In The Name Of Allah, The Most Compassionate and Merciful
May 14th,
2002.
Headlines:
·
One injured in stabbing in
Kalupur, other areas peaceful (www.rediff.com)
· Modi announces measures to
soothe minorities (www.rediff.com)
·
5 injured in Ahmedabad violence (Times Of
India)
·
PM satisfied with govt on
Gujarat (Times Of India)
·
Gujarat can be controlled if
media, parties co-operate: minister (www.rediff.com)
·
I blundered on Gujarat: Naidu (Deccan
Chronicle)
·
Hyderabadis to shelter riot-hit (Deccan Chronicle)
·
We don’t need Muslims: PM (Deccan Chronicle)
·
BJP leader held for ‘rape’ as
mother refuses to give in (Indian
Express)
·
Sonia seeks PM help over 2
hate cases in Gujarat (Indian Express)
· Gujarat Upsurge of Hindu
Society: Giriraj Kishore (Asian Age)
· Gujarat
toll 2,000: Tribunal (The Statesman)
Analysis:
NEWS HEADLINES
One
injured in stabbing in Kalupur, other areas
peaceful
rediff.com,
May
13, 2002.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/13train1.htm
Barring
a stabbing incident in a curfew-bound area in
which
one person was injured late on Sunday night, the
situation
in other parts of riot-torn Ahmedabad is
under
control and peaceful, police said on Monday.
One
person was injured when he was stabbed by
unidentified
persons in Sarangpur locality under
Kalupur
police station area, police said.
Indefinite
curfew continued in Dani Limda police
station
area as tension prevailed after some
miscreants
set fire to a shop at Behrampura on Sunday,
they
said.
Curfew
was relaxed on Monday morning in Haveli police
station
area to enable people to buy essentials, they
said.
While
curfew was lifted for four hours in Kagadapith
and
Kalupur police station areas, it was relaxed in
Shahpur,
Karanj and Vejalpur from 0900 to 1900 hours,
police
added.
Copyright
2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved.
Modi
announces measures to soothe minorities
rediff.com,
May
14, 2002
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/13train3.htm
After
mediation of sorts by the National Commission
for
Minorities, the Gujarat government on Monday
announced
a series of measures for minorities in the
state.
After
a meeting with Chief Minister Narendra Modi and
representatives
of Muslims in Gandhinagar, NCM
Vice-Chairman
Tarlochan Singh said that the state
government
would survey the damages to properties in
the
violence and involve non-governmental
organisations
to ensure that work was carried out
properly.
Modi
had announced that Chairman of the National
Minority
Development and Finance Corporation, Kazi
Mohammed
Miya Mazhari, and its member Shamim Kazi
would
be involved in implementing the Rs 150-crore [Rs
1.5
billion] relief package announced by Prime
Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the state, Singh
said.
Singh
said the chief minister had assured that
everyone
would be given an opportunity to lodge fresh
FIRs.
Modi
had also assured that a three-member committee
would
be formed in every district to record the
statements
of excesses committed against women, he
said.
The
chief minister made it clear that no relief camp
would
be closed unless proper security and
rehabilitation
were ensured for people who were
uprooted
from their villages by the violence, Singh
said.
On
the issue of people who had gone missing following
the
violence, Modi said a list of unclaimed bodies
would
be verified and the aggrieved families asked to
submit
photographs of the missing people.
Terming
the meeting as "successful", Singh said it was
"good
beginning and the mission is to bring a
solution".
K
P S Gill, security advisor to Modi, who also
attended
the meeting, assured the minority community
that
action would be taken against those involved in
the
riots.
"I
have come here to bring an end to the prevailing
law
and order situation and have taken up the
challenge
to end it," he asserted.
PTI
Copyright
2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved.
5 injured in Ahmedabad violence
PTI [ TUESDAY, MAY
14, 2002 12:43:40 PM ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=9853258
AHMEDABAD:
Atleast five persons were injured in the incidents of
stone-throwing
and crude bomb blast in four riot affected areas even
as
the situation in other parts of the city was peaceful, official
sources
said.
Panic
gripped Kalupur and adjoining areas of Raikhad, Dani Limda,
Shahpur
late last night after a crude bomb exploded, police said.
With
peace returning and no major incidents reported so far, curfew
was
further relaxed in Dani Limda, Kagadapith, Haveli, Kalupur,
Shahpur,
Karanj and Vejalpur police station areas, while night curfew
remained
in force in other police station areas of the city.
Copyright
© 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved
PM
satisfied with govt on Gujarat
PTI [ TUESDAY, MAY
14, 2002 12:04:34 PM ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=12854775
NEW
DELHI: Expressing satisfaction on the overall performance of the
government
in the current budget session of the Parliament, Prime
Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Tuesday said it had come
through
"successfully" on the Gujarat issue having defeated the
Opposition
censure motion in the Lok Sabha despite the government
favouring
a consensus resolution.
Briefing
reporters after a BJP Parliamentary Party meeting, its
spokesman
V K Malhotra said the Prime Minister told members that the
government
had wanted the Lok Sabha to adopt a resolution through
consensus
but the Opposition wanted to censure the government.
"In
Lok Sabha, we wanted a consensus on the resolution on Gujarat,
but
our opponents were not ready for it. Due to this there was voting
and
in that we proved our majority," Vajpayee told the meeting.
The
Prime Minister told members that there was apprehension at the
beginning
of the Budget Session of Parliament over the government's
stability
but this was proved otherwise when the censure motion moved
by
the Opposition in Lok Sabha was defeated.
Malhotra
said Vajpayee asked members to fan out to their
constituencies
immediately after the session and portray the right
picture
of the Government and inform their constituents about the
stability
of the government.
Copyright
© 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
Gujarat
can be controlled if media, parties
co-operate: minister
rediff.com,
May
14th, 2002.
http://www.rediff.com/us/2002/may/14ia03.htm
Union Minister for Human Resources
Development Murli
Manohar
Joshi has claimed that the situation in
Gujarat
can be easily controlled, and will be
controlled,
provided all political parties and the
media
co-operate.
In
an interview to India Abroad, published in the
latest
edition, he lamented that parties that are not
co-operating
for some narrow political objectives and
interests
fail to realise how their posture will
affect
the people's psychology.
He
insisted that while no one could justify the
violence
in Gujarat that has claimed up to 1,000 lives
so
far, had political parties and the media been quick
to
condemn the Godhra massacre, the violent backlash
might
not have occurred.
He
said the media coverage had failed to highlight the
fact
that 97 per cent of students gave their
examinations
after the disturbances or that out of
18,000
villages in the state, only a few were actually
affected
by the violence.
He
disclaimed the view that the BJP was anti-secular,
insisting
that India would remain secular as long as
the
Hindu tradition is alive.
Copyright
(c) 2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved.
I
blundered on Gujarat: Naidu
Deccan
Chronicle.
http://www.deccan.com/headlines/lead3.shtml
New
Delhi, May 14: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and
Telugu
Desam president Chandrababu Naidu virtually
admitted
to his party MPs, when in the Capital last
Friday
and Saturday that he had committed a blunder in
speaking
out of turn on the issue of removal of
Gujarat
Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
In
turn, to compensate them for this loss of face and
also
the loss of the office of the Speakership of the
Lok
Sabha, Naidu gave all the 60 MPs from Andhra a
generous
largesse of Rs 15,000 per month for a
security
car whenever they visited Andhra Pradesh.
Naidu
who visited the Capital on last Friday and
Saturday,
held a dinner meeting with his MPs on Friday
night
where he was more than candid.
He
is reported to have briefed the MPs about what
transpired
at the meeting with the Prime Minister
which
carried on for close to two hours, 35 minutes of
which
were one to one between the two leaders.
At
the meeting Naidu told the MPs that the party truly
fumbled
on the Gujarat issue. “For four years we have
been
going along with the NDA and we have been
successful
in getting benefits from this Government.
For
example we managed the highest rice procurement
and
we got all the rice for the Food For Work
Programme.
But on Gujarat for the first time the party
failed
to send across a message to the people’’ said
Naidu,
according to a party MP.
He
further said, “even though the party line was
correct
but somehow this could not be conveyed
properly
to the Press and there was a communication
gap
between the party and the Press,’’ felt Naidu he
said
adding, “that is the reason we failed and this
caused
the party tremendous embarrassment.’’ He also
assured
the MPs that he had done the patchup work with
the
Government and now there was no cause for concern.
On
April 16, the Andhra Government had issued a GOMS
No.
184 directing that 27 MPs from Andhra Pradesh
including
two Congress MPs S Jaipal Reddy and former
State
Chief Minister N Janardhan Reddy, three
Bharatiya
Janata Party ministers in Delhi, Bandaru
Dattatraya,
Ch Vidya Sagar Rao and U Krishnamaraju
were
granted
Rs
15,000 per month as security car allowance to
enable
them to hire a security car for themselves when
they
were in Andhra Pradesh.
This
order stated that the State government perceived
security
threat to these 27 MPs and that is why this
allowance
was being granted to them so that their
security
men could travel in a separate car along with
them.
The
Resident Commissioner, AP Bhawan, Delhi was
requested
in this GO to “draw and disburse the amount
to
all the 27 MPs mentioned in the order”.
“He
is requested to take necessary action for getting
reimbursement
of the amount from the Government of
India.’’
The
MPs present at the dinner meeting demanded that
this
allowance should be given to all the 60 MPs from
the
State and Naidu in an expansive mood after his
chat
with the Prime Minister immediately granted the
request.
Copyright
(c) 2002 Deccan Chronicle. All rights
reserved
Hyderabadis
to shelter riot-hit
Deccan
Chronicle.
http://www.deccan.com/headlines/lead4.shtml
Hyderabad,
May 14: The State government may have
withdrawn
its move to rehabilitate the victims of
violence
in Gujarat in Hyderabad, but city Muslims
have
come forward to contribute for the construction
of
about 10,000 flats for riot victims.
Specially-designed
housing colonies for the riot-hit
Muslims
will come up in the outskirts of Bharuch,
Ahmedabad,
Surat, Vadodara and Mehsana with
contributions
from all over the world, including
resident
and non-resident Hyderabadis.
Incidentally,
NGOs from Hyderabad are the only
voluntary
bodies that have taken up largescale relief
works
in Gujarat.
The
services of civil engineers from twin cities will
also
be utilised for these high-security apartment
complexes
equipped with supermarkets, gymnasiums,
residential
schools, playgrounds, hospitals and
recreational
centres. There will be a huge boundary
wall
with single entry-exit point as a security
measure.
A
team of Gujarati Muslims led by Congress legislator
Muhammad
Bhai Patel, is currently in the city with the
project
report to seek financial assistance from local
Muslims.
Patel told Deccan Chronicle that about 1,000
people
had already promised assistance and he hoped
more
would come forward during his next visit in June.
“We
will also meet Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu
and
seek his assistance in setting up computer
education
centres for Muslims in Gujarat. We will also
request
him to assist us with engineering and
structural
design expertise for the proposed
colonies,”
Patel said.
The
Bombay Patel Welfare Society, Bharuch, which
Muhammad
Patel heads, has already donated three acres
of
prime land in Bharuch and it’s in the process of
purchasing
25 acres in Baroda, Ahmedabad and other
places.
“Our
project is simple. We have already purchased the
land.
What we need is sponsorship for the flats, each
costing
Rs 1.15 lakh,” Ibrahim Bhai Patel, a social
worker
from Mumbai observed.
The
society has approached the English MP Lord Adam
Patel
of Blackburn, UK, and the Muslim Aid, London.
They
have agreed to fund the project, but the society
members
want to take assistance from Hyderabadis too.
City-based
Muslim organisations like MESCO, United
Economic
Forum and Hyderabad Zakat and Charitable
Forum
have already pumped in funds for rehabilitation
of
the victims.
Dr
Sattar Khan of MESCO said the colonies were planned
for
those Muslims who had been barred from entering
their
villages. “Several villages have declared
themselves
100 per cent shuddikaran, meaning that they
are
free of Muslims. Will Muslims be safe if they
enter
the villages? As this has become a big question
for
us, we have proposed closed colonies for such
people,”
he observed.
Copyright
(c) 2002 Deccan Chronicle.
http://www.deccan.com/headlines/lead5.shtml
We don’t need
Muslims: PM
Deccan
Chronicle.
New
Delhi, May 14: Addressing the BJP Parliamentary
Party
meeting on Tuesday, Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee
said he did “not approve” of any talk about
coming
to power with the support of the minority
community.
The
Prime Minister was repeating a sentiment that he
had
stated during the campaign for elections in Uttar
Pradesh.
The Prime Minister had said at Meerut in
March
that the BJP “did not need Muslim votes to come
to
power in Uttar Pradesh.”
The
Prime Minister’s Office, however, had issued a
denial.
The
Prime Minister once again tried to clarify his
remarks
on the minority community during the Goa
speech.
Vajpayee told his party colleagues that
speaking
to a leader from the Gulf, he had clarified
that
his attack was not aimed at Muslims.
“I
told him that my target was not Muslims, but the
jehadi
groups. I asked the Gulf leader, ‘Tell me which
jehadi
group wants peace?’ He could not reply,” the
Prime
Minister said.
The
Prime Minister exhorted his partymen to go to
their
respective constituencies and send across
signals
that the government at the Centre was
“stable.”
At
the same meeting, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha
seemed
to have got a reprieve over the Flex Industries
issue
— he had accepted election material donated by
the
scam-hit company in 1999.
A
section of hardliners however continued to press for
his
removal. The names doing the rounds as Sinha’s
replacement
are Union Minister for Disinvestment Arun
Shourie,
RBI Governor Bimal Jalan and Andhra Pradesh
Governor
C Rangarajan. Sources disclosed that Union
Parliamentary
Minister Pramod Mahajan could also
emerge
as the “dark horse”. The Cabinet reshuffle is
expected
by the end of the month.
Sinha’s
camp, which was working hard to save his job,
were
claiming that removal of the Finance Minister
could
send “wrong signals”. His close associates
pointed
that Sinha was being made the “scapegoat”,
since
no economic policies could have been framed
“without
the clearance of the PMO”.
Copyright
(c) 2002 Deccan Chronicle.
BJP
leader held for ‘rape’ as mother refuses to give
in
Indian
Express,
Milind
Ghatwai
http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=2675
Aeral,
May 13: Madinaben doesn’t know if she can call
it
justice. It took one month for the police to arrest
the
man she claims raped her 16-year-old daughter
before
killing her and six more members of her family
before
her eyes, and then setting their bodies afire.
The
BJP’s Kalol unit president, Chandrasinh Parmar,
lived
just 100 m from their home in Aeral village and
had
been roaming freely till the National Human Rights
Commission
got the police to register an FIR alleging
rape.
On
Thursday, the police arrested Parmar on charges of
murder
and rape. He is accused of the murder of seven
people,
all residents of Aeral village. A former
sarpanch,
Parmar has now been sent to Godhra sub-jail.
The
minority community said it had received threats
following
his arrest.
Recalling
the massacre of March 2, Madinaben says: ‘‘I
survived
because I hid in the fields, gagging my
five-year-old
son. They raped my young daughter and
then
killed her.’’ Her in-laws Ismailbhai and Uriben;
sister-in-law
Rukaiyaben; husband Adam and their
daughter
Sohana, 17; and Tajuben, 25, were also
killed.
The
family had earlier shifted to a field for safety
when
they sensed tension building up in the village.
Madina
said the incident occurred at noon on March 2
when
someone tipped off the mob that they were hiding
in
fields.
Armed
with kerosene and petrol, the mob later set six
bodies
on fire at one spot and the seventh about 25
feet
away. Madina and a few others hiding in nearby
fields
were rescued by the Army. But her horrors
didn’t
end. Her mother, brother and niece were killed
in
a separate incident in Delol village, not far from
Aeral.
Though
there were separate complaints — copies of
which
are available with The Indian Express — about
the
Aeral violence, there is no mention of rape.
Madina
alleged she had told the police about the rapes
but
the charges were included when the NHRC
interviewed
her at the Kalol camp.
Still,
all the accused named by Madina in her FIR are
roaming
scot-free and no attempt had been made to nab
them,
minority community members who returned to the
village
alleged.
©
2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All
rights
reserved throughout the world.
http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=2669
Sonia
seeks PM help over 2 hate cases in Gujarat
Express
News Service
New
Delhi, May 13: Congress president Sonia Gandhi
today
sought Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s
intervention
in connection with two incidents in
Gujarat.
One is the murder of a pregnant woman and her
unborn
child. The other is the rape and murder of five
little
girls.
In
a letter to Vajpayee, Sonia said that she received
a
petition from Jannatbai Kallubhai Sheikh of Naroda
Patia
in Gujarat, who was an eyewitness to both
crimes.
Jannatbai has identified the perpetrators to
the
police but no action has been taken so far, she
wrote.
‘‘I
thought it fit to bring this matter to your notice
with
the hope that you will agree that this particular
case
deserves your personal intervention,’’ Sonia said
in
the letter.
The
Congress president has asked the Prime Minister to
ensure
that an FIR is immediately filed in the case,
the
accused arrested and punished in the severest
possible
manner and the case handed over to the CBI
for
investigation.
The
petition, submitted to Sonia by Jannatbai during
the
former’s visit to Ahmedabad on May 1, has been
enclosed
with the letter.
After
giving details of the two incidents and naming
some
of the guilty, the petition says: ‘‘All this
matter
I have exposed before the police who came to
the
Shah-e-Alam camp to register the cases. I do not
know
what action has been taken by the police since
then.’’
©
2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All
rights
reserved throughout the world.
GUJARAT
UPSURGE OF HINDU SOCIETY: GIRIRAJ KISHORE
By
Sanjay Basak
Asian
Age Online,
New
Delhi, May 13.
http://www.hclinfinet.com/2002/MAY/WEEK2/3/IndiaInsideFS.jsp
While
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Union
home
minister L.K. Advani distanced themselves and the
BJP
from VHP leader Ashok Singhal’s remark that the
Gujarat
carnage was an “awakening” of Hindu society,
VHP
vice-president Acharya Giriraj Kishore spoke in a
similar
tone.
Speaking
to The Asian Age on Saturday, the Acharya
described
the Gujarat violence as an “upsurge of Hindu
society”
and said that the VHP would mobilise its
forces
to create “awareness among the Hindu masses.”
“After
the Gujarat incident, Hindus will not be cowed
down
anymore,” he said. On Monday, the VHP leader
claimed
that the relief camps of minorities were now
“infested”
with men from Dawood Ibrahim’s gang.
Though
he admitted that both the Centre and the state
governments
have “failed” to tackle the situation in
Gujarat,
the Acharya was against the removal of state
chief
minister Narendra Modi. He also came out with
figures
claiming that “Islam terrorists in Gujarat had
so
far demolished 30 Hindu temples.” When pointed out
that
the government records had no such information,
the
VHP leader remarked: “I recently got the
information.”
The
Acharya fears that these Dawood men, who were
sprearheading
the ongoing riots in the state, could be
planning
communal violence in different parts of the
country.
Asked
about the VHP’s ways of weeding out the “Dawood
men”
from the relief camps, the Acharya refused to go
on
record on the issue and merely said: “Wait for
three
to four days.”
Earlier,
the VHP leader told The Asian Age that the
organisation
was planning to step up its mass
awareness
programmes among Hindus following the
Gujarat
carnage. The mass awareness programme will
range
from building a Ram temple at Ayodhya to the
Bajrang
Dal training cadres.
The
VHP leader, however, also tried to do a balancing
act
by saying that to bring peace in Gujarat both
Hindu
and Muslim leaders should sit and “discuss the
situation.”
He felt there should be a sincere effort
from
both sides.
That
the Hindutva leaders’ “faith” in the Gujarat
local
media runs high became evident when the VHP
circulated
copies of an interview of Anees Ibrahim,
brother
of Dawood, published in the local papers.
The
interview quoted Ibrahim issuing threats against
the
government and leaders of the Ram janmabhoomi
movement.
Copyright
(c) 2002 Asian Age.
Gujarat
toll 2,000: Tribunal
Statesman
News Service
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php3?id=9564&type=India&theme=A
GANDHINAGAR,
May 14. — Preliminary findings of the
Concerned
Citizens Tribunal indicate that the death
toll
in the ongoing violence in Gujarat is “not less
than
2,000’’, which is double the official figure.
Also,
another 500 are feared missing. The number of
women
raped and killed has reached the 250 mark.
Talking
about the “peculiarity” of the present riots
in
Gujarat, Mr Justice PN Sawant (retd judge of the
Supreme
Court), said here today, “The peculiarity is
that
it appeared to be an organised violence”. He
said:
“Killings followed the same pattern and violence
started
simultaneously all across the state.”
The
Tribunal, whose chairman is Mr Justice Krishna
Iyer
(retd judge of the Supreme Court), examined some
1,500
victims in Ahmedabad, Vadadora, Bharuch, Godhra,
Dahod
apart from visiting relief camps in different
cities
and towns of the state. In an exclusive session
for
women victims in Vadadora, where almost 50 women
were
present, the Tribunal came to know that “police
had
also participated in assaulting the women”.
The
evidence presented to the Tribunal also indicated
that
the preparations for targeting a particular
minority
community “had been going on since at least
six
to eight months”.
According
to Mr Justice Sawant, “Insiders from the
Bajrang
Dal, who had parted the company, furnished
details,
including the modus operandi.”
Top
police officers were not keen on meeting the
members
of the Tribunal. However, some government
officials,
including some policemen, furnished details
to
the Tribunal. Mr Justice Sawant said preliminary
findings
will be sent to the state as well as the
Centre.
The final report — a public document — is
expected
to be made available by 15 August.
The
report will suggest steps to bridge the
polarisation
of the communities.
Interestingly,
the Citizens’ Tribunal has evidence to
show
“two or three ministers” actively participated in
the
riots.
One
hurt in Ahmedabad: Barring a stabbing incident
which
left a person injured in Ahmedabad’s Danilimda
area
and imposition of curfew in Vadtal are after a
clash
between two groups of sadhus, the city by and
large
remained peaceful today, adds PTI.
Copyright
2002 The Statesman. All rights reserved.
CALM
IN THE EYE OF THE STORM
May 14, 2002.
BY
JYOTI PUNWANI
http://www.telegraphindia.com/
While half of Gujarat burns, Godhra, the place which
sparked
off the fire, is quiet. No one was killed here
in
retaliation, though half the town saw the burnt
bodies
of the passengers of the Sabarmati Express as
they
were being taken out of the coach. The immediate
reaction
came on February 27 itself, in the form of
attacks
on a mosque, a school and a large number of
Muslim-owned
factories and showrooms in Hindu areas
which
took place even as the curfew was on.
The
Hindus arrested for these incidents are out on
bail.
But Muslims too have been arrested for these
attacks.
In fact, the same persons who allegedly led
the
mob which burnt the coach of the Sabarmati Express
have
been accused of heading mobs a few hours later,
which
attacked properties owned by their own
community.
They are the president of the Godhra
municipality,
Abdul Rahim Kalota, and councillors,
Haji
Bilal, Salim Shaikh and Abdul Rahman Dhantiya.
The
political motive behind naming these persons as
the
main accused in the two communal incidents in
Godhra
is not lost on anybody in this town. The one
thing
that politically-aware Hindus and Muslims agree
on
in Godhra right now is that few of the 60-odd
persons
arrested for burning the train had anything to
do
with it. The railway police have claimed in court
that
15 persons were arrested on the spot. But senior
police
officers reveal that the arrests took place
only
when combing operations began after the visit of
the
chief minister, Narendra Modi, to Godhra on the
afternoon
of February 27. Strangely, the railway
police’s
documents confirm this: they time the “on the
spot”
arrests at 21.30 hours, February 27.
Explaining
these anomalies in court is a headache
which
can be put off till later. Right now the police
want
to know who burnt the coach and why. They have
recorded
the statement of Sophiya Shaikh, who was
grabbed
by a passenger but managed to scream and
escape.
They have also named Siddiq Bakr, the tea
vendor
who was assaulted in full view of scores of
passengers,
as an accused in the train-burning
offence.
Incidentally,
Bakr has been described as pleasant and
mild-mannered
by all the Hindu rail employees who knew
him.
These include the station master, Deepak
Deshpande,
whose wife got into Coach S/6 at Dahod, one
station
before Godhra, hoping to reach her office in
Vadodara
faster by the Sabarmati Express than her
usual
local train. “She would often leave my lunch-box
with
Siddiq,” says Deshpande.
Finding
no trace of his wife anywhere else, Deshpande
finally
joined the rescue operations outside Coach
S/6.
She was the 56th to be taken out, he informs, her
hand
still clutching the double tiffin box she always
carried:
hers and his. “Seeing those bodies, even
someone
who has never hurt anyone would be prepared to
kill,”
says the soft-spoken man, hurt writ large on
his
face as he shows you pictures of them together.
Does
Deshpande feel his wife’s death has been avenged
by
the violence against Muslims in the rest of
Gujarat?
“Will all that bring her back?” asks his
sobbing
mother, adding, “We want those who did this
punished,
but we don’t want any family ruined the way
we
have been.”
Surprisingly,
the functionary of the Godhra unit of
the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad did not once mention the
32-year-old
Pooja Deshpande during the course of an
hour-long
interview, even when asked who among the 58
dead
hailed from that area. In fact, the incident
itself
didn’t interest him, only its implications
(“jihadi
terrorism”) did.
Most
citizens of Godhra have seen through the VHP’s
cynical
politics. They answer in all seriousness when
asked
to explain why the “spontaneous Hindu anger” did
not
lead to the loss of any Muslim lives here, “None
of
the 58 who died was from Godhra.”
A
more likely explanation lies in Godhra’s history of
communal
riots. In the two major riots in 1965 and
1980,
the Sindhis who settled here after Partition,
and
the Ghanchi Muslims, a volatile mix of Afghan and
Bhil
descendants, fought it out. “We were the only
Hindus
who could take on the Ghanchis,” says
Kishorilal
Bhayani, leader of the Sindhis in Godhra.
This
time, they decided not to let anyone “shoot from
our
shoulders. We have spent a long time rebuilding
from
scratch,” says Bhayani. “Every riot means years
spent
in rehabilitation and legal work, with business
at
a standstill. As it is, being wholesalers, the
destruction
of Bohra shops in the villages has meant
our
money going up in smoke.”
Not
only did the Sindhis keep their “boys” in control,
but
they were also the first to invite, earlier this
month,
Muslim traders back into the sensitive “border”
area
where both communities have their shops and give
them
a guarantee of safety — an invitation that was
warmly
accepted.
Godhra
is one of those rare old towns where all
communities
live in their own ghettoes. From February
27
till a few days ago, no Hindu ventured into a
Muslim
area and vice versa. This cost a young mother
her
life: when she developed complications after
delivery,
her family hesitated to rush her to a
hospital
in the Hindu area.
Ghettoes
notwithstanding, the two communities are
interdependent.
The Muslim rickshaw-driver who took
this
writer to the predominantly Hindu railway colony,
was
surrounded by children from the adjacent bungalows
as
soon as he stopped. “Uncle, why don’t you come here
these
days?”, they lisped. After hours of raving and
ranting
against the Ghanchi Muslims who live in Signal
Falia
just behind the station, a railway officer
revealed
that he entrusted his house — “with all
almirahs
open” — to a Ghanchi whenever he went to his
village.
But
there was also the officer who flatly told his
regular
rickshaw driver that he no longer trusted him
to
take his children to school. Accentuating these
hostilities
is the local press, which, knowing that
Sophiya
Shaikh was molested, will not print it, but
will
carry screaming headlines proclaiming that Hindu
women’s
bodies were found in the mosques near the rail
tracks,
knowing all the while that nothing of the sort
happened.
On
March 4, when the curfew was still in force, a
leading
Muslim from Godhra faxed a letter condemning
the
burning of the Sabarmati Express to Sandesh, one
of
the two main Gujarati papers in the town. He was
told
they had no place for it amid all the news
pouring
in. Maulana Hussen Umerji, the principal
religious
leader of the Ghanchis, apologized on behalf
of
his community for the Sabarmati Express burning in
more
than one peace meeting called by the collector.
No
newspaper reported this. On April 2, senior
citizens
took out a peace march led by the collector
which
went through the most sensitive Hindu and Muslim
areas,
but was stoned at at one point in a Muslim
area.
The press highlighted this incident.
Nor
has the local media reported in detail the
“vengeance”
being wreaked on Muslims elsewhere in the
state.
Indeed, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee asked, after
a
visit to Ahmedabad’s relief camps, “With what face
can
I go abroad?” Godhra’s press replied with a list
of
atrocities committed by Muslim rulers on Hindus
centuries
ago.
Hence,
most Hindus in Godhra not only refuse to
believe
that VHP passengers misbehaved with Muslims at
the
Godhra railway station, but many are also unaware
of
the brutality that Muslims, especially women, have
been
subjected to elsewhere. For them, English
newspapers
and private television channels are
anti-Hindu,
and hence cannot be believed. Even the
youngsters
whose regular inter-community meets kept
Godhra
peaceful after December 6, 1992, agree with the
dominant
Hindu view that Muslims, who began it all by
burning
the coach, are just being paid back in their
own
coin in the rest of Gujarat.
They
should meet Girishchandra Rawal of Ahmedabad, who
lost
his 62-year-old wife Sudha in the Sabarmati
inferno.
Egged on by VHP activists, including his son,
to
express his “basic” feelings against Muslims, he
replies
amid tears, “Yes, I feel angry. There are no
words
to describe my loss. They deprived me of my
partner
in my old age. But as a Hindu, I have to
control
my anger. There is no place for revenge in my
religion.
I must wish even my enemy well.”
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