Social activist Teesta Setalvad on Wednesday welcomed the court's ruling in the 2002 Naroda Patiya violence case, which convicted 32 people including Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and former minister Maya Kodnani of murder and conspiracy.
Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath to 10 cabinet ministers and 14 ministers of state, including five ministers of state with independent charge.
In the final part of an interview conducted days before the Supreme Court fast-tracked the SIT probe into the 2002 Gujarat riots, Chief Minister Narendra Modi talks about national security, vote bank politics, terrorism and the riots.
The Gujarat government on Thursday alleged the relief package announced by the Centre for the 2002 post-Godhra riot victims "has political overtones and is discriminatory in nature". Opposition Congress hailed the package, saying finally justice has been done.
The Bharat Ratna for him comes nine years after the honour was bestowed on former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The two leaders together spearheaded the journey of the Jana Sangh and then the BJP for over five decades.
Lawyer and scholar Vinay Sitapati says the 'Get Modi' strategy largely misses the efforts to prosecute people evidently guilty of violence and murders in the Gujarat riots in favour of "a narrow quest to stop one man from becoming prime minister."
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) today recorded the statement of former Gujarat Minister Maya Kodnani, an accused in a 2002 post-Godhra riot case. The statement was recorded on a complaint filed by Zakia, whose husband Ehsan Jaffery, a former Congress MP was killed along with 69 others in a riot at Gulburg Society in Ahmedabad, SIT officials said.
Setalvad said working on a deeply polarising issue among the public is not an easy one and added that the impact of social media on polarization is also overwhelming.
Modi's inability to make peace with a renewed Opposition will only embolden his coalition partners and it is just a matter of time before they begin asking probing questions besides politely disagreeing with his tactics, predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The mayhem in Gujarat was the result of a thoroughly thought-out, elaborate and heinous strategy to communalise the society at large in Gujarat, with a view to derive political benefits, writes ex-Indian Police Service officer and former Cabinet Minister of Gujarat Jaspal Singh to the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team that is looking into the role of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his ministerial colleagues and police officers in the Gujarat 2002 riots.
It's been 10 years since the Godhra carnage and Narendra Modi is still around and divisive. Why, precisely, should the world think that the man who presided over India's worst governance failure in decades is somehow a role model for efficiency, asks Mihir S Sharma.
Narendra Modi's opponents must respect the legal system; otherwise they risk damaging the very cause they protect, says Rohit Pradhan.
Narendra Modi's opponents must respect the legal system; otherwise they risk damaging the very cause they protect, says Rohit Pradhan.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has said he prevailed on the Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani not to remove Narendra Modi from the chief ministerial chair in Gujarat after the Godhra riots.
The Delhi Police has filed a chargesheet against the key handler of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, Abu Jundal, accusing him of being involved in terror activities across India to avenge atrocities against Muslims, particularly those committed during 2002 Gujarat riots.
The transmogrification of Prime Minister Modi to Saint Modi began with the ground-breaking ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. By identifying himself with Lord Ram, Modi raised himself in popular imagination to a saintly person.
'A political party taking the law into its hands is objectionable, especially in the context of the 2002 incidents in Gujarat.'
Narendra Modi's anointment as BJP's prime ministerial nominee catapults to the national scene the Hindutva poster boy who is seen by his critics as a "polarising" and "divisive" figure after the 2002 Gujarat riots.
IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt, who has accused Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of misusing state machinery during 2002 post-Godhra riots, has alleged that the Special Investigation Team probe details on riot cases were leaked to a top law officer of the state government.
Under fire over his comments on 1984 anti-Sikh riots Jawaharlal Nehru University students union president Kanhaiya Kumar appeared to be in a damage control mode on Wednesday and said he will fight against every massacre.
All entities operating in India must fully comply with relevant laws, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar Wednesday told his British counterpart James Cleverly, who raised the BBC tax surveys issue during a meeting with him.
The university administration said the screening will not be allowed and that they are taking all measures to prevent people and organisations with a "vested interest to destroy the peaceful academic atmosphere of the university".
The Gujarat high court had on April 20 last year upheld the conviction of 12 out of the 29 accused who were pronounced guilty on various charges by the trial court and had acquitted 17 others, including former BJP minister Maya Kodnani.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused grant bail to one of the accused in the Gulberg Society massacre case of 2002 Gujarat riots in which former Congress Member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri and 67 others were killed, saying it has asked the lower court to conclude trial in three months.
'I told President Obama, "Mr President, do you realise that the person who is likely to become the prime minister of India in two weeks, does not have a visa, and you are talking about having great relations between India and the USA, how are you going to do it?".'' 'His answer was that this is not right and that he'll have somebody from the White House and the State Department reach out to me.'
Narendra Modi's elevation in the BJP has given a fillip to the idea of an alternative forum for those who want to counter him for the 2002 Gujarat riots and for those like Nitish Kumar who do not wish to be part of a dispensation which is steered by him, says Saroj Nagi
The Supreme Court on Monday directed the special investigation team, which probed the 2002 Gujarat riots cases, to apprise it on whether documents relating to the closure report of the case of killing of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri can be supplied to his wife Zakia Jafri
'With the Special Investigation Team's closure report finding no case to be made against Modi on Zakia Jafri's complaint, the public debate has once again returned to The Narendra Modi Question.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday played down the court verdict in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case in Gujarat, saying the party respects the judicial system and abides by it unlike Congress, which has a culture of challenging court orders.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team has found no evidence against Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 57 others in the complaint filed against them by Zakia Jafri in the 2002 Gujarat riots, a magisterial court said on Tuesday.
It sent shock waves in the party -- a political greenhorn had taken on Modi in his home turf of Gujarat. Smriti had clearly tried to choose sides, in this case Vajpayee's camp. Many felt that this would end Irani's career. A revealing excerpt from Nidhi Sharma's new book She, The Leader: Women in Indian Politics.
The Shiv Sena on Wednesday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership to clear its stand on the issue of its prime ministerial candidate and demanded that a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance be convened soon. The BJP ally gave a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, widely expected to be the BJP's PM candidate, over the Gujarat riots.
Bilkis Bano on Wednesday challenged the remission of sentence and release of convicts in the 2002 rape and murder case filing a plea before the Supreme Court.
All those accused of arson, rioting and damaging the property of the minority community at Paliyad village in Kalol taluka of Gandhinagar district were already on bail.
Notably, Pakistani journalist Ali, cited the BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots and said he "regretted" that no US official had criticized it, while the US State Department highlighted the close relationship between the two countries, especially over shared values.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team has said that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi took all possible steps to control the 2002 post-Godhra riots and questioned the motive behind filing a complaint against him by a riot victim four years after the communal violence.
A Mumbai court had on February 24 sentenced nine persons to life imprisonment, holding them guilty of murder of 14 persons by setting Best Bakery afire during the post-Godhra riots.
Income Tax officials surveyed the British broadcaster's offices in Mumbai and Delhi.
