Gujarat assumed centrestage at the National Integration Council meeting here today, with Chief Minister Narendra Modi reiterating his party’s pet themes—uniform civil code and POTA-like laws—and Left leaders sharply attacking his failure to deliver justice to post-Godhra riot victims.Most of the speeches at the NIC meeting—held after 13 years—focussed on the efforts to uphold secularism and communal harmony. But Modi did not follow the script, and underlined his party’s commitment to a uniform civil code, tough laws like POTA and the party’s pet slogan, ‘‘justice for all, appeasement of none’’.CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, recently inducted into the NIC, used the occasion to attack Modi and said it was the Centre’s responsibility to ensure justice for riot victims ‘‘since it has become amply clear that normal police and judicial procedures have been found wanting in the state.’’ CPI leader D Raja also attacked the Modi government’s record on that score.Unfazed by the sustained criticism, Modi maintained that Gujarat was among the most peaceful states in the country with one of the lowest incidence of crime in the world.Modi also indicated it was not communalism but ‘‘terrorism’’ which was the biggest problem in Gujarat, and criticised the Centre for delaying approval of the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Act (GUJCOC), which was passed by the State Assembly in July 2004. It had become ‘‘extremely difficult’’ to deal with terrorism after the repeal of POTA and that is why tough laws such as GUJCOC were needed, he said.Modi also urged the Centre to take steps to evolve a uniform civil code and echoed the recent the RSS-BJP criticism of religion-based reservations: ‘‘Giving reservation on religious or linguistic consideration would definitely militate against national integration and go against the spirit of the Constitution.’’Modi’s ideological speech was more than matched by Prakash Karat who made it clear that perceived Left-UPA differences should not obscure the centrality of the Left’s strong anti-communal plank.The last meeting of the NIC, he noted at the outset, was held in November 1992—on the eve of the demolition of the Babri Masjid that led to a chain of events which affected communal harmony and national unity. In the context of communalism, the ‘‘central event’’ of the recent period was ‘‘the systematic pogrom’’ against the minority community in Gujarat after the Godhra incident, Karat said, adding, ‘‘It will be unwise to ignore the meaning of such mass violence with State sponsorship for the future of communal harmony and national unity of the country.’’Criticising the Gujarat government’s justice delivery system, Karat said just as the Best Bakery case was transferred out of Gujarat, ‘‘so also there are a number of serious cases that need to be dealt with in a similar fashion.’’
