New Delhi, March 17 A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the Godhra killings as a tragedy of ‘unimaginable magnitude’, Gujarati journalist Jyoti Unadkat, who covered the incident in 2002, said on Tuesday that his remarks had revived memories of the horror.
Unadkat, who is now based in Tanzania, told IANS that PM Modi’s podcast with US-based podcaster Lex Fridman has brought the truth before people on how the incident was a pre-planned conspiracy aimed at maligning him.
“I can’t forget the sight of charred bodies in coach S6 sticking to fans on the roof,” said Unadkat who drove down from Vadodara to report on the Godhara tragedy for Gujarati magazine Chitralekha in 2002.
Unadkat said she is haunted to this day by the remark of a fire officer, who was carrying bodies out of the coach when she asked him about the casualty figure.
He had said that counting of bodies would begin only when they get time after removing them from the coach, she said, recalling how she stood among the bodies lying on the ground and counted 56 casualties at that moment.
Unadkat also shed light on the conspiracy behind the Godhra incident and how she visited the guest house where hundreds of litres of petrol were stocked overnight for torching the train coach in which 59 people were killed.
She said, pointing to how a background was prepared before the Godhra riots during the volatile times that had seen incidents like the Kandahar hijacking, the attack on parliament and even 9/11.
Vinay Sharma, a fire officer who was involved in the rescue work after the train coach was torched on February 27, 2002, also shared his experience of the fateful day when a local corporator obstructed the fire tenders as part of a pre-planned conspiracy and ordered stone-pelting.
“We could have saved many lives, had we reached a little early,” said Sharma, whose testimony led to the death penalty for the three accused.
Senior Advocate Piyush Gandhi, who played a role in the prosecution of the accused in the Godhra riots cases, said, “It wasn’t an accident but a well-planned conspiracy. It was hatched to deter Gujaratis from going to Ayodhya for kar seva for Ram Temple.”
During the podcast released on Sunday, PM Modi referred to a massive smear campaign against him -- while he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat -- around the 2002 Godhra riots but expressed satisfaction that, ultimately, justice prevailed and courts cleared his name.
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