Click to play videoThe Election Commission (EC) on Thursday sent a notice to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for justifying the murder of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, an alleged criminal, in a fake encounter.
Modi, who has time till Saturday to reply to the notice, says he has “never justified” fake encounters and was “provoked” by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Is Modi’s claim a good defence and is he in legal trouble because of it? CNN-IBN asked senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan and BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Modi was making a “political response”, said Prasad. “Sonia Gandhi said Gujarat is ruled by merchants of death, (Congress leader) Digvijay Singh speaks about Hindu terrorists and (Congress spokesperson) Abhishek Manu Singhvi says Modi must tried before an international court. Modi was responding politically to such statements.”
“The Supreme Court will take a decision on (the Sohrabuddin case) according to the law, but the political question is that a person with so many criminal cases against him is being glorified as the biggest icon of India. Modi was responding to this politically.”
Is Modi’s excuse acceptable? Was Sonia Gandhi herself inflaming passions by calling a Chief Minister “merchant of death”? Bhushan, who wants to take Modi to court for his speech, said the point was not Sonia’s statement but Modi’s reaction to it. “How can a Chief Minister say the state should kill people like Sohrabuddin and that is what he has done. Modi’s own handpicked police officers are in jail for killing Sohrabuddin in a fake encounter. Whether he was a good man or a bad man is not the point—that would be decided by courts,” said Bhushan.
Prasad accepted that the courts would decide on Sohrabuddin, but insisted the politics of his “glorification” cannot be ignored. “When the Chief Minister of West Bengal said people in Nandigram had been ‘paid back in their own coin’ did Teesta Setalvad (social activist who has complained to the EC against Modi) move court against him. These are political issues to be considered,” he said.
“Modi has done good work in Gujarat. Fourteen Muslim councilors in Sikka municipality in Jamnagar on Wednesday said they would vote for Modi for the work he has done. The 2002 riots were unfortunate but revisiting ghosts of the past—raking it up when Gujarat is moving ahead—shows the Congress is interested in rabid and naked votebank politics.”
Bhushan rejected Prasad’s explanation and said he would go to court against Modi for “pandering to communal politics.” Won’t that help Modi? He may be seen as a being hounded by secularists. “That is why there are laws against appealing on communal lines, but Modi has got away till now. We want him to be held accountable,” said Bhushan.
The Congress is shying away from taking on Modi directly on this issue, afraid of alienating the Hindu vote. For now, it's advantage Modi in this game of one-upmanship.
But he will be keeping an eye on the Election Commission and the Supreme Court as he campaigns in the battle for Gujarat.
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