Daily Times: Modi’s ‘puppy’ remark triggers new controversy over riots

NEW DELHI: Indian Hindu nationalist leader and possible prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi triggered an uproar on Friday over a remark he made in an interview about deadly communal riots in Gujarat state in 2002.

Modi, chief minister of western Gujarat state and head of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s election campaign, was asked in an interview with Reuters whether he regretted the violence.

Modi compared his feelings to the occupant of a car involved in an accident. If “someone else is driving a car and we’re sitting behind, even then if a puppy comes under the wheel, will it be painful or not? Of course it is. If I’m a chief minister or not, I’m a human being. If something bad happens anywhere, it is natural to be sad.”

Modi’s comment provoked widespread outrage from political opponents and dominated television news broadcasts. The furore underscored how the riots – in which at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were burned and hacked to death – still cast a long shadow over India. The ruling Congress party, which is hoping to win a third straight term in office in the next general election, called a news conference to criticise Modi for the puppy analogy and demanded that he apologise.

Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid, the most prominent Muslim in the cabinet, said he felt “very bad and sad for the country and for humanity to have somebody who thinks that he owes nothing by way of explanation, remorse and not even of some level of accountability”.

The Samajwadi Party which governs Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and home to a large percentage of the country’s Muslims, said Modi should apologise as soon as possible “else the repercussions are going to be really harmful”.

More: