After the bullets, the ballot

Chief Minister Narendra Modi is a man in a hurry—to cash in on the hate at the hustings. Will it pay?

DIONNE BUNSHA

It was politics that incited a mob to loot and burn her house. But politics is the last thing on Asiabibi Sayeed Ansari’s mind. Still living in the Bakar Shah Roja relief camp in Ahmedabad, Asiabibi is not even certain where her next meal will come from. The government has de-listed and stopped supplies to the camp she stays in, although it houses around 650 people. On July 20th, the camp organisers said they would not be able to cook for the refugees anymore. “They gave us rations and told us to prepare our own food. But we don’t even have vessels to cook in,” says Asiabibi. Her house is being re-constructed by a Muslim charity. “The government gave us only Rs 2,000. That will not even pay for the door,” she says. “They should first make sure that everyone has got back their homes and jobs, then think about elections,” Asiabibi adds.

But chief minister Narendra Modi isn’t bothered about Asiabibi or the estimated 25,000 refugees in Gujarat’s relief camps. His only priority is to hold elections as soon as possible, to count his votes over their losses. Over 1,000 people were killed in the state-supported communal violence and more than 1.5 lakh people were made homeless. Eager to cashing in on what he perceives to be a ‘pro-Hindutva’ wave (but others call ‘fear’ and ‘terror’), Mr Modi dissolved the Gujarat assembly on July 19th, immediately after the presidential elections. He asked for early polls, much before the scheduled elections in early 2003. This led to chaos in Parliament. Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned on July 22nd with the opposition protesting against Modi’s move. They called for his dismissal and for President’s rule in the state. But the BJP was in no mood to listen. Deputy prime minister L.K. Advani said Modi had handled the riots better than any other chief minister in the last 50 years.

Chief minister Narendra Modi
Photo: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP

Despite Modi’s blustering confidence, it may not be an easy ride for the BJP. The Hindutva chariot could get stuck in the mud. A great deal depends on how much support Modi is able to garner within his own party. His egoistic and authoritarian style of functioning has rubbed several senior leaders and ministers the wrong way. Some were against the manner in which he handled the post-Godhra violence. They feel that the situation should have been brought under control much sooner. Several Hindu families and businesses also suffered as a result of the prolonged violence. Many local BJP activists were also arrested, upsetting their local support bases.

Since Modi has no mass base, his fate is closely linked to the support of his predecessor Keshubhai Patel. Until now, Keshubhai has been keeping a low profile. Recently, he was offered the post of party president but declined to accept it. With a strong base in Saurashtra, where the BJP has 51 of the 58 assembly seats, he is one of the most powerful Patel leaders. Patels are one of the two dominant castes in Gujarat politics, comprising 20 per cent of the population. They have been the BJP’s strongest allies. The other dominant caste is the Kshatriyas, which also accounts for around 20 per cent of the population. They have traditionally supported the Congress. The KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) formula has been the Congress’ strategy in Gujarat for more than a decade. But its influence within these sections has been under threat, with the BJP trying to mobilise tribals and dalits to participate in the 1992 Ram Janmabhoomi Yatra.

Just a day before the Gujarat assembly was dissolved, the Congress jolted itself from slumber. Shankarsinh Vaghela, a powerful Kshatriya leader, was appointed Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president. A former BJP stalwart and RSS pracharak, Vaghela rebelled against the BJP in 1995, when his rival Keshubhai Patel was made chief minister. Vaghela’s entry has changed Gujarat’s political atmosphere in several ways. It has revived hopes within the Congress, which is considered a weak opposition party. Vaghela is backed not only by the Kshatriyas, but also by the Hindu Other Backward Castes (OBCs), who comprise around 40 per cent of the population. He had mobilised OBC support for the BJP. Vaghela is also very influential with the Gujarati media and a few powerful industrial houses like Reliance and Gujarat Torrent. He is seen as someone who can give Modi a run for his money, since he knows the inner workings of the BJP. Moreover, Modi and Vaghela worked together as general secretary and president of the Gujarat BJP respectively from 1985 to 1990. Now they will clash as chief ministerial candidates in the coming elections.

While the BJP is likely to use the communal card, Vaghela will play caste politics. Known as a crafty manipulator, he is also capable of engineering cunning manoeuvres. After Keshubhai became CM in 1995, Vaghela engineered a split in the BJP and horse-traded MLAs to form his own party, the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP). At that time, he airlifted defecting MLAs to a secret destination in Khajuraho to keep them away from the influence of the BJP. There have been no defections at the start of this current battle. Vaghela is using the BJP’s involvement in the violence against them. His election slogan is ‘Riot Free Gujarat’.

Voter anger against the BJP government has been so vociferous that despite its weak organisational strength, the Congress has won all elections held in the last two years. In recent municipality elections for president and vice president held in early July, the Congress wrested power from the BJP in Anand, Khambhat and Borsad and re-established its hold in Petlad. During the district panchayat elections, held in September 2000, the BJP lost 23 of the 25 district panchayats and the majority of taluka panchayats. Earlier, it held control over 24 district panchayats. In the municipal elections held at the same time, the party lost two crucial municipal corporations - Ahmedabad and Rajkot, which it had ruled for 13 and 24 years respectively. The BJP retained control over the other four municipal corporations, but its victory margins were heavily reduced. But, the BJP still has 117 of the 182 state assembly seats. However, insiders feel it may not be easy to retain these seats, especially if Keshubhai does not co-operate with Modi. During the last assembly elections in 1998, it was a triangular fight between the BJP, Congress and RJP. The anti-BJP votes were split between RJP and Congress. Many BJP candidates won by a narrow margin because of this split, party sources say.

The ‘Hindu vote’ that the BJP is eager to cash in on also seems to be somewhat nebulous, considering that there is no heterogeneous Hindu society. Caste is more likely to dominate voting patterns, with the two most powerful castes - Patels and Kshatriyas - pitted against each other. The Congress is also hoping that public anger against the non-performing BJP government will override the Hindutva wave, especially in places affected by communal violence. The BJP anticipates that the fear generated will reap profits for them mainly in urban areas and parts of central and eastern Gujarat, where the Sangh Parivar unleashed its communal fury. Several parts of the state like Kutch, Saurashtra, south Gujarat and parts of western Gujarat remained peaceful. Here, the more pressing survival issues relating to drought, employment and water shortages are likely to dominate.

The BJP’s bungling in governance and the economic recession are likely to be most important in voter’s minds, although the carnage of the last five months was an attempt to divert attention away from it. The state’s finances are in shambles with the deficit valued at Rs 363.95 crore. In addition to this, much higher debts are mounting. Over the past five years, the BJP has transformed a surplus budget into a negative one. Development work has ground to a halt with contractors bills worth around Rs 1,000 crore unpaid. Contractors held a morcha in Gandhinagar recently, demanding payment. The state also faces a power crunch, with a shortfall of around 20 per cent. Residents of Kutch and Saurashtra are bitter about the large-scale corruption involved in earthquake rehabilitation. The government took loans worth 900 million USD from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank for rehabilitation. But ground realities do not reflect even a tiny fraction of the money spent. Gujarat is also facing a severe water crisis. In summer, more than 2,000 villages in Gujarat had acute water shortages. Around 80 per cent of the state’s water resources are in the industrial south Gujarat region. But the water is polluted with industrial toxins. In north Gujarat, excessive drilling of borewells has also resulted in water contamination.

Even before the economy was ruined by the communal carnage, the state had already slipped into a recession. “While Modi keeps boasting about foreign direct investment and large companies like Reliance investing here, the state’s own industrial base is in shambles. Small and medium industry, which laid the foundation for Gujarat’s progress is in shambles, with around 60 per cent either sick or closed,” says an industrialist. “Moreover, the state corporations which gave the impetus to the state’s industrial progress by providing support to industry are also on the verge of closure.” These include Gujarat State Finance Corporation, Gujarat Industrial Investment Corporation, Gujarat Small Industries Corporation and Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation. It is estimated that around five lakh workers have directly lost their jobs due to the closure of small scale units alone. Besides these, many others in allied industries have also suffered job losses. The communal carnage has made matters worse for Gujarat’s economy, destroying several small businesses, shops and cafes. Besides, several other businesses have suffered crippling losses due to closures during months of curfew. The situation is so bad that four families in Ahmedabad committed suicide in July after facing financial ruin.

Modi’s pretending that all these tragedies don’t exist will not make the hard realities in Gujarat disappear. His government even denies that people like Asiabibi exist. Their camp is has been scratched off government records. They remain displaced in their own homeland. The next few months will tell whether Modi’s blinkered and bloody-minded saffron approach to the polls will also make the BJP’s votes vanish.

Frontline, August 3 - 16, 2002 Also available here

The Gujarati press: Rumour or news?

Frontline,
The regional press had no small role in fanning the flames. Goebbels in Gujarat?

DIONNE BUNSHA

“If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.”
- Joseph Goebbels, Minister for Propaganda in Nazi Germany.

On February 27th, the Sabarmati Express was set on fire, killing 58 people. Gujarat was in a state of hysteria. People feared the worst. Powerful Hindutva forces in the state were all set to target Muslims. With rumours flying thick and fast, people were desperate to get accurate news. But, truth was a scarce commodity at the time. Gujarat’s two leading newspapers, Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh, were instrumental in spreading panic rather than peace. “Avenge Blood with Blood” was one of the headlines on the front page of Sandesh, the day after the Sabarmati Express massacre. The article that followed as a statement issued by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

Both newspapers carried false reports about 10-15 girls being pulled out of the train and kidnapped by ‘religious fanatics’ and of two womens’ breasts being cut off. This was later denied by chief minister Narendra Modi. But neither newspaper carried a clarification. Gujarat Samachar published a report saying the article that appeared in Sandesh regarding the kidnapping of women was false, but no mention of their own blunder.

Throughout the communal carnage in Gujarat, the state’s leading newspapers have been locked in a peculiar kind of competition. It isn’t about who gets the news and facts first. Its about who can be more communal and provocative. Both Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh have raised the anti-Muslim pitch. They published several false articles during the past few months. In many ways, they have aided the VHP’s propaganda machinery, stoking the fires and fuelling hatred.

“Hindus Beware: Haj Pilgrims Return with a Deadly Conspiracy” screamed another headline in Sandesh on March 6th. “In reality, hundreds of terrified and anxious Haj pilgrims returned accompanied with heavy police escorts to homes that could have been razed to the ground,” says a report by Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Shanti Abhiyan in Vadodara. Another news snippet in Sandesh on March 1st, the day that the VHP called a Bharat Bandh, reprimands Bhavnagar’s leaders for maintaining peace. “Hindus were burnt alive in Godhra and leaders of Bhavnagar did even throw a stone in the name of bandh. Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot had partly avenged the killing of Hindus in Godhra. In the case of Bhavnagar, the gutless leaders are hiding their faces under the guise of non-violence,” the report states. Another headline in Sandesh on March 2nd shrieked, “Bapunagar reels under blind private firing all day. If you do not kill the enemy they will kill you”. These reports seemed intent on stirring trouble.

In several instances, Sandesh mis-reported events or selectively reported them to portray Muslims as the perpetrators of violence, when in fact, they were the victims in most cases. Feeding prevalent stereotypes, all Muslims were denounced as ‘terrorists’ and ‘religious fanatics’ while all Hindus were glorified as ‘devotees’. Areas with a large Muslim population are described as dangerous ‘mini-Pakistans’. In fact, the residents of Tandalja in Vadodara were so upset by the malicious campaign against their neighbourhood, which is predominantly Muslim but also houses 7,000 Hindus, that they filed several complaints, one of which is with the Editors Guild. A false report about firing in the area was reported although no such incident occurred. Sandesh later printed a clarification after residents complained. But the damage was already done. The sub-heading in Sandesh of March 4th wrongly reported that the Collector had proposed to declare the neighbourhood as a ‘disturbed area’. As a result, people were scared to go into the area. Milk vans and auto-rickshaws refused to enter, although there was no curfew or violent incident in the area.

Not even the relief camps were spared. A banner headline in Sandesh on March 15th warned, “In the name of shelter, migrants from other states enter city”. It alleged that Muslim leaders were using relief camps as an excuse to set up illegal colonies. In reality, thousands of Muslim refugees who were hounded out of their homes had no choice but to live in miserable conditions in the camps.

Sandesh’s layout is filled with one of blood and gore. Red stars were used when reporting the death count. Horrific photographs were used, many accented with red. “Alternatively, photographs of militant, trishul wielding karsevaks are splashed across the front page. Both kinds of photographs serve to instil fear or terror,” says the PUCL and Shanti Abhiyan report. It adds, “All RSS and VHP statements are given pride of place in Sandesh. Appeals for peace, instances of Hindus and Muslims protecting each other are given short shrift.” Gujarat Samachar, on the other hand, did carry positive stories of communal harmony and communities helping each other.

Television coverage also followed the same pattern. While national channels like Aaj Tak and Star TV updated viewers with accurate reports, a few local television channels often aired VHP propaganda. J TV, one of Vadodara’s local channels was apparently the most vitriolic. “It regularly broadcasted provocative speeches by VHP leaders. It kept repeating gory footage of the Godhra massacre,” says Rohit Prajapati, a human rights activist. He points out that during the Ram Dhan rally on March 15, the channel only showed scenes of jubilation by the participants, but no scenes of the havoc they wreaked on Muslim localities along the way. The coverage also did not portray the tense situation in Vadodara at the time. Nor did it mention that the rally was banned because many places in Vadodara were under curfew. Yet, Narendra Modi wanted to ban Star TV, which was providing the real picture, something he was turning a blind eye to.

While this was the first time that people saw communal speeches and footage of violence on their TV screens, the provocative tabloid style has been a standard feature of the Gujarati press. Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar have a long history of communal coverage and have been indicted by several commissions of inquiry probing into the riots of 1969, 1981 and 1985-86. But no action has ever been taken against them. This time, a few social activists have been trying to file a criminal case against Sandesh under section 153(a) of the Indian Penal Code for inciting communal hatred. But the police refuses to lodge a first information report (FIR). “We have been trying to file the case for the past one week, but they have not yet registered the FIR. We even approached the police commissioner, but nothing has happened,” says Valjibhai Patel, one of the activists trying to bring one of Gujarat’s most powerful newspapers to justice.

While JTV remained unpunished, the Vadodara police commissioner registered FIRs against local channels News Plus and VNM. He also suspended the licences of two cable operators. The commissioner felt that the cable networks had “played havoc” by showing footage of rioting in Macchipith on March 15th and for repeating the footage the next day. Local channels are small fry compared to the powerful owners of Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar.

In an interview with the Editors Guild Fact Finding Mission Report, the chief managing director and editor of Sandesh, Falgun Patel described Gujarati newspapers as “pro-Hindu” and criticised the English media for siding with the minority community. He admitted that his reporters did lose balance and were communalised all down the line. Sandesh, he said, “editorialises the news” by “balancing the news with their own version”. Patel also said that it was their editorial policy not to carry corrections and clarifications. He described the Godhra incident as “unforgettable” and the reaction to it as “justified”. For all the havoc his newspaper created, chief minister Narendra Modi sent him a letter expressing appreciation for the newspapers ‘restrained’ coverage of recent events in the best traditions of journalism.

Gujarat Samachar has a circulation of 8.10 lakh and Sandesh sells 7.05 lakh copies, Mr Patel told the Editors Guild team. He claimed that Sandesh’s circulation had increased by 1.5 lakh since the violence began because of its “pro-Hindu” stand. Gujarat Samachar’s owner-editor Shreyans Shah told the Editors Guild team that circulation of his daily increased by around 50,000 during the carnage. Are these newspapers popular because of their communal stand? Are they telling people what they want to hear? “Yes, people do like to read sensational stories. But during the riots when there is so much uncertainty and rumours, people want to know the truth. They want to know if it is safe to go out, to send their children to school. But these newspapers are failing to deliver the facts to their readers,” says Rohit Prajapati. “Their circulation may have gone up because during such times people want to know what is happening around them. And since these two newspapers are the market leaders, they are bound to gain the most by this sudden interest in the news. It has nothing to do with their communal leanings,” he adds.

In true Goebbelesian style, Hindutva propaganda pervaded the average Gujarati in different forms. VHP street propaganda complemented the Gujarati dailies with even more vicious campaigns against Muslims. Pamphlets calling for an economic boycott of Muslims were widely distributed throughout the state. Others asking Hindus to awaken and stop bearing Muslim atrocities were circulated just before March 15th when trouble was expected due to the Ram temple foundation stone ceremony in Ayodhya. Another VHP fund collection appeal warns Hindus against attacks by Muslims, and asks for funds to legally defend those VHP activists who were arrested during the violence.

The VHP also used new media technology to further their cause. It distributed CD-ROMs with gory footage of the carnage. In Ahmedabad’s posh shopping centres, when shops were looted by affluent Ahmedabadis, news of the free-for-all plunder was spread through SMS messages. Narendra Modi’s website has fan mail praising the ‘asli mard’ (real man) for ‘protecting Hindus’. However, false news that kar sevaks kidnapped a young Muslim woman from Godhra station platform was also widely circulated through email.

But, undoubtedly, the powerful Gujarati print media, with its wide reach, had the most lasting impact. Its anti-minority (not only anti-Muslim) and casteist venom, even during peaceful times, has ensured a slow and sustained indoctrination of the Hindutva ideology. The key role it plays in the fascist propaganda machinery ensures it immunity from the law. It can continue to twist reality and keep the wheels of hate turning.

Frontline, July 20 - August 2, 2002 Also available here

Chariots of Fear

The Jagannath rath yatra passes without incident, but for Gujarat's Muslims it is life on the edge, for the fifth month running.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Ahmedabad

A festival in a ghost town. Welcome to Ahmedabad’s 125th Jagannath Rath Yatra. While some people in the city celebrated, others abandoned their homes, ran for their lives and hid in fear.

Relief camps were swamped with a sudden exodus of people. After staying in a relief camp for four months, Sayeeda Rafiq Maniyar and her family returned, just 15 days back, to their looted home in Saraspur, Ahmedabad. Their attempts to settle back into their old life were rudely disrupted by the rath yatra. Fear of further violence made them drop everything and run back to a relief camp in Haj House, Kalupur. “The basti is empty once again. Everyone has left. No one dares to stay there for the rath yatra.” Sayeeda’s chawl is close to the route of the rath yatra.
Anxiety over the outcome of Ahmedabad’s Jagannath Rath Yatra reached fever pitch as the dreaded day - June 12th - drew nearer. On the eve of the festival, many of the city’s Muslims, especially those living in the walled city, deserted their homes. In their search for safer places, they scrambled into relief camps, relatives’ homes or neighbouring bastis, which were away from the road and had a large Muslim population.

The Jagganath Rath Yatra winds its way through Ahmedabad's walled city. It has been a communal flashpoint in the past.
Chief minister Narendra Modi pulled out all stops, using this festival to prove that law and order has returned to Gujarat. But the atmosphere surrounding the rath yatra is reflective of the mood all over the state. Despite official attempts to show that the situation is normal, scratching the surface reveals the terror that lies beneath. While the powerful are upbeat, marginalised Muslims in the relief camps and the streets hang about the darkest corners. Although large -scale violence has abated, they still live in fear, moving between the remains of their homes, relief camps and relatives’ houses. Some who returned to their homes had to return to the camps. For many Muslims, it’s a desperate search for a place to belong. The rath yatra has heightened the insecurity and toppled the balance for those who were just about managing to pick up the pieces of their lives and start again from scratch.
The rath yatra is a 3-km long procession that winds through the narrow lanes of Ahmedabad’s walled city every year. Participants indulge in wild, chauvinistic rituals, running through the streets of the city’s Muslim dominated areas, brandishing swords, sticks and trishuls, sometimes shouting provocative communal slogans. In the past, communal clashes have erupted during the yatra in 1985 and 1992. This time, Muslims were not taking any chances.

They have already lost more than 1,000 lives, and thousands more homes and jobs when Hindutva mobs launched systematic communal attacks against Muslims after February 27th when the Sabarmati Express was burned in Godhra, killing 59 passengers. Ever since then, Gujarat’s Muslim community has been shaken. Not only have they witnessed the most gory attacks on their people but picking up the pieces of their lives has also proven difficult as they face an economic boycott. Many have seen their homes and shops razed to the ground to make way for temples. Living in a state whose government abetted the massacres makes every Muslim fearful.

Ayub Khan, a tailor who lives and works in Dariyapur, finished work for the day and headed off for the Shah Alam relief camp on the eve of the yatra. “Its not safe for us here. We don’t trust the rath yatris or the police. During the recent violence, it was the police who fired on innocent people here, even though there was no riot in the area,” he says. With the police swarming the neighbourhood for the past few days, fear of the police also drove residents away. As part of security measures, the police organised rehearsals drills in the days leading up to the yatra. “The police only target us. Even when we are attacked and run for safety, the police fire at us. We live on the border with a Hindu colony. If anything happens, where will we run?” he asks.

His distrust of the police is echoed by many others. The residents of Punjabi Galli in Dariyapur have recently constructed a huge iron gate to keep outsiders away as well as to prevent random police combing operations. “We are scared of the police, not the rath yatris. The rath yatris are people like us. But it was the police who encouraged the killings in the past months. They entered homes and shot at innocent people,” says Rizwana Noormia Sheikh, a Daryapur resident. While boasting of its ability to restore law and order, the Gujarat government points out that the largest number of people have been killed in police firing while quelling the violence. However, it does not mention that a disproportionately large number of these firings killed the victims of the attacks rather than the criminals. This has made Muslims even more scared since they have no one to turn to. “Its the first time that we are deserting our houses because of the rath yatra. What bigger shame than to escape from your own home?”

While most of the 7,000 people who fled in fear of the rath yatra will get back to their homes soon, Ahmedabad’s relief camps still houses around 30,000 others. They have had no choice but to live in the most unhygienic and inhospitable conditions for almost five months. Their livelihoods and the education of their children has been disrupted. Most of them have been unable to return to their homes, fearing further attacks or because they don’t have the money to rebuild their homes. Compensation doled out to refugees by the BJP government has been pathetic, mainly in the range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000. Many haven’t even received cheques from the government. Yet, the state is trying to shrug off all responsibility for the refugees. It is willing to provide supplies to only 4 of the 20 camps operational in Ahmedabad. The others simply don’t exist in government records anymore. Most rural camps, where people live without even shelter during the monsoon, have also been de-listed by the government. Food, water and electricity supply has stopped. A government that aided and abetted the violence obviously wouldn’t bother to help the victims get back on their feet again.

Its only pre-occupation is to hold elections soon to ride on the Hindutva wave generated by the communal attacks orchestrated by the Sangh Parivar. Fear is a key element of its electoral game plan. Gujarat’s BJP government brushed off the concerns and anxieties of its Muslim citizens regarding the renewal of violence during the rath yatra. While Modi insists on the rath yatra, he appealed to Muslims not to take out processions during the Moharram festival in March, a suggestion to which many had agreed. Despite suggestions from top police officials to cancel the yatra this year or change the route, it remained adamant. “The rath yatra at such a time is very dangerous from the security point of view. Especially in Ahmedabad, where two to three lakh people celebrate in very narrow roads. Over the years, the festival has become a Hindutva yatra on the streets. It is hijacked by these elements every year,” says a police officer. Over the years, the yatra has become a festival to be dreaded since it threatens to turn into a flashpoint for communal clashes.

But this year, the Hindutvadis have had their fill. After unleashing widespread violence over the last few months, they spared no effort to ensure that the rath yatra was peaceful. Heavy police security was deployed. The streets were dotted as much with khaki as with saffron. The government probably spent more money on arranging security for the festival all over the state than it has on the refugees in relief camps. To prevent any trouble, the size of the Ahmedabad rath yatra was cut down to one-third its size. Only 35 trucks were allowed on the 15 km route, whereas normally there are around 100. Nothing was going to stop the yatra from rolling on. The prestige of all the ‘true Hindu patriots’ in the Gujarat government was at stake.

Many of these ‘Hindu patriots’ who wreaked havoc with peoples’ lives have got away scot free. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has made sure that their ‘boys’ were safe from the clutches of the law. In fact, it even launched a fund collection drive in middle class Hindu localities to raise the legal fees to defend them. But the lawyers didn’t have to work too hard. The local police did enough to help. They refused to file cases against Sangh Parivar leaders and activists although victims and witnesses tried doggedly to register FIRs. When cases were filed, they were group FIRs for an incident in the area, instead of for each complaint filed. That reduced the number of times, if at all, the accused were arrested. No action has been taken against BJP MLA Mayaben Kodnani and VHP secretary Dr Jaideep Patel whose names were mentioned in the most gruesome massacre at Naroda Patiya in Ahmedabad. The first riot case came up for hearing recently regarding the burning of shops in Lunawada. The accused were let off within two days since the police case against them was so flimsy. The saffron brigade is gloating over the manner in which they have been able to subvert the system and use state power to their advantage.

As the akhadas made their way through the streets, flexing their muscles in frenzied arrogance, the few Muslim elders, who stayed back in the neighbourhood to guard their homes, hid behind closed doors and windows. Muslims all over the state were told to observe a self-imposed ‘janata curfew’. Even Muslim areas through which the yatra did not pass were deserted. As soon as the last rath passed out of the Muslim-dominated Daryapur area, police cordoned off the road and Muslim elders helping the police let off a collective sigh of relief. They celebrated the peaceful passage of the yatra through their neighbourhood. It helped that the police was hurrying the yatra on, attempting to get it over as quickly as possible. Normally, the yatra starts from the Jagannath temple at 7 a.m. and returns late at night. But this time, the police tried to get it over much earlier.

Considered an ‘acid test’ for Narendra Modi’s government, it was essential for him that the rath yatra passed off peacefully. All the BJPs hopes of an early election in October were hinged on proving that it can please its hardline Hindu supporters and yet maintain peace when it wants to. The chief minister as well as former CM Keshubhai Patel were there to greet the yatra. The government was adamant on holding the festival. Its security advisor K.P.S. Gill endorsed Modi’s stand by saying that changing the route of the yatra would create more tension in the city. Gill also backed the BJP’s stand by declaring that early elections would ease tension in the state by putting an end to any politically-motivated violence. Although Gujarat’s Muslim are still threatened, Mr Gill announced that since the rath yatra was peaceful, his work in Gujarat was over. With tempers still so frayed and elections around the corner, many would say its just begininng.

In the public jubilation over a peaceful yatra, all the terror and violence it created was sidelined. Around 7,000 people left their homes and fled to relief camps, according to Fr. Victor Moses from the Citizens’ Initiative, a group of NGOs helping with relief operations. In the build up to the yatra, trouble broke out in Gomtipur, Ahmedabad. Shivramdas, a mahant of the Saryudas Temple in Prem Darwaza (which is on the route of the rath yatra) was arrested for possessing nine country-made pistols. Country-bombs and arms were also seized in Bhavnagar. A suicide bomber, who wanted to avenge his son’s death, was arrested while the yatra was underway in Ahmedabad. The police fired 20 rounds, injuring two people, when trouble broke out during the yatra at Sherpur village, Anand district. Stone throwing occurred during the rath yatra in Kheda, Anand district and curfew was imposed. So much for the peaceful rath yatra.

To know just how peaceful, it really was, ask people like Sayeeda Maniyar. They have spent sleepless nights in fear and terror. Even though they are relieved that the yatra has passed off without violence, they still prefer to wait and watch for a day or two before leaving the camps. Peace is yet to return to their homes and their minds.

Frontline, July 20 - August 2, 2002 Also available here

Godhra probe: A foregone conclusion?

Investigations into the burning of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra on February 27 seem to be directed to prove that it was a pre-planned terrorist act in line with the official script.

DIONNE BUNSHA

“It (burning of the Sabarmati Express) was a pre-planned attack. The charred bodies which I saw at Godhra railway station testified to the black deed of terrorism.”
- Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat, 28th February 2002. (quoted in Rediff.com)

On the day that the Sabarmati Express in Godhra was burned, killing 59 passengers, chief minister Narendra Modi and his Sangh Parivar brotherhood had already concluded that it was a pre-planned ‘terrorist’ conspiracy. Since then, investigations into the case have been directed towards proving their theory. But more than four months after the incident, a number of questions remain unanswered. The chargesheet filed by the CID (Crime) is vague about how the S/6 coach was set on fire on the morning of February 27th. It mentions that a mob of Muslims from Godhra burned the train. Details of how it was ignited are not mentioned. But, when contacted, police officials were unwilling to give any further explanations.

There doesn’t seem to be much evidence to prove that it was indeed a ‘pre-planned’, much less a ‘terrorist’ attack. The Foresic Science Laboratory (FSL) report has ruled out the possibility that the compartment was set on fire from outside by the mob. The report, which is part of the chargesheet, states, “no inflammable fluid had been thrown inside from outside the coach.” It also rejects the possibility that any inflammable liquid was thrown through the door of the bogie. The report concludes that around 60 litres of inflammable liquid was thrown by someone standing between the compartment and the northern side door of the bogie.

Working on the assumption that the fire was caused by an inflammable liquid, the FSL team conducted an experiment at the spot of the incident, recreating various ways in which it could have been ignited. From the railway platform, the FSL team threw buckets of water into the coach, whose window was 7 feet from the ground. Only 10 to 15 per cent of the water entered the compartment. If the inflammable liquid was thrown from outside, the FSL report noted, then most of it would fall around the track outside and the resulting fire would cause damage to the bottom of the outer part of the coach. But since this part of the S/6 coach was not severely burned, the report ruled out the possibility that the mob threw inflammable fluids from outside.

If the coach was set on fire from the inside, who did it remains uncertain. Passengers have given police statements saying that the windows and doors of the compartment were closed when the stone-throwing between kar sevaks on the train and local vendors began. This occurred when the train stopped for the first time outside the Parcel office, a minute after it moved out of Godhra station (see box on sequence of events). Yet, police investigators insist that the FSL report supports their contention that it was a ‘pre-planned conspiracy’ by local criminals who entered the train and set it on fire. “Our investigations show that around 15 to 20 people from the mob entered the compartment with more than 60 litres of fuel and set it on fire. The FSL report also states that three doors of the compartment were open. They could have entered the compartment,” says a police officer investigating the case.

But, the doors may have been opened later while passengers escaped. One passenger, in his police statement, mentions getting down from the right hand side door. Moreover, none of the passengers mentioned, in their police statements, that they had seen anyone entering the compartment. They all stated that the mob set the coach on fire. Some kar sevaks in S/6 and adjoining compartments who were interviewed by The Indian Express (Indian Express Ahmedabad Newsline, July 6th 2002) also ruled out the possibility of people from the mob entering the compartment. They said that the doors were bolted from inside, and later when they tried to open the doors, they were locked from outside.

Investigators have ruled out the possibility of the fire being caused by an accident. “There was no fuel inside the train,” said an investigating officer. He dismissed the possibility that kar sevaks could have been carrying fuel for cooking on their journey. Grain was also found inside the compartment. However, the investigator said that a family that was travelling to their village for a wedding had carried the grain.

Ever since the public disclosure of the FSL report, the Congress has been accusing the Sangh Parivar of masterminding the tragedy. “The FSL report shows that someone inside the train set it on fire. No Muslim could have entered the compartment. That too with 60 litres of petrol. The criminal mentality of the VHP leadership is such that they are even capable of killing their own kar sevaks for their own gain. Believe me, I know them very well,” alleges Shankarsinh Vaghela, a Congress leader, who defected from the BJP. He adds that no one would have entered the already crammed compartment unnoticed. The kar sevaks, who were behaving in an aggressive manner throughout the journey, would not have let a Muslim enter, Vaghela points out.

Another point to be considered was the fact that before the Godhra incident, the kar sevaks had been creating trouble on the trains to and from Ayodhya. They harassed, bullied and abused Muslim passengers, forcing them to say “Jai Shree Ram”. Other passengers were also harassed and not allowed to sit on seats that they had reserved tickets for. On the train that burned, even the ticket conductor was pushed out of a reserved compartment. Jan Morcha, a Hindi daily published from Ayodhya carried a report on February 25th about how kar sevaks were harassing passengers on the Sabarmati Express and had even beaten some of them. This was before February 27th, when the train was set on fire. Hours after the tragedy, Hindutva mobs attacked Muslim homes in several parts of Gujarat.

While the question of how the train was burned remains uncertain, the events preceding it have emerged quite clearly from statements of several railway officials and passengers. The train arrived at Godhra station at 7.42 a.m. Some passengers got down to buy tea and snacks from vendors on the platform. A scuffle between a kar sevak and a Muslim tea vendor occurred over the payment for tea. The train started from Godhra station at 7.47 a.m., leaving some passengers on the platform. A minute later, it stopped because the chain was pulled in four coaches. While the train halted, there was stone throwing between passengers on the train and Muslim residents who hid behind the Godhra station Parcel Office. The train started moving again at 8 a.m. Five minutes later, it stopped for the second time near the ‘A’ cabin of Godhra station. The local mob came running from the Parcel Office towards the train and more stone-pelting and violence continued. The coach was set on fire sometime before 8.17 a.m. The police arrived at 8.25 a.m. and started firing to disperse the mob.

Petitioners have submitted affidavits before the K.G. Shah judicial commission, which is inquiring into the Godhra incident and its aftermath, stating that the tragedy was not pre-planned. They say it was an unfortunate outcome of the spontaneous scuffle that broke out on the Godhra station platform that morning. Yet, these petitioners too, offer no explanation of how the fire broke out. One of the petitioners is an advocate and social activist Amrish Patel, while the other are a group of Ghachi Muslims from Godhra who feel that an injustice has been done against their community by portraying them all as deadly criminals.

While police investigators say that they are close to cracking the case and will announce the results of their investigations soon, others allege that the police still have very little evidence. In fact, the interim chargesheet filed by the police is not sufficient. The police will have to file a supplementary chargesheet before the case can be tried. Several questions have also been raised about the manner in which the police have tortured the 61 accused in custody. Some of the accused have even been injected with sodium pentathol, a dangerous drug called the ‘truth serum’ in order to get them to speak more freely. This is internationally considered a method of psychological torture. According to the Yale Herald, “It is a short-acting barbiturate that depresses the central nervous system, slows heart rate and lowers blood pressure. In the relaxed state produced by the drug, subjects are more susceptible to suggestion and are therefore easier to interrogate. However, the drug does not actually guarantee that prisoners will tell the truth. Often it makes subjects ‘gabby’ without revealing any important information.” However, investigators justify its use saying that they took court permission and that it was carried out under the supervision of an expert medical team. That still doesn’t detract from the fact that it was a blatant human rights violation.

Regardless of truth serum being used, how much evidence there is or how quickly the investigation is wrapped up, whether the truth about the burning of the Sabarmati Express will ever be known is another story. Many powerful Hindutva leaders had already written the script, as well as the reprisal massacres that followed, on the day of the tragedy itself.

Sequence of events
Godhra, February 27, 2002.

7-42 a.m.: The train arrives at Godhra station.

7-42 to 7.47 a.m.: During the five-minute halt there is a scuffle between a kar sevak and a Muslim tea vendor.

7-47 a.m.: The train starts from Godhra station, leaving some passengers on the platform.

7-48 a.m.: The train stops after the chain is pulled in four coaches.

7-48 to 8-00 a.m.: There is stone-throwing between passengers on the train and Muslim residents who hide behind the parcel office of Godhra station.

8-00 a.m.: Train starts moving again.

8-05 a.m.: Train stops for the second time near Cabin 'A' of Godhra station.

8-05 to 8-17 a.m.: A group of people come running from the parcel office towards the train and there is more stone-throwing and violence. The coach is set on fire.

8-25 a.m.: The police arrive and open fire to disperse the mob.


Frontline, July 20 - August 2, 2002 Also available here

Go home. Gujarat is back to normal

Frontline,
The government wants the camps closed. Chased away, refugees are even living under trees.

DIONNE BUNSHA

When Vadodara’s government officials forced all the relief camps to close down and crammed all the refugees into one camp, Zubeidabibi Mansoori was one of those persuaded to go back home. But two days later, she had to come running back to the camp. “They sent us back from the camp, even though our house hasn’t been repaired since it was ransacked and looted. After two days, a fight broke out in the neighbourhood, and we had to leave once again,” she says. When they returned, the camp was too crowded to accommodate Zubeidabibi’s family and others from her neighbourhood. But luckily, a builder stepped in and offered to let them stay at one of his sites.

First, they were attacked and had to flee from their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Then, they hid in street corners, fields and forests for days. When they made it to relief camps, they were crammed in, living under the most miserable conditions for three months, with no hope of returning. Many have had no choice but to live in graveyards. Now, the government is pushing refugees out of the relief camps, the only place they have any shelter. With the Gujarat government adamant on shutting down the camps at any cost, refugees are being shoved on the streets. Although the government has stopped supplies to several camps, hundreds of refugees continue to live there. They can’t go back to their old homes either because they are still threatened or because they don’t have the money to rebuild their homes.

The Gujarat government claims there are only 16 camps housing 16,495 people all over the state. In reality, there are 30 camps in Ahmedabad alone that are still running, sheltering as many as 38,200 homeless people, according to a survey conducted on June 19 by the Citizens Initiative, which is providing supplies to the camps. The government claims that there are only six camps in rural Gujarat. But many more exist. They have just been de-listed and supplies to them have been stopped, even though people are still living there. It’s all part of the BJP government’s cover-up operation. It is trying to get rid of refugees at any cost in order to prove that the state is ready for elections. The BJP is hoping to win the election, riding on the Hindutva wave and the terror that its Sangh Parivar has been able to instil during their recent pogrom against Muslims in the state.

“The government has stopped everything - food, water, electricity - in the camp. We have 1,000 refugees in the Vadali camp. In our district (Sabarkantha) itself, there are five to six camps,” says Amanullah Khan, an organiser of the Vadali camp. If the Gujarat government was to be believed, camps no longer exist in Sabarkantha. “People who try to return to their village are coming back to the camps. Just yesterday, around 100 people came back. Local leaders threaten them. Some are facing an economic and social boycott. Others are scared of what will happen on July 13th, when the Jagannath Rath Yatra procession is taken out. Riots have broken out during this festival in the past,” says Khan.

As the monsoon sets in, life in the camps is becoming even more difficult. With the uncertainty that camps may shut down any day, many people are rushing to relatives’ houses or rented houses, according to a survey of camps in Ahmedabad conducted by the Citizens Initiative from June 14th to 18th. Only nine of the 19 camps surveyed had made arrangements for shelter during the monsoon. Camps need Rs 30 worth of rations per head daily, whereas the government provides supplies (both in cash and kind) worth only Rs 7. Medical care has also been inadequate. Four camps had not received any medical aid. Jaundice is now spreading in five camps. Although legal assistance is urgently need, only four camps had received offers for legal aid.

But the government remains unconcerned with these minor details. “Short of throwing people out on to the streets, officials are using various tactics to pressurise people into leaving. They have stopped ration and water supplies. Monsoon shelters haven’t been built. They tell people that they will not get three months free ration, to which they are entitled, unless they leave the camp,” says a Citizens Initiative organiser. Even camps which are still registered are not being supplied the full ration quotas. At the Shah Alam camp in Ahmedabad, the biggest camp in Gujarat, the government is supplying rations for only 7,300 people, although the camp shelters 12,150 refugees. “Officials take a headcount in the camp during the afternoon, when most people are out. They are unwilling to accept the numbers listed in camp registers,” says a Citizens Initiative organiser.

The government is washing its hands off any responsibility towards the refugees. “For how long can the government feed them indefinitely? We have given them cheques to repair their homes and also sufficient time to construct their homes,” said S.M.F. Bukhari, the state government’s chief co-ordinator of relief. When it was pointed out that 70 per cent of people haven’t received compensation and those who have been given cheques got pathetic amounts starting from Rs 71 and averaging Rs 2,000 to 3,000, Mr Bukhari said, “What we are giving is assistance, not compensation. We cannot pay the full amount of damages. Aid is given as per the government engineers’ estimates.” So, far the government has spent Rs 62.08 crore on rehabilitation (see table). With the chief minister Narendra Modi claiming that 95 per cent of the rehabilitation is complete, it is yet to be seen what the rest of the Rs 150 crore given by the central government as aid of the riot-affected will be used for.

But rehabilitation isn’t as simple as distributing cheques. In Halol, another camp that has vanished from government records, several refugees want to return to their homes before the monsoon but haven’t been able to. “We have a lot of land. We want to go back before the monsoon and put up the roof of our house. But the sarpanch won’t let us return. The police has arranged several meetings with them, but they say they don’t want Muslims in their village. Its our village as well,” says Madinabibi Pathan from Pavagad village in Panchmahal district.

People from Randhikpur village in Panchmahal district also haven’t been able to return home. Many have camped in nearby Baria village after the Godhra relief camp shut down. They are still waiting for a time when they will be accepted back into the village. Several powerful VHP leaders in the area have been accused in the mass murder, rape and loot of the village’s Muslims and are now intimidating them to withdraw the police cases. In the few places where voluntary organisations are helping people rebuild their houses, they are finding it hard to recruit local workers. “They are still scared to have any kind of interaction with the Muslim community,” says Sejal Dand, from the NGO Anandi, which is rebuilding homes in Boru village, Panchmahal district. In some places, Hindu residents are intimidated by local leaders and goons, and are forced to implement the social and economic boycott of Muslims.

Although the government insists that Gujarat is back to normal, stray incidents of violence continue. In Baroda, at least four minor clashes have occurred in the last two weeks. With many of the criminals still unpunished, there is still danger involved when people return home. KPS Gill’s appointment as security advisor to the Gujarat government hasn’t been as effective as projected by the media hype. Police are still to take action against the accused. Several cases have still not been filed. For example, in Ahmedabad, only 936 cases have been registered and 3,900 people were arrested, a small number considering that 440 died and around 60,000 were made homeless in the city.

Gujarat’s refugees may have disappeared from government lists, but they are still hanging about the relief camps and relatives’ houses, waiting to go back home. Only genuine help, rather than coercion, will actually reduce their numbers.

Frontline, July 6 - 19, 2002 Also available here

Back to Abnormal

It's a long road back home when there's no home to go back to. With the monsoon approaching, people may be stranded in relief camps for longer than they imagined.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Ahmedabad, Panchmahal and Vadodara

The violence may have died down. But peace is yet to return to Gujarat.

Waheeda Sheikh is desperate to leave the camp. She wants to reconstruct her home in Gomtipur, Ahmedabad and get back to her normal life. But trying to rebuild her life would also mean risking it. Soon after her house was looted and burned by the mobs on February 28th, the site was cleared and painted to make way for two temples, which have been constructed at the place where she once lived. “Whenever we go back to the neighbourhood, the local bootlegger streaks in front of us. The local hoods abuse us and threaten to harm us if we return,” says Waheeda. The police haven’t helped protect the Sheikh family either. The first time the Sheikhs went to file a first information report (FIR), the police refused to include the fact that temples had been constructed where their house once stood. “Whenever we ask the local police to help us return to our home, they plead helplessness saying that the local Hindus will be upset if the temples are touched. What about us? Aren’t we upset? Our life has been totally destroyed,” says Waheeda. Adding insult to injury, the Sheikhs haven’t received any compensation from the government for the destruction of their house.

Across Gujarat, housing compensation doled out by the state has been so meagre that even refugees who are willing to risk returning to their villages or neighbourhoods cannot do so because they don’t have the money to rebuild their homes before the monsoon. “We left with nothing but the clothes on our backs. Our houses were burned and looted. They took everything. The government hasn’t yet given me any compensation. Yet, officials still want us to the leave the camp and go back. Where are we supposed to go?” asks Kamrunissa Rahim Khan, who lives in the graveyard at the Hazrat Pir Shah Hammad Roja relief camp in Ahmedabad. Around 75 to 80 per cent of refugees haven’t even received compensation cheques as yet, even though the government has surveyed their property, say relief camp organisers. The few who have received cheques got paltry amounts (as low as Rs. 250 in one instance, while most get between Rs. 2,000 to 5,000) compared to the losses they have suffered. Many like Fatimaben Ghachi from Mora village in Panchmahal district, have returned the compensation cheques, humiliated by the pathetic amounts doled out.

The situation in the relief camps is likely to get worse when the monsoon hits Gujarat. Most camps don’t have adequate shelter for the rains. Only cloth shelters have been put up. Food is prepared on wood fires in the open. When the monsoon begins, camp organisers are not sure how they will arrange for the food to be cooked. With inadequate toilet and hygiene facilities, the risk of water-borne diseases spreading in the camp is also high. In many rural camps, people sleep outside the houses of relatives and friends. They don’t know where to go once the monsoon hits Gujarat. During a pre-monsoon shower in Ahmedabad, refugees from the Madhav Mill compound relief camp rushed to the nearby Kalupur station. But they were even chased away from there. “Initially, the railway police pushed them out. We had to plead with the police to let them sleep there for just one night until the rain stopped,” says a camp organiser.

In its attempts to show that Gujarat is ‘back to normal’, the government is trying to reduce the number of refugees and close down the camps, without providing them any proper rehabilitation. It is even cutting down on supplies to camps. “We have 750 refugees here, but the government has registered only 300. Officials have tried to close down the camp. But we have to keep it running. People here have nowhere else to go,” says an organiser of the Hazrat Pir Shah Hammad Roja relief camp in Ahmedabad. In Vadodara, the government has shut down all the camps, except one. This camp is so overcrowded that a local builder has allowed refugees to live in one of his construction sites for the next six months.

The few who have mustered the courage to leave the camps and return to their villages or neighbourhoods are living like refugees in their own home. Hasra Anees Ghachi and her family have been living under a tree ever since they went back to their village Mora in Panchmahal district on April 12th. “Our house has been completely destroyed. We have no money to reconstruct it. The government hasn’t given us any compensation. Who knows what we will do when the rains start? We will have to stay with someone,” she says. Others in the village are staying in their houses without any water, electricity or a roof over their heads. Only around 50 of the 115 families who had to flee from Mora returned to the village. Many have not been able to resume their jobs either. “I used to drive a taxi. When I went back to my employer, he said he could not employ me because he would not get any patrons,” says Ilyas Ghachi from Mora. The economic boycott of Muslims called by the VHP seems to have taken effect. Several skilled workers like tailors, drivers, masons have not been re-employed by their Hindu employers. The government is not even providing compensation for the loss of belongings. Many people have lost their source of livelihood like sewing machines, rickshaws or machines. Now, their broken homes are being seen as an easy land grab by local mafias.

Although peace meetings have been organised by the local administration over the past six weeks, in several neighbourhoods, local Hindu leaders have been hostile. “We can’t go back. Our lives are still in danger. They have told us that there is no place for Muslims in the basti anymore,” says Rahimbhai Malik from Kisanwadi in Vadodara. Describing one of the peace meetings, he adds, “There were 80 of the local Hindu leaders and 12 of us. The police just sat quietly while they threatened that they would not let us back in the basti until we withdraw the cases against them.”

Some local BJP and VHP workers have been arrested and chargesheeted after the arrival of K.P.S. Gill as security advisor to the Gujarat government. Chargesheets filed in connection with some of the most heinous crimes of rape, murder and arson at Naroda Patiya and Gulmarg Society, Chamanpura in Ahmedabad have indicted local BJP leaders among the 53 arrested. But the big fish remain untouched. Two big leaders, VHP secretary Jaideep Patel and MLA Mayaben Kodnani, who were named in the FIR filed by victims, have not been mentioned in the chargesheet. The police insist that their names do not figure in the FIRs. In other neighbourhoods and villages, the small troublemakers too are still roaming the streets, preventing the return of their Muslim neighbours. “How can we go back home when those who attacked us are still walking freely on the streets? We named around 100 people in the police case, but not a single one has been arrested,” says Nasir Sheikh, a refugee in Ahmedabad’s Dariya Khan Ghummat relief camp. In Vadodara, the police refused to register an FIR written by a witness to the burning alive of three people in Makarpura.

Although the government is trying hard to prove that Gujarat is now peaceful, stray incidents of violence continue. On June 9th, two persons were killed and 24 injured in Ahmedabad’s predominantly Muslim area, Juhapura. In Godhara, one person was stabbed and killed. The violence continued the next day in Juhapura where two people were killed. Police officials say that these clashes occurred when they went in to arrest local troublemakers. Local Hindu hoods used the opportunity to spark more violence.

The two days that refugees in Ahmedabad now live in fear of are: the day the rains arrive and July 12th when the Jagannath Rath Yatra is celebrated. Most refugees say they will only leave the relief camps after the Rath Yatra, an annual festival held in Ahmedabad’s walled city, which has led to several communal riots in the past. “Every year, there are some clashes on this day. This year, it will be worse. The Bajrang Dal and VHP have the upper hand. They are looking for trouble,” said a refugee whose family was killed in the Gulmarg society massacre.

The witnesses of the Naroda Patiya and Gulmarg massacres, in which 136 and 70 people were hacked and burned respectively, refuse to return to their old homes. They say they would only feel secure living in a predominantly Muslim area. But chief minister Narendra Modi turned down their appeal for land to resettle somewhere else. After the violence, not only these victims, but other Muslims, including judges, police officers and professionals have moved to Juhapura, a downmarket but predominantly Muslim area. The ‘borders’ within an already ghettoised city have been fortified.

With the divide firmly in place, more than one lakh refugees still cannot go back to their homes and jobs. Many who try to return are threatened by local mafia, some of whom are Bajrang Dal-Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists. As the monsoon approaches, people are still trapped in relief camps, which are not fully equipped to provide shelter during the monsoon. More than three months after they were attacked, going back home still seems like a distant dream. The government’s housing compensation is not enough to rebuild their homes and perpetrators of heinous crimes are still roaming freely on the streets, preventing their return to the neighbourhood.

The silver lining for refugees has been a sudden spurt in mass marriages inside Ahmedabad’s relief camps. Sponsored by camp organisers, most of these marriages had been planned before the violence occurred. Reflective of the insecurity within the community, most people feel that their single daughters are more vulnerable, especially since they are now homeless. But, it also shows their determination to get back to normal life despite the odds against them.

It may be a long road home for Gujarat’s refugees, but they are eager to start the journey. If only the government were more willing to help them on their way.

Frontline, June 22 - July 5, 2002 Also available here

Refugees bounce back the cheques

Disgusted by the pittance being handed out, riot victims reject the government's token compensation.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Ahmedabad

Noorbanu Sheikh is in a peculiar dilemma today. After waiting two months for compensation for her broken home, she doesn’t know whether she should encash the cheque or return it to the government. Her house was totally destroyed when a mob went on a rampage in Bismillah nagar at Vatva in Ahmedabad. But all she got was Rs 500 to reconstruct her broken home, a mere 0.5 per cent of all she has lost. “In a month, the monsoon will start. How will we stay in the relief camp then? We want to rebuild our home, but the government hasn’t given us enough to even buy a tin sheet,” says Noobanu. “We left with nothing but the clothes on our backs. No one will even give us a loan.” After Noorbanu and others in the Jehangir nagar relief camp at Vatva received paltry sums as housing compensation, refugees refused government cheques the next time they were being distributed. Of the 300-odd families here, only 23 have received housing compensation.

Refugees’ hopes of returning home grow dimmer as Gujarat’s violence continues and the government’s half-hearted rehabilitation measures provide no real support. The prime minister A.B. Vajpayee’s efforts to reassure the riot-affected during his visit to Gujarat a month ago came rather late - 35 days after the violence began. His promises regarding relief and rehabilitation have not yet been properly implemented by the state government. The only time chief minister Narendra Modi visited a Muslim relief camp was when he trailed the prime minister during his brief tour of Gujarat on April 4th. This reflects the priority his government has given to the relief and rehabilitation of the state’s 1.5 lakh-odd refugees.

During his visit, the prime minister had promised the following rehabilitation measures for refugees:

The families of those killed would be paid Rs 1,00,000 from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, in addition to the Rs 50,000 each being given to the affected families by the state government.
Those who had suffered permanent disability in the violence would be given Rs 50,000.
Housing rehabilitation in rural areas would be Rs 15,000 for those whose homes are partially damaged and Rs 50,000 for those whose homes are completely destroyed. In urban areas, the centre would bear the cost of reconstruction estimated after carrying out a comprehensive survey.
The Centre would bear the entire cost of rehabilitation of all orphans and widows.
All children in relief camps would be provided one set of textbooks and school uniforms.
Free ration of 35 kg two months for families living below poverty line in violence-hit areas.

Most families of those killed haven’t received compensation because they are unable to produce any proof of the death, says Mohsin Kadri, organiser of the Shah Alam relief camp, the largest in Ahmedabad, sheltering 13,000 refugees. He points out that only seven of the 131 families in Shah Alam camp who are eligible for compensation have received cheques for Rs 40,000. They are also supposed to get an additional Rs 70,000 in the form of government bonds. However, this doesn’t still add up to the Rs 1,50,000 promised by the government. Yet, Ahmedabad collector Srinivas insists that his administration has paid compensation to 206 cases all over the city and only 37 families are yet to be paid. He adds that people paid compensation earlier, before the compensation package was increased, will be paid the additional amount due to them.

Housing compensation has been pathetic in both urban and rural areas. In every camp in Ahmedabad, people complain about the underestimation of their property. “Most people have got cheques for Rs 2,000-3,000. No one here has received more than Rs 14,000 as compensation, which is only a small fraction of the actual value of their houses and belongings,” says a camp organiser at Vatva. In rural Gujarat, the situation is no better. In Bamanwad village, Panchmahal district, Ganibahi Khatri’s house was razed to the ground but he received only Rs 23,075 as compensation, instead of the Rs 50,000 promised by the PM. Around 27 Muslim families in this village are sleeping in the fields after their houses were burned and badly damaged, but only seven people have received compensation. The government has not even agreed to recognise the relief camp here. Hindu neighbours have been helping with food for the past two months.

In the cities, the poorest have been stranded within the ghettoes due to the curfew. Mostly casual labourers, they have been without work for the past two months. The PM had promised 35 kg of free rations for those below the poverty. But these have yet to arrive in the ration shops. Ahmedabad collector Srinivas says that the government has increased the allotment to 70 kg and the new stocks will be available in May. However, many may still be excluded because of the ridiculous criteria for deciding those below the poverty line.

No action has yet been taken on the PM’s promises regarding the rehabilitation of orphans and widows. Children in the camps were not even given text books and uniforms, as announced. In fact, some school children studying in Baroda’s private schools could not sit for their exams because their parents did not have the money to pay their fees.

Every family in the relief camps was supposed to receive a cash dole of Rs 1,250 to compensate for the loss of immediate belongings like clothes and shoes. The government suddenly woke up and started distributing the dole just a day before the PM was scheduled to visit. Distribution of the dole at the Dariya Khan Ghummat camp in Shahibaug, Ahmedabad was stopped half-way, when the PM decided against visiting the camp. Only half of the of the camp’s 1100-odd families received the dole. Even in the Shah Alam camp, dole cheques disappeared the minute the PM left. Only 1,400 of the camp’s 2,200 families received the dole. Some people like Noorbanu in Vatva were not even given the full amount, although it is mandatory.

Forgot fulfilling the PM’s promises, the government has not even adequately provided basic facilities like tents, fans or toilets. The Shah Alam camp has 38 toilets for 13,000 people. This, after the toilets were installed a day before the PM’s visit. With the temperatures reaching 45 degrees celsius, the illnesses are also on the rise. “Government doctors are not regular and their medication is not effective. We have to call private doctors to the camp as well,” says Kadri. In the Surendranagar camp, Ahmedabad, the government arbitrarily reduced the number of refugees from 4000 to 2200. Accordingly, supplies have also been reduced. “After distributing housing compensation, the government officials stopped counting the people to whom cheques have been issued as camp inmates. These people cannot still go back to their homes. There are still attacks on the streets everyday. But the government refuses to provide for them anymore,” says Farukhbhai Pathan, a camp organiser.

It may still be a long road home for people like Noorbanu, if the Gujarat government continues to rehabilitate people in the manner it has done so upto now.


Frontline, May 11-24, 2002 Also available here

More hate, more votes

Keep the Godhra Ghost alive. Keep the hate going till the elections.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Ahmedabad

* After unleashing mayhem in Gujarat, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad is now cashing in on its campaign of hate. A fund-raising pamphlet published by the VHP's State treasurer, Chinubhai Patel, exhorts the people to "save our country by boycotting Muslims economically and socially". The pamphlet, being circulated in Ahmedabad's middle class colonies, elaborates: "Those who talk of Hindu-Muslim unity are only maligning their own religion. There can be no equality between Hindus and Muslims." Playing on the fear and insecurity that the VHP has created through engineered violence over the past two months, the pamphlet goes on: "What is your security even in the most decent and secure locality in spite of having security guards? Traitors and terrorists are coming by the truckloads. They will kill your security guards and enter your bungalows. They will murder you in your drawing rooms and bedrooms." Finally, after raising the level of hysteria sufficiently, the VHP's pamphlet gets to the bottom line - the moolah. "We must organise ourselves, join Hindu organisations and make financial contributions... After Godhra, cases against several VHP members and Hindus have been registered and many of them are in prison now... It is our duty to protect their families and keep them from starving... You will only be following your dharma by doing so... Contribute to the VHP and avail of 50 per cent tax saving."

* During the recent senior secondary and higher secondary school examinations held on April 21, the Gujarat government did not miss a chance to sow the seeds of hatred in thousands of young minds. A question in the English examination paper asked students to join the following sentences to make them one: "There are two solutions. One of them is the Nazi solution. If you don't like people, kill them, segregate them. Then strut up and down. Proclaim that you are the salt of the earth."

CONSIDERING the extent to which the VHP and the Bajrang Dal have been given free rein to kill, burn and terrorise people, it is no surprise that there is no end to the violence. The past two months have seen over 850 deaths, more than 2,000 persons injured and upwards of 24,000 homes and shops destroyed - by official estimates. More than 1,000 people are missing. Unofficial estimates place the death roll at 2,000. Refugees in relief camps and those who have not yet fled their homes in Ahmedabad's ghettoes within the walled city, remain under siege. The perpetrators roam the streets with impunity, stemming hopes that the State's 1.5 lakh-plus refugees will be able to return to their homes anytime soon. The fascist BJP government has no interest in stopping the carnage in the State which the BJP calls its 'Hindutva laboratory', the only State where its party has a majority government. Its interest lies in keeping the flames burning, in order to ensure that its hate campaign generates enough terror and insecurity to translate the fear of minority retaliation into votes. The pogrom against Muslims has the silent approval of Narendra Modi; and some of his Ministers are involved too.

The most aggressive of them has been Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Barot. For the past two months, he has been targeting the Dariya Khan Ghummat camp at Shahibaug in his constituency, which shelters 6,520 refugees. Barot wrote to Home Minister Gordhan Zadaphia asking him to shift the camp since his Hindu voters felt insecure with the refugees living close by. The local police, supported by Barot, raided the camp on the afternoon of April 23, claiming that it housed rioters and terrorists. The police lobbed teargas shells into the municipal school where the camp is located. An elderly woman died of shock, a camp organiser was injured and three young refugees were arrested. The police filed a case against 16 members of the camp, including the organisers, accusing them of instigating Hindu mobs to burn Muslim shops (those who actually burned them were not named in the first information report). Realising the dubious nature of the complaint, senior police officers transferred the case to another inspector. Mohammed Sadiq, one of the refugees who was arrested, said he was on the top floor of the school, calming down women refugees, when the police dragged him and his friends to the police station and beat them. "They kept asking us 'How many people in the camp are terrorists from Godhra? How many people have weapons?' Finally, they released us at midnight. Not only have they made us refugees but now we are also the accused," he said. Other refugees from the nearby Mahakali Mandir also allege that Barot was involved in the attack on their homes on April 27. The Dariya Khan Ghummat case clearly highlights the complicity of politicians and the local police in the continuing witch-hunt against the minorities.

Finance Minister Nitin Patel was reportedly instigating trouble in his hometown of Kadi in Mehsana district. Subverting the government machinery, Health Minister Ashok Bhatt and Urban Development Minister I.K. Jadeja were monitoring police control rooms in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar during the first few days of rioting. It was during this time that desperate calls were made to the police by former Congress member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri pleading for help. Hours later, he and 40 others were killed and burned in the Gulbarga society massacre.

While the Sabarmati Express tragedy was considered a "terrorist act", the subsequent planned pogrom against Muslims has not been considered so. What distinguished the violence from Gujarat's previous rounds of communal clashes is the fact that these attacks were premeditated. Planned with utmost precision, using gas cylinders, swords and trishuls, the initial violence was not spontaneous. The VHP identified Muslim shops and homes to be targeted with the aid of survey and voters list data. It is even alleged that some members of the mob had been trained, much in advance, to create mayhem. Although the administration anticipated trouble, it did nothing to stop it. It was an orchestrated failure of the government machinery. The Sangh Parivar had its men placed in key posts of the police and the bureaucracy to ensure that all went according to plan. Police officers who dared to do their duty by quelling the attacks were punished with transfers. The VHP continued to stir trouble during the Ram temple campaign on March 15 and the Holi festival on March 29. The third phase of violence has been kept hot by playing on insecurity and rumours at a local level.

Another reason why there is no end to the violence is the bias of the police force. Not only did it stand back and watch when mobs attacked Muslim bastis, but in many recent cases, the police have themselves gone on the rampage, often shooting innocent residents at point-blank range. Wali Mohammed Ansari lost his brother Mehmud Husain (45) and niece Nazia (18) on April 21. They were both shot in the head when the police opened fire inside their home in Patel ni chawl in Gomtipur following the stabbing of a policeman in another neighbourhood. Patel ni chawl has never seen a communal riot, not even during the violence in 1969. "The police just entered the chawl and started firing. My niece was studying for her examinations along with her friends. My brother had just returned home from work. Even when I was taking them to the hospital we were stopped on the road by the police," he says.
In the adjacent Modi ni chawl, Bashir Sheikh's wife Hanifabibi also died when a police bullet pierced her skull. The hospital issued a certificate to Bashir citing the cause of death as "shock as a result of firearm injury". Seven people died when the police went on the rampage that afternoon. In other areas like Chandola in Ahmedabad, there have been similar reports of police excesses as recently as April 27. "There is no accountability in the police force anymore. The entire system has been subverted," says a senior police officer.

The police are making it difficult for victims even to file FIRs. Taking advantage of the fact that most refugees cannot step outside the relief camps, they filed vague cases without naming the accused. In instances where victims named the perpetrators, the police refused to accept the FIRs until the names were withdrawn. In many cases, FIRs have been clubbed together, reducing the number of cases against the guilty. "Everyone knows who is behind all this. So why aren't the main culprits being arrested? Even the two big leaders, VHP secretary Jaideep Patel and member of Legislative Assembly Maya Kodnani, who were named in the Naroda Patiya case, where 92 people were killed, have not yet been arrested. Unless there is justice, how can there be peace?" asks a senior police official.

In an incident that epitomised the police's mute response to the violence, Muslim shops located just outside the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner's office were burned on April 23. Hindu shops adjacent to Muslim ones remained untouched. Nothing was done to stop the mob. The next day, Narendra Modi assigned Director-General of Police K. Chakravarthy to oversee the functioning of Ahmedabad Police Commissioner P.C. Pande. It was a stern but half-hearted dressing down.
Others who have benefited from the violence are local slumlords, many of whom have links with politicians. Slums in many locations have been cleared. In some cases, local criminal elements have ensured that residents do not return, either by burning or clearing the destroyed houses. In the 60-year-old Khariwadi slum in Khanpur, where violence broke out on April 22, both Muslim as well as Vagri residents fled, each blaming the other for the attack. The end result has been the evacuation of the hutment, which lies on a prime piece of property adjacent to several hotels. The municipal authorities had been trying to evict the residents for several years in order to make way for the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project, in which a BJP bigwig reportedly has a stake. The residents obtained a stay on demolitions from the High Court four years ago. However, the recent riots ensured their evacuation without bulldozers. In Naroda Patiya too, the compound has been walled off, making it difficult for the tenants to return, according to Shah Alam camp organiser Mohsin Kadri.

Logic should dictate that given the mayhem that the BJP has unleashed in the State, the so-called 'peace-loving people of Gujarat' will topple the government in the next elections, which the BJP is in a hurry to hold. But logic has no role in an atmosphere vitiated by hatred and fear, where the slightest rumour can spark violence. This is exactly what the BJP is hoping to cash in on. Using deftly propaganda through the Gujarati press, pamphlets and rumours, it has managed to portray itself to the middle class as the only 'protector of Hindus' from the 'terrorist Muslims'. In the tribal areas of Panchmahal and Dahod, it has used its fascist techniques to pit Adivasis against Muslims, both the poorest sections who would otherwise be natural class allies. Similarly, in urban Ahmedabad, it has managed to divide the working class, mobilising Dalits and the other backward classes against Muslims.

The BJP has also targeted Congress strongholds in north and central Gujarat - Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Dahod and Panchmahal. Forty-seven of the 61 Congress constituencies were riot-hit, as compared to only 57 of the BJP's 121. Saurashtra and south Gujarat remained largely unaffected by riots. In these regions, the real problems facing the State - poverty, water shortages, industrial slowdown, unemployment - may still be the decisive factors.

More than two months of sustained violence is not unprecedented in Gujarat. The 1985 anti-reservation riots lasted five months (see separate story). However, what distinguishes this latest round from past violence is that these attacks were not riots. They were an anti-Muslim pogrom. The State machinery was also complicit in many crimes. Its negligent attitude towards refugees in relief camps also reflects the extent to which Muslims were hounded out. Peace is not likely to return until the culprits, many of whom are within the government, are brought to book.

Narendra Modi's latest gimmick - doing the rounds of peace marches - has come under much public ridicule. Even as he and Union Defence Minister George Fernandes marched in Ahmedabad on April 28, surrounded by heavy security, five people were killed in the city's streets. On May 5, at least four persons were killed and 20 were injured in violence in Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Two of those killed were reported to have been burnt alive.

It will clearly take more than token public relations measures to get Gujarat back on track. Unless firm steps are taken to restore peace, the violence seems set to stay. But since hate is the BJP's trump card right now, it is unlikely to do anything that may reduce the emotions of fear and insecurity that it hopes will bring it back to power soon.


Frontline, May 11-24, 2002 Also available here

Free and Unfair Elections in the Wild West

Even as the attacks on the minorities continue relentlessly, the BJP government's priority in Gujarat appears to be holding Assembly elections rather than providing relief and rehabilitation.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Panchmahal and Vadodara

Around 1.5 lakh refugees are stranded in Gujarat’s relief camps. Several people die in violence here everyday adding to the 800-odd killed so far. Chief minister Narendra Modi sat back while VHP, Bajrang Dal and BJP workers orchestrated targeted attacks across the state, killing and hounding Muslims out of their villages and ghettos. The attacks continue relentlessly in Ahmedabad and other parts of north and central Gujarat. Police barge into Muslim houses and harass them as part of ‘combing operations’. Villagers whose homes have been destroyed are living in the open fields. There is no way out for the homeless refugees in relief camps. They cannot return to their homes or start work again.

Yet, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s priority during the continuing fascist witch-hunt of Muslims in the state isn’t to restore peace, but to hold elections soon. Its time to grab the spoils of the state-supported Hindutva attacks, to count votes over dead bodies.

Chief minister Narendra Modi sat back while VHP, Bajrang Dal and BJP workers orchestrated targeted attacks across the state, killing and hounding Muslims out of their villages and ghettos. Now, he wants to get refugees back to their homes so that he can get on with the elections. People are being pushed back without providing them any safety or proper rehabilitation. It doesn’t matter whether refugees are ready to return home. The government has to prove that the state is ‘back to normal’. But as long as the Sangh Parivar’s goons roam the streets scot-free, neither peace nor rehabilitation stand a chance.

Local peace meetings organised by the collectorate to get people back to their homes aren’t working out as planned. In some instances, they are re-kindling violence, rather than trust.

Photo: Dionne BunshaFinding shelter under a tree. A family whose house in Bamanwad village was destroyed in the violence
Bismillah Khan returned to the Baska relief camp from one such meeting at his village Rameshra in Kalol on April 12th, disappointed that the local leaders didn’t show up. But little did he know then that his house and two others were burned soon after he left the village, as he made his way back to the relief camp that night. His hopes of returning to the village went up in smoke. An unspoken message to stay away. On the night before the next meeting scheduled for April 16th, three more houses were set on fire. Enough to sabotage any sign of peace. “How can we return when the police has done nothing to make sure we are safe, when our houses and shops are totally destroyed?” asks Bismillah.

Others, who have attempted to return, have also run back to the relief camps. Alibhai Rehman Khatri’s Hindu friends from his village, Rawalia, visited him in the Baska relief camp in Halol district and convinced him to return and open up his shop. “I took a loan of Rs 6,000, stocked the shop with supplies and re-opened my shop for eight days,” he says. “Then, there was a Bajrang Dal meeting in a nearby village, where they apparently planned to burn my shop and kill me because I had the guts to return. After that, I haven’t gone back, even though my Hindu friends support me. They could also be targeted for helping me.”

In many places, even police escorts haven’t helped. The police took Pathan Jafar Khan back to his home in Baranpura, Baroda to assess the damage. “While they were filing the report, a huge mob attacked from all sides. The policemen ran. Those in the Special Reserve Police tent stationed there refused to come out and help,” says Pathan, who is still seeking shelter in Baroda’s Queresh Jamatkhana relief camp. Mehboob Sheikh from Kanvat village may also have a long wait in the relief camp. “The police came back after assessing our home in the village and told us that it wasn’t safe for us to go back,” he said.

Even though relief camps are the only refuge, the government is keen to reduce the numbers and close down as many as possible. “The collector’s officials have asked us to stop taking new people into the camp. They said they want the camps closed by the end of the month. That seems impossible. People are still coming in everyday, many of whom can no longer stay with their relatives,” says a relief camp organiser in Baroda. However, in a few places like Panchmahal, a sensitive district collector is going about rehabilitation and confidence-building more prudently.

In many villages, camps have not yet been recognised by the government. At Bamanwad village, Panchmahal district, where an arson spree by an outside mob destroyed 27 houses, people are sleeping in the open fields. Unlike in most villages, Muslims here did not flee after the attack. They did not want to leave their meagre land and belongings. In an area where three successive years of drought has impoverished many, local Hindus and people from nearby villages have been providing them food, clothes and support for the last six weeks. “The government refuses to recognise ours as a camp because they say we have already been given a cash dole for a maximum of 15 days. Only seven people, whose houses were burned, have got compensation. It’s very difficult to scrape together some food everyday. Most of us eat only once,” says Ibrahimbhai Khatki, whose house was burned. In the neighbouring village, Nepania, where 140 houses were burned and broken, the relief camp was recognised only on April 15th, six weeks after the attack on the Muslim basti.
Photo: Dionne BunshaA relief camp in Nepania village. The camp started receiving relief supplies on April 15, six weeks after the village was attacked.
Its unclear how the government plans to have elections when even holding board examinations in Ahmedabad and Baroda, scheduled for April 18th, is creating so much fear. Children in relief camps are scared to travel to examination centres in parts of the walled city where the mobs still rule the streets. Three schools in Dilli Darwaja, Ahmedabad were attacked by a mob while students were giving their exams. The police and RAF had to rescue the students. “The violence doesn’t end. The goons behind this know they can get away unpunished. The VHP will continue instigating small incidents until the elections, to keep up the fear and insecurity,” said a police officer. In fact, the VHP had been distributing swords before the violence began and continued to do so weeks after, according to a press report. In rural Gujarat, local Bajrang Dal and VHP activists continue to hold meetings before the attacks.

The police has ensured the criminals immunity from the law. Refugees complain that the police are unwilling to name the main culprits, who are mostly VHP or BJP workers, in the first information reports (FIRs). Moreover, individual complaints are clubbed together into one for an entire village or neighbourhood, so that even if the accused are arrested, it is only once, rather than for each separate FIR. With the criminals still out on the loose, witnesses who have filed FIRs are afraid to return to their homes. In some local reconciliation meetings, local leaders have demanded that refugees should retract names from the FIRs if they want to go back to the village.

Even people advocating peace have been under attack by those interested in keeping trouble brewing. Gandhi’s Sabarmati ashram in Ahmedabad had never seen violence. Not until recently. As NDTV cameraman Pranav Joshi laid injured amongst the Mahatma’s letters and photographs, it became apparent that same Hindutva forces that killed Gandhi were not willing to spare even this haven. A peace meeting at the ashram was disrupted by the BJP youth wing, who protested against the presence of Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar. In the ensuing scuffle, police beat up several journalists, among whom Joshi was badly injured and taken to the intensive care unit. Part of Modi’s fascist plan is also to stifle any voices of dissent, be it the media, activists, judges or unyielding police officers.

Recently, health minister Ashok Bhatt also dashed off a letter spewing venom against three Christian groups that have been active in Gujarat’s peace initiative and foreign aid agency Action Aid. Bhatt said the same groups that discredited the Gujarat’s image during the violence against Christians in the Dangs district in 1998 were doing the same now. He also alleged that these foreign-funded organisations were supporting the terrorists behind the burning of the Sabarmati Express. In the midst of its anti-Muslim madness, the BJP hasn’t forgotten its campaign against the other minorities like Christians.

How much the BJP’s gameplan, of using Hindutva and violence to detract attention from the real issues facing Gujarat, has worked will only be known later. The BJP has failed to deliver on its main election slogan - Na bhay, bhook, bhrashtachar (no fear, hunger or corruption). This summer, more than 2,000 villages in Gujarat are expected to suffer acute water shortages. During the last two summers, hunger deaths and water riots were reported in the drought areas of Saurashtra. “Despite being the most industrialised state, Gujarat has widespread underemployment and informal employment in the state. Ahmedabad has amongst the highest poverty amongst India’s major cities,” says Dr Darshini Mahadevia from the Centre for Environment Planning and Technology in Ahmedabad. Corruption has become institutionalised and has paralysed the government machinery. Voters are also upset with the government’s late relief during the earthquake its attempts to pass on the buck to NGOs for rehabilitation of the Kutch earthquake victims.

In fact, Narendra Modi was brought in to replace Keshubhai Patel as chief minister in October 2001 because the party sensed the growing public anger against its government. Modi, an RSS hardliner who had never stood for election before, was brought in to organise the cadre for the 2003 elections. He took over after the BJP lost two assembly by-elections, one in Sabarmati, which falls under Union home minister L.K. Advani’s Lok Sabha constituency. The first signs of the BJPs declining popularity were evident during the September 2000 district panchayat elections in which the BJP lost 23 of the 25 district panchayats and the majority of taluka panchayats. Earlier, it controlled 24 district panchayats. In the municipal elections in 2000, the party lost two crucial municipal corporations - Ahmedabad and Rajkot, which it had ruled for 13 and 24 years respectively.

Modi has tried reviving the party’s flagging popularity using a militant Hindutva line. He is attempting to implement the party’s fascist plan in the BJP’s Hindutva laboratory, the only state in which the party has a clear majority, with 117 of 182 assembly seats. In fact, less than a month after the violence in Gujarat began, BJP district committees were asked to assess their chances of victory if a mid-term poll were announced. Elections are scheduled next year. The pattern of the recent violence also reveals that certain Congress strongholds in north and central Gujarat, like the tribal Panchmahals and Sabarkantha districts, were the ones targeted by VHP mobs.

The continuing violence seems to be laying the ground for the big fight ahead. It’s time for free and unfair elections in India’s Wild West.


Frontline, Apr. 27 - May 12, 2002 Also available here

Give violence a chance

The government shows no desire to put out the fires. In fact, it even appears that it wants to keep the flames burning.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Gujarat

As Noorjehan Ghachi and her family took their afternoon nap, oblivious to the world around them, their house was set on fire and they were burned alive. Five of them died and six others sustained serious burns. This brutal massacre in Abasana village in Ahmedabad district is part of the relentless pogrom against Muslims in Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindutva experiment, the only state in which the fascist party rules with a majority.

The Ghachi family was killed on April 3rd, just a day before the Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee made a long overdue visit to the state. It took 36 days of violence, 750 deaths and almost 1.5 lakh refugees for the magnitude of the communal carnage to finally hit the PM. On the day before his visit, seven people, including the Ghachi family died in the continuing state-supported terror. But all Vajpayee did was make heart-rending speeches, expressing his shame and sympathy for the Muslim refugees, against whom his own Sangh Parivar has launched a witch-hunt. He has done to prevent further killings or to nab the perpetrators.

“I don’t know how I can face the rest of the world after the shameful events in Gujarat,” said the PM, while addressing refugees in the Shah Alam relief camp. “We don’t know how he has been able to face us after all this time either,” retorted a refugee from the sidelines. Mere words were not enough. There has been no reprieve in Gujarat’s communal carnage. The pogrom’s mastermind, chief minister Narendra Modi, escaped unscathed. Demands for his dismissal from several sections of society, including human rights organisations and opposition parties like the Left parties, were squelched. He was let off with a dressing down. “Officials should perform their duty and the political leadership should undertake its responsibility to protect citizens without any discrimination,” the PM chided. But, a day after Vajpayee’s drama, it was business as usual for Gujarat’s goons. The violence continued - eleven stabbings and two deaths were reported on April 5th.

Narendra Modi’s smug denial of the Gujarat massacres has upset the country’s most influential, including the National Human Rights Commission. Yet, he continues in power due to the support of top BJP and RSS leaders, who said that he had dealt well with the crisis. His cunning cover-up of the VHP’s terror in Gujarat would please them. Although Modi was summoned to Delhi by the PM, who was irked at his inaction in curbing the violence and at his blatant support of the militant Hindutva perpetrators, the CM remained unruffled. However, his hopes of a mid-term poll, to translate the saffron wave into votes, were dashed. Instead of trying to set right the damage within his state, the CM went on a PR campaign, projecting his stand to the media and business communities in Mumbai and Delhi.

If Modi were to be believed, peace was restored in Gujarat within 72 hours, barring a few ‘stray’ incidents, its business as usual in the most prosperous state, people in Gujarat observed Moharram and celebrated Holi peacefully and the systematic targeting of Muslims is just a figment of the media’s imagination. But his ridiculous denials haven’t fooled anyone. Almost all the refugees in the state’s 104 relief camps are Muslims, revealing the extent to which the community has been targeted. Everyday, more people are being killed, mobs are still on the rampage in Ahmedabad and Baroda. New attacks are being launched in villages and towns previously untouched by communal violence. Rumours spread everyday, keeping up the tension, fear and insecurity. During both festivals, curfew was enforced and heavy security was deployed in most places. People preferred to stay at home due to the tense atmosphere. In fact, many schools and colleges have had to postpone their exams since students have been too scared venture out.

The riots have resulted in economic losses estimated anywhere between Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 crore, according to industry sources. Most Muslim businesses have been targeted during the riots right from small bakeries and hotels along the highway to large showrooms in Ahmedabad’s elite shopping centres. Different versions of a pamphlet calling for an economic boycott of Muslims have been distributed all over the state. One such pamphlet even lists the annual earnings of different Muslim businesses in Kalol. Besides shop owners, thousands of daily wage earners in Ahmedabad are on the brink of starvation. They haven’t earned anything for over a month. More than a month of violence has also made the Gujarat government temporarily broke. With virtually no tax revenue in the last month, the government is unable to clear its bills and had to borrow on overdraft from the Reserve Bank of India. Bills in major departments have not been paid, since the government is barely able to pay salaries.

Besides the fascist government in Gujarat, the police’s role in abetting the violence has also come to light. In Naroda Patia, Ahmedabad, where 91 were massacred, witnesses claim that the police offered no help and instead pointed out Muslim homes to the mob, which included VHP stalwarts Pravin Togadia and Jaideep Patel. Near Ambika Mill in Gomtipur, Ahmedabad, witnesses saw police sub-inspector Modi supply petrol from his jeep to a mob wearing saffron scarves armed with swords and trishuls. The police refused to lodge a complaint against the sub-inspector. In several places, police fired indiscriminately into Muslim bastis that were under attack. Innocent residents, young and old, have been rounded up during ‘combing operations’ in Muslim areas. “These combing operations are a typical instrument of police harassment, where police just enter houses and arrest people randomly,” says a senior police officer.

The most glaring cases were of two Muslim judges whose calls for help were ignored by the police. They had to abandon their homes. Justice Kadri, a sitting court of the Gujarat high court, was not given police protection, despite several calls for help. He had to leave his official residence and seek refuge in a colleague’s home. Justice Divecha, a retired high court judge, also had to run away from his home. He returned to find it ransacked. Moreover, despite the heavy security outside the Ahmedabad high court, trucks were burned outside the gate on 28th February and many judges fled the premises.

A large section of the police force has complied with the orders of their political bosses. The few who ignored political interference and efficiently discharged their duties, preventing an escalation of violence, were punished with sudden transfers. In the middle of the crisis, 27 transfers of police officers was announced, four of which are extremely controversial. They involved officers who prevented flare-ups and took stern action against the culprits. Rahul Sharma, former district superintendent of police (DSP) Bhavnagar was transferred within 20 days to a less active post as deputy commissioner of police, Ahmedabad control room. Sharma nipped violence in the bud while in Bhavnagar by taking action against the local Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists. This irked local BJP MLA Sunil Oza, who complained when his supporters were arrested. Sharma’s prompt action saved the 400 people who were about to be attacked by a VHP mob.

Another officer, Vivek Srivastava, also played a positive role in preventing mob violence in his former posting as DSP Kutch. The district remained peaceful throughout the storm that swept 15 other districts in Gujarat. Despite phone calls from the home minister Gordhan Zadaphia, he arrested the district Home Guards commandment Akshya Thakkar, who is also a local VHP leader, for stirring trouble in the district. Srivastav has now been transferred to a non-police posting in the Ahmedabad prohibition department. A week after his transfer, a communal incident was reported for the first time in Anjar town in Kutch on April 2nd. Shops were burned following the defacement of an idol, a strategy aimed at creating trouble. Incidentally, the RSS has been trying to strengthen its base in Kutch ever since the earthquake struck there. Another officer, Pravin Gondia, who dared to accept a first information report (FIR) naming local MLA Mayaben Kodnani and VHP general secretary Jaideep Patel in the Naroda Patiya massacre, was also shunted to an inconsequential posting in Civil Defence. The posting of two others, Himanshu Bhatt and M.D. Antani, were also unwarranted. The transfers have shaken the highest levels of the police force, prompting even Gujarat’s director general of police to write a letter to the CM against the transfers, which were announced without his approval.

The alarming heights to which the authority of senior police officers has been undermined is a grave concern in police circles today. “I received a call from a minister, asking me not to shoot at Hindus,” admits a police officer. While political interference has been a job hazard for most police officers, they now feel that it has reached dangerous limits in Gujarat. During the first few days of rioting, two ministers, Ashok Bhatt and I.K. Jadeja, were sitting in police control rooms in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar respectively, monitoring the situation as their activists massacred hundreds. Many victims also report that local BJP leaders were stationed at police stations, influencing their operations.

At a meeting of senior police officials with the CM and other ministers, top police officials pathetically pleaded with the CM to allow them to take action against the VHP and Bajrang Dal in order to curb the unending violence. “There has been political interference throughout the history of the police force. But this time, its more dangerous since the fascist ideology behind it is one of hatred and one which attempts to subvert all democratic institutions,” says a police officer. He also points out that RSS and VHP cadres are also cornering positions in the Home Guards and Gram Rakshak Dal. Moreover, the few Muslim police officers have been systematically sidelined. In the last seven years, none of the eight Muslim IPS officers in Gujarat have been given an executive posting, which has jurisdictional authorities and deals with crime and law and order.

While the government would like to portray the recent spate of violence as communal clashes, they are not. Muslims are still the target, although in some cases, they have defended themselves. The political motives behind the attacks have been exposed in several instances. Many Congress strongholds in Kheda, Anand, Mehsana and Vadodara, which had earlier remained unaffected, are now burning. Moreover, rumours and pamphlets, such as those circulated before the Holi festival instigating Hindus to ‘take Ram’s name and attack and kill Muslims’, keep stoking the fear and hatred. VHP tactics of sending bangles to villages which have so far remained peaceful has also ignited violence in many places. “Bangles were also sent to our sarpanch some time back. But our village remained peaceful until April 1st,” said Razzak Vora from Boryavi village in Anand district.

Although there is little doubt that the entire pogrom was well planned, no police investigations are looking into the VHP’s conspiracy of terror. The only conspiracy on which all attention is focused is the Sabarmati Express burning. “The fact that they gathered so many people to attack at the same time points to the level of planning by the VHP. They used gas cylinders, swords and petrol bombs at several places, which also shows they were pre-meditated attacks. The VHP launched a massive membership drive last year, ensuring a ready mob. They had lists of Muslims homes and shops. Obviously, they were waiting for something to happen. They seized on the opportunity when the Sabarmati Express tragedy occurred,” said a senior police officer.

As new tragedies like the Ghachi massacre keep unfolding in Gujarat, it seems the Prime Minister can do little to keep the violence or his Parivar under check.

Frontline, April 13 - 26, 2002 Also available here