The timing is no coincidence. Little over a year from now, India will go for general elections and if things hold as they are Narendra Modi is very likely to return as Prime Minister for the third consecutive time.

When riots broke out in Gujarat in February 2002, Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the state. Here is a brief chronology of what happened back then.

• On January 26, 2001, an earthquake with magnitude of 7.4 struck Gujarat, killing thousands. The state was devastated.
• About few months later, Keshubhai Patel, who was the chief minister of Gujarat then was facing allegations of abuse of power, corruption and poor administration.
• On October 6, 2001 he was asked to resign and Narendra Modi was brought in who swore in as CM on October 7, 2001.
• On December 13, 2001, terrorists backed by Pakistan attacked Indian Parliament. Situation was tensed and the security at India-Pakistan border was jacked up, with clouds of war looming. Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government was at Centre, but BJP did not have full majority. It was a fragile time in Indian politics.
• On February 27, 2002, Sabarmati Express, a train returning from Ayodhya was set on fire. 59 Hindu pilgrims returning after giving services for construction of Ram Mandir, whenever it happens in hopes of court ruling in their favour whenever it does, were burnt alive.
• February 28, 2002, riots broke out in Gujarat in reaction to the Godhra Sabarmati Express carnage.

Here is what the BBC documentary does not mention. A mob comprising of thousands of Muslim men had gathered at Godhra railway station. The train was delayed by a couple of hours and instead of arriving in Godhra in middle of the night, it reached in morning. The Sabarmati Express was not a random target, it was targeted specifically because it was carrying passengers returning from Ayodhya.

Soon, during the aftermath of the carnage, riots broke out. The mainstream media that has always believed in ‘responsible reporting’ where Muslim perpetrators are not named or crimes are watered down, would conveniently forget the carnage. Soon, there were fantastical reports on ‘atrocities’ perpetrated by ‘Hindu mobs’ on poor Muslims. Many, many publications, including international ones, reported that a ‘Hindu mob’ raped a pregnant Muslim woman, Kausar Bano, ripped open her tummy with a sword and flung the foetus in the air. It has been 20 years and this myth has been perpetuated for a generation now. There are different variations, sometimes even more gruesome fate of the foetus is depicted, but the basic premise remains the same.

However, the postmortem of Kausar Bano told a different story. A 2010 report states that the doctor who conducted a post-mortem on Kauser found the foetus intact. Dr J S Kanoria, who had conducted the autopsy on 2nd March 2002 presented supporting documents to the special court and said that the foetus was intact in the woman’s womb. The foetus weight 2,500 gms and was 45 cms long.

But as we see, the lie had already been perpetuated.

Nothing justifies the riots. And nothing justifies the burning alive of those Hindus, who were killed specifically because they were Hindus.

Worse, these Hindus were then blamed for their own deaths. And their killers were given a ‘clean chit’ by secular media because ‘no one knows how the fire was lit’. In 2018, Raghav Bahl’s The Quint published an ‘explainer’ on the Godhra carnage and subsequent riots. It claims ‘no one knows who lit the match’. Let me help you: A riotous Muslim mob did it. Say it in as many words.