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To:
Y. P. Chhibbar PUCL, 81,
Sahyog Apartments Mayur
Vihar-1 Delhi- 110091
Sub: Genocide: REPORT FROM GUJARAT
A
COMMUNAL CARNAGE? NO, IT’S A CASE OF GENOCIDE Gujarat
has witnessed many riots and communal carnages in the past fifty years. But the
post-Godhra bloodbath is perhaps the most gruesome, horrendous and devastating
in its aims, objectives and modus operandi, leaving an ominous message to the
nation as a whole. It was an engineered holocaust, a wanton breach of our
secular fabric and outright violation of human rights enshrined in our
constitution. The
message was loud and clear: it was “Hindutva” with all its militancy, out to
eliminate a community. It was not confined to urban centres, but spread to
district towns and villages where minority Muslim community was butchered with
savage exactitude; their homes and properties totally turned into ashes. Today,
there are not less than 80,000 “refugees” spread all over the state (56,000
in Ahmedabad city alone) mortally afraid to return to their charred homes. The
widespread violence that engulfed the whole of Gujarat was officially explained
as a “spontaneous outburst” or a “backlash” to the event at Godhra
railway station. This is belied by the following facts: (i)
The perpetrators of massive killings were well organized, well-equipped
with arms and incendiary materials including petrol, kerosene, solvent, LPG
cylinders, cranes, tankers and even a deadly new chemical liquid. This could not
have happened overnight. The systematic targeting of Muslims, their homes,
shops, schools, masjids and durgahs within matter of hours could
hardly be called a spontaneous outrage, that even now (March 26), continues in
several districts and in this city itself. (ii)
These militants or hooligans shouted the same slogans and seemed to have
previous training of house-breaking, wielding of weapons like swords and trishuls,
along with deadly tools of arson and loot. They were accompanied by trucks full
of this destructive material at many places of arson. (iii)
The crowds of hundreds, and thousands at certain spots, moved in
different parts of Gujarat, according to well laid down design and plan,
concentrating on the Muslim areas and eliminating them and their religious
shrines, without any let or hindrance. (iv)
There was absolutely no rule of law and there was a planned
“breakdown” of administration. Neither the chief minister nor any of his
colleagues stirred out either to control the criminal assailants or utter a word
of sympathy for those who suffered grievous injuries or outright death. On the
contrary, according to a report in The Indian Express of March 24, two
ministers remained present for few hours at police control rooms to oversee the
operations. According to some victims at Paladi area, the revenue minister who
is a former state home minister, Haren Pandya, was found directing the crowds
and patting the police officials telling them to go soft on “our boys.” (v)
The police showed complete indifference and often turned away or even
encouraged and supplied fuel from their vehicles to spread arson in certain area
like Khokhra-Mehmdavad. In fact, the Police Commissioner, P.C. Pande, observed
that “the police as human beings were bound to be affected and influenced by
the prevailing atmosphere.” He also admitted that several police officers were
transferred a few days ago. Was it in anticipation of such a carnage? The latest
information is that there has taken place another wave of mass transfer of
“disloyal” police officers and even a top bureaucrat has expressed his
indignation at such transfers. (vi)
Equally ignominious has been the utter failure of Intelligence that
should have anticipated the incidence at Godhra. Neither the railway nor the
city police were vigilant enough to control the situation. (vii)
Police commissioner was not in favour of bringing the dead and charred
bodies of kar sevaks from Godhra to Ahmedabad but he was over-ruled.
Reports indicate that this was the beginning of the entire holocaust, as
witnessed at a hospital (Sola Road) where the mob started to destroy passing
trucks whose drivers had Muslim identity, right in front of Gujarat High Court
having enough police security. (viii)
The complicity of the state was further proved in not calling the army
with immediate effect and even after it was called, it was kept on “alert”
but not “deployed.” In
conclusion, political programme behind such systematic killings and massive
holocaust was to prepare the minds of people for this so called principle of
majoritarian rule of Hindus by marginalizing the Muslims and permanently placing
them as second class citizens. Actually, such a policy is ultra vires of the
Indian constitution, a slur on the principle of secularism and an affront to the
fundamental rights guaranteed to all the citizens of India. The
VHP and BD are fascist organizations, following the fascist type of militancy,
thought control, espousing the cause of one party, one culture and one nation.
Their religious extremism leads them to pursue the politics of hatred, striking
terror in the minds of minorities and secular Hindus. Their attack on Orissa
assembly is similar to the attack on our Parliament by Islamic jehadis on
December 13, 2001. Are
we imitating the ways Pakistan has been functioning? We blame cross-border
terrorism but are we not generating terrorism through religious extremism within
our nation and thereby inviting divisions and disaster? |