Further consolation for Narendra Modi's critics

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/15/consolation-for-narendra-modi-critics

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Priyamvada Gopal (Modi can't be shrugged off, 14 April) is indeed right to direct our attention to Narendra Modi and the riots in Gujarat during 2002. The Gujarat riots of 12 years ago were horrible. Yet it is legitimate to ask whether this was the only or even the most horrific episode in recent Indian history, albeit the first one to be recorded on live television. The Delhi massacre of 3,000 Sikhs took place over three days in October 1984 while Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister.

Narasimha Rao, subsequently prime minister, was then the home minister and in charge of the police, who were told not to intervene. No one has been punished for that episode as yet after 30 years. Even prior to that, Sanjay Gandhi, though unelected, unleashed a pogrom of sterilisation on Muslim adults in 1976 as a population control measure to speed up development. This was while Indira Gandhi, his mother, had imposed the Emergency, the sole episode of fascism in India. Muslims resisting sterilisation were fired upon and killed in Delhi. In Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, the killings were so many that the event was called mini-Jallianwala Bagh, recalling the worst atrocity under British rule 95 years ago in Amritsar.

Hindu/Muslim riots are a tragic part of Indian history. There have been 13,000 in the last 50 years, most of them under Congress rule. No one has been punished for these riots with the singular exception of Gujarat, where trials have been held and convictions taken place. The judiciary for once has not been prevented from delivering justice. The cases are still going on and may punish more people.

No head of government – prime minister or chief minister – has ever apologised for riots which have taken place under their watch in the 67 years of independent India's history. Rajiv Gandhi never apologised, not only for the Delhi riots but also when Muslims were killed by police in Bhagalpur, and many other episodes one could list. There were riots in Mumbai in 1993 in which many Muslims were killed, and the Congress government then in power never took the culprits to court though they were named in the Srikrishna commission report it had received. The leader of the Shiv Sena party (which was active in the killings), Bal Thackeray, received a state funeral when he died recently under the watch of a Congress government.

There are no winners and no sinners in this game. Muslims have suffered under the rule of every party in India. At the root of the problem is the birthmark of India as an independent country, the partition of British-ruled India into India and Pakistan. India has to come to terms with the tragedy of partition. It will do so in its own ways. The Indian electors know all that Priyamvada Gopal tells us. Let them decide what they wish for themselves.Meghnad DesaiLabour, House of Lords

• "Those who despair at the likely outcome [of the current Indian elections] can console themselves with the thought that nobody ever wins completely in India" (Editorial, 14 April). Indeed so. Coalition government has been the rule since the 1980s, and at least two governing coalitions have been headed by Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata party. The first authorised India's 1998 testing of a nuclear device, possibly the most popular political decision since independence, and the second rewrote a lot of India's history. Mr Modi, if in a position to form the next government, may champion a similar mix of populism and revisionism. With Gujarat's capital of Ahmedabad now appearing as "Amdavad" on the road signs, Muslims are already being written out of the map in Modi's home state.

But history can be re-rewritten and maps reversed. Even the bomb – developed by the Nehru/Gandhi dynasty and to which Pakistan immediately replied with its own tests – may have reduced the risk of every border clash turning into another war. Under the BJP the liberalisation of the economy continued, the inter-city motorway system known as the Golden Quadrilateral was launched and better relations with China were established. More surprisingly, the first symbolic gesture in over a decade to mend (or in this case, open) fences with Pakistan was launched when in 1999 the BJP leader boarded the inaugural run of a Delhi-Lahore bus service. His host, then as now, was Nawaz Sharif. Whatever one thinks of Mr Modi, his party's record in power is not all bad. Cause for further consolation?John KeayDalmally, Argyll

• Your editorial rightly expresses concern over the rise of Narendra Modi. However, Indian voters, when it comes to economic issues, do not have much of a choice. India needs economic reforms, for most of its economic problems are structural, not cyclic. Every political party in India, however, is left of the centre; hence reforms take place only by stealth.

Modi is openly right of the centre. Even though his own party is confused on economic issues, his state of Gujarat has registered double-digit economic growth for more than a decade. He may not be the liberal reformer India needs but he is decisive, business-friendly, and gets things done. Surely these qualities are of paramount importance in a country where decision-making has been paralysed for the past five years.Randhir Singh BainsGants Hill, Essex