IMAC Digest 06 May 2002

You can come back to your homes only if you...
Drop rape charge, convert to Hinduism...villagers in Gujarat are
setting terms for Muslims to returnBy Milind Ghatwai & Rohit Bhan
May 6th 2002

http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=2176

Vadodara, May 5 CONVERT to Hinduism, shave off your beard, drop your
rape charges, don't participate in our functions, let us use your
vehicles for free. These are some of the terms being set by Hindu
villagers for their Muslim neighbours who fled after the Godhra
massacre and now want to return home.

- In Randhikpur village of Dahod district, Hindu villagers want rape
charges against three persons dropped. A 22-year-old woman alleged
she was raped in the nearby Panivella village where she hid after
seven of her family were killed.

At a meeting on Thursday, Muslims were told that 65 of their families
could return if the ``rape charges were dropped and replaced with
minor offences,'' villager Majid Ali who attended the meeting told
The Indian Express.

- In Pandarwala village in the Panchamahals, where 27 people were
burnt alive, No 1 on the majority community's list is the condition
that a doctor who hails from Kutch and lives in the village be
expelled. Says Faiz Mohammad, who attended a peace committe meeting
organised by the district administration: ``Since the doctor had a
computer, the villagers felt that he keeps in touch with the ISI. Our
return depends on him being expelled.''

- In Kadwal village of Chhotaudepur taluka in Vadodara district,
Muslims have been asked to agree that they ``won't engage in the same
business as ours,'' ``you won't take part in our functions''
and ``you won't prevent us from using your assets, for instance, your
vehicles.'' A couple of Muslim families have returned after they
agreed to these conditions.

- In Raichha village, about 15 km from Chhotaudepur, 28 families have
been asked to convert to Hinduism if they want to return, says
Mohammedjafar S Makrani, a former councillor. These families are
among the 100 who fled Raichha and are now in a relief camp that he
runs.

- Villages like Panwad in Vadodara have laid no conditions: they
simply don't want the Muslims to return. They have made this clear by
attacking the refugees right under the nose of the police when they
came this week to find out how badly damaged their houses were.

Says head constable Jaswantsinh Chavda attached to Panwad
outpost: ``Aa gamma koi condition nathi, emne Muslim joitaj nathi''
(There is no condition here, they don't want Muslims back). Two days
ago a Muslim returned to collect his bank passbook and he was
attacked. ``Had I not reached there they would have killed him,''
Chavda says, adding: ``It's good if they don't come back. So far they
haven't lost any life, now they will.''

- Even in Vadodara city, at least half a dozen houses of Muslims were
torched in Bagwada because they didn't agree to drop charges against
Hindus involved in a case of stabbing.

Says Bhagyesh Jha, District Collector, Vadodara: ``We are aware of
these conditions. We have told the people, please don't do this, sit
down and talk it out. There is little that we can do, this has to be
sorted out at the community level.'' In some cases, like in Panwad,
the message has been conveyed through writing on the wall,
threatening the refugees that if they return, their wives and
daughters will be raped.

© 2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved
throughout the world.

VHP justifies Gujarat carnage
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ MONDAY, MAY 06, 2002 1:26:08 AM]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=9006137

LUCKNOW: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) working president
Ashok Singhal on Sunday justified Gujarat carnage
saying that it was for the first time in thousand
years that the Hindus got united and gave a befitting
reply to those who attacked them.

Glorifying the Gujarat violence, Singhal warned the
jehadi forces saying that “Gujarat incident was just
the beginning.” He was speaking at a function held to
release a book of Vishwa Samvad Kendra on Ram
Janmabhoomi at Saraswati Shishu Mandir here.

“The velour showed by the Hindus in Gujarat is
unprecedented. If they are attacked again they will
stand in self-defence. This will not end there
(Gujarat). The VHP will take this message across the
country through its Ram naam jap and other
programmes,” he said.

The VHP leader said that some invisible force
motivated the Hindus in Gujarat and they did what
could not have been done in thousand years. “The
invisible force which worked in Gujarat will also help
the Hindus in Ram temple construction in Ayodhya,” he
hoped.

Singhal claimed that three forces Jehadi, western
(Christianity) and Marxists were working against the
Hindu Samaj and were out to destroy the cultural and
spiritual fabric of the country. But he hoped that
after Gujarat incidents they would take a lesson and
stop their activities.

“Now nobody would dare to challenge Hindus again. This
self-defence will echo in all parts of the country and
nobody would dare to attack Hindus again,” he said.

Singhal, however, took a dig at majority community
members too saying it was division among them which
was largely responsible for such forces raising their
heads. “The division among us is causing delay in
establishment of a Hindu rashtra and complete
re-construction of Ram temple,” he said. The VHP
leader laid emphasis on the word ‘re-construction’ to
prove his point that the temple already existed at the
disputed site in Ayodhya.

Without taking the prime minister’s name, Singhal said
that they would have to think twice before putting
obstacles on VHP-sponsored temple related programmes
in future. “A few tried to disrupt and disrespect
yajna in Ayodhya but they end up burning their
fingers.”

Singhal also rapped anti-Hindu political parties
saying “except for hurling abuses on Hindu Samaj in
parliament they don’t do anything constructive for
nation-building.”

Singhal did not spare Jammu and Kashmir chief minister
accusing him of hatching a conspiracy to force the
Hindus’ migration from Jammu region. He alleged that
he was being supported by few NDA partners in this
task.

“In an attempt to do a balancing act, Farooq Abdullah
is playing into hands of external powers hatching a
conspiracy to drive Hindus out from the Jammu region
in the next five years and rehabilitate Muslims from
across the border.”

Copyright 2002 Times Of India.All rights reserved.

Minister accuses Muslims of keeping riots alive
HT Correspondent
(Ahmedabad, May 5)
Hindustan Times

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/060502/detnat02.asp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Communal violence in Gujarat spiralled beyond the
first 72 hours of "emotional outpouring by the Hindu
community" and has continued for more than two months
thereafter because of 'planned' attacks by Muslims.
This is the official stance of the Gujarat Home
Department as revealed by its Minister Gordhan
Zadaphia in an exclusive interview with the Hindustan
Times.

Explaining the rationale, state Home Minister Zadaphia
said: "What happened up to March 2 was a reaction to
Godhra. Thereafter the riots were provoked, and even
planned, by the Muslims."

Zadaphia says the riots happened in three phases.

In the first phase there was a huge outpouring from
the Hindus, the "sufferers."

"Doctors, engineers and advocates from the majority
community were out on the roads during the first three
days of the riots. This definitely shows it was a
spontaneous reaction," Zadaphia says.

Thereafter, he argues, Muslims were responsible for
keeping the violence alive. In the third phase,
politics took precedence over communal violence.

Blaming the Congress for initiating this phase
Zadaphia alleges: "The Congress wanted to the riots to
continue. Its national secretary Irshad Mirza and MLA
Farooq Sheikh, tried their best to disrupt state board
examinations."

Zadaphia has given a clean chit to the VHP. "The VHP
has branches in 10,000 villages of Gujarat. If it had
organised the violence all these villages would have
been in flames. Instead only 40-odd saw violence."

The Minister's reaction comes at a time when the state
police have got leads on the meeting held in Ahmedabad
on February 27, where Hindu leaders reportedly
discussed the course of action for rioters and looters
in targeting Muslim properties - a fact substantiated
by the NHRC report . Police have zeroed in on an
Ahmedabad-based printer at whose home the meeting was
held but is unwilling to name him yet.

Home Minister Zadaphia dismisses the finding: "As Home
Minister I can confirm no such meeting was held. There
was no planning. What happened was the common man's
reaction."

He continued: "Hindus cannot be violent. If they were
then the 1700 karsewaks on the train in Godhra would
have retaliated. I can tell you I have never done
anything wrong. I never passed on any information to
kill anyone."

Copyright 2002 HindustanTimes. All rights reserved

Gill finds situation in Gujarat exceedingly bad
AFP [ SUNDAY, MAY 05, 2002 7:36:01 PM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=8982493

AHMEDABAD: Former Punjab Police chief K P S Gill, has described the
situation in Gujarat as "exceedingly bad."

In an interview to a national daily on Sunday, a day after he was
appointed security advisor to the chief minister of Gujarat, Gill
said his first priority was to "put an end to the violence and then
try to bring the two communities together.

"Gujarat is an issue the whole nation is concerned with and on which
the government has to deliver," he said.

Gill gained his reputation as a "supercop" after putting down a
separatist campaign in 1992 that had claimed the lives of around
50,000 people in Punjab since 1983.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is accused by rights groups
and Opposition parties of inept handling of the communal violence,
said on Saturday he was glad to have Gill's help. Gill said he
would "evolve a response to the situation" and described the
intelligence network on Gujarat as "poor."

The towering Sikh is known not only for his success in Punjab but
also for his role in battling tribal insurgencies in Assam, where he
was police chief in the mid-1990s.

He has a fearsome reputation for putting down religious violence with
an iron hand and in the shortest possible time with a controversial
policy of bullet-for-bullet.

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.

Gujarat situation is a 'humanitarian crisis': US
rediff.com,
May 06, 2002

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/06train7.htm

The United States on Monday termed the situation in
Gujarat as a 'humanitarian crisis'.
This was stated by visiting US Assistant Secretary of
Commerce for Market Access and Compliance William H
Lash III in Delhi

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an
interactive session organised by the Confederation of
Indian Industry (CII), Lash said capital always seeks
a safe and stable environment.

Lash is the first US commerce department official to
visit India this year.

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved.

Call to stop `hate campaign' among tribals
By Our Staff Reporter
The Hindu.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/05/05/stories/2002050501741100.htm

BHUBANESWAR MAY 4. The All-India Christian Council has
accused the Sangh Parivar of launching a "hate
campaign'' against Christians and other religious
minorities in the tribal belt extending from Gujarat
in the west to Orissa in the east.

Talking to The Hindu here on Saturday, the Council
secretary-general, John Dayal, alleged that the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its allied
organisations were making a "concerted effort" to
vitiate tribal society. The hate campaign was aimed at
turning the tribals against Christians and Muslims, he
said.

The Sangh Parivar was distributing pamphlets which
called for the "elimination of the Christians and
Muslim communities" from the region. In many areas of
Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatishgarh,
Jharkhand and Orissa, arms, including swords and
trishul-shaped hand weapons, were distributed in large
numbers and many training camps held.

All this was extremely dangerous. Dr. Dayal said the
inquiry committees probing the Gujarat violence had
found that innocent tribals were misled into
participating in the violence leading to large-scale
killings of the minorities.

In Jharkhand, the hate literatures were specially
targeted at the Sarana-speaking communities,
generating a strong apprehension and unease. The
Special Branch police of Ranchi had informed the
Jharkhand Government about the circulation of such
literatures.

About the burning of a church in Koraput district of
Orissa recently, Dr. Dayal said the State Government
should not take such incidents lightly. ``Our
apprehension is that having tasted blood in Gujarat,
the Sangh Parivar may repeat it in other States
whenever they get an opportunity,'' Dr. Dayal warned.

Copyright 2002 The Hindu. All rights reserved.

Women protest police atrocities in Vadodara
JAHNAVI CONTRACTOR
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SUNDAY, MAY 05, 2002 10:42:00 PM]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=8995297

VADODARA: For four days from Tuesday, 25 men and women
courted arrest by flouting curfew norms in the Old
City areas of Vadodara alleging police atrocities,
especially against women, during recent combing
operations. They say that the police has been using
excessive force, beating up women, even pregnant women
in some cases. Apart from initiating legal action,
some of them have begun signature campaigns and are
planning satyagrahs and protest marches to drive home
their point.

Residents of Kagda chawl have filed complaints in the
city court claiming that drunk policemen roughed up 12
women, beating them with lathis and spewing abuses.
"The chief judicial magistrate has ordered an inquiry
and I have received a FIR. The inquiry will now be
conducted by the detection of crime branch (DCB),"
said joint commissioner of police P C Thakur.

"The aim of courting arrest by flouting curfew norms
was to send a message to the police that instead of
attacking us at night under the pretext of 'combing
operations', they can do so in broad daylight. The aim
was to open their eyes to the injustice they were
meting out to the residents, especially women, in the
Old City areas," said Jagdish Shah, a member of the
Sarvodaya Trust, one of the organisations spearheading
the movement.

"All residents in the Old City areas are not
bomb-throwing miscreants. But, male police officers
had no qualms about hitting even pregnant women. They
also hurt the children and mouthed gruesome abuses.
Legally, no male policeman can attack a woman," said
Afsana, a resident at Bavamanpura.

Sahiyar, a woman's organisation, has written to the
National Commission for Women and the city police
commissioner about the atrocities against women.

Though the police is inquiring into two separate
incidents where policemen have spewed abuses at women,
threatened them and hit them on the hips, buttocks,
arms and legs, no report is forthcoming yet.

Women in Sabina Park Society and Dhanani Park Society
at Ajwa Road have complained to the Vadodara police
commissioner about the atrocities of the local police
sub inspector and have demanded his transfer. Some
activists have called for his suspension till the
inquiry is completed.

Shiraz Balsara, a woman's activist working in the
tribal areas of Maharashtra and now on a visit to
investigate atrocities here, says the victims have
complained of verbal abuse and have also sustained
minor fractures and bruises due to the physical
attacks by policemen.

"I met women who were terrorised at gun point, women
who were attacked by lathi-wielding policemen and some
were pregnant women. Their children were hit in front
of them and they were asked to get the men in the
house to come out." she said.

Copyright 2002 Times Of India. All rights reserved.

We were told to go slow, Gujarat cops tell Gill
Rathin Das
Hindustan Times
(Gandhinagar, May 4)

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/050502/detFRO02.asp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Senior police officers with whom K.P.S. Gill held a
series of meetings on Saturday, are learnt to have
told the former Punjab Police chief that the law and
order machinery had collapsed in the state because
they were given clear instructions to go soft on
Bajrang Dal and VHP activists.
Sources said the IPS officers told Gill, who has been
appointed security adviser to Chief Minister Narendra
Modi, that this directive was given to them at a
meeting of top officials on the night of the Godhra
incident on February 27.

To the constable on the street, this instruction on
“leniency” meant inaction, and it soon degenerated
into complicity with the VHP-Bajrang Dal workers.

According to the sources, the IPS officers also told
Gill that the transfer of those officers who had taken
action against the Bajrang Dal and the VHP had
demoralised the entire force. Some officials had even
requisitioned an urgent meeting of the state IPS
Officers' Association to discuss the issue, but the
meeting had not yet materialised because of the
continuing violence in the state.

The IPS officers have reportedly offered their total
cooperation to any steps that Gill might take.

Meanwhile, breaking his silence on the controversy
surrounding Gill's appointment, Modi on Saturday said
the former Punjab Police chief would bring more
professionalism to the police of the “hyper-sensitive”
state. “The police need to understand what is required
to deal with riots”

Cabinet spokesman Purushottam Rupala said Gill's
appointment was open-ended.

Copyright 2002 Hindustan Times. All rights reserved.

No death certificate without body: Gujarat police
rediff.com,
May 06, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/06train.htm

Relatives of 109 people in Baroda district, who went
missing during the riots in Gujarat, are running from
pillar to post to get a death certificate to claim the
ex-gratia.
Authorities are not ready to award the compensation
without a death certificate.

Police say without a body no certificate can be
issued.

Nasiruddin Shakla, 75, whose son has been missing for
over two months now, is unable to get compensation in
the absence of a death certificate. This despite the
fact that Irfan's name has been included in the list
of 109 missing people.

Irfan was reportedly dragged out from a truck at
Dherol village in Panchmahal district and hacked to
death. The police have refused to issue a death
certificate to Nasiruddin and have been telling him
that his son will return.

The families have demanded amendments in the norms to
facilitate early disposal of their applications.

The district authorities are planning to approach the
state government on the issue, official sources said.

PTI

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved.

Toll in Ahmedabad violence rises to 8
PTI [ MONDAY, MAY 06, 2002 10:30:45 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=9044628

AHMEDABAD: With one more person succumbing to injuries, the death
toll in Sunday's violence here has gone up to eight even as
indefinite curfew continued in Danilimda and Shahpur police station
areas, police said on Monday.

The situation in the trouble torn areas of Danilimda, Kagdapeth,
Maninagar, Shahpur and Madhupura police station area was under
control, they said.

Shops and houses were set on fire by irate mobs in Danilimda areas
and at least three persons were set ablaze by mobs in Maninagar and
Kagdapeth areas, police said.

Over 40 people received injuries, about 12 of them in police firing
in Danilimda areas including Behrampura locality.

Meanwhile, there was no untoward incident since Sunday night in
Dariapur, Kalupur, Karani, Haveli, Bapunagar, Rakhial and Gomtipur
where night curfew is in force.

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved

Bomb blast in bus near Godhra, 10 hurt
rediff.com,
May 06, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/06train6.htm

As many as ten people, including three women and an
infant, were injured, five of them seriously, when a
country-made bomb exploded in a Gujarat State Road
Transport Corporation bus at Lunavada bus stand,
nearly 40 km from Godhra, on Monday.
The incident took place at 1200 hrs when the bus,
scheduled for Malvan, was parked at the stand for the
30-odd passengers to board, police said.

Five of the injured, including the conductor Hirabhai
Vanand, were in serious condition and were shifted to
the civil hospital, the police said.

The incident has spread panic and tension in Lunavada
and its surrounding areas.

Witnesses stated that the explosion could have
occurred in the abandoned baggage of a passenger.

Meanwhile, a crude bomb was thrown at a mosque by some
unidentified persons in curfew-bound Mirzapur locality
of Ahmedabad on Monday afternoon, police said.

The bomb exploded on the road outside the mosque,
where a prayer session was on, they said, adding that
no one was injured in the blast.

UNI and PTI

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved.

Not just battered, BJP leaves Gujarat bankrupt
By Darshan Desai
May 5th 2002

http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=2116

Gandhinagar, May 4: There could be no better indicator to a
government's administrative failure than its tottering finances,
Gujarat being a case in point.

The larger picture also establishes that the BJP rule since 1998 has
pushed the state towards bankruptcy. While outstanding debt has been
increasing steadily, the revenues have been stagnating, if not going
down.

Between the two departments of Roads & Buildings and Irrigation
alone, the government owes private contractors Rs 500 crore. At a
recent meeting in Ahmedabad, the contractors association decided to
boycott all government works till payments were settled.

Also, for the first time, the treasury office at the Secretariat was
ordered closed on March 31 to clear grant money and pending bills of
various departments, chiefly of Roads & Buildings, Irrigation, and
Water Supply.

Debt stood at 41 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product when
the BJP took over, and, according to official sources, is likely to
go up to 46 per cent by the end of this financial year. This means
the state has a debt of as much per cent as its total production.

As a percentage of the Net State Domestic Product, the state debt has
already crossed the 50 per cent mark.

One reason the debt had risen during the past few years is the loans
from the ADB and the World Bank for post-earthquake rehabilitation.

It is also why the capital receipts of the state government showed an
increase from Rs 8,765.97 crore in 1999-2000 to Rs 26,552 crore in
2001-02.

But what is most worrying is that the public debt spiralled
dramatically during the corresponding period, up from Rs 8,604 crore
to Rs 24,423 crore.

Similarly, borrowings from the market — sparingly done till the mid-
nineties and coming up to around Rs 500 crore by 1997-98 — increased
manifold during the past three years. Market borrowings during the
past three years stood at Rs 2,126 crore, Rs 11,753 crore and Rs
20,817 crore respectively.

At the same time, the state's main source of revenue, the sales tax,
is stagnating. During the previous financial year, the revenues from
sales tax barely reached Rs 5,714 crore against the projected Rs
6,700 crore.

What is interesting is that just when the BJP assumed power here, the
state Finance department showed a surplus of more than Rs 1,000
crore. After the BJP took over the reins, things started getting
worse.

``There is little the government should pride itself for. This party
has established that without its pseudo-Hindutva claim, it has little
capacity to rule, be it Keshubhai or Narendrabhai,'' an officialsaid.

Modi's removal not the solution: Advani
rediff.com,
May 06, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/06train4.htm

Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani on Monday told
the Rajya Sabha that the Centre would discharge to the
"best of its ability" the responsibility cast on it
under Article 355 of the Constitution by the House
motion on Gujarat.
Intervening in the debate on the censure motion on the
Gujarat situation, Advani said it was the
responsibility of the Centre to act under Article 355
as demanded by the motion, which has been supported by
the government.

Maintaining that removing Chief Minister Narendra Modi
was not a solution, he said this kind of a sustained
campaign against him was not correct.

The home minister also did not agree with Leader of
the Opposition Manmohan Singh's remarks that there was
"gross communalisation" of Gujarat police.

"I feel this type of sweeping condemnation of the
police is not good. There are some shortcomings and I
am aware of them," he said, adding that the police
force had saved a large number of Muslims during the
riots.

Advani said a commission was probing the violence and
hoped it would pay attention to the issue relating to
the police force.

"I plead with everyone not to make such sweeping
charges against the police force," he said.

He said he had a discussion with Minorities Commission
Chairman Justice Mohammed Shamim on Monday and the
government was also going into the recommendations of
the National Human Right Commission.

"Wherever required strictness will be shown. At the
same time, focus will be put on relief and
rehabilitation measures" in the state, the home
minister said.

He said the government condemned the contents of
pamphlets asking people to boycott businesses of
Muslims in Gujarat.

When opposition members drew his attention to Vishwa
Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal's reported
statement justifying the recent violence in Gujarat,
Advani said, "Whosoever says anything of this kind,
the government condemns it and disassociates from it."

PTI

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved.

Rajya Sabha passes censure motion
rediff.com,
May 06, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/06train5.htm

The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed unanimously the
Opposition-sponsored censure motion on the Gujarat
issue with Chairman Krishan Kant expressing hope that
it would dispel the dark clouds that had gathered over
the state.
The motion, moved by Congress leader Arjun Singh, was
adopted unanimously by a voice vote and no division
was pressed on it.

The motion read: "That this House expresses its deep
sense of anguish at the persistence of violence in
Gujarat for over six weeks, leading to loss of lives
of a large number of persons, destruction of property
worth crores of rupees and urges the Central
government to intervene effectively under Article 355
of the Constitution to protect the lives and
properties of the citizens and to provide effective
relief and rehabilitation to the victims of violence."

Kant congratulated the members for passing the motion
unanimously in a spirit of resilience and
accommodation and hoped this would strengthen the
confidence of the people.

Winding up the 17-hour debate, Arjun Singh said Chief
Minister Narendra Modi should be removed to restore
confidence among the people.

He wanted an inquiry into the riots by a Supreme Court
judge as the present inquiry appointed by the state
government was a "drama and a trash".

Arjun Singh demanded that as suggested by the National
Human Rights Commission the cases relating to the
communal violence be probed by the Central Bureau of
Investigation.

He told Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that it
was not for the Opposition to suggest what should be
done in Gujarat but he should fulfil constitutional
responsibilities.

"We shall not do anything to remove you from power as
is being feared in some quarters, but when people give
their verdict we will highlight the fact that
Constitution has been violated in Gujarat," he said in
reply to Vajpayee's charge that the Congress was
hungry for power.

Arjun Singh said the tenor of the prime minister's
speeches was not correct, adding that as long as the
government did not take specific actions everything
was meaningless.

"Your intentions are clear. But beware of those trying
to fulfil their own interests," he said.

PTI

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved.

Government to implement House motion on Gujarat: PM
rediff.com,
May 06, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/06train3.htm

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Monday declared
in the Rajya Sabha that the government would fully
implement the letter and spirit of the House motion on
Gujarat seeking more effective action under Article
355 of the Constitution.
"There need be no doubt about it," Vajpayee told the
House.

Intervening in the debate on the Opposition-sponsored
censure motion, the prime minister said that the
government would support it and ensure that it passed
unanimously.

Regarding his statement in Gwalior on Sunday, Vajpayee
said, "I was asked whether notice was being given to
the Gujarat government under Article 355 as promised
by the [central] government during the discussion."

"I said the debate is on in Parliament and in effect
it is a notice to the Gujarat authorities," he said.

The prime minister said if the state government was
acting as per the wishes of the Centre, then there was
no need for a formal notice under Article 355.

He attacked the Opposition for alleging that democracy
was in danger and that fascism was raising its head.

Citing the Emergency, he said the country had seen
that democracy had defeated those who had sought to
weaken it.

Categorically denying that he had criticised Islam and
attacked Muslims during his speech at Goa, the prime
minister said equal respect for all religions had been
the credo of India since time immemorial.

"I can't even think of casting aspersions on any
religion," he said.

Vajpayee said the media had only highlighted his
remark that the Gujarat chief minister should follow
raj dharma [ethics of governance], but did not pay
much attention to Narendra Modi's response that he was
doing the same.

He sought to know whether there was no other way to
follow raj dharma other than seeking the resignation
of Modi.

Vajpayee said at Goa he had expressed concern over the
rise of religious fundamentalism in various countries,
including India.

Stating he had disapproved of militant Hinduism at a
book release function in Delhi, he said he accepted
the Hindutva of Swami Vivekananda.

Terming the riots in Gujarat as a "blot" on the
country, Vajpayee said it was time for parties to rise
above political considerations and sit together to
find a way out.

On the demand for the removal of Modi, the prime
minister said the issue was considered, but a decision
was taken that it was not appropriate to change the
leadership there.

Maintaining that any change in leadership could have
further worsened the situation, he said it was a
"right decision" not to remove Modi.

Asserting that all efforts would be made to bring
those guilty of killing people to book, he said they
should be awarded exemplary punishment. "The law must
take its own course," he said.

The prime minister said he was confident that no Hindu
organisation would become a danger to the country's
unity. He, however, said if this happened then there
were laws to deal with it.

Vajpayee accused the Opposition of raising a hue and
cry over the Gujarat issue and said they could not
wait to come to power.

He regretted the fresh incidents of violence in
Gujarat saying there were certain elements, which were
bent upon creating trouble and preventing return of
normalcy.

"We have to fight these forces together instead of
fighting amongst each other and suspecting our
intentions. This is unfortunate and a change in
attitude is required," the prime minister said.

Vajpayee ruled out any assembly elections in Gujarat
at this juncture. "There is no question of holding
elections in Gujarat now," he said.

He suggested leaders of political parties could sit
together after the passage of the motion and discuss
ways to bring peace in Gujarat.

PTI

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved.

EDITORIAL

MANI TALK / THE MASK UNVEILED
BY MANI SHANKAR AIYAR
The Telegraph,
May 06, 2002.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/editoria.htm#head5

Sanitation and the supply of water are also problems.
For 9,000 people in the Shah Alam camp, the municipal
corporation has provided a mobile toilet with just 5
seats and a temporary toilet with 5 seats. There is no
drainage or any arrangement for cleaning or garbage
removal. In contrast, local volunteers are working
around the clock to keep the camps inhabitable. The
delegation came across an NGO, the Kamdar Swasthya
Suraksha Mandal, which was cleaning the Bapu Nagar
camp and had cleaned 8 other camps. Two water tankers
are provided to the Shah Alam camp everyday, but the
organizers of the camp are responsible for the
emptying of the tankers, and if they are late, the
tankers leave. One or two camps require government
compensation forms to be filled in against which the
victims are supposed to get yellow cards. Volunteers
spend hours trying to fill up the forms for the
victims. This is a difficult task since the forms are
very complex and detailed and demand a lot of
information, not all of it available to people who
have lost their homes and all their documents. The
shortage of forms can be comprehended by the fact that
while there are more than 8,000 people in the Bapu
Nagar camp, they have been given only 200 forms. There
is no provision being made for the filing of
FIRs...Since most of the thanas are far away from the
camps, it is not possible for the victims to go there.
Only in Bapu Nagar camp were the former residents of
Akbar Nagar (which has been razed to the ground) able
to go to the thana across the road...to file their
FIRs. About 20 FIRs a day are actually registered by
the thana authorities when there are more than 300 to
be filed.

No government officials had visited any of these camps
except those who accompanied the all-party delegation
that visited the Shah Alam camp. The Kankariya camp
had 175 Dalit families from the Shah Alam Toll Naka
area. Gopal Bhai Sharma, who was in charge of the
Kankaria municipal schools ...told us that 700 people
from this area came to this camp on February 28 after
they were attacked...He said that stones and acid were
thrown on these people by Muslims living in an
11-storey building nearby. Bhagaji was killed. Forty
houses were burnt. They have been back since to see
their houses which are undamaged. They are all daily
wage-earners and Dalits. The women work as domestic
servants in their neighbourhood. They are all anxious
to return home and start working again but are
demanding that a police chowki be established in the
area.

We were happy when they informed us that they had been
getting rations from March 4 and that all their FIRs
had already been lodged with the police. Without this
help these poor families would have been in even
further distress. Unlike the other camps, we did not
find any volunteers or help here. The camp is in an
upper caste neighbourhood. Narendra Modi, Fakirbhai
Vaghela and the opposition leader, Amarsingh
Chowdhury, have all visited the camp. Various
officials have also been regularly visiting the camp.
We could only wish that the other camps had received
similar attention.

But on the contrary, till March 10, not a single
minister or a single government official had visited
even a single camp, apart from at the time of the
visit of the all party delegation. Since we were late
for our appointment with the collector, K. Srinivas,
we met the additional collector, Urmila Patel, along
with officials in charge of the relief operations.
When we pointed out this blatant double standard in
aid to relief camps the only reply was that employees
are too scared to go to the Muslim camps. What about
officials? Actually, many non-Muslim relief workers
were moving in and out of the camps with no problem.
It appeared to be a deliberate canard against the
Muslim community that relief workers would be
attacked, propaganda to justify the clearly
discriminatory approach between Muslim and Hindu
camps. Shockingly, the officials expressed ignorance
about the fact that no rations were being sent or that
FIRs were not being filed. They said that the police
commissioner was to have ensured a desk at each camp
to file the FIRs and were surprised that it was not
so.

When the treasury benches rose as a phalanx at 3 am to
barrack me so vigorously that nothing I said could be
heard by even the Lok Sabha stenographers, let alone
the house, the presiding officer gave me permission to
lay the text of what I had said on the table of the
house. With a view to unveiling the mask that hid my
words, besides ripping off the prime minister’s
mukhauta, “Mani-Talk” brings you the unheard word.
Reference Keats’ “Ode on A Grecian Urn”: “Heard
melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter”!

Sir, I am grateful to the prime minister for his
having arranged to send us this morning on our
parliamentary mail a pamphlet reproducing the official
version of his recent speeches on Gujarat. Compared to
newspaper reports of what he said, what we have been
sent is clearly a sanitized version. But, for the
purposes of this debate, let us take it as the
authorized version.

The prime minister’s remarks on Godhra on the day of
the tragedy are given on page 1 of this pamphlet, and
I invite the house to reflect on the contrast between
the prime minister’s reaction to the ghastly tragedy
in Godhra and what the leader of the opposition stated
the same day — February 27. The prime minister limited
himself to saying: “Today morning, the Sabarmati
Express was stopped; a violent incident took place
there. This is a very tragic incident indeed, very
unfortunate.” He added: “the Government is deeply
worried by today’s event…We are in close contact with
the Gujarat Government.”

I ask you to contrast these anodyne remarks with the
Congress president’s heartfelt and outright expression
of shock and horror. I quote from The Hindu of
February 28 which I am holding in my hands. The
newspaper reports, in a story datelined New Delhi,
February 27, that Sonia Gandhi, in a statement issued
to the media, “expressed her shock at the violent
incidents and strongly condemned the perpetrators of
such acts”. Moreover, she “conveyed her deepest
sympathies to all the bereaved families”.

The prime minister neither expressed any shock nor
condemned the perpetrators. He did not even care to
sympathize with the victims. He was content to pat
himself on the back for keeping in “close contact with
the Gujarat Government”. Which only shows that the
Central government is just as culpable as the state
government since it was in “close contact” with that
government throughout all the horrors of February 27
and 28, and subsequently. And it is this prime
minister who comes to this house blaming the whole of
Parliament for not having expressed its shock over
Godhra. If that was so important, why did the PM
himself not use language at least as poignant as Sonia
Gandhi’s?

Sir, it is fascinating to see through this pamphlet
that initially the prime minister attempted no
cause-and-effect relationship between the events in
Godhra and the subsequent events in the rest of
Gujarat. For a month and a half, for six whole weeks,
it appears from this pamphlet that Godhra was not
invoked by the prime minister as an exculpation or
justification or even an explanation for the grim
pogrom in Gujarat. Till the PM’s speech in Goa on
April 12, the “kriya-prakriya” argument was only that
of Narendra Modi — and Sir Isaac Newton. This pamphlet
shows that on March 2, in his televised appeal to the
nation, the prime minister made no distinction between
Godhra and other incidents, he seamlessly merged his
condemnation of all the events in a single sentence
which I should like to quote: “The ghastly incidents
of burning people alive, including women and children,
from Godhra to Ahmedabad and then at other places, are
a blot on the face of our Nation.” No question of
“action-reaction”, or in Narendra Modi’s words: “Har
kriya ki pratikriya hoti hai.”

On March 16 in the Lok Sabha, the PM reiterated:
“Whatever happened at Godhra is known to all of us.
But what happened thereafter cannot be justified by
what happened in Godhra”. Even on April 4, at the Shah
Alam camp, the PM was still saying: “Whatever happened
after Godhra is extremely shameful for everybody. But
whatever happened at Godhra should also be condemned
in equally strong terms.”

Indeed, at the press conference that day (I am quoting
from page 20 of this pamphlet) the PM said: “Gujarat
is a riddle for me. How did such a situation suddenly
develop?” Good question.Why did this situation
suddenly develop? The prime minister in his press
conference did not put all the blame on Godhra, as
Modi was doing. In fact, going one step further, the
PM told the press: “Majority needs no protection. The
majority is capable of safeguarding its interests.
They have the numbers on their side. It is the
minority which requires protection.”

It was only on April 9 in Singapore that the PM’s tone
started changing; he started singing a different tune:
“If at the Godhra station, the passengers of the
Sabarmati Express had not been burnt alive, then
perhaps the tragedy could have been averted.” Cause
and effect. Kriya-pratikriya. The mask was slipping.
With the token visit to the Shah Alam camp behind him,
the rashtriya swayamsevak in the prime minister began
emerging. And three days later — Goa, April 12 — the
Modi-Newton theory of kriya-pratikriya took a complete
hold of his mind. I quote the sanitized version of his
speech to fellow members of the sangh parivar: “We
should not forget how the tragedy of Gujarat started.
Who lit the fire? How did the fire spread?” And he
goes on to identify them: “Wherever such Muslims live,
they tend not to live in co-existence with others, not
to mingle with others; and instead of propagating
their ideas in a peaceful manner, they want to spread
their faith by resorting to terror and threats.”

Is this any way for a prime minister to speak? Is he
the PM of only 85 per cent of this country? Are all
Muslims to be targeted because some of their numbers
do not “mingle with others”? Is he suggesting, as
sadhvi Uma Bharti explicitly said this morning, that
Hindus — all Hindus — make the best of neighbours? Has
either he or she asked the refugees in the relief
camps whether it was not their neighbours of one
community who attacked the helpless, blameless,
guiltless neighbours of the other community?

Sir, apart from identifying only one religion — Islam
— with terrorism, what has the PM’s identification of
some touch-me-not Muslims to do with any of the
criminals of Godhra? Were the arsonists and butchers,
the heartless, pathological murderers of Godhra
attempting, in the prime minister’s words, to
“propagate their faith” or “spread their ideas”? Why
link proselytization to arson and murder? It is only
because the prime minister’s mindset is the mindset of
the fanatics of his parivar that every now and then,
and particularly when he is in their company, be it in
the United States of America or in Goa, his mask slips
and he reveals his true self.

I ask him: why not condemn in the same terms those who
in the name of their faith and their ideas avenged
themselves equally brutally, for reasons only of
community and religion, on Muslims who had nothing to
do with Godhra? Are terrorism and threat the monopoly
of Islamic extremists? What of the horrors inflicted
by Israel on the ordinary people of Palestine? Are
Jews Muslims? What is the religion of the United
Liberation Front of Asom or the People’s War Group?
Are they Muslims? Is the Nationalist Socialist Council
of Nagalim a Muslim outfit? And, on the other hand,
what is the religion of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and
its history of threats and terror? What of the terror
and threats unleashed by the sangh parivar from M.S.
Golwalkar to Narendra Modi? What, specifically, of the
terror and threats unleashed on innocent Muslims all
over Gujarat? Are the Muslim victims of Gujarat the
victims of Islamic terrorism?

And yet to pander to his RSS constituency, the PM says
in Goa: “Everywhere Muslims live in large numbers. And
the rulers in those countries are worried lest those
Muslims embrace extremism.” Is the PM not concerned
about majoritarian extremism in this country? Is he
blind to the hatred being spread — literally behind
his back — in this house? Does he never read Organizer
and Panchajanya?

Sir, this house entirely agrees with the PM when he
says: “Follow raj dharma” We disagree only when he
adds, I quote again: “I believe that Narendra Modi is
following it.” Any Central government which believes
that what has been happening in Gujarat these last 63
days is “raj dharma” deserves to be censured. We have
brought this motion — and our amendment — precisely to
do that!

Copyright 2002 The Telegraph. All rights reserved.