial
investigations by Gujarat authorities were so suspiciously incompetent that the
Indian Supreme Court ordered special police units to redo the investigations,
which eventually resulted in hundreds of convictions.
Ms. Jafri claimed that Mr. Modi, a Hindu and
chief minister of Gujarat, was criminally negligent and complicit in neglecting
to quell the riots. A judge in Gujarat rejected that argument Thursday.
Ms. Jafri said she was disappointed in the ruling.
“I won’t give up the fight,” she told reporters. “I will appeal the verdict to
a higher court.”
“Truth alone triumphs,” Mr. Modi responded on Twitter.
The spying allegations are
more sordid but less serious. They came to light after transcripts of
conversations between a top Modi aide and police officers were published by a
website that said it had received the recordings from a Gujarat police officer,
G. L. Singhal, who is accused of participating in targeted assassinations and
is now cooperating with authorities.
Some of the transcripts are comical, as when
Officer Singhal reports disapprovingly that the woman, who has not been
officially identified, “talks very rudely with her mother.”
Mr. Modi’s supporters initially conceded that
state resources were used to keep track of the woman’s contacts with men, but
justified the operation by saying that her father had requested it. More
recently, officials of his party have suggested that the recordings were faked.
Rajnath Singh, president of the Bharatiya Janata
Party, dismissed the investigation as government harassment. “Narendra Modi
will not come under pressure,” Mr. Singh said.
But Digvijay Singh, a leader of the governing
Congress party and no relation to Rajnath Singh, welcomed the investigation
into what he termed an obvious violation of wiretapping laws. “This should have
happened much earlier,” Mr. Singh said.
@ The New York Times
By Salman Masood
An American development consultant abducted by Al Qaeda in Pakistan
more than two years ago has urged the Obama administration to help secure his
freedom in an impassioned video message released by the group.
Ihsanullah
Tipu Mehsud contributed reporting.
*
U.S. CAPTIVE OF AL QAEDA MAKES A PLEA TO OBAMA
[Mr. Weinstein said that he had served his country for 30 years, and that nine years ago he came to Pakistan to help the United States government. “I did so at a time when most Americans would not come here,” he said. “And now, when I need my government, it seems that I have been totally abandoned and forgotten.”]
By Salman Masood
The consultant,
Warren Weinstein, 72, was abducted from the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore in
August 2011 when a group of armed men broke into his house. Mr. Weinstein
worked as the Pakistan director for J. E. Austin Associates, an international
development consulting company based in Arlington, Va.
The video,
which showed no obvious signs of when it had been recorded, was created by the
media wing of Al Qaeda and sent to reporters on Wednesday and Thursday. A
handwritten letter that appeared to have been drafted by Mr. Weinstein and was
dated Oct. 3, 2013, was distributed along with the video to local news media
outlets.
Over the course
of the 13-minute video,
first posted by The Washington Post, Mr. Weinstein, bearded and wearing a
light-color jacket and a dark cap, appeared distraught and dejected when he
spoke about his family, his ill health and his time in captivity.
“I am not in
good health,” he said, looking at the camera. “The years have taken their
toll.”
Mr. Weinstein
said that he had served his country for 30 years, and that nine years ago he
came to Pakistan to help the United States government. “I did so at a time when
most Americans would not come here,” he said. “And now, when I need my
government, it seems that I have been totally abandoned and forgotten.”
Mr. Weinstein
said his captors had agreed to let him meet with his family if Qaeda members
held by the United States were released.
“Mr. Obama, you
are a family man, and so you understand the deep mental anxiety and anguish
that I have been experiencing for these past more than two years,” he said. “I
am therefore appealing to you on a humanitarian basis, if nothing else, and
asking that you take the necessary actions to expedite my release and my return
to my family and to my country, to our country.”
He also asked
Secretary of State John Kerry for his help.
This was the second
video statement by Mr. Weinstein. An earlier video in which he made a similar
plea was released by Al Qaeda in 2012.
Mr. Weinstein’s
kidnapping came at a time when relations between the United States and Pakistan
were deeply strained after a security contractor for the C.I.A. shot and killed two
Pakistanis in Lahore.
In an unrelated
development on Thursday, at least four people suspected of being militants were
killed by a drone strike on a possible militant compound in northwestern
Pakistan, a Pakistani official said.
The official,
who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the drone strike had taken place
near the village of Qutab Khel, about three miles south of Miram Shah, in the
North Waziristan tribal region, a haven for Taliban and Qaeda militants. The
identity of those killed was not immediately known, but the Pakistani official
said they may have been of Arab origin.
The Pakistani
government condemned the drone strike. The use of drones by the C.I.A. is
deeply unpopular in Pakistan.
“These strikes
are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the
Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “There is an across-the-board consensus in
Pakistan that these drone strikes must end.”
It added,
“These drone strikes have a negative impact on the government’s efforts to
bring peace and stability in Pakistan and the region.”
