Reverse Headline
Andy Buncombe's opinion piece in The Independent on Gujarat Chief Minister gets a curious headline. The article makes no mention of the so-called "Godhra verdict" — which vindicated the theory that the 2002 Gujarat riots were sparked by a Muslim conspiracy to burn a group of rightwing Hindus alive on the Sabarmarti Express — editors for some reason chose to head the piece "Exonerated – the politician critics saw as a rabble-rouser." Then, in the op-ed below, Buncombe goes on to lay out the remaining charges against Modi, and concludes with a drama line about a Muslim politician who allegedly called Modi when his home was being attacked to beg for assistance, and then told the people he was sheltering that the chief minister had said no help would be coming.
Exonerated? Hardly, at least in this article.
Rabble-rouser? A funny choice of words for a guy accused of preventing police from quelling mobs that killed upwards of 1,000 people.
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