US court issues summons to Modi over Gujarat riots
US court issues summons to Modi over Gujarat riots
A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi was due to arrive for a much-touted five-day visit to the United States, a federal court in New York issued a summons for Modi to respond to a lawsuit that accuses him of human rights abuses in connection with religious riots in 2002 that tore through Gujarat, the state he then led.
The summons, which requires him to respond within 21 days, is not likely to have any concrete effect on Modi’s visit, which includes high-profile events with President Obama, Vice President Joseph R Biden Jr and numerous other political and corporate leaders. An attorney acting on behalf of Modi and the Indian government could seek to have the case dismissed, leaving a judge to decide the matter in several months.
But it is a reminder that the United States government at the time believed that Modi had acted too slowly to stop the riots and that in 2005, it took the rare step of putting him under a visa ban, which remains in place. As it became clear that Modi was likely to become prime minister, the United States has sought to set that history aside, build a relationship with him and use the change of governments to deepen both trade and defense cooperation with India.
Such lawsuits are not unprecedented. Last year the same attorney, representing a group called Sikhs for Justice, filed a lawsuit against Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the Indian National Congress party, alleging human rights abuses said to have taken place during anti-Sikh riots in 1984. Gandhi made a motion to dismiss the claim, and that motion succeeded this year, The Times of India reported.
The complaint, filed Thursday in the Southern District of New York, names two Indians as plaintiffs, one identified only as Asif and the other as Jane Doe, who, the complaint says, would not give her name out of “well-founded fear of retaliation from the state and nonstate actors.” It says Modi and the state government were responsible for extrajudicial killings, “organized violence, large-scale displacement of members of the Muslim minority population, and the continuing denial of justice.”
The lawyer who filed the complaint late on Thursday afternoon, Gurpatwant Singh Pannum, said his clients had been “looking for this opportunity for a long time.”
“It will be a big setback to Modi, because he was involved in the genocidal attack on Muslims, and he got away with it,” Pannum said. “I am sure he thinks he is not going to be held accountable, but he is wrong on this one.”
The Gujarat riots broke out after a train carrying mostly Hindus was set on fire at the station in Godhra, a predominantly Muslim area, killing 59 people. Blaming Muslims, mobs of Hindus rampaged, raping, looting and killing in a spasm of violence that raged for days and persisted for weeks. More than 1,200 people died, most of them Muslims.
Modi, who has close ties to right-wing Hindu organizations, was accused by many in India of failing to stop the killing. However, no Indian court to date has found him responsible. Late last year, a court rejected a petition seeking his prosecution in the case, a decision that Mr. Modi hailed by writing, over Twitter, “Truth alone triumphs.”