The apostles of violence

The violence continues in Gujarat abetted by the state. The mobs rule.

DIONNE BUNSHA
in Ahmedabad and Vadodara

After being confined within a relief camp for 15 days, Munnabhai Pathan finally gathered enough courage to return to his home at Avdoot nagar in Makarpura, Baroda city's industrial area. He had fled after his neighbourhood was attacked by a mob. Too scared to live there again, all he wanted to do was pick up whatever was left of his belongings and leave. The fact that the police was willing to escort him alleviated his fear.

But even the police could not protect him. That afternoon on March 17th, while Munnabhai and his neighbours nervously picked up the remnants from their broken homes, local goons quickly assembled a mob. As Munnabhai and his friends made their way back to the relief camp in the police vans, they were attacked by a 2,000-strong armed mob. After the looting had ended, the land grab had begun. While others escaped with injuries, Munnabhai and 25-year-old Nasirbhai Sheikh were lynched to death. Four others are in a critical condition. They never made it back to their families who anxiously waited for them to return to the relief camp.

On March 3rd, 72 hours after Vishwa Hindu Parishad-Bajrang Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party mobs were let loose on the streets to indulge in a planned massacre of Muslims after the burning of the Sabarmati Express, Gujarat's chief minister Narendra Modi claimed that the law and order situation in the state was 'under control'. While the mass carnage has abated, targeted attacks still continue more than 20 days later in some parts of Gujarat, especially Ahmedabad, Baroda, Bharuch and north Gujarat. Although life seems to be back to normal in Ahmedabad's elite areas, the ghettos are still tense, some yet under curfew. Killings, arson and stabbings still occur every day. Between March 12th and 18th, 51 people were killed, 40 injured and 1,000 homes and shops destroyed in Ahmedabad alone. The total number of registered deaths in Gujarat is now over 700. Around 1.1 lakh have fled their homes and are living in relief camps. But the government still insists that peace is returning to Gujarat.

However, even those who have fled their homes and have sought shelter in relief camps are being attacked. The Odhav relief camp in Ahmedabad with 4,000 refugees was attacked twice by a mob throwing petrol bombs and stone. This, despite police security for the camp. Such is the 'normal' state of affairs in Narendra Modi's Hindutva state.

Violence continues, even in places previously untouched by communal tension. As recently as March 17th, Naseem Ilyas Chipe left her hut and ran to the Shah-E-Alam relief camp when the houses nearby and the factory where she works at Dani Limbada in Ahmedabad's industrial area, were torched. "Four cars drove into the Harijan basti. Later on, people wearing saffron scarves attacked with swords, petrol bombs, bottles and acid. They were shouting, 'cut them, kill them'. Obviously, the Bajrang Dal and VHP people had instigated the harijans," she says. In the police firing that ensured, one ‘harijan’ was killed and two other people, including one Muslim, were injured. Four Muslims were arrested. "When I went with some women to ask the police to release our boys, we were beaten, abused and kept in the police station for a few hours. Why are the police arresting those who were attacked?" asks Naseem.

Her questions are echoed by most Muslims who have been attacked. They feel totally helpless and insecure since the police have ignored complaints, refused help, shot into Muslim bastis and beaten women. "When we called the police for help, they told us to sit inside and lock the door. The second time we called, they said no police van was free to come and save us. The goons kept shouting for my young daughter. Finally, our Hindu neighbours helped us escape," says Sairaben Sheikh who fled from Danteshwar society near Baroda to a relief camp.

Most of the violence in Baroda could have been avoided if the police had imposed preventive curfew on March 15th when the VHP decided to hold processions all over the country to celebrate the Shila Daan pooja being held in Ayodhya. Instead, a rowdy and violent procession made its way through the city, looting and burning Muslim shops as they passed, escorted by a large police battalion. Curfew was imposed only after the damage was done. "If we had declared curfew, the majority community would have been incensed. Besides, we had limited manpower," says Baroda police commissioner D.D. Tuteja, justifying his action. Lame excuses to offer considering Baroda is still witnessing violence in places where no communal incident has been reported before. Mistrust of the police has deepened so much that despite curfew, people held a protest demanding the police commissioner's resignation.

In fact, when Naseem's (name changed) elderly parents called from his hometown, asking him to rescue them, the first people he turned to for help were not the police, but volunteers from the Baroda peace committee. Surprising as this may seem, it is even more so considering that Naseem is himself a police inspector. One of the few Muslims in the police, Naseem is totally shaken by the brazen communal bias he has witnessed within the force in the last three weeks during the witch-hunt against Muslims. "I don't trust the police to help me," is the only thing he is willing to say.

Police officials have several explanations to offer for why they haven't been able to contain the violence more than 20 days after it began. Tuteja says that attacks were reported in areas where no trouble was expected, catching the police off guard. He adds that recent violence is also partly a backlash by Muslims. This claim can seems hollow considering that almost all attacks have been on Muslim homes and shops, leaving others in the neighbourhood untouched. Muslims have been too crushed to be able to retaliate.

Communal violence, seen for the first time in tribal areas, has been passed off as spontaneous looting by poor tribals. However, the Sangh Parivar's planning and instigation of adivasis is apparent. It has been mobilising support in adivasi areas for the past decade. More recently, its Trishul campaign to convert adivasis to Hinduism by awarding them a trishul and a Hanuman picture at public meetings. The Parivar is now using its new converts as foot soldiers. In Kinwat village, Baroda district, a planned attack was launched on the Muslim basti on March 12th. "Our Hindu neighbours had warned us that people in the village were talking about getting the Muslims out. But we never believed it would happen," says Ejal Sheikh, who sought shelter in a relief camp in Baroda city after the attack. "Adivasis came at us with arrows, swords and other weapons. They looted and burned everything. The adivasis were given alcohol and instigated by the powerful Hindus and the Bajrang Dal and VHP people. These people have been organising meetings in the village for the past one month. Their aim was to destroy us," he said. Several refugees from Kinwat have still not been able to trace their children and other family members.

Also part of the fascist pogrom has been the use of propaganda to create fear and mistrust of the minority. The largest-selling Gujarati newspapers have been instrumental in spreading rumours and stoking hatred for Muslims. Local television stations have also contributed to the vitiated atmosphere. Pamphlets propagating an economic boycott of Muslims by 'Hindu patriots' are also being circulated. In an interview with the website Rediff.com, the 96-year-old chairman of the VHP's Gujarat unit Professor Keshavram Kashiram Shastri said that the list of Muslim shops to be targeted was prepared on the morning of February 28, just before the attacks. "It had to be done," he said, "We don't like it, but we were terribly angry."

After stirring communal frenzy to a feverish pitch, the Sangh Parivar is unlikely to let it die. Not until it has translated into votes for the BJP. "The violence will continue. The Sangh has to keep fuelling violent incidents to maintain some level of fear. If this emotional support flags and more rational issues such as economic problems crop up, the BJP will suffer," says an observer. The local media has actively helped the Parivar in keeping communal tensions taut. While the Baroda police commissioner claims to have banned local television channels, no action has been taken against the powerful state newspapers.

In fact, the police has even dragged its feet while registering first information reports (FIRs). The police has not been available for filing FIRs in relief camps, even though it is aware that victims cannot leave the camps to lodge a complaint at the police station. In cases where FIRs have been filed, the accused are registered as unidentified, although victims have insisted on naming them. Volunteers in Ahmedabad's relief camps say that in some cases, the police has framed false criminal charges against victims of the attacks and are threatening them with arrests, probably to pressurise them. "Moreover, the police insist on filing a mass FIR for each incident. They refuse to file individual complaints. How then, do we have proof of the extent of damage to our property?" asks a refugee in a Baroda relief camp. Many FIRs have been filed without even bothering to contact victims of the attacks, often underestimating the extent of damage. In fact, many local BJP leaders were hanging around police stations during the tense times. Their instructions are likely to be followed.

While an FIR has been filed by victims of the Naroda Patia massacre against the VHP's Ahmedabad general secretary Dr Jaideep Patel and BJP MLA Mayaben Kodnani, they have not been arrested. No case has been filed against VHP chief Praveen Togadia who was also seen at Naroda Patia, where 91 were killed in a ruthless massacre. However, the police have shown missionary zeal in arresting people connected with the Sabarmati Express tragedy. Recently, the main accused in the case, local corporator Haji Bilal Ismail Sujela, was arrested, bringing the number of accused in the case up to 62. All of them have been booked under the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO). But, the Parivar's terrorists remain untouched. Leaders like Togadia have even been provided extra security.

Gujarat's chief minister declared that that there was a conspiracy to ruin the state, which was jointly hatched in Dubai and Kolkata. But, Modi need not look any further than his own backyard. Things seem to be going according to plan in what the BJP describes as its 'model state', a Hindutva experiment that they would like to replicate all over the country. The perpetrators of state-supported terror seem to be getting away scot-free. They continue to keep violence simmering enough to make sure people like Munnabhai never go back home alive.

Frontline, March 16 - 29, 2002 Also available here