News Politics National Rahul says, Modi must be held legally accountable for 2002 Gujarat riots

Rahul says, Modi must be held legally accountable for 2002 Gujarat riots

New Delhi: Hitting out at Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi today demanded "legal accountability" for the "clear and inexcusable failure" of governance during the 2002 Gujarat riots and dismissed talk of clean chit to him as



Asked about Modi's campaign and his language such as him being called a "shezada" (prince), Gandhi said that as far as the language used by political leaders were concerned "it is for the people of the country to judge a politician's language and choice of words".

Lashing out at BJP for its record in dealing with corruption, the Congress leader said that BJP had a Karnataka Chief Minister who went to jail on charges of corruption. Convicted and charge-sheeted ministers continued to be in the Gujarat cabinet.

"Their (BJP's) national president was seen taking money and was convicted. The record of the Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh governments on corruption is well known. The money and landscams in Karnataka, absence of a functional Lokayukta in Gujarat for over 10 years, the recruitment scam in Madhya Pradesh, and the allotment of land to industry in a completely non-transparent manner--the record is there for all to see," he said.

Asked if he had any radical ideas to eradicate corruption, the Congress leader said that the way to do that was to speed up the judicial process and punish the guilty. Only by creating an institutional framework to fight corruption can the issue be tackled.

He said that Lokpal Bill and The Whistleblowers Protection Bill had been passed and there were 5 remaining legislations that would have completed this framework.