Narendra Modi

New Delhi, Sept. 16: Narendra Modi today referred to “my genuine mistakes during the last 10 years” in what some construed as the closest he has ever come to apologising for the 2002 riots.

The “apology” — or rather “regret”, as two of his aides portrayed it — came in an open letter to the people of Gujarat on the eve of his fast for “social harmony” and was apparently a response to pressure exerted by his well-wishers from outside the BJP.

The letter capped a day during which Modi tried to enhance his national profile, with help from BJP veteran L.K. Advani. Advani, in a blog posted today, endorsed a US report and claimed that American lawmakers and the state department were being primed for the BJP’s return to power at the Centre with Modi as Prime Minister. BJP sources said that Advani’s post was an acknowledgement that he was out of the race for Prime Minister.

By getting the AIADMK and some NDA allies to be part of his fast, Modi has signalled to his party and the political establishment at large that the “stigma of untouchability” might not stick to him for too long, the sources claimed. ( )

On Tuesday, Modi had written another open letter announcing his three-day fast for peace and harmony, a move seen as his way of positioning himself for a national role. Today’s letter seemed to be a pitch for wider acceptance that such a role would demand, especially in this coalition era.

Sources said people whose views Modi apparently “respects” had conveyed that his fast would acquire political weight and gravitas only if he made a public and sincere apology to the riot victims and thus “exorcised the ghosts of 2002”.

These friends are said to have cited the unequivocal apology offered by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress leadership for the 1984 carnage to win back Sikh support. They said Modi would need to do more than just stonewall the charges against him if he had to shed the negative baggage he was saddled with, the sources said.

Even the US Congressional Research Service report that referred to “effective governance” in Modi’s Gujarat, and which the BJP is touting as a good-conduct certificate, said he needed to “overcome” the taint of his complicity in the violence by fast-tracking economic growth.

In the letter, released late this evening, Modi did make his pet reference to “those who defamed Gujarat or me by making false allegations”. But he also said: “No state, society or individual can claim to be perfect. I am grateful to all those who pointed out my genuine mistakes during the last 10 years.”

He added: “I seek your blessings to serve the people with devotion, free from all human shortcomings.”

Modi wrote that as chief minister, “the pain of each and every citizen is my own pain”, and added: “Ensuring justice to all is the duty of the state.”

Although the second line could be seen as an improvisation on the BJP’s pet theme of “justice to all, appeasement of none”, the letter stressed “inclusive development”.

“Indian history is witness that casteism and communalism have never done any good to society. This is also my firm conviction. Gujarat has understood this and having overcome these evils, it has adopted the path of inclusive development,” Modi claimed.

Cataloguing the hardships his state went through this century, beginning with the 2001 earthquake, the chief minister mentioned the communal violence of 2002.

“We lost innocent lives, suffered devastation of property and endured a lot of pain,” he said.

Coming out of those “very difficult and trying days”, Gujarat had “leapfrogged on the path of development” in an “atmosphere of peace, unity, social harmony and brotherhood”, he claimed.

Modi had said in a recent and rare interview to Society magazine that he was neither religious nor spiritual although he regularly practised yoga and meditation. Today, though, he prayed to the “Almighty” to give him “strength so that I do not develop or retain any ill-feeling or bitterness towards those who defamed Gujarat or me by making false allegations”.

More than Congress leaders, it was human rights activist Teesta Setalvad and suspended police officer Sanjeev Bhatt ---- a riots whistleblower ---- whom Modi loyalists marked out as his primary adversaries.