Santosh Helekar had earlier written: I have no obligation to accept what U. G. Barad claims to be the official estimate. There are many "official" estimates, each one different from the other and from Barad's "official" estimate. I for one is using the estimate of Human Rights Watch given in the following quote from 2012.
I do not wish to thrust the estimates made by the Government of India and Government of Gujarat on anyone. Simultaneously I presume that Santosh does not wish to thrust the estimates of the Human Rights Watch on anyone. Now he says: But he seems to be continuing to insist by various means that his estimate is somehow more accurate than mine... However, in his latest message, Santosh is actually giving two figures 2000 killed and 1200 killed. I do grant that my earlier figure of 1100 could well be wrong. But then given the final quote in his message, surely I am nearer the correct figure than Santosh is. Irrespective of the figure, let me put forward a perspective. The victims of the riots have been given financial assistance to try and reduce the impact on their families. The government figures are based on the number of people to whom this assistance has been given. If we are to accept the HRW figures, then obviously a large number (around 800) of families of the victims have not received the assistance. Should not organizations like HRW devote their boundless energies of taking up their cases with the government and ensure that at least some justice is done to them? I find the behaviour of organizations like HRW to be very strange. Regarding Narendra Modis culpability. Perhaps Santosh would like to read these two articles: http://www.manushi.in/articles.php?articleId=1685&ptype=&pgno=1 http://www.manushi.in/articles.php?articleId=1688&ptype=