As occasional readers of The Daily Pennsylvanian, we write to clarify important facts about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s record. The findings of the Nanavati-Mehta Commission and the Supreme Court- mandated Special Investigation Team found credible and considerable evidence of Modi’s complicity in the mass violence against Muslims in Gujarat. Apart from testimony of the survivors, the testimony by former police and government officials as well as of rank and file Hindutva cadres is a matter of public record. That all this could be ignored by the Commission and SIT constitutes not an exoneration of Modi, but a disturbing culture of impunity. At this time, Narendra Modi remains a defendant in two cases connected to the violence of 2002, even as the vast majority of riot-related cases still have not come to trial, and only one gang-rape case has resulted in a conviction. The question of Gujarat’s economic success IS certainly debatable; what is not, is Modi’s culpability for the targeted violence and ongoing discrimination against Gujarat’s minority communities.
Radhika Balakrishnan, Director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, and Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University
Amrita Basu, Domenic J. Paino Professor of Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies, Amherst College
Antoinette Burton, Professor of History and Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Piya Chatterjee, Backstrand Chair of Women and Gender Studies, Scripps College
Gayatri Gopinath, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University
Syed Akbar Hyder, Associate Professor of South Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin
David Ludden, Professor and Chair of History, New York University
Ali Mir, Professor of Management, Cotsakos College of Business, William Paterson University
Raza Mir, Professor of Management, Cotsakos College of Business, William Paterson University
Chandra Mohanty, Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Syracuse University
Balmurli Natrajan, Associate Professor of Anthropology, William Paterson University
Vijay Prashad, George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies, Trinity College
Junaid Rana, Associate Professor of Asian American Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Sharmila Rudrappa, Associate Professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies, University of Texas, Austin
Snehal Shingavi, Assistant Professor of English and Asian American Studies, University of Texas, Austin
Dina Siddiqi, Visiting Associate Professor of Women’s Studies, Hunter College of the City University of New York
Abha Sur, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Raja Swamy, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Arkansas
Ashwini Tambe, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies, University of Maryland College Park
Suniana Maira, Professor of Asian American Studies, University of California, Davis
Svati Shah, Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Kamala Visweswaran, Associate Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin
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