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DELHI, INDIA, June 13, 2002: The following is excerpted from an interview in the Asia edition of Time Magazine: “Time talks with Krishna Lal Advani, India’s Home Minister and the man tipped by many as the hardline hand behind Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. TIME: Why do people call you a hardliner? Advani: It’s simple. These phrases, hawkish, hardliner, strongman–they make for good copy. TIME: Turning to your own portfolio, are you happy with what happened in Gujarat? [On February 27, a crowd of Muslims burned nearly 60 Hindu devotees alive in a train at Ghodra, an event that led Hindu extremists to riot across the state of Gujarat. Unofficial death tolls count more than 2,000 dead, the overwhelming majority Muslims, and the violence continues to this day.] Advani: Ghodra was horrible, but what happened afterwards was equally reprehensible. We cannot condone either. But it did give me satisfaction that the government took action against the wrongdoers. TIME: Most people would say the opposite, that the police and the state apparatus stood back and let the violence happen, and that nothing has happened to them. Advani: Nearly 200 policemen died, so I do not think there was any complicity from them. And as for [hardline Hindu nationalist Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra] Modi, if there was any evidence of his complicity or being inactive, he would have been punished. He himself offered to resign, and we all said: Why?”

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