Two residents of eastern Assam’s Golaghat town have lodged a case against the authors and publisher of a Class 12 textbook for allegedly criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “silence” during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Mr. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat when communal violence broke out after the Sabarmati Express was set on fire killing 57 people near the Godhra railway station.
Golaghat district’s Superintendent of Police Manabendra Dev Ray said on Thursday that an FIR was lodged at the local police station on September 16 against three authors of the Assamese textbook for Political Science and its publisher Assam Book Depot.
The authors are retired college teachers Durga Kanta Sharma, Rafiq Zaman and Manash Protim Baruah.
Mr. Ray said the case was registered under three sections of the Indian Penal Code, including intent to incite any class or community by publishing or circulating any statement, rumour or report. “The case could not be followed up immediately because of the death of the officer-in-charge of the police station. We shall be investigating soon,” he told The Hindu .
The complainants — Soumitra Goswami and Manav Jyoti Bora — said the writers and publishers were trying to mislead the students by giving “false information” about the incident, despite a special investigation team set up to probe the incident giving Mr. Modi a clean chit.
Demanding withdrawal of the textbook from circulation, they said the “objectionable content” is on page 376 under the section “Godhra Incident and Anti-Muslim Riot in Gujarat.”
The passage, they said, accuses the Modi-led BJP government in Gujarat of being “mute spectators” and the State administration of helping Hindus against Muslims.
Officials of the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council declined to comment, saying they needed to first go through the content of the textbook.
