Narendra Modi in Delhi. (PTI)

New Delhi, Oct. 12: Narendra Modi was today pounded with queries on the 2002 Gujarat riots, but he ducked an apology saying he was answerable only to the people who had judged him and stood by him.

“The people have given me a chance once and they will give me another chance. They are my God. I am answerable to them,” the Gujarat chief minister said at the HT Leadership Summit when asked if he regretted the riots.

“You have to decide if you are willing to accept the people’s verdict or (want to) keep hanging on to the past.”

Brushing aside a question on whether his tenure would be remembered only for the riots, Modi said people did not have hearts big enough to concede that he had been taking Gujarat on the path of rapid development.

“For me, the people of the state are the most important. They have backed me and will continue to back me on the development agenda.”

Playing up the development plank ahead of the December Assembly elections, he said it was unfortunate that his efforts at transforming Gujarat were not being noticed.

“It will be accepted some time and I shall wait for the moment,” the chief minister said.

Modi, who does not have the support of the RSS as he goes into this election, refused to get drawn into any secular-communal debate or anti-minority rhetoric. Instead, he invoked Gandhi and claimed he was pursuing the Mahatma’s goal of “Ram Rajya”.

“Both Mahatma Gandhi and his idea of Ram Rajya are relevant to me,” he said, raising eyebrows in the audience.

Modi said by Ram Rajya, he meant a “welfare state”. He avoided any reference to the hardline Hindutva he is known for, defending it instead as “an all-encompassing philosophy”.