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Gujarat riots were planned, says Amartya Sen

NEW DELHI DEC. 31. The communal riots in Gujarat in the wake of the Godhra carnage in 2002 were planned and a court of law must examine the allegations regarding the involvement of the Narendra Modi Government, according to the Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen.

"We had this terrible riot in 2002. It started with arson in which the victims were primarily Hindus ...But then the reaction that followed and the organisation that went with it clearly points to a well-disciplined riot," Dr. Sen said in an interview to be broadcast tomorrow by the British Broadcasting Corporation, where he spoke at length on communalism and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Though it was for the court to adjudicate on allegations of the riots being a pogrom undertaken by the BJP Government in the State, Dr. Sen said there was evidence pointing towards State involvement.

A recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001, columnist and political commentator, Dr. Sen had earlier criticised the Gujarat Government for its "failure to avert the riots after 58 people were burnt alive inside a coach of the Sabarmati Express".

Hailing the tradition of dialogue as essential to Indian political and cultural tradition, he said: "There has been temptation on behalf of at least one part of the Indian polity today to silence people rather than to encourage arguments".

UNI

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