 There was controversy in 2018, when Indian prime minister Narendra Modi was awarded by the Seoul Peace Prize Cultural Foundation, which claimed that his economic policies "reduced social and economic disparity between the rich and the poor" in India.This decision was protested by 26 Korean non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Korean civil society groups, who held a press conference in South Korea.They cited his divisive Hindu nationalist politics, and accused him of being allegedly complicit in anti-Muslim violence in India, notably the 2002 Gujarat riots where over 1,000 people were killed.