Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a fake narrative was spread regarding the riots in Gujarat’s Godhra in 2002 and that his political opponents wanted him to be punished.
"But, the courts investigated the matter thoroughly and found us completely innocent,” Modi said in a podcast with Lex Fridman.
The three-hour-long podcast was released on Sunday.
Modi, who was the chief minister of Gujarat when the riots took place, said there was an attempt to push misinformation by portraying the incident as the biggest riot in the state’s history.
"If you review the data from before 2002, you will see that Gujarat faced frequent riots. Curfews were constantly being imposed somewhere. Communal violence would erupt over trivial issues such as kite flying contests or even bicycle collisions," he said.
However, since 2002, not a single case of riots has occurred in Gujarat, the prime minister claimed.
Modi admitted that the incident, which took place barely three days after he was elected as a legislator, was a tragedy of unimaginable magnitude.
“You can imagine, against the backdrop of incidents like the Kandahar hijacking, the attack on parliament, or even 9/11, and then to have so many people killed and burned alive, you can imagine how tense and volatile the situation was," he said.
Modi alleged that his political opponents who were in power at the Centre when the riots broke out wanted him to be punished, but the courts found him innocent.
"At that time, our political opponents were in power, and naturally they wanted all allegations against us to stick. They wanted to see us punished. Despite their relentless efforts, the judiciary analysed the situation meticulously twice and ultimately found us completely innocent," the prime minister said in the podcast.
