SC ruling in Zakia Jafri case deeply disappointing: Cong

NEW DELHI: Terming the Supreme Court ruling in Zakia Jafri case as ‘deeply disappointing,’ Congress on Monday asked whether Modi and the state government will ever be held accountable. In a statement on the Apex Court ruling, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that the Supreme Court judgment in the Zakia Jafri case is “deeply disappointing.”

Notably, the Supreme Court ruling upheld SIT’s clean chit to the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the 2002 communal riots.

The opposition party said that it stands by party leader, the late Ehsan Jafri, and his family and asserted that what happened to him in a most tragic manner was the result of a “fundamental lapse on the part of the state government.”

Ehsan Jafri, a former Congress MP, was among the 68 people killed at Ahmedabad’s Gulberg Society during the violence on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra train burning that claimed 59 lives.

The Congress’ detailed reaction to the Supreme Court ruling came after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the SIT’s clean chit to Modi and 63 others in the 2002 communal riots in the state, saying there is no “title of material” to show the violence after the Godhra train carnage was “preplanned” owing to the criminal conspiracy allegedly hatched at the “highest level” in the state.

The top court dismissed a plea by Jafri’s wife Zakia, terming it as “devoid of merits.”

Despite the judgment dated June 24, 2022, certain fundamental questions still remain unanswered, Ramesh said, adding that what is the constitutional and moral responsibility of the chief minister and the state government in cases of large-scale communal riots?

However, Ramesh asserted that no amount of “propaganda” by BJP can ever erase these facts. “Is the responsibility in such cases only ever that of the Collector & Deputy Commissioner of Police and not of political executive? Will the chief minister, cabinet and state government never be held accountable, even if a state is thrown into a circle of violence & riots?” he said.

While Supreme Court has pronounced its judgment, there are five questions that will continue to haunt Prime Minister Modi, including was he not the Gujarat chief Minister when the horrific riots took place in 2002, Ramesh said, adding why was PM Vajpayee so affected by his lack of action that he had to publicly remind him to do his duty, to follow his ‘Rajdharma?’

Was it not the Supreme Court which called out the conduct of the Modi government in Gujarat as that of “modern day Nero’s (who) were looking elsewhere when ...innocent children and helpless women were burning, and were probably deliberating how the perpetrators of the crime can be saved or protected,” he asked.