May 2^nd, 2002

 

               Headlines:

 

·        Govt bent on closing down refugee camps by May 31 ( Times News Network )

·        The Rediff Interview/Ghanshyam Shah  ( www.rediff.com )

·        NOBODY KNEW MY FATHER’S HOUSE WAS THE TARGET ( Asian Age)

·        BJP to accept censure in RS ( Deccan Chronicle )

·       Refugees face mob fury for they ‘dare’ to visit their
village  ( Express News Service )

·        Suit filed in Delhi HC for derecognising BJP ( Times Of India )

               Editorial:

 

 

·        Camp Despair ( Times Of India )

Govt bent on closing down refugee camps by May 31
RAJIV SHAH
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ THURSDAY, MAY 02, 2002 6:12:27 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articlelist.asp?catkey=-2128669051&DaysAc
tive=1
 
GANDHINAGAR: The government has begun an all-out drive to close relief camps
all over Gujarat by May 31.


Contrary to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's assurance during his visit
that the camps would continue ''as long as required'', last week chief
minister Narendra Modi ordered ministers to ''urgently'' work out a plan to
close down the camps.


The ministers have two week to close all the camps. Modi is expected to seek
a progress report at a cabinet meeting scheduled for Thursday.


The order comes despite the fact that only a few of the inmates of the camps
have returned home. The number of inmates in rural camps remains stagnant,
while in Ahmedabad, the figure is going up steadily. From 66,300 in
March-end, it has grown to 80,000.


While several camps in Dahod have already been closed and the others have
received an ultimatum, the pressure to close down camps in Panchmahals
(Godhra) is increasing.


''We think all camps in the Panchmahals will be closed within ten days,''
says Prabhatsinh Chauhan, guardian minister for the district. ''I plan to
shift the inmates to tented accommodation. They could stay there till their
devastated houses became liveable,'' he added.


But the camp inmates are not reassured with the mere promise of shelter. The
closure of camps also means an end to funds that provide for food and
medicines. ''We do not know what would happen after May 31, when all
government grant to run the camps stops,'' says Mehmood Sheikh, who runs a
camp in Halo.


The fact that they have complained to the police, registering FIRs and
naming the people who killed their relatives and burnt down their homes,
have a major part to play.


The victims fear retaliation, the authorities want the FIRs withdrawn. In
fact, Sheikh alleged that at a meeting, Chauhan personally told managers of
several camps that ''names mentioned in the FIRs are the main hinderance for
a congenial atmosphere for the inmates to return home''.

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited.

 

The Rediff Interview/Ghanshyam Shah
rediff.com,
May 02, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/02inter.htm
 
Professor Ghanshyam Shah shares his experiences with
Senior Editor Sheela Bhatt to provide us an
understanding of the Gujarat riots. The second segment
of a two-part interview:

Part I: 'The BJP has communalised Gujarat in the name
of nationalism'

What are the reasons for the intense violence
displayed in these riots?

An act of an individual cannot be called a violent act
of the community. Mobs can't do such things. I am not
sure what kind of mob this was. My experience of an
actual communal situation helped me look at such
incidents. One category of rioters is the people who
plan these riots and are never present at the site.
The second are skilled people who know how to use gas
cylinders and how to unlock shops. The third category
is the mob, sympathizers but not the actors of the
violence.

In 1992 I have seen the actual act of violence at
three places. Two people came on a motorbike, within
minutes they unlocked two shops and got the furniture
on the roads. One guy burnt it and within minutes they
disappeared. This kind of rioting requires skill. I
don't believe the agitated crowds did it on their own.


To understand the violence we must look at the growing
insensitivity in society. I saw a dead body at Surat
railway station after the riots. People just gave it a
glance and walked away. That doesn't mean they
approved of the violence. This passiveness has
increased tremendously in society.

This argument is not convincing. On February 28 and
March 1-2, at 30 places in Gujarat we saw more than
5,000 people at each place who assembled to fight
almost a war with the Muslims. They were active
people, not passive.

I agree, but I don't think all 5,000 people were
active. Yes, all of them were anti-Muslim, but I am
not very sure whether they were actively supporting
the act of killing. The support to looting is
understandable. What we have heard from our colleagues
from tribal areas was that the tribals were given
money, given puri-shak (fried rotis and vegetables)
and asked to loot, burn and kill. This is an act of
the lumpen trained to do such things. I am not ready
to believe the community did this.

You are a Gujarati. Is that why you are softer in your
analysis of Gujarati society?

Possible, possible. I don't think 800 people have been
killed by an average Hindu or an average Gujarati. An
average man can't kill people in such a way.

Who killed them then?

The skilled people who were employed for it, and paid
for it.

And can they do it so effectively, and so fast?

Yes, because society is insensitive, inactive and
indifferent.

In this same society, women are killed by
mothers-in-law. Kerosene is thrown on them due to ego
clashes. We don't generalise that an average woman is
violent. But we can't say that women just can't
indulge in violence. These are two different
stereotypes.

Do you see any remorse in Gujarati society for
supporting the violence?

Interview them after two months!

Where does the solution lie?

I don't see any immediate solution to the Gujarat
problem. As an individual we have to find out. The
communalists should know they are inviting disaster
for the survival of their children. How long can we
support these communal beliefs? Fanatics say we will
kill everybody. Is this the solution? Is it possible
to kill everybody you don't like to live with? The
most fundamentalist Muslim countries could not do it.
How can a country like India do it? It is not a
realistic possibility. It is not possible to throw all
the Muslims out of the country. Even the communalists
will have to be more practical. I think the Gujarati
middle class will get back its senses.

Why are Gujaratis not convinced of the virtues of
secularism? Why are people like you always called
pseudo-secularists?

The majority thinks that all the secularists consider
are the views of the minorities. Talk about the
minorities makes us pseudo-secularists in their eyes.
Just because we do not talk about the majority, they
brand us thus. The same secularists talk about the
rights of Indians in Britain, oppose racial
discrimination in London, and that is accepted. But
here our views are not accepted. Abroad, Indians are
in a minority; here Muslims are in a minority.

In the US after 9/11 when a Sikh was murdered the
rights of the minorities were raised. It was argued in
the US that not all Muslims and not all Asians are
involved in terrorism, but the majority in India would
not like to accept the same argument here. If the
Asian minority in the US had been butchered like the
minority community in Gujarat has been, perhaps then
the majority community in India would have been
alarmed. But in the US, though there is
discrimination, the State didn't allow minorities to
be butchered like it happened in Gujarat.

How do you assess the mood of Gujarati voters in 2002?


In 2001, when the Gujarat BJP lost we had conducted a
survey with the help of 35 students. We asked BJP
workers at the grassroots level why they lost so
badly. There is an intense sectional fight in the BJP
at all levels. Another reason they gave was that their
slogan [to fight] 'Bhay, Bhookh aur Bhrastachar (fear,
hunger and corruption)' remained merely a slogan, the
BJP could not operationalise it. The Hindus belonging
to the RSS thought they were not able to resolve the
contradictions of globalisation with swadeshi.

And therein lies the tension of the BJP in Gujarat. A
senior party ideologue in Gujarat told a surveyor that
Hindu voters first demand security, not bread!

Last year it was quite clear to BJP leaders in Gujarat
that they would lose power. How could they save the
situation? Perhaps by intensifying the feelings of
insecurity and fear, by saying that Muslims are
fundamentalists... we are not secure... we, the
Hindus, don't have any future. They got the
opportunity after Godhra.

When tempers cool down, an average man will think of
bread. Perpetually you just can't live in a fear
psychosis. The people may participate in riots out of
emotions, but in calmer moments they know it is not
correct and not in their interest. The same thing
happened in 1969.

'Boycott Muslims' pamphlets were also distributed in
1969. The only difference is that this time it is not
vague; now they list people's details and products of
Muslims. But in 1969, after just three months, the two
communities mingled. Economics has its own logic.
Ideology can't work there. That is the compulsion and
contradiction of the BJP government. They want to make
India swadeshi. But even [Home Minister Lal
Kishenchand] Advani can't do it. In case tomorrow the
RSS chief becomes the prime minister, he can't do it.
The economy doesn't permit it. Capital accumulation
doesn't toe the Hindu line. Gujaratis are given a new
kind of garba for Navratri by the Bajrang Dal, but
people don't adopt it.

Society is always formed on a positive note. That is
what happened in Germany. It was worse than Gujarat.
Germany could come up because supporters of Nazism
became a minority. I am hopeful about Gujarat.

Design: Dominic Xavier

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All rights Reserved.

 NOBODY KNEW MY FATHER’S HOUSE WAS THE TARGET
By T.A. Jafri
Asian Age,
May 02, 2002.

http://www.hclinfinet.com/2002/MAY/WEEK1/5/AAOInsideNN6.jsp

Religion does not matter, humanity does. This is what
my father believed in. He was most happy working with
the downtrodden labourers and mill workers and this
reflected in the poetry he penned. In fact, Ehsaan
Jafri was more of a poet than anything else.

At least not a politician in the present context of
Gujarat. Today, he is no more but there are a few
pages of his fond books that lie scattered in my house
along with several charred bodies. I saw this when I
went to collect his ashes.

My father had been living in Gulbarg Society for 16
years and I had often told him to move out of the
area, especially after the post-Babri riots, but he
never agreed. He said he would never leave the place.
There were about 100 Muslims living in that colony.

I spoke to him before leaving for work on February 28,
the Gujarat bandh day. He told me that everything was
fine. I then called him up from work. When I spoke to
my father at around 11 am, he told me that everything
was okay except for some “routine” trouble. Neither
did he sound panicky nor did I actually worry because
we have had some minor trouble in the past also.

During the 1985 and 1992 riots also we had some
harassment as Gulbarg was the only Muslim colony in
the area. But we were lucky since we had a police
chowki in our society. This time, however, the police
ensured that they came only after everything was over
— only after the fanatics gleefully burnt people
alive, only after they were satisfied with their
“action.”

On that fateful day, I again called him but the phone
was constantly engaged. I kept trying. After lunch,
around 3 pm, I called up my cousins in Ahmedabad and
they said they were also trying to contact him but
could not get through. At around 5 pm, I started
getting a bit restless so I left office for home. By
then, we had started getting gory stories of violence
in Ahmedabad but I did not have the slightest idea of
my father being torched alive.

It was after 6.30 pm that I called up a newspaper
office, which informed me that Gulbarg Society had
been torched alive. I was told that there were
officially 18 deaths and my father was one of them. I
am now told that my father made several calls for
help. My mother told me how no police or politicians,
whom my father kept on calling, turned up to help him.
All the neighbours had gathered at my place thinking
it was the safest. Nobody knew that it was the main
target.

The official death figure initially given was only 18.
Now the Narendra Modi government says 44 died and a
few are missing. Actually, the death toll is much more
than that. And there is no one missing. How can anyone
be missing for over two months?

I have no clear memory of what happened for a few days
after the gory incident. We were all too numbed and
shocked. Among my brothers and sisters, I am the only
one living in India. And I am the eldest in the
family. My sister and brother live in the US. We were
all too shocked to react.

I am 40 years old and I have been born and brought up
in Ahmedabad. I have never seen so much of hate ever.
At least 70 per cent of my friends are Hindus. I work
amid a cosmopolitan crowd. I have been to an
engineering college. I have seen communal riots in the
past. But I have never seen any government directly
supporting violence. Gujarat, which was the most
progressive, investment-friendly state, has become an
uncivilised and barbaric place where the government
also is not just blind but supporting massacre after
massacre.

There is a systematic campaign in Gujarat to portray
all Muslims as terrorists. Fanaticism is very
fashionable in Gujarat. My mother Zakia Naseem is
still terribly shocked. My seven-year-old nephew
Zubin, who lives in Newark, US, knows that his
grandfather was burnt alive.

He went to school and narrated the incident to his
teacher. The teacher called my sister and suggested
psychiatric help. My children are confused with
whatever is happening around. They know that their
grandfather has been killed. They sometimes ask me
uncomfortable questions. My 11-year-old daughter
Aniqua and seven-year-old son Vasim are too young to
comprehend the gory deaths.

I am not ashamed to be a Gujarati. Because I believe
that Gujaratis, whether they are Hindus or Muslims,
are peace-loving people. It is only a group of
fanatics, with support and shelter from the state
government, who are indulging in barbarism.

(Mr T.A. Jafri, a senior manager (maintenance) with
Larsen and Toubro Limited at Hazira, near Surat, is
the eldest son of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who
was torched to death along with 44 others (official
toll) in Ahmedabad on February 28, the first day of
the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat which is still
going on. Mr Jafri spoke to Deepal Trevedie)

Copyright 2002 Asian Age. All rights reserved.

BJP to accept censure in RS
Deccan Chronicle,
May 02, 2002.

http://www.deccan.com/headlines/lead2.shtml
 
New Delhi, May 2: After a highly acrimonious 17-hour
debate in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the Centre agreed
to accept most of the demands raised by the Opposition
on the Gujarat issue in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

The Upper House is discussing the issue under Rule 170
and this will be followed by voting.

The government is in minority in the Rajya Sabha and
does not want a vote as it would have to face yet
another round of embarrassing questions from the
allies.

The motion on Gujarat has been tabled by the Congress
and asks the Central government to intervene in the
state under Article 355 and provide effective relief
and rehabilitation to the victims of violence.

The seven-line motion drafted in consultation with all
political parties also expresses concern at the
persistence of violence in the state.

In a clear softening of stand, the government
announced that it would support the censure motion and
assured that it would continue to take steps to
protect the life and property of the people in
Gujarat.

“We accept the motion in letter and spirit and the
Home Ministry has already taken some steps under
Article 355 of the Constitution and more steps will be
taken in the coming days,” said Minister of External
Affairs Jaswant Singh.

Singh appealed to members to rise above partisan
politics by not trading charges on the issue.
Rejecting Opposition charges that it was the minority
community that had suffered the most in the riot-hit
state, Law Minister Arun Jaitley clarified that it was
mostly the majority community against whom action had
been taken.

Jaitley, who was repeatedly interrupted by Opposition
members, said there was conclusive evidence that local
Congress leaders were behind the Godhra carnage.

The minister also faced rough weather when he sought
to blame senior Congress leaders for being behind the
call made to minority students to boycott exams.

Lashing out at the Vajpayee Government for its failure
to maintain communal harmony, the Congress said the
entire country was disillusioned with the Government’s
inaction in curbing violence.

Senior Congress leader Arjun Singh accused the BJP of
doublespeak saying that “there is a lot of difference
between what they say (BJP) and what they do”. “The
entire nation is disillusioned” with the government
for not containing communal carnage, he added.

Sharply criticising some of the statements of Chief
Minister Narendra Modi in the wake of violence, the
Congress leader warned that Modi’s remarks could
escalate tensions in the country.

BJP members took strong exception when Singh referred
to the writings of RSS ideologue Guru Golwalkar that
the country had to learn from the Nazi movement,
saying the member should confine himself to Gujarat.

Telugu Desam, which abstained from voting on the
censure motion on Gujarat in Lok Sabha, renewed its
demand for removal of Modi, saying there has been no
let up in violence in the State.

“The leadership in Gujarat has lost its moral
authority to provide impartial governance in the
State,” Leader of TD in Rajya Sabha Alladi P Rajkumar
said.

“There will be no compromise on the removal of Modi,”
he said pointing towards Home Minister L K Advani.

While his party was supporting the NDA government in
national interest, this support should not be taken
for granted by the BJP, the TDP member said.

Rajkumar accused Congress of fuelling communal
passions throughout its rule and questioned its
secular credentials, which led to a bout of protest
from Congress members particularly cine
star-turned-politician Dilip Kumar.

Copyright 2002 Deccan Chronicle. All rights reserved.

Refugees face mob fury for they ‘dare’ to visit their
village
Police say they didn’t tell us before going to Panwad
Express News Service
May 02, 2002.

http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=1937

 
Vadodara, May 1: They didn’t even have to read the
messages scrawled on their burnt walls, threatening
them with murder and their wives and daughters with
rape if they dared to come back.

Four refugees who visited their village, Panwad,
yesterday to see how badly damaged their houses was,
were attacked by a mob. One of them Hasan Suleman Soni
is lying in hospital in a critical condition.

These unlucky four formed the second batch of refugees
who ventured back to their village to see if they
could get back to their normal lives. They were among
the 450 forced to flee when a 2,000-strong mob ringed
their neighbourhood on March 11. All of them are now
counting their days in the nearby Chhotaudepur relief
camp.

Deputy Superintendent of Police K N Damor told The
Indian Express today that the refugees ‘‘did not
notify the police’’ about their plans to visit their
homes.

And even when they reached Panwad, they did not inform
the police outpost there, he said.

It’s not sure if this would have helped. For, last
month, another group of refugees, escorted by the
police, had returned to assess the damage. They were
attacked, too.

Soni was found lying in the middle of the road when
the police outpost contacted the Chhotaudepur Police
Station and asked for reinforcements.The police chased
away the mob.

Damor said he asked the refugees who accompanied Soni
to identify the tribals who pelted stones at them.
‘‘No arrests could be made because the injured did not
give any names,’’ he said.

Not a single Muslim house in the village is intact.As
reported in The Indian Express yesterday, messages
written on the walls warn Muslims not to come back.
The walls covered with graffiti threaten that women
will be raped, some will be ‘‘cut into pieces.’’

Copyright 2002 The Indian-Express. All rights reserved.

 Suit filed in Delhi HC for derecognising BJP
PTI [ WEDNESDAY, MAY 01, 2002 7:06:58 PM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=8580467
 
NEW DELHI: A suit for derecognising BJP was on Wednesday moved in the Delhi
High Court in the wake of Gujarat riots on the ground that the party is
promoting communal politics, that posed a threat to the country's secular
character.


Justice B N Chaturvedi, after brief preliminary arguments on a civil suit
filed by Arya Samaj leader Swami Agnivesh, Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande and
former Miss India and film actress Nafisa Ali, posted the matter for further
hearing on May 3.


The court said it needed some more time to study the bulky documents annexed
with the plaint.


Senior advocate R K Anand, appearing for Agnivesh sought a decree against
BJP for its derecognition by the Election Commission saying the BJP and
other outfits of the Sangh Parivar, including RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal were
indulging in communal politics and attempting to destroy the secular
character of the country.


Seeking to debar the party from contesting elections, it alleged that the
Godhra incident was triggred by some action of kar sevaks returning from
Ayodhya.


"It is a deliberate attempt by the Prime Minister and the state government
to hide real facts from public" about the Godhra incident, the petitioners
alleged.


They have named BJP, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Home Minister L K
Advani, HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, MP Vinay Katiyar and the Election
Commission as defendents in the case.

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp Despair
Times Of India
[ THURSDAY, MAY 02, 2002 1:27:59 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=8606333
 
The range of issues which have figured in the parliamentary debate on
Gujarat is bewildering. From accusations that Sonia Gandhi was chewing gum
to assertions that Indians were like ghee until pseudo-secularists turned
them into dalda, our parliamentarians did what they do best - avoid
addressing the most horrifying aspects of the situation.


In the present case, it is the appalling conditions in the refugee camps
where thousands of people have been herded together for over two months.


Picture the scene at the Shah Alam camp. Over 15,000 people are living in
the dargah subsisting on rations which can barely cover 10,000.


In the blazing mid-day heat they have nothing more than a few trees for
shelter. The children have nowhere to sleep but on the graves adjoining the
dargah. Many have been freshly dug for those who perished in the riots.


The hastily erected sanitation facilities, all of seven for the inmates, are
falling to pieces. Epidemics like measles have already broken out and
children are dying from dehydration and gastric complications. Doctors
willing to attend to the refugees have been warned off, indeed one was
killed by a mob. The only relief comes from people from the Muslim community
and the few NGOs who are working there. Heart-rending stories of people
being turned away from the relief camps have been reported in the media, yet
the state government's reaction has been to close down seven camps.


Their reasoning - Hindus in the adjoining areas have complained that the
camps are a threat to law and order.


Much more is expected of the Central government, especially after prime
minister Vajpayee visited the camps himself. As he departed, the vigorous
disbursement of money stopped as suddenly as it started.


There are people living in these camps today who have received nothing by
way of compensation. The same Central government which reposes such faith in
Narendra Modi appears strangely reluctant to let him handle the relief
operations.


The recently announced Rs 150 crore relief, a paltry sum given the magnitude
of the problem, is to be disbursed through the Red Cross. But, the real
challenge lies in restoring to these people the livelihoods and homes they
have lost. So far, those who have had the courage to go back to their
ransacked homes or establishments have been chased right back to the camps
by lumpen elements. A key NDA ally has come up with the proposal to allocate
some land to the refugees in another state. Surely accommodating people in
ghettos in unfamiliar surroundings is hardly compensation for the traumas
they have suffered.


But this reflects both the poverty of imagination and the reluctance to do
the right thing by the victims. The government should have by now opened
proper relief shelters where the basic minimum in terms of clothing,
medication and food would be made available to the refugees. Instead of
forcing the Modi government even now to make amends, the Central government
is busy with its own agendas, the prime one being issuing stern rebuttals to
all hints of international concern at the Gujarat violence. But with
vigorous national and international media scrutiny, it is impossible to
sweep the reality of Gujarat under the carpet. As long as people continue to
exist in sub-human conditions in these camps, the prime minister's desire to
hold his head high abroad is not likely to be fulfilled.

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited.