Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on being asked on the allegations that Police and officials could not do much during the 2002 Gujarat riots, said that some political rivals, and ideology-based journalists together publicised the allegations in a way that everyone started believing lies to be the truth. During an interview with ANI’s Smita Prakash, HM Amit Shah said, “BJP’s political rivals, journalists who came to politics for ideology, and some NGOs together publicised the allegations. They had a strong ecosystem so everyone started believing lies to be the truth. SIT wasn’t ordered by the Court. An NGO had demanded SIT. The court, for the sake of asking, asked our lawyer who said that he will have to get instructions. Court assembled once again after lunch. Our Government said that what objection will we have to it if we have nothing to hide.” “It was a consented decision. We could have argued, but why would we? We had nothing to hide. Today’s judgement mentioned the names of a Police officer, an NGO and some political elements, it makes clear that they together spread lies for sensationalism, and false evidence was fabricated. When they were recording the statement with the SIT, they knew even at that time that it is a false statement. Today, Court made it clear that the Government made all efforts to stop the riots. It made it clear that the then CM appealed to the people again and again to maintain peace. The court said in its today’s judgement that incidents after the burning of the train were not pre-planned but self- motivated. It also dismissed Tehelka’s sting operation because when the footage before and after it came to light, it was found that the sting operation was politically motivated,” he added.