Taking on The Lion of Gujarat

The wife of slain Member of Parliament Ahsan Jafri files a complaint against Narendra Modi and other top leaders for the pogrom of 2002.

DIONNE BUNSHA

Narendra Modi calls himself the lion of Gujarat. He is best known for the gory communal pogrom of 2002. That was how Gujarat's Chief Minister was widely seen as having got himself elected to office. By manipulating the Godhra tragedy to stir up communal tension and allowing the mobs to wreak havoc. The outcome - more than 1,000 people dead officially, more than 150,000 homeless and a huge majority in the elections that followed later that year.

Although his collusion in the carnage is common knowledge, why has he not been punished for it? Simple. No one dared file a case against him until now.
After more than four years, one of the victims, Zakia Jafri, has taken the bold step of registering a case against Modi and 62 others - for their complicity in the pogrom. Zakia Jafri is the elderly widow of former Member of Parliament Ahsan Jafri who was killed in his home at Gulbarg Society, Ahmedabad. It was one of the most brutal attacks in which around 50 others were killed and several women raped and mauled. Among the others mentioned in the complaint are top Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders (Praveen Togadia, Jaideep Patel and Keka Shastri), 11 Ministers, five Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), and senior police officials and bureaucrats. The first information report (FIR) was sent by registered post on July 8 to the Sector 21 (Vidhan Sabha) police station.

Zakia Jafri, wife of late MP Ahsan Jafri who was murdered in the 2002 communal carnage
Zakia Jafri has accused the 63 named in the FIR of aiding and abetting the mass carnage and subverting the Constitution for the past four years. "A mass carnage was orchestrated by the most powerful in the State executive using pressure and connivance of the State administration and law and order machinery," Jafri said in the FIR. "There has been continued and consistent attempts to further this unlawful and unconstitutional worldview and mandate by using state terror and pressure to intimidate victim survivors, marginalise (socially and economically) the community they hail from, destroy and/or manipulate evidence to influence the course of justice." The FIR asks for action under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (criminal conspiracy) and other sections of laws dealing with human rights.

Why has Jafri chosen to file the FIR after so many years? "Over the last few years, many police officials submitted affidavits to the Shah-Nanavati Commission (which is inquiring into the violence) that provide sufficient proof that the violence was planned and the police were ordered deliberately to neglect their duty," says Tanvir Jafri, Zakia's son. "The government should have used these testimonies in court as proof and filed cases. But since it has not, we have decide to take legal action. There is no doubt of police neglect in almost all the attacks. For instance, why didn't they save my father when they knew he was in danger 10 hours before he was murdered?"

"We can't wait for the judicial commission report. These commissions go on endlessly and have become a convenient escape route for governments to avoid taking action," said Jafri. Judicial commissions have only the power to recommend that the government take action. They cannot order any legal action. There were eight commissions appointed to probe the causes of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. The final report was released 20 years later, which recommended action against several Congress leaders, including Kamal Nath, H.K.L. Bhagat, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. H.K.L. Bhagat is now dead. The others have not been arrested. The Justice Srikrishna Commission report on the Mumbai riots of 1992-93 indicted several Shiv Sena leaders, but no action has been taken against them.

Jafri's FIR points out how the initial terms of reference of the Shah-Nanavati Commission did not include inquiring into the role of the Chief Minister and government officials. It was added in 2004 after the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance came to power at the Centre. Yet, several police and government officials have not responded to that aspect in their replies to the Commission. "The State of Gujarat has deliberately constricted the functioning of the Commission by instructing senior police officers not to file second affidavits," the FIR says.

The most damning evidence was against Modi and his government is the affidavits filed by Additional Director-General of Police R.B. Sreekumar, the only officer to testify about government and police connivance in the crimes. Sreekumar testified about how Gujarat's Director-General of Police K. Chakravarty told him of the meeting at the Chief Minister's office on the day of the Godhra incident. There, according to Sreekumar, Modi instructed Gujarat's top police officials to let the mobs vent their anger. Despite warnings that it would create trouble, Modi insisted that the VHP should be allowed to bring the bodies of the Godhra victims to Ahmedabad for a procession through the city's streets.

Sreekumar also alleged that FIRs were not properly recorded, evidence was suppressed and minority community victims were harassed in police stations across the State. He submitted before the Commission a personal register in which he recorded all the illegal instructions given to the police to prove that "the CM and officials were part of a deliberate design to disturb internal security for the obvious objective of gaining political caption and electoral benefit to the CM and the ruling party". He gave evidence of how police officers who prevented violence from taking place were punished and those who allowed it to continue were rewarded. Sreekumar has been harassed for telling the truth. The Gujarat government issued a charge-sheet against him for violating service rules.

Several other police officers' testimonies also provide evidence of deliberate state neglect. The then Superintendent of Police in Bhavnagar, Rahul Sharma, was under pressure for having arrested Sangh Parivar activists involved in the violence. The testimony of K. Mysorewala from Naroda police station is evidence of police neglect in preventing one of the most brutal communal attacks in the country, in which 83 people were massacred and many women raped and assaulted.

Although there is sufficient proof of police neglect, the Gujarat government has not taken action against a single policeman. Only in the Randhikpur mass killing case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested policemen for concealing evidence and conspiring with the accused. "If you see the state of justice in Gujarat, there is no hope for us. All the public prosecutors are VHP supporters and are conspiring to protect the accused. Our only hope is the Supreme Court," said Tanvir Jafri.

There is a big risk to the lives of the Jafri family. They are the only people in Gujarat who have dared to prosecute the most powerful. Anyone who has dared to speak out has been harassed. Why is an elderly woman taking such a great risk? "We know that anything can happen to us any time. The same hostile mindset in Gujarat still exists. But we have no other option. It's better than not doing anything," said Tanvir. "We have already lost. Now we can only gain by trying to get justice," he added.

It takes guts to take on a lion.

Frontline, Jul. 15 - 28, 2006 Also available here

Festival of Fear

After all the hype and anti-Christian propaganda, the Shabari Kumbh Mela may have been a damp squib, with more outsiders ferried here for a day-out while fearful locals stayed home. But is this the start of a larger hate campaign?

Dionne Bunsha
In Dang, Gujarat

Just outside Jarsol village there's a celebration. Inside, there's an eerie silence. Jiva Powar (name changed) keeps a watch over the crowd of pilgrims outside his house. Paramilitary troops sit next to him. Yet he is uneasy.

In the build-up to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's newly created Shabari Kumbh Mela, Adivasi Christians like Jiva have been threatened. That's why many have fled. "Sangh activists came to people's houses and warned them that during the Kumbh we will make you bathe, purify you and make you Hindu," says Jiva. "One family has left the village till the Kumbh ends. Another farmer has sent his wife and children to her parent's home."

Jiva is also guarding his land on the 'Pampa Sarovar' (a small pond which the Sangh claims is the place where Shabari’s guru sat), where pilgrims bathe. The Shabari Kumbh trust has forcibly taken it over and put up stalls and shelters there. "They are trying to take away all our rights. Without asking, they've set up all this on my land. Initially, they wanted to build a garden, but I argued with the officials who came to survey the land. Soon the trust will start claiming that the land is theirs and the government will let them take it," he says.

Jiva isn't the only person whose land has been taken. In Mukkamal village, Manad Powar (name changed) sold one acre of his 3.5 acre farm land to the Shabari trust, but they grabbed the entire plot to build the Shabari temple (see: Creating A Kumbh, Frontline, 10 Feb 2006).

The Shabari Kumbh Mela wasn't just an innocuous religious festival. It's been organised to create a new religious tourism site and to intimidate Christians.

The new Shabari Dham temple built on Manad Powar's land.
Traditionally, there are four Kumbh melas. But the VHP started a fifth one in Subir and Jarsol villages in Dang, based purely on the wish of the famous sant Morari Bapu. He came here in 2002 and said that a Kumbh should be organised because this was the place where the adivasi Shabari fed Lord Ram berries while he was in the forest looking for Sita. The Sangh's use of Shabari, an adivasi, makes it easier for tribals to identify with Brahmanical Hinduism. The traditional Adivasi religion is based on nature worship. The VHP hopes the Kumbh will lead to a "Hindu awakening" and "re-convert" Christian adivasis. "Even one of the five Dang Rajas who had become Christian has returned to Hinduism," boasted a Sangh activist.

The Shabari Kumbh website is has strong anti-Christian propaganda: "For long, Bharat has been a special target of the Christian Church worldwide. To the Church, the Hindus represent the greatest stumbling block in their grand design to establish Christ’s kingdom on earth. The poor, illiterate, mild Vanvasi Hindu is an obvious target in this nefarious scheme. For years, under the garb of social service, the Church has been spreading its tentacles in far-flung, tribal regions of our country. These converted Vanvasis become alienated from their customs and traditions. They get uprooted from their cultural milieu. Conversion to Christianity is invariably associated with separatism and terrorism as is evident in North-East Bharat...The process of self-alienation and separatism, which inevitably accompanies conversion, had become visible in Dang. Makeshift, illegal churches had mushroomed in cowsheds and residential areas. These churches were unregistered and illegal. Such was the terrorism of Christian activists that it had become unsafe for Hindus to move out of their houses after dusk."

The ground reality is very different from the picture painted by the Shabari Kumbh website. There aren't any involuntary conversions. Rather, Adivasi Christians are scared to move freely in the atmosphere created during the Kumbh.

On the last day of the mela, there were reports that a mob destroyed tombs a Christian cemetery in Ghumadia village. A complaint was filed with the police and the collector. But when contacted by Frontline, R.M. Jadhav, the district collector denied any knowledge of the incident and dismissed it as a rumour.

Here, the district administration seems to be working for the Shabari Trust. Journalists at the festival were surprised to see top district officials including the collector and secretary in charge of the district holding a press conference under the banner of the Kumbh mela and hosted by the Shabari trust. In this deprived area, any development work was unheard of. Suddenly, in a matter of a few months, 22 check dams and roads were constructed at break neck speed before the Kumbh. Government funds for development of tribal areas are being used to provide infrastructure for the mela.

Around six lakh pilgrims were expected to visit this forest district that has a total population of less than two lakh. The environmental damage caused prompted the Central ministry of environment and forest to conduct an investigation. A public interest case has been filed in the Supreme Court (SC) against the illegal non-forest activity inside a protected forest. Another petition against the Shabari Kumbh video CD has also been filed in the SC. The CD contains communally inflammatory remarks against Christians. (See: Creating A Kumbh, Frontline, 10 Feb 2006).

Most pilgrims were from outside Dang district - from Surat, Ahmedabad, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra. They came by the busload, mobilised by the Sangh. "We have come for the ride," said Tarachand Patidar, a farmer from Ujjain, M.P. and RSS activist. "The Sangh has organised this because people here have changed their religion. Those who switch their religion become enemies of the nation." Locals were a bit apprehensive to speak. Most said that they were happy that so many people were visiting their village. "But we haven't got any work during this mela. People from outside have been brought here to work," said an adivasi from Subir.
A sadhu with a pilgrim.Photo: Ashima Narain
During their speeches, leaders continued their tirade the Christians. Morari Bapu quoted from the Bible and said that Christ was against conversions. "Today, plane-loads from the Vatican can come here and convert people, but if we organise a ghar vaapsi (return home ceremony), it is bad? This programme is about peace and tolerance, which is part of Hinduism. No one shall be scared of this," he said.

Chief minister Narendra Modi warned, "Mahatma Gandhi fought conversions. Our Constitution disapproves of them, and yet some people turn a blind eye. Let me warn everyone, it is my constitutional duty to prevent conversions."' Explaining his vision to make the Shabari Kumbh a tourist destination, the chief minister said, "I see Shabari Kumbh as a Vikas Yatra (path to development). Every Indian should have a desire to visit this place during their lifetime. If that happens, poverty will be removed. And the local culture will flourish."

But locals are not buying into his dream. They don't want to meet the same fate as the refugees from Saputara, a village 65 km away that was converted into a hill station. "The government forced 40 families to leave. They jailed us and forced us to surrender our land documents as bail. They cheated and settled us in a village near the Maharashtra border," says Pandubhai Choudhari, a journalist and shop keeper from Saputara. "We were promised farm land but never given any. These 40 families were settled on 10 acres of land. Our village stretched across 300 acres. Today, people are still roaming as casual labourers searching for work or washing dishes in hotels there."

Adivasis in the villages surrounding the site of the Kumbh mela know that the end of the festival doesn't mean they can breathe easy. "The organisers have paid villagers Rs 300 and taken their thumb impressions on a blank piece of paper. Who knows what they will do with that paper? The government will let them do anything," said Jiva. "Will they take away our land like they did in Saputara?”

The Shabari Kumbh Mela is just the start of the Sangh’s work in Dang. Hill stations, intimidation…Locals fear there’s much more to follow.

Frontline, Feb. 25 - Mar. 10, 2006 Also available here

Hindus awake, Christians run

Traditionally, India has four Kumbh Melas. The Sangh has just created a fifth in Dangs with the sole aim of scaring off Christian missionaries in the region.


Dionne Bunsha
In Dang

How Lord Ram destroyed demonic forces like Ravan
Today, demonic forces are trying to destroy Hinduism (picture of a church with a cross)
To confront them and to create religious awakening
The Shabari Kumbh Mela calls out to everyone.
…It will try to get all parts of society to unite with Hindu religion
And will stop conversions.
-- From a promotional video for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Shabari Kumbh Mela in Dang, Gujarat.

Sounds like a call for religious war? It may well be. A targeted communal attack disguised as a holy festival.

For the first time in history, the VHP has created a fifth Shabari Kumbh Mela in Dang district. The festival is being used to build tension and intimidate Christian Adivasis in this isolated forest region in south Gujarat.

For several years, the local VHP leader Swami Aseemanand has led a vicious campaign against Christians here. In 1998, there were 38 attacks on Christians in a span of three weeks. Since then, the Sangh has worked to create hostility towards them. The Shabari Kumbh Mela is one more step in that direction . The propaganda on their website and in their promotional video clearly states that the event is meant to fight the influence of Christianity in this area, and ‘awaken’ Hinduism amongst tribals. “Hindu jaage, Christi bhaage (Hindus awake, Christians run)” is the slogan used here. And the strategies of oppression are very systematically planned.

In 2002, they invited the sant Morari Bapu for a Ram Katha. In his speech, Morari Bapu said that there should be a Kumbh mela here at the place where Lord Ram met Shabari. The Sangh has been propagating the myth that Lord Ram met his adivasi follower Shabari here, and ate the wild berries that she tasted. However, there is no historical evidence, nor is there any religious precedent of a Kumbh mela here. For centuries, there have been only four Kumbh Melas. Suddenly, a fifth one has been started based solely on Morari Bapu’s declaration. And with a clear intent to intimidate.

From 11th to 13th February, the Sangh plans to get more than five lakh pilgrims for this event. The total population of Dang district is just a little over two lakh, almost entirely adivasi. So, the entire district will be swamped with the Sangh’s supporters. The event is being marketed in cities of neighbouring states as a new religious tourism destination.

The Pampa Sarovar lake built for the Shabari Kumbh Mela. Photo: Dionne Bunsha
Jarsol Dahad, a small pond in Subir village has been re-named ‘Pampa Sarovar’, the place where Ram met Shabari. A place that has seen no development for decades is suddenly awash with funds. The government has built 12 check dams to make sure there is enough water in the ‘Pampa Sarovar’ for pilgrims to bathe. Village roads are being tarred. Piped drinking water and electricity is being brought to places where there has been none so far. Tents, water tanks and toilets are being put up in farmlands, paying villagers a mere Rs 300. If people are not willing to rent out their land, local officials intervene on behalf of the Shabari organizers. Forty temporary townships, to accommodate 5000 people each, are being constructed.

Surrounding villages have been swamped with Sangh activists preparing for the mela. In Subir, they distribute free meals, grains and clothes to villagers. Activists are visiting villages to mobilise supporters. They are intimidating Adivasi Christians and taking photographs of their homes and of Christian institutions like schools or dispensaries. On the local Akashvani is broadcasting Morari Bapu’s speech every evening. Audio-visual vans tour the villages, screening the promotional video and the Ramayana TV serial. In villages, the atmosphere is tense. People refuse to speak about the mela. Rumours are rife that Christians will be attacked. All signs of planned disaster repeated before most communal attacks.

“Swami Aseemanand’s supporters come here and tell us that everyone should be Hindu. There shouldn’t be a single Christian in this village,” says Sonu Powar (name changed), an Adivasi Christian farmer in Jarsol village. “There are rumours that there will be a riot. People will come from outside and the police will not stop them.”

Threats began many months earlier. Shimbuben Powar (name changed) was filling water when Sangh activists came to her home a few months back. “My little son was home. They entered my house and tore the picture of Jesus. I rushed back. They told me, ‘If you don’t follow Ram, you will be finished in the Kumbh Mela. Even the police won’t save you.’ They took photographs of me and of our house,” she says. When Shimbuben reported it to the police, they took down the names, but did not lodge a complaint. Earlier this month, some women came back to her home and told her to leave Jesus and follow Ram.
Amidst bamboo poles put up in a farm for tents, a Bhil tablet depiciting symbols of nature. The Sangh Parivar simply assumes that all tribal people are Hindus.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
The newly constructed Pampa Sarovar and Shabari Dham temple are both built on land grabbed from Adivasis, villagers allege. The Shabari trust has snatched Sonu’s land near the ‘Pampa Sarovar’. The government has done nothing to stop them. Instead, villagers allege that it is assisting the land grab. “Government officials came and surveyed my land. They said they wanted to find out how much was mine and how much was protected forest land. I told them that I have the title deed as proof,” says Sonu Powar. But they didn’t listen to him. They have let the land be used as a tourist spot. “The swami’s supporters fought with me and told me to give the land to the swami. They even filed a police case against me for fighting with a shopkeeper.” If the land is protected forest, then why is the government turning it into a tourist playground?

Manad Powar had 3.5 hectares of land on a hill known as Chamak Dongar (shining mountain). When the Shabari trust wanted to build a temple there, they asked Manad to sell one hectare for Rs 40,000. But they captured all his 3.5 hectares of land. “I still have title to the land. But now, if I go there, the security guards threaten me. I am alone here, my sons work in the cities. I can’t fight them. They even cut 100 trees which I had planted to make a road to the temple,” says Manad. “They made my cousin a member of the Shabari trust, and claim the land is in his name.” Manad is now planning to fight his case in court.
The new Shabari Dham temple built on Manad Powar's land.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
“We have taken people’s consent for using their land. Anyways, the land is not being used after the monsoon crop,” said Suresh Kulkarni, secretary of the Shabari Kumbh Samaroh Ayojan Samiti. He said the main aim of the Kumbh was to awaken Hinduism. He said he had not seen the Shabari Kumbh website which spews venom against Christians. When asked if any historical proof existed that Ram came to this exact location, he said, “We know because Morari Bapu said this is the spot. And the Ramayan is proof enough. We are organizing it on 11th February because that is Mag Panchimi, the time when Ram and Shabari met. Also, the adivasis celebrate Basant Panchmi at this time.”

Local MLA Madhu Bhoye has been petitioning the collector and other officials to prevent any communal trouble and forest destruction that the Kumbh has wrought. “Innocent Adivasi people are being misguided by so-called religious organizations by propagating the imaginary mythological story of the Pampa Sarovar. There is no mention of the Pampa Sarovar in the history of Dangs,” he said. Explaining the environmental effects, Bhoye said, “In the last few months, illegal timber felling in the forest has also increased because outsiders have come here to prepare for the Kumbh. Everyday, around Rs 10-15 lakh worth of timber is being stolen from the forest.”

But the government’s only response to the upheaval in the district has been to expedite all work connected with the Kumbh. District collector R. N. Jadhav estimates that development works worth Rs 3 to 4 crores has been spent on the building of the check dams, roads and pipelines. “We would have done it anyways even if the Kumbh was not there,” he says. Jadhav assures that there will be no trouble during the mela. When asked why no action has been taken even though the Kumbh’s promotional video spews anti-Christian propaganda, he says, “I have not received any complaint, so why should I take any action?” Meanwhile, human rights groups have filed a case in the Supreme court asking that minorities should be protected considering the hate propaganda that is being spread.

The Sangh’s promotional video warns that the rate of increase of the Christian population in Dang has grown four fold. It points out that Christians constitute only 0.44% of Gujarat’s population, but are 5.43% in Dang. “History has shown us that places where the Hindu majority has weakened have become hotbeds of terrorism and anti-national activities,” the video says. The Sangh is generating fear to gain political and economic control of this rich forest area. Even today, money and muscle power are being used to gain support in villages. Bonds between communities are being torn.

Contrary to the Sangh’s myth, adivasis are not being forcibly converted. Most turn to the church for health reasons. “My father and me kept falling ill. There was some bad influence on us. We went to the local bhagats who made us spend money on killing one goat every month. Yet, it didn’t work. So my uncle took me to a local Christian priest and I felt some peace. We got better without paying anything,” says Ramesh (name changed). While the Sangh wants to ‘re-convert’ Christians, they were never Hindus to begin with. Adivasis have their own festivals and rituals in which they worship nature. Their religious practices are very different from the Brahmanical brand of Hinduism that the Sangh wants them to follow.

But regardless of facts, the myths continue to be propagated. The show will go on. The swamis and Sanghis are all set to take Dang by storm next month. It may not be as innocuous as just a dip in the pond.

Frontline, Jan. 28 - Feb. 10, 2006 Also available here

Digging up the Dead

Looking for a dead relative? Get your shovel. Uncover a mass grave. You may expose the cops’ cover-up —but you will be arrested.

DIONNE BUNSHA
In Lunawada and Ahmedabad

Ameena’s on the run again. During Gujarat’s communal violence in March 2002, she had to escape when her village, Pandharvada, was attacked. Today, she’s running from the law. The police have filed a case against her and several refugees because they dug up a mass grave in Lunawada with the remains of their relatives.

Ameena - arrested for trying to find her dead relatives bodyPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
For years, Pandharvada’s refugees have been asking the police to help them find the bodies of 20 people killed in the massacre, who were reported as ‘missing’. But all their pleas had no effect. The police made no effort to help them find the last remains of their loved ones. So, they started doing their own detective work.

It started with Rs 50 of country liquor. And ended up being one of the Gujarat government’s biggest embarrassments. Ghulam Kharadi got the tip-off from a drunk municipal sweeper who had been hired to bury the bodies. While chatting with him late one night, he said he could take them to the exact spot where their relatives were buried. He led them to the site and they started digging immediately to check. Skeletons started emerging, along with clothes they could recognize.

Immediately they called others who had lost their relatives. Then, they called Sahara news. Broadcast across national TV, the police’s cover up job was exposed. Ameena Rasool and other refugees rushed to the High Court asking it to hand over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI). The court passed an interim order directing the CBI to conduct DNA tests in a lab in Hyderabad. The victims did not trust the Gujarat police or the Gandhinagar lab to carry out the tests.

The mass grave in Lunawada is just one of the many instances of police negligence that are continually being brought to light as cases are heard in court or investigated by outside agencies like the CBI. Not only did the police fail to protect many of those killed in the communal pogrom, but later it refused to record witnesses’ statement, buried evidence and shielded the accused. In several cases, including the Pandharvada case, the culprits have been acquitted because of the haphazard manner in which the police dealt with the investigations.
Police guarding the site of the mass graves in Lunawada after refugees dug them up in search of the bodies of their dead relativesPhoto: Dionne Bunsha
Pandharvada’s refugees still live in Lunawada. They haven’t been able to return to their village because they are still threatened by those who attacked them. The police provide no protection. Most witnesses have lost all faith in the police.

That’s why they turned to the media. “When we found the bones and the clothes, we called activists from the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and Sahara news. Teesta Setalvad from the CJP called the police superintendent and asked him to seal the site,” says Kharadi, who was the first to find the burial site. Why didn’t they call the police? “What’s the point? So often, we’ve asked them for help to find the bodies, but they ignored us.”

This time too, the Gujarat police lived up to their name. Instead of helping the victims, they harassed them. Ghulam was illegally detained overnight at the Lunawada circuit house. His friend was kept at Lunawada police station. When Ghulam went to Ahmedabad to petition the court for a CBI investigation, the local police came looking for him and harassed his wife. Several refugees in Lunawada wanted to get away from the town, terrified that the police would get after them. Their fears were not unfounded. The police filed a case against 11 refugees plus four others for hurting religious feelings, trespassing on government property and some other offences. That’s the most prompt action the police has taken in this case.

Yet, the Gujarat police dismissed the unearthing of the mass grave as an unnecessary publicity campaign. “It was not found. It was always there,” says A.K. Bhargav, Gujarat’s Director-General of Police. “Post-mortems of 34 bodies were conducted in Lunawada hospital. Of these, relatives took six bodies on 3rd March 2002. We exhumed eight bodies in October 2002 when people asked for them. That leaves 20 bodies unclaimed. These people never asked us for the bodies. We would have helped them too.”

“Everything is legal and on record. We haven’t received any application for the dead bodies,” said Dinesh Brahmbhatt, district collector and magistrate of Panchmahal. Yet, he was not able to provide any documentation of the bodies exhumed. Nor was he able to explain why clothes were found with the skeletons. If post-mortems are conducted, the clothes are to be removed and kept by the police, and a white shroud is supposed to be placed over the body. “This shows that the post-mortem may not have been done properly,” says Setalvad. Moreover, victims claim that the police FIR does not account for the 20 bodies that were missing. But neither they nor their lawyer could state how many people were registered as dead in the two FIRs filed in the Pandharvada case.
Police interrogating Sabira Kharadi, whose husband Jabir was killed in Pandharvada.
Photo: Dionne Bunsha
The district court acquitted eight accused in the Pandharvada case, and said that there were lapses in the investigation. “The case fell through because the police didn’t take down our statements properly. We named 56 people as accused, of whom they brought only eight to court,” say Pandharwada’s witnesses. “They didn’t bring the real culprits, but put up bogus people including a one-handed man, as the accused. Obviously, no one could identify them. Moreover, only six of the 56 witnesses were examined. And many of them were scared to speak since the real criminals are roaming freely in the village. We can’t even go back home because they can still threaten us. Only if the CBI investigates, the truth will come out.”

It’s not only the Pandharvada case, but in several others too, the police have tried to bury and conceal evidence. In Kalol, the CBI arrested six policemen and two doctors who deliberately destroyed evidence relating to the Randhikpur massacre and conspired to shield the accused. They conducted a post-mortem at the site of the burial and added 60 kg of salt so that the bodies would disintegrate quickly. Earlier, bodies from the Kidiad killings were found in the Panam dam, close to where this mass grave was recently found. Investigations have been so shoddy that the police closed 2120 of the 4252 communal violence cases as ‘true but undetected’. The police had closed the cases citing lack of evidence as the reason. But eye-witnesses insist that the police had not taken down their statements properly. The Supreme court has ordered a special inquiry into these cases and re-opening those where evidence is available.

“All I want is my husband’s body. What answer can I give them when they ask for their father? At least I should be able to show them a gravestone,” said Sabira Kharadi, whose husband Jabir was killed in Pandharvada. “We haven’t celebrated any festival for four years. It’s still too dangerous for us to go back to our village. We are barely surviving here. But this is all we are asking for.”

There are many like Ameena and Sabira in Gujarat who are still waiting for the police’s cover-ups to be unearthed.

Frontline, Jan. 14 - 27, 2006 Also available here

Still A Burning Question

Rejecting the police’s conspiracy theory, the Justice Banerjee Committee has called the Godhra tragedy “an accident”. But will it absolve an entire community that has been branded as terrorists?

DIONNE BUNSHA

On 27th February 2002, Ishaq Mohammed Mamdu (30) was at his home in Godhra when he heard about the fire that burned a compartment of the Sabarmati Express when it stopped at Godhra station early that morning. Ishaq is blind and stayed at indoors when curfew orders were passed. Normally, he helped his brother Shabbir in his scrap business. Two months later, the police barged into his house and arrested him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) for being part of the conspiracy to burn the train. Ishaq’s bail applications have been rejected. The tension of his confinement killed his mother. He is still in jail.

Not only Ishaq, but the entire Muslim community was blamed for the Godhra tragedy. The Sangh Parivar used it to launch a pogrom against Muslims in Gujarat, during which more than 1,000 people were killed and 150,000 were made homeless.

Almost three years after the Godhra blaze, the Justice Banerjee high level committee, appointed by the Union cabinet to look into the reason for the fire, has said that there is no proof of the ‘terrorist conspiracy’ that Ishaq was supposedly part of. The train caught fire accidentally. It is the first government response that contradicts the findings of the police investigation.

What does this mean for the 104 accused of being terrorists? For now, nothing more than a moral vindication. The Banerjee committee has no legal powers, it has merely submitted the findings of its interim report to the railway ministry. The committee was formed after the new United Progressive alliance government came to power and railway minister Lalu Yadav initiated the inquiry. It is up to the Union government how it chooses to act on the committee’s conclusions. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Gujarat police still stands by its conspiracy theory and the matter is being heard in the POTA court.

Soon after Justice Banerjee released his report, the SIT called a press conference to reiterate its findings. “We have evidence that a core group of around 15 to 20 people were involved in the conspiracy,” said Rakesh Asthana, who heads the SIT. He maintains that the plan to torch the train was masterminded during meetings at Aman Guest House, owned by Razak Kurkur, who allegedly heads a local criminal gang involved in railway crimes. The police say that 140 litres of petrol were also stored in the guest house.

Justice U.C. Banerjee inspecting the burnt coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra in September 2004.
The actual operation was conducted by six people who cut open the vestibule and entered, opened the closed doors of the compartment, poured 120 litres of petrol (each supposedly carried a 20 litre jerry can) and jumped out, according to the SIT investigation. Then, burning rags were thrown in through the windows in the middle of the compartment. The SIT’s main evidence is a court confession by Zabir Bin Yameen Behra, one of those who allegedly entered the S6 compartment, in which he revealed details of how the plan was hatched. Later, he went back on the testimony, saying the police forced him to depose before the court.

The Banerjee committee has rejected the SIT’s conspiracy theory. It rules out the possibility of any inflammable liquid being responsible for the fire, as there was first a smell of burning and then a smoke and flames, which would not be the case if inflammable fluid were used. “The inflammable liquid theory gets negated by the statement of some of the passengers who suffered injuries on the upper portion of the body and not the lower body and who crawled towards the door on elbows and could get out without much injury,” says the Banerjee report. “The committee has found it unbelievable that Kar Sevaks (to the extent of 90% of the total occupants) armed with trishuls would allow themselves to be burned by miscreant activity like a person entering S6 coach from outside and setting it on fire.”

The ‘miscreant theory’ was also dismissed by the commission. It ruled out the possibility that the fire could have ignited after a fight erupted between the Kar Sevaks and hawkers at Godhra station, and the local hawkers gathered a mob which threw stones and burning rags at the Kar Sevaks inside S6. “The committee has noted the forensic laboratory’s experiment and verified its conclusion that it was impossible to set fire to the train from outside,” Banerjee concluded.

Eliminating the ‘petrol theory’, the ‘miscreant ’ theory and the possibility of an electrical fire, the committee concluded that the case of the burning was an “accidental fire”. But, it gave no reasons why it could have been an “accidental fire”. Moreover, it totally ignores the fact that a fight did flare up at the station platform. And it continued when the train stopped twice a few minutes after it pulled out of Godhra station, a huge mob had gathered which hurled stones and burning rags at the compartment. The committee believes that a fire happened ‘accidentally’ just when a brawl occurred at the same location. There is no mention in the committee’s report of the fracas that broke out just outside the burnt bogey.

The committee report also highlighted the failings of the railway administration. It has severely criticized the entire hierarchy of Western Railway for pre-judging the cause by describing the fire as ‘miscreant activity’ without even conducting a preliminary inquiry. Even later, no statutory inquiry into the fire was carried out. Neither the railway minister nor any members of the Board visited the site of the accident or the injured passengers. Moreover, the railway administration did not try to preserve the evidence. The S7 coach, despite some damage to it, was allowed to travel onward to Ahmedabad, even though it was a crucial piece of evidence.

The ‘truth’ about the Godhra fire seems to change when governments change. Railway minister Lalu Yadav is using the committee as a game of one-upmanship with the BJP and Sangh Parivar. These saffron groups had immediately labeled the Godhra tragedy as a conspiracy by Islamic terrorist and used it to build up pre-election Hindutva fervour and carry out revenge killings across Gujarat. On the day of the incident, the VHP had made a public statement demanding, “Blood for Blood”.

But somewhere, the new Congress(I) led alliance government seems to have missed the point. Why should it be desperately trying to prove Godhra was an accident? Even if it was a terrorist conspiracy, does it justify the state-sponsored violence that followed?

The sequence of events:

7.42 a.m.: The Sabarmati Express arrived at Godhra station. Some Kar Sevaks got down to buy tea and snacks from the platform vendors. An argument ensued between a Muslim vendor and the Kar Sevaks over payment for the tea.
7.47 a.m.: The train departed from Godhra. While getting on to the train, Kar Sevaks tried to pull into the compartment a girl standing on the platform with her mother. But she managed to pull away from them.
7.48 a.m.: The chain was pulled, as many Kar Sevaks were still left on the platform. Stone throwing started between the Kar Sevaks and local Muslims gathered behind the Parcel Office.
8.00 a.m.: The train started.
8.05 a.m.: The train stopped again, when the vacuum brakes were applied. Local Muslims, armed with weapons, rushed to catch up with the train. They crowd in separate groups outside the compartment. They started pelting stones and shouting slogans. Coach S6 caught fire.
8.25 a.m.: Police arrived at the scene and fired to disperse Muslim mob.

Frontline, Jan 29 - Feb 11, 2005 Also available here

Zahira’s third somersault

For the second time Zahira Sheikh, prime witness of the Best Bakery case, has turned hostile. And this, after appealing for a retrial. What is going on here?

DIONNE BUNSHA

BEYOND a point, it is immaterial how much eye-witness Zahira Sheikh's family was allegedly paid to keep silent during the re-trial of the Best Bakery case. The moot question is: how will their silence affect the outcome of the case? Now that five of the Sheikh family witnesses have turned hostile, will it be easier for the accused to get away?

Zahira Sheikh comes out of the Special Court after deposing for the third day in Mumbai on December 23.
On the night of March 1, 2002, a mob attacked the Best Bakery building owned by the Sheikh family in Hanuman Tekdi, Vadodara. The assailants were armed with stones, swords, torches and sticks. The attack was part of the anti-Muslim pogrom that swept Gujarat after a mob allegedly set fire to a compartment of the Sabarmati Express carrying Hindu pilgrims at Godhra station, killing 59.

The mob outside the Best Bakery first burned an adjacent warehouse and then set fire to the bakery on the ground floor of the building. The Sheikh family, which owned the bakery, lived on the floor above, and on top of their home was a terrace. When the fire started, all the inhabitants of the building ran to the terrace - bakery workers, the Sheikh family members and their neighbours. The attack ended only the next morning when the police came to rescue the survivors.

Zahira Sheikh lodged the first information report in which she and her family members identified people from their locality in the mob. She lost her uncle and sister in the tragedy. Four children in her neighbour's home also died in the fire.
Until a month before the trial, Zahira was one of the most strident fighters for justice. When she and her family went back on their police statement in the Vadodara court in May 2003, saying they saw nothing, it stirred a huge controversy. Soon after, the Vadodara Sessions court acquitted the 21 accused. Then, Zahira and her mother Sehrunissa came out of hiding saying that they had lied in court because they were threatened by Bharatiya Janata Party Member of the Legislative Assembly Madhu Shrivastav and his cousin Bhattoo Shrivastav, a municipal corporator belonging to the Congress.

The social activist Teesta Setalvad brought Zahira's family to Mumbai and offered them help and protection in their quest for justice. They approached the National Commission for Human Rights, which appealed to the Supreme Court for a retrial of the case outside Gujarat. In an unprecedented move, the court ordered a retrial in Mumbai, which is now under way in the Mazgaon court. However, in the retrial too, the Sheikh family recanted on their statements in the Supreme Court. They said that it was too dark for them to see what happened.

While allegations of pay-offs are flying thick and fast, the crux of the issue is not the compromise deal but whether there will be any justice for the victims of the Best Bakery attack. Besides the five Sheikh family members (Zahira, Sehrunissa, Zahira's older brother Nafitullah, her younger brother Nasibullah and her sister Sahira) who were eyewitnesses, there were also five other eyewitnesses - her sister-in-law Yasmin and bakery workers - who have identified several of the accused during the trial. All of the 21 accused have been identified by one or more than one of the witnesses. However, the fact that five of the main witnesses turned hostile is bound to weaken the evidence against the accused.

There are several glaring discrepancies between the statements given by the Sheikh family and that of other witnesses. The Sheikh family members said it was too dark to see anything. However, the other witnesses were able to identify most of the accused. The next morning, the other witnesses say, the mob allowed them and the Sheikh family to come down a narrow ladder and then tied the limbs of the men (including Nafitullah and Nasibullah), poured kerosene on them and set them on fire, and threatened to rape the women. However, Zahira, her sister and her mother say they were too shocked to remember anything, while her two brothers claim they were unconscious that night itself and do not know how they landed up in hospital. In the Mumbai court, Sahira even denied that her uncle Kauserali, who died during the attack, was present during the incident.
Zahira's brothers Nafitullah (left) and Nasibullah (right), prime eyewitnesses in the Best Bakery Case, arriving at the Mazgaon Sessions Court.
Nafitullah fell out with his wife Yasmin and married another woman. The family denies that Yasmin was present at Best Bakery at the time of the incident. Yasmin, however, had given her eyewitness testimony to the police a few months after the incident and also identified the accused in court. The police have also videotaped evidence from the scene of the crime, which proves that both Yasmin and Zahira's grandmother were there. So far, the grandmother, who lives in Uttar Pradesh, has not been called to testify.

Questions about the payoffs to the Sheikh family remain. Who is funding these alleged deals? Is it the families of the neighbourhood goons who are accused in the case or are there powerful people behind it? What are their motives? Who are the lawyers who brought Zahira back to Vadodara to file a case against Teesta Setalvad? Who are they linked to? Atul Mistry, the lawyer now representing Zahira, is a junior of Rajendra Trivedi, who defended the Best Bakery accused in the Vadodara Sessions court. Jal Unwala, another lawyer who supported her at a recent press conference in Vadodara, is a junior of Gujarat High Court lawyer K.J. Sethna, whose elder brother, Justice B.J. Sethna, upheld the acquittal of the Best Bakery accused by the Sessions Court.

"The Best Bakery case is not the only one in which witnesses are asked to compromise. It tends to happen not only in most riot cases, but in most legal matters," said an Ahmedabad-based lawyer. "It's only because the Best Bakery case gets so much attention that suddenly this has become an issue. Our legal system is so slow and expensive that victims prefer to get on with their lives than bother with court cases."

Behind the Sheikh family's constant shifts between fact and fiction seems to be not only money but also a tussle between their quest for justice and the risk to their own lives if they spoke against those who have the upper hand. They have to keep quiet if they want to return home. And yes, money is needed to rebuild a life that has been burned to cinders.

The grand irony would be if, in this tangled mess of contradictions, the accused are freed, and the Sheikhs are jailed for perjury.

Frontline, Jan. 1 - 14, 2005 Also available here

Let the worms out

The Supreme Court directive to review more than 2,000 "true but undetected" cases in Gujarat is bound to expose police complicity.

DIONNE BUNSHA

Bilkis Yakub Rasul’s case was closed. The police said it was ‘true but undetected’. It was labelled what is called ‘A Summary’ in legal language, and shoved aside.

Fourteen of Bilkis’ family had been murdered. They were all escaping from an attack on their village Randhikpur in Dahod. After two days on the run, a jeep full of village leaders caught hold of them on a country road. They gang raped the women, killed them and their children. Bilkis was also assaulted. They killed her two-year-old daughter. For a while, she was unconscious. They mistook her for dead. That’s how she became the lone survivor.

Although Bilkis named the perpetrators in her police statement, the police said there was not enough evidence against them. They called Bilkis “unstable”. The investigators said she had given differing statements at different times. But they did not even have an identification parade so that she could recognise her attackers. The case was closed - “true but undetected”.

Supported by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Bilkis approached the Supreme court. It ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the case. That’s when the truth came tumbling out. The CBI found that six policemen and two doctors deliberately destroyed evidence and conspired to shield the accused. They were all arrested. Now, her case has been transferred out of Gujarat to ensure a fair trial.

There are more than 2,000 such cases closed by the Gujarat police (see table). That’s around half of the 4,252 cases filed during the communal violence of 2002. (Frontline, Blocking of Justice, March 15 - 28, 2003). Recently, the Supreme court ordered that the Gujarat police should review such cases. It has asked the state government to set up a Grievance Committee with experienced police officers to look into these and other cases that the police botched up. A Special Investigation Team will work in tandem with the Committee.

Acting on an application made before the court by Harish Salve, the Amicus Curiae (Friend of the court) appointed to help the court in the petitions relating to the Gujarat violence, the SC has felt that steps need to be taken to ensure that riot victims feel that justice is being done. Salve pointed out that all petitions before the SC pointed to the failure of the investigative machinery in carrying out a proper investigation and the pathetic conduct of trials that have resulted in the large scale granting of bails and acquittals.

Call it the Gujarat police’s ‘Accused Protection Programme’. Jaggubhai is one of those covered by it. Everyday he sells vegetables to police constable Patil. Jaggubhai is accused of burning to death 13 people who were escaping in a tempo from the attack on their basti in Delol village. Though Jaggubhai meets constable Patil everyday, police records say he is ‘absconding’. And it’s business as usual.

Sultana saw Jaggubhai and his friends burn her husband to death inside the tempo. For her, it’s not business as usual. She is in hiding in Kalol town. She hasn’t been able to return to her home. Witnesses have no protection, but the accused are immune.

The Grievance Committee will also look into such cases where accused are listed as ‘absconding’ although they are roaming free. “If they are declared absconders, the law allows the police to attach their property. But it chooses not to,” says Mihir Desai, human rights lawyer, pointing out the police tendency to shield the accused.

In Gujarat, several first information reports (FIRs), in which eyewitnesses identified politicians leading the mob, have mysteriously disappeared from police records. Nanubhai Maleikh, a witness in the Naroda Gaam case in Ahmedabad, was actually imprisoned for four months. In his police statement, he said BJP MLA Dr Mayaben Kodnani and VHP secretary Dr Jaideep Patel had instructed the mob that went on a rampage in his locality. Nanubhai was framed on a murder charged, along with 11 others. He still can’t go back home.

Around 38 witnesses from Naroda Patiya in Ahmedabad filed FIRs with the police. But their cases were all closed and clubbed as witness statements attached to the FIR filed by the police. Naroda Patiya was the site of Gujarat’s worst massacre in which there was a mass murder of more than 100 (83 dead according to official records). “The witnesses had identified several accused but the police case names only seven people. Moreover, their statements were part of the chargesheet that the police filed,” says Anand Yagnik, human rights lawyer. “If the Godhra accused are being charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, then why not the perpetrators of this carnage? Instead, the police are shielding them.”

Even the cases that have not been closed have not been investigated properly. Yet, when the indicted are acquitted in court, it’s the witnesses who are blamed. “It’s very difficult to prove riot cases. Witnesses turn hostile. They have to live in their villages. Even people who lodged FIRs have gone back on their initial statements,” says Narsimha Komar, district superintendent of police, Panchmahal. But the police did nothing to make sure that witnesses felt safe enough to testify.

A similar task force was set up to inquire into Mumbai’s communal violence cases of 1992-93. Around 60 per cent of the riot-related cases (1,358 cases) were closed unlawfully during the tenure of the Shiv Sena-BJP government as being "true but undetected" (A Task Force and Unfinished Tasks, Frontline, Feb. 16 - Mar. 1, 2002). The Srikrishna Commission probing the Mumbai carnage had indicted the Shiv Sena, the police and powerful politicians for their complicity in the riots, in which 900 people were killed and 2,036 people, mainly Muslims, were injured.

The Srikrishna report recommended that the ‘A’ summary cases should be reopened. A Special Task Force (STF) was set up by the state government, following directions from the Supreme court. The STF reopened only 112 of the 1,358 cases. Of these, all except 15 were closed once again. "It was very difficult to get evidence after all these years," said P.K. Raghuvanshi, Additional Commissioner of Police in charge of the STF. Eight new cases were also filed, and 27 policemen were charge-sheeted for serious offences in five of these cases.

The re-opening of over 2,000 cases that were closed in Gujarat may expose a Pandora’s box of police complicity and manipulation. The truth is catching up.

Frontline, Aug. 28 - Sep. 10, 2004 Also available here

Pirana in chains

A Gujarat village that follows a Sufi-inspired faith, a blend of Islam and Hinduism, is in danger of being swamped by Hindu fundamentalism.

Dionne Bunsha
In Pirana

Pir Imam Shah Bawa’s devotees are chained at the feet. Then, they close their eyes and pray fervently while walking towards the Sufi saint’s tomb, the Hajrat Pir Imam Shah Bawa Roza in Pirana village, outside Ahmedabad. If the chain disentangles in the first few steps, it means that your prayer will be granted soon. If not, it’s a sign that it will take some time.

Today, the Pir’s followers are entangled in a dispute that could threaten the existence of their faith. Pirana’s residents still follow Imam Shah Bawa’s teachings of love and harmony, a Sufi-inspired amalgam of both Islam and Hinduism. But powerful religious heads close to the Sangh Parivar are trying to communalise their belief, reducing it to little more than a sect of Hinduism. In the heat of the conflict, the Quran hand-written by the Pir, which used to lie near his tomb, mysteriously disappeared. It’s called the ‘mini-Ayodhya’.

Pir Imam Shah Bawa founded the Satpanth (meaning: ‘true path’) faith around 600 years back. He taught tolerance and the universality of all religions. The sect is an offshoot of Ismaili teachings, a liberal branch of Shiite Islam followed by the Aga Khani Khojas. It is a blend of both Hinduism and Islam and attracted devotees from other religions.

All 18 communities living in Pirana, from different castes and religions, are devotees of Imam Shah Bawa. The shrine also attracts followers from different parts of India. Hindu followers, called ‘Satpanthis’, comprise 85% of the sect. Many are not from Pirana village. Several are from the Kutchi Patel community. Muslim followers, called ‘Saiyeds’, are considered to be the saint’s direct descendents. Devotees did not define themselves as Hindu or Muslim until they were forced to do so by the British census in the mid-19th century. The pressure of Islamic reforms and the rise of Hindu revivalist groups also made them adopt clearly defined religious identities.

After the death of the saint, a shrine was built over Imam Shah Bawa’s tomb in Pirana. Within the complex, they also built a Dholia where he used to sleep, a mosque and a graveyard. Till 1931, the durgah complex was private property belonging to the Saiyeds, and was administrated by the head of the Satpanthis called ‘Kaka’, according to Dominique Sila-Khan who has done research on the sect. Some Satpanthis filed a case against the then Kaka Ramji Laxman (also a Patel) for misusing funds. The court ordered that a public trust be set up to manage the property. The committee was to consist of seven Satpanthi and three Saiyed representatives elected every five years. But elections haven’t been held for the last 15 years.

A conflict between the Satpanthis and the Saiyeds emerged when the last religious leader Karsan Das Kaka tried to Hinduise the belief. The dispute has resulted in a spate of legal battles. In the late 1980s, the Kaka made several changes to the literature, rituals and prayers, removing any hint of an Islamic influence. When I visited the shrine, the guide appointed by the trust made it a point to keep telling me, “This is a Hindu samadhi mandir. It has no connection with Islam.”

“Our prayers had words like Om as well as Rehman and Rahim. The shrine administration have taken out the Islamic words. They are destroying the meaning of the philosophy,” said Bharat Patel, a carpenter who lives in Pirana. He is also a Satpanthi, but resents the hijacking of the sect by a few powerful Kutchi Patels. “They are like a gang. It’s become very political. The VHP, Bajrang Dal and the police are with them. Anyone who questions them is taken to the police station. There is no meaning to the Satpant anymore. It has become very casteist. In the gurukul, they only look after the children of Kutchi Patels, not others. I used to go to the shrine everyday. But since they have destroyed it all, I don’t go there. We don’t get any respect.”

In the post-Babri Masjid demolition fervour, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad allied with Karsan Kaka and shrine trustees to arrange a huge Sadhu Sammelan inside the durgah complex in 1993. They pledged to ‘re-convert’ to Hinduism and change the shrine into a temple.

The durgah was re-named ‘Prerna Pith’ or ‘samadhi mandir’. The Kaka discarded his old title and re-appointed himself ‘Maharaj’ and ‘Acharya’. The trust cut off water and electricity supply to the masjid, saying that it was not part of the durgah complex. The Om symbol was painted all over the shrine. The Dholia where Imam Shah Bawa used to sleep was renovated with pictures of Hindu gods.

The 2002 communal violence further emboldened the VHP. Led by Babu Bajrangi, an accused in the Naroda Patiya massacre (the worst mass murder in Gujarat), they stopped the traditional Tazia procession from the masjid to the durgah on Moharram in Jan 2003. Both Hindu and Muslim devotees participate in this procession. A barbed wire fence was built separating the masjid from the durgah. Two entrances to the durgah were sealed off.

A barbed wire fence put up by the Satpanthi dargah administation to separate the Pir's tomb from the masjid.Photo: Dionne Bunsha
“In our village, there is no discrimination. Only they are creating it within the shrine,” said Chandrakant Patel, a Pirana resident from the Kutchi Patel community. “We used to pray at both the masjid and the durgah. After they put up the fence, it has become difficult to walk across and pray in both. They blocked the route of the Tazia procession. Both Hindus and Muslims haven’t done Tazia for two years. They are doing this to harass us. They want to cut off the Saiyeds totally and gain full control.”

Two Qurans placed near the Pir’s tomb mysteriously disappeared. One of them was handwritten by Imam Shah Bawa. Other Islamic books lying near the tomb were also removed. A wooden box with silver used during the Moharram procession also disappeared. Framed copies of a farman, a document from King Aurangzeb donating 45 acres of land and money to the trust also vanished. The original copy of this document is written on a silver plate which is in the trust’s possession. The 50-year-old tomb of Saiyed Taskdukhusain, a trustee, located just 20 feet from the durgah, was demolished. There is no sign of its existence.

Ironically, Saiyeds in Pirana who filed a case against the disappearance of these historic treasures were arrested for looting and sent to Sabarmati Central Jail. What did they supposedly loot? Prasad from the temple – jaggery, sugar, coconuts. Everyday, prasad from the durgah is supposed to be given to the Saiyeds. It is an old custom. But in 1998, the administration stopped the practice, in a move to further isolate the Saiyeds. After an argument, they got the Saiyeds arrested for armed robbery.

When I met the present religious head, known as Nanakdas Kaka, who calls himself Guru Maharaj Jagatguru Satpant Acharya, he denied that the missing documents or monuments ever existed. He said that the Satpanthi faith was a ‘Vedic religion’, which had followers from various communities, including Muslim. When I asked him whether the shrine was a durgah or a mandir, he said, “Muslim followers call it durgah. It’s a difference in language. But all donations are given by Hindus, not Muslims.”

The durgah administration is adamant on discarding its 600-year-old historian. But many devotees won’t let them forget the past. The chains now binding Imam Shah Bawa’s devotee’s are man-made. It would take a miracle to free them.

Frontline, Aug. 28 - Sep. 10, 2004 Also available here

Farmers trip Modi’s power trip

It isn’t Muslim riot victims but the ryots of Gujarat who are the first vocal protestors against Narendra Modi and his policies. Puncturing the hype surrounding the chief minister’s ‘achievements’, the BJP farmers’ wing has spoken out against his much-touted power reforms.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Sabarkantha

Dissent is hard to come by in Gujarat. The opposition puts up a very feeble fight. The press is largely pliable. Activism is squelched. Criticism is not tolerated. You will be accused of hurting Gujarati ‘Asmita’ (pride), a chauvinistic fervour whipped up by chief minister Narendra Modi during his pre-election Gaurav Yatra.

But Gujarat witnessed an unusual sight over the last 15 days. An RSS pracharak, Laljibhai Patel, camped on the banks of the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad on a hunger strike. The first rumblings of dissent against the Modi administration have emerged from within his party itself. From the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS)- the farmer’s wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The BKS has been at loggerheads with Modi’s government since last June when it raised power tariffs from Rs 500 to Rs 1,260 per horsepower. Farmers have also been against the Gujarat Electricity Board’s effort to install meters on farms. With the BKS agitation gaining support, the government reduced the tariff to Rs 900 per horsepower in October last year.

But the farmers were not satisfied. They continued with their agitation. That irked Modi. He got the BKS forcibly evicted from their office in a government flat in Gandhinagar. Then Laljibhai joined the BKS agitation, an organisation of which he is co-founder. After two weeks of resistance, negotiation and intervention from Arun Jaitley, they reached a compromise on 4th February. Lalji called off his fast. But all the farmers got in return was a mere Rs. 50 per horsepower reduction in tariff.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with party leader L.K. Advani in Ahmedabad, during the latter's Bharat Uday Yatra at the height of the campaign for the general elections.Photo: Divyakant Solanki/AP
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with party leader L.K. Advani in Ahmedabad, during the latter's Bharat Uday Yatra at the height of the campaign for the general elections.

This temporary truce may have saved Modi from embarrassment. But it will be a long way before the problems faced by Gujarat’s farmers are resolved. The power problem is closely linked to the acute water shortage that the state confronts. With no other source of irrigation, farmers pump ground water. Groundwater supplies around 85% of Gujarat’s irrigated land, as compared to 60% in India. This has adversely affected agriculture.

Production costs are so high, agriculture is no longer profitable. “Wheat cultivation in north Gujarat is 10 times more expensive than in central Gujarat because in the north, they consume a lot more electricity to pump water,” says Jay Narayan Vyas, former Narmada minister. Unable to keep up with spiralling input costs, several farmers are heavily in debt.

“Our expenses are much higher than the price we get in the market for our produce,” said Bhikabai Patel, a BKS committee member. “We spend Rs 550 to grow 20 kg of wheat. But the market rate is only Rs 125 for 20 kg. All farmers are already suffering heavy losses. By doubling electricity prices, the government has added to our burdens.”

Farmers have faced several difficulties due to the Gujarat Electricity Board’s (GEB) erratic services. “Why should we pay more when they don’t deliver on their promise of 14 hours uninterrupted power supply? We get electricity for only six hours a day. Sometimes, at odd hours of the night,” Patel pointed out.

It’s unfair that farmers alone are blamed for the GEB’s losses. “Transmission and distribution (T&D) are also very high. This is because industrialists bribe local engineers and steal electricity directly from the cables. Wherever there are industries, line losses are highest. Why doesn’t the government look into this?” asked Parthibhai Patel, a farmer from Banaskantha.

But the Gujarat government says it has no choice but to raise tariffs for farmers. In the last five years, the GEB has accumulated losses of Rs 6,000 crores. “We are giving farmers a subsidy of Rs 1,700 crore every year,” said Saurabh Patel, minister for energy. “As part of our power sector reforms, we have passed an act promising that subsidies will not be more than 67% of the cost of power production. At present, we charge 42 paise per unit, when the actual cost is Rs 2.50 per unit.”

Cheap power also allows indiscriminate drilling of tubewells, up to depths of 1,500 feet. This has completely depleted aquifers. “In the future, even if you give farmers electricity free of cost, they will have no water to pump,” says Jay Narayan Vyas. Falling groundwater tables have also had adverse environmental effects. Due to excessive fluoride in the groundwater, people suffer from flourosis, a condition in which teeth and bones degrade.

The BKS agitation points to the larger problems that farmers confront. “Water is a life and death issue for farmers today. Alternative sources of irrigation like the Narmada water have to be provided. That would reduce electricity usage by one-third and regenerate water tables,” says Tushar Shah from the International Water Management Institute. “Also, cropping patterns must change. Farmers in north Gujarat should stop cultivating water-guzzling crops like wheat and alfalfa that are not suitable for such an arid region.”

The crisis in agriculture stretches far beyond a tussle over power tariffs. The can of worms has been opened. For how long will the Modi government be able to contain it?

Frontline, Jun. 5 - 18, 2004 Also available here

The dark side of charity

Lord Patel wrote a cheque for the earthquake victims but was horrified when he found out that his money was actually going to the RSS. Charity is the best revenue stream for the Hindu right.

DIONNE BUNSHA

Lord Adam Patel was one of the many overseas Indians moved by the tragedy of the Kutch earthquake in 2001. A Labour Party MP in the UK, Lord Patel, along with other public figures in the Indian diaspora, used their clout to help gather funds to send back home. He was a patron of Sewa International’s Earthquake Relief Fund. But soon, Lord Patel was jolted.

He found out that Sewa International’s mission was not purely ‘sewa’ (service). The money was being given to RSS-affiliated organisations that propagate hatred against Muslims and Christians. The Sangh Parivar was involved in the communal violence that crippled Gujarat in 2002. Realising their links, Lord Patel resigned as a patron of Sewa International (SI).

“I very much regret ever having been part of this racist organisation… Sewa International is a front for militant Hindu organisations...I am sure a lot of the donors don’t realise the money is being sent to help terror groups like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),” he said in an interview with a UK newspaper. (Sunday Mercury, 11 August 2002)

Recently, a British group called Awaaz exposed the RSS’s charitable façade. It published a report which traces how, in the guise of earthquake relief, millions of pounds raised by Sewa International have gone to RSS fronts. “In Bad Faith: British Charity and Hindu Extremism” found that all the two million pounds raised for quake reconstruction and rehabilitation was given to Sewa Bharati, an RSS affiliate. The report provides insights into how Hindutva groups operate at the international level through different front organisations and charities.

“Sewa Bharati’s activities around both the Gujarat Earthquake and the Orissa cyclone 1999 demonstrate a pattern in which a natural, human tragedy is used to enable the dramatic expansion of RSS institutions through the use of overseas funds,” said the report. In 2002, similar report - “A Foreign Exchange of Hate”- exposed the how an RSS front charity in the US called the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) was funding Sangh Parivar activities in India.

Earthquake survivors in a makeshift camp at Sukhpar, about 10 km from Bhuj, Gujarat, on January 30, 2001. A British group has found that £2 million raised for quake reconstruction and rehabilitation were given to Sewa Bharati, an RSS affiliate.Photo: Kamal Kishore/REUTERS
While appealing for funds, Sewa International did not disclose its associations with the Hindu Swamsevak Sangh (HSS), the RSS’s UK branch with Sewa Bharati, an RSS affiliate. The Madhya Pradesh government because of alleged attacks on Christians banned Sewa Bharati. “Sewa International funded Sewa Bharati for rebuilding work, but it was the RSS that conducted ceremonies of the start of rebuilding work or handed over the completed villages to residents,” the report said.

Sewa Bharati started RSS shakhas during the rehabilitation of Badanpur village. Reports allege that the RSS was distributing relief selectively to higher caste victims and neglecting Dalits and Muslims. The RSS was also organising training cells (shakhas) in relief camps. At Adhoi village, VHP preachers gave lectures every night on the need to be vigilant against Christians and Muslims. RSS volunteers allegedly threatened other relief workers to leave Kutch. They accused them of receiving foreign funds to convert people to Christianity.

Almost a quarter of SI’s earthquake relief funds went to RSS schools. The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) criticised the teaching material in these schools for being “blatantly communal”.

While confirming that all its earthquake relief funds went to Sewa Bharati and that it is a part of HSS, Sewa International refuted accusations that it is funding hate campaigns in India. “Sewa International is a non-religious, non-political and non-sectarian organisation, which believes in equality. At all times, Sewa International encourages social integration and not social division,” said Shantibhai Mistry, SI representative, in a letter to the newspaper that published Lord Adam’s interview.

“The view expressed in the newspaper, in which Lord Adam implies that Sewa International is a front for militant activity, which incites racial hatred, is both outrageous and offending. Sewa International has always openly condemned violence, terrorism and racial discrimination in the past and will continue to do so in the future,” said Mistry.

He maintained that the dealings of Sewa International were transparent. “Many individuals such as the Lord Mayor of Coventry and the former Mayor of Derby together with several Labour MP's and representatives from the media have visited the earthquake-affected areas of Gujarat and have personally approved, endorsed and commended the rehabilitation work carried out by Sewa,” he said. Refuting allegations, Sewa International said it encourages donors to visit the projects that their money has funded and provides assistance to those who wish to do so.
A street, with the rubble of a fallen house, in Bhuj on January 28, 2001.Photo: Pawel Kopczynski/ REUTERS
Besides earthquake relief, many questions have also been raised about Sewa International’s other projects. Most of the 260,000 pounds raised by Sewa International UK for Orissa cyclone relief after 1999 went to a key front of the RSS, the UBSS. “The HSS UK said the funds would be channelled through RSS volunteers. It also said it funds organisations that gets their workforce from the RSS,” said the Awaaz report.

Lord Adam and others in the UK are appealing to the UK government to get their status as a charity revoked. In India, such funding is a violation of FCRA regulations since the money is being used to fund political ends under different guises.

In the US, a large part of the IDRF’s fund raising is through electronic means such as money transfer portals, charity portals or company foundation portals such as the Cisco Foundation. Many large corporations match employee donations to charities and land up giving a lot to the IDRF. From 1993-95, the VHP of America had signed up with AT&T for a program in which a fixed percentage of any subscribers total telephone bill could be directed to a non-profit organisation of his/her choice if the organisation was registered under the AT&T program. But AT&T withdrew support for the VHP of America after it was under pressure from people who were appalled by the VHP’s misuse of charity.

The Awaaz report is an eye-opener for many who are misled by charities and donate without knowing what their money is being used for and by whom. Charity is not always as harmless and benevolent as it sometimes seems.

Frontline, April 10 - 23, 2004 Also available here

Love in the time of hate

If a Hindu girl dares choose a groom outside the religion, she risks being kidnapped by the Bajrang Dal.

DIONNE BUNSHA

When childhood sweethearts Reema and Anthony eloped and ran away from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, they hoped to fade into the sunset. But the local Bajrang Dal in their neighbourhood did their best to thwart a happy ending.

Reema’s conservative family roped in Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders to get back their daughter. They planned to trap the couple. Reema’s mother met Anthony’s parents and said all was forgiven. She told his parents to ask them to come home. But the couple didn’t go back. So, she got a search warrant and made them return to Gujarat to confront the court.

It was a set up. Everything went against the couple: the police were in the hands of their persecutors. The magistrate kept delaying their hearings, without giving them a chance to speak. Bajrang Dal goons gathered outside the court everyday to intimidate them. They beat up Anthony, pushed Reema (who was pregnant) on the ground, grabbed her and put her into their car. Anthony rushed to the magistrate but he refused to help. People heard him shouting for help and stopped the car.

Soon they all were in the police station. There, the police superintendent convinced them to let Reema stay in her mother’s house for the night to ensure their safety. But that night, her family packed her off to her uncle’s house in Rajasthan. The uncle too is a Bajrang Dal leader.

From then on, her life was in their hands. They made Reema sign a statement saying that she was forced to marry Anthony. Then, they took her to an abortion clinic in Himmatnagar, Gujarat. Reema was put up in a farmhouse in Pirana where many other girls abducted from their husbands by the Bajrang Dal were also kept in captivity. When they found out that she sneaked a call to Anthony, they kept her in a Bajrang Dal leader’s house. She stayed there with even more girls who had been kidnapped.

Next, they arranged to get her married. They forced her to call Anthony’s house and tell them that she wants a divorce. But he refused. That’s when the death threats began. He fled to Mumbai. Soon after, they arranged Reema’s wedding in her uncle’s factory in Naroda. Three other girls living with her were also married off at the same time. Reema explained the entire story to her new husband. She called Anthony, hitched a ride on the highway, met him in Baroda and went back with him to Mumbai.

Today Reema and Anthony still live in exile. They are refugees from a culture of intolerance. The forced separation of these two people is symbolic of the larger separation of communities that Hindutva aims at. This mindset is most prevalent in Gujarat – the Hindutva Laboratory. Gujarat has the best network of local Sangh cadre working in every part of the state. Methods of mobilisation vary, depending on whether it is an Adivasi area, an industrial city or a Patel-dominated village. But the basic focus is to keep people apart, whether by stirring trouble or prejudice. For them, Hindu unity means the suppression of others. Minorities can live only if they accept the might of the majority. And the twain should never meet. If they do, they face the consequences Reema and Anthony did.

The divide has widened due to ghettoisation of big cities like Ahmedabad and Baroda. Muslims are increasingly seeking safety in numbers. People refuse to sell them houses in ‘Hindu’ areas. Unwanted anywhere outside their own community, Muslims tend to cluster together. There are a few large Muslim pockets in each big city – referred to as ‘mini Pakistans’, even by the Gujarati press. The term itself connotes that everyone living there is an ‘enemy’. A ‘border’ separates communities. With every riot, the walls at the border get higher and more protected with shards of glass and barbed wire.

Segregation has meant less communication. This makes it easier for Sangh Parivar organisations to propagate prejudices and stoke fear of ‘the other’. Even in elite areas, Muslims are not allowed to buy property. When a Muslims bought flats in a building in Paldi, a upmarket area of Ahmedabad, Bajrang Dal activists ransacked the building, threw a bomb which blasted the lift. The reason: Muslims cannot live in a ‘Hindu area’. Later, they forced Muslim owners to sell their flats at a pittance. In Ahmedabad’s walled city, the Bajrang Dal attacked traders who sell property to a Muslim.

Even schools are ghettoised. After the communal carnage, several schools asked Muslim students to leave. In Naroda Patiya, where some of the worst carnage occurred, children refused to go back to school after teachers made them sit separately. Many Muslim parents withdrew their children from good schools and admitted them to sub-standard schools in Muslim neighbourhoods, just because they felt that their children were safer in schools closer to home.

After the 2002 communal pogrom, even parts of rural Gujarat are ghettoised. Many refugees have been unable to return to their homes. They prefer to stay in nearby towns or villages with a relatively large Muslim population. They feel that isolation makes them easier targets. After hounding out Muslim residents, local Bajrang Dal units had proudly put up banners proclaiming them ‘Muslim free villages’.

Elderly Muslim residents who tried to return to their homes in Pavagadh, a village adjoining a religious site in Panchmahal were beaten up and chased out. Local leaders grabbed their shops en route to the temple and refused to let them return. Till today, Salim Sindhi is living in a tent in a relief camp. Even though he is the sarpanch of Kidiad village in Sabarkantha, north Gujarat. He had to sell off all his agricultural land. He will never return to his village. The killing may be over. But the injustices continue.

Every festival is dreaded, not celebrated. Festivals like Ganpati, Holi and the kite festival are often used as a spark points for violence. Recently on Moharram, Muslims in Gujarat decided not to take out tazia processions to avoid giving troublemakers any opportunity to stir up trouble. The VHP has also appropriated and organised several festivals like the Jagannath Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad. These are opportunities for people to be their boisterous best. Often that means shouting slogans or antagonising Muslims, with the intention of creating trouble. Then, blaming them for ‘attacking Hindus’.

Muslims living in Ahmedabad’s walled city send their women and children away on the day the procession passes through their area, while the men stay back to guard their homes. The Rath Yatra has often been a spark point for communal violence in Ahmedabad, including one of the worst massacres in 1969. The minute the Yatra passes out of their neighbourhood peacefully, Muslims hiding in their homes suddenly rush out to greet the police commissioner and thank him.

Since the mid-80s, the BJP’s Yatra politics has helped it gain support. Initially, the BJP supported the anti-reservation agitation by the upper castes. These agitations turned bloody and resulted in violent clashes right from 1980 to 1985. In 1985, Gujarat witnessed the most fierce caste riot that later turned communal. After that, the BJP changed its anti-Dalit stand to a communal stand, to get more supporters into the ‘Hindutva’ fold.

Its efforts to ‘unite Hindus’ mobilised lower castes. It also left a trail of destruction, even in rural and Adivasi areas, previously untouched by communal violence. During the Ram Janaki Dharma Yatra in 1987, Adivasis in Kheda and Sabarkantha districts participated in communal violence for the first time. Later in 1989, the Sangh garnered more support when its activists went from door-to-door, village-to-village, garnering support for the construction of the VHP’s dream of a Ram temple in Ayodhya during the Ram Shila Pujan Yatra. In 1990, L.K. Advani started his Rath Yatra. It sparked violence in 26 places that it passed through. In 1992, Surat and several other parts of Gujarat burned after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Today, much of the BJP’s support is also due to the lack of any organised opposition. The Congress, which has traditionally cornered Adivasi and Dalit support, has put with a feeble fight.

At a time when workers were being laid off with the closure of textile mills in Ahmedabad, the Sangh gained from unemployed youth’s disillusionment with the Congress. They are the footsoldiers whom upper caste leaders of the Sangh use during any riot. But, upper and middle castes still control the party. In 1991, as many as 63 per cent of the state and district leaders were from upper or middle castes – Brahmin, Vania, Patidar or Rajput. (Ghanshyam Shah, The BJP and Backward Castes in Gujarat, from Caste and Democratic Politics in India)

Several powerful cults and sants like the Swaminarayan sect and Asaram Bapu also help the Sangh propagate regressive religiosity. At the local level, the VHP operates at the innocuous level of organising bhajan meetings. In tribal areas of south Gujarat, they organise ‘re-conversion’ ceremonies for Adivasis, giving them a new, Hindu identity. Through these religious gatherings, they recruit youth for their cadre, train them to use weapons and guns and teach them how to deal with riot situations or any ‘threat’ to their religion. It is because the network is so well-entrenched and organised that the 2002 pogrom against Muslims was so widespread and targeted. VHP activists had voters lists, weapons and well-trained cadre at the front.

Everyday work in the lowest shakha has made Hindutva all- pervasive in its laboratory. It’s a constant breeding of bigotry. Besides the summer camps, the Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra also runs several ashram schools in Adivasi areas. Moreover, the Sangh has managed to get its people into most important posts – lawyers, prosecutors, police, and doctors. Most primary school teachers are Sangh cadre. You can imagine the effect that has on their students. And on election results that they oversee.

The Sangh has managed to make several Hindus believe they are in a constant state of siege. That’s how the killings in the communal carnage were justified: “It was either them or us”. Minorities, who are less than 15 per cent of the population, are considered a dangerous threat. Religion has been used to create a false enemy. Irrational prejudices are repeated so often that they become a reality. It diverts attention from the real survival problems that people face. It gets people to believe that they ‘must do something to save their religion’. Nevermind that it may involve acts that the Gods would never approve of.

Reema and Anthony were hounded out because of the myth that ‘they are stealing our women’. Besides it stemming from a deep-seated delusion, it also emerges from a casteist bias, which the Sangh propagates. It’s their brand of Hinduism – Hindutva – that everyone must adhere to. For them, happy endings are only meant for those on the right side of the ‘border’.

Frontline, 13 – 26 March, 2004 Also available here

Corpses haunt the cops

Bilkis was gang raped and left for dead. The police buried the evidence and shut the case. But the bodies of the 14 others who died in the attack were exhumed, exposing the police complicity in covering up the crime.

DIONNE BUNSHA

Who says dead men tell no tales? Corpses hidden by the Gujarat police are coming back to haunt them.

For almost two years, Bilkis has been in hiding. She survived one of the most brutal mass rapes and killing during the 2002 communal carnage. Fourteen of her family were murdered, including four children. Twenty-year-old Bilkis named 12 accused. But the police didn't arrest them. Instead, they closed her case as 'true but undetected'. The police said there wasn't enough evidence. The accused remained scot-free. While Bilkis was a prisoner in her own home.

Determined to see the killers behind bars, Bilkis appealed to the Supreme court. The National Human Rights Commission supported her petition. The SC ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the case. It was the first and only post-Godhra communal violence case that was handed over to the CBI. Investigations started on 5th January 2004. Since then, the Gujarat police's well-buried secrets have come tumbling out. Recent CBI investigations have found that police deliberately destroyed evidence. The CBI has dug up a case that the police tried its best to bury. And the skeletons are speaking.

Bilkis' village, Randhikpur in Dahod district, was attacked on 1st March. Her family fled from village to village in search of protection. En route, her sister Shamima, delivered a baby girl. Bilkis was also five months pregnant at the time. But they could not halt in any place for too long. They were back on the run. After almost three days of trekking through deserted, rocky terrain near Chapparwad village, they heard the roar of two jeeps behind them. It wasn't the police. It was Randhikpur's leaders on the prowl. They poured out of the jeeps, gang raped the eight women. And hacked and burnt 14. They didn't even spare Bilkis' two-year-old daughter. Bilkis lay unconscious after three men gang raped her. She survived because they mistook her for dead.

That night, she lay on the road, too injured to get up. When she gathered enough strength, she walked to Chapparwad. There an Adivasi lady took her home and gave her some clothes to cover herself. A police jeep took her to the Limkheda police station. There, they took down her statement. She was still in shock. Bilkis says she named the accused but the police refused to report the names threatening that her life would be in danger. Two days later, relief camp organisers took Bilkis back to the police to make sure that her statement was properly recorded and the accused identified. Just because the police did not record the names of the witnesses in the first statement, they said her testimonies were "contradictory". They labeled her "mentally unstable". And closed the case.

Ever since, Bilkis has been fighting to get the accused punished. The police said that there was insufficient evidence against the accused. Bilkis had named the murderers. But they did not accept her testimony. Bilkis saw village leaders rape her sisters, mother, cousins and aunts. They grabbed her two-year-old daughter from her and beheaded her. She knew who did it. And repeatedly asked the police to arrest them. But they ignored the "unstable" victim.

Recently, the CBI took 13 of Bilkis’ relatives to a Mumbai court to testify before a magistrate. Until now, these witnesses have been too terrified to speak. They were brought to Mumbai because they were scared to testify before a court in Ahmedabad. Their statements will add more weight to Bilkis’ testimony. (Indian Express, 21 February 2004)

The CBI team, led by deputy superintendent of police K.N. Sinha, returned to the scene of the crime. They uncovered 10 of the 14 'missing' dead bodies. In a hurry to bury the evidence, the police had brought two doctors to conduct a farcical post-mortem at the site itself. Normally, bodies are sent to the hospital for a post-mortem. Panch witnesses told the CBI that the police had asked them to bury the bodies and add 60kg of salt so that the bodies would disintegrate quickly. By law, the police are supposed to hand over the bodies to the families of the dead. Instead, they chose to destroy the evidence.

Although Bilkis named the accused, they didn’t conduct an identification parade. They didn’t arrest any of those accused. The police didn't collect any evidence like hair, blood or nail samples for forensic examination. When Bilkis reached the police station, they did not do medical tests to establish rape. They did not get her clothes tested for blood or semen stains. The CBI has arrested head constable of the Randhikpur outpost, Narpat Singh Patel, for suppressing evidence. When the inquest report and post-mortem were conducted, senior officers like the circle inspector R.M. Bhabhor, deputy police superintendent R.M. Bhagora and police sub-inspector I.S. Sayyed were also present. The CBI is interrogating them for their role in the cover-up.

The CBI arrested all 12 accused who Bilkis named. Among them were local BJP leader Sailesh Bhatt (who allegedly killed Bilkis' daughter) and Ramesh Chandana, former PA of Jaswant Bhabor, a minister in Modi's previous government. Naresh Modia, Govind Nai and Yashwant Nai, who allegedly raped Bilkis, were also nabbed. Leaders in Randhikpur have captured land belonging to Muslims and banned them from entering the village. These refugees now live in Devgad Baria.

For Bilkis, who has been fighting the Gujarat administration single-handedly until now, the SC and the CBI have entered like knights in shining armor. Finally, someone listening is to her story. In the last two months, the CBI has done more than the Gujarat police did in almost two years. By digging up the dead, the CBI has exposed the Gujarat police’s complicity. The conspiracy to bury the truth and deny her justice is finally coming to light. Her dear departed are speaking.

Frontline, February 28 - March 12, 2004 Also available here