NRI organisations demanded immediate dismissal of the Narendra Modi government

New York, October 27, 2007
Sant Singh

TEHELKA undertook a six-month long investigation to get at the truth of what really happened in Godhra. The painstaking investigation uncovered a web of lies entwined with truth, a mash of fact served up with fiction. Our quest shocked us: not because the truth was hard to find, but because it was in abundance, it was everywhere, in case papers, in statements of survivors, out in the streets. Our quest shocked us: not because the truth itself is shocking, but because the elaborate and malicious way in which it has been subverted is. What we found tears at the status quo and demands redressal. It proves everything Modi and his government have been claiming is a lie. Not just an ordinary lie, but a deliberate and manufactured one. Executed through bribery and coercion.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Godhra Haresh Bhatt admitted to an undercover Tehelka reporter that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi gave him ‘three days’ to do ‘whatever he wanted in Godhra’ to prepare a response for the Sabarmati train ‘attack’.

Tehelka undercover reporter said several leaders and activists of Gujarat's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allied organisation claim that Modi had sanctioned the communal carnage that claimed more than 1,000 lives.

Reacting to the Tehelka recent report of sting operation on the 2002 Gujarat riots, the most popular NRI organisations including:

1. The Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC)
2. The Indian American Coalition for Pluralism
3. the South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy
4. The Dharma Megha
5. Indian Muslim Relief & Charities
6. The American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin,
7. The Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America
8. The Gujarati Muslim Association of America
9. The Association of Indian Muslims
10. Seva International
11. Supporters of Human Rights in India
12. Vedanta Society of East Lansing
13. Washington Watch.
14. The India Foundation
15. International Service Society
16. Non Resident Indians for a Secular and Harmonious India

get together and as the representatives of the NRI community in North America made a joint appeal:

• To the Indian government to take steps to arrest those who are seen proudly admitting on camera to these crimes against humanity.We demand immediate dismissal of the Modi government in Gujrat
• Express our outrage at the impunity with which Narendra Modi was involved in the Gujarat sting operation
• We also urge the NRI community to boycott those groups in the US that allegedly raise funds for the Hindu rightwing organisations in India.
• We also urged the NRIs in the US to write to the Indian prime minister and the home minister to dismiss the Modi government.

The Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC) made a statement:

• The people responsible for these crimes (in Gujarat) should be dealt with until justice is done not only for the sake of the victims but also to protect the constitution that guarantees due process of law
• The NRI community must boycott the pro-Hindutva groups in the US

Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC) President Surinder Malhotra expressed his "dismay and shock."
George Abraham, general secretary of INOC urged NRI community to disassociate with Moditva group