IMAC News Digest 16 May 2002

Gill to look into allegations of 'saffronisation' of
Gujarat police
rediff.com,
Nirendra Dev in Ahmedabad ,
May 16, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/16train.htm

K P S Gill, security adviser to Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi, on Wednesday night said that the
communally hyper sensitive state is 'under policed'
and that he is looking into allegations of
'saffronisation' of the state police.

"I am aware of the issue, but it needs a much closer
look than one had in few days," Gill told PTI over
phone from Himmatnagar, 80 km from Ahmedabad. Gill has
been in Gujarat for less than two weeks now.

"Police personnel carry out the orders given to them
by their seniors. If there is something wrong, it is
at the top level," he explained.

But he exuded confidence that things would soon
improve.

He said the visit to Himmatnagar, headquarters of
Sabarkantha district, was part of the initiative to
acquaint himself about the state of security and
policing in rural Gujarat.

"As part of this programme, I will visit other places
too," he said.

Explaining his 'under policed' theory, Gill said, "In
Himmatnagar, which has a population of 2.10 million,
there are only 900 police personnel spread over 19
police stations."

Gill said that this was the case in Ahmedabad too.

However, things can be improved, he added.

He dismissed allegations about being 'pro-Hindu'
saying, "In Assam, they charged me with being
pro-minority and pro-Bengali."

PTI

Copyright 2002 rediff.com.

Ex-judges seek ‘independent’ probe into Gujarat riots
DECCAN HERALD

Wednesday, May 15, 2002

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may15/n1.htm

Expressing anguish over the communal violence in Gujarat, the Association of
Retired Judges of Supreme Court and High Courts of India today asked the
Centre to appoint a three-member "independent" Inquiry Commission to probe
the riots.
In a resolution adopted at its executive meeting on May 10 here, the
Association asked the government to appoint the Commission members in
consultation with the Chief Justice of India. The Commission should comprise
a sitting judge the Supreme Court and two sitting judges from different High
Courts to probe the riots, including the Godhra incident.
"There is need to bring the guilty, whether individual or groups or
institutions, to justice," the resolution said, condemning the heinous
attack on Sabarmati Express on February 27 and subsequent gruesome violence
unleashed in Ahmedabad, Vadodra and others parts of the state.
The Commission should also inquire into the adequacy of relief being
provided to the victims of carnage, the conditions and treatment meted out
to them and determine the conditions necessary for their return to normalcy
and matters relating to their long-term rehabilitation, said the resolution
signed by Justice D K Basu, secretary-general of the association.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Gujarat destruction ‘systematic’
Statesman News Service

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php3?id=9634&type=Pageone&theme=A

GANDHINAGAR, May 15. — The Concerned Citizens’
Tribunal has received “serious and grave accusations
of largescale violation of human rights on sections of
the population”.
“These violations include barbaric attacks on life and
dignity, including brutal sexual violence on women,
systematic destruction of homes and livelihoods and
attacks on places of worship of the minority
community... The bodies of the victims were charred
beyond recognition. Homes and businesses that were
rampaged and destroyed through arson were thoroughly
looted first,” it says.
(In possibly the first action against rioters, a
50-year-old man, accused of raping a pregnant woman
and then killing her in Naroda Patia area here on 28
February, was arrested two days ago even as police
formalities in the case concluded today, adds PTI from
Ahmedabad. The FIR, lodged by a witness, says Ratilal
Rathod, alias Bhavani Singh, was seen raping a
pregnant woman in Naroda Patia. The victim’s stomach
was ripped apart and the foetus flung into fire.
Rathod, who works as a driver with the city municipal
bus service, was named in the FIR as the prime accused
in the Kausarbanu murder case, police said.)
The Tribunal’s final report on the riots, Gujarat
2002, will be ready by 15 August. Preliminary findings
have been forwarded to the state and the Centre. Mr
Narendra Modi was invited to the Tribunal, but, “there
was no... confirmation of whether he intended to meet
the Tribunal,” a spokesman said.
The interim observations, signed by Mr Justice PB
Sawant (retd Supreme Court judge), Mr Justice Hosbet
Suresh (retd Bombay High Court judge), Mr KG
Kannabiran, (senior advocate) and Dr KS Subramanim,
IPS (Retd), say: “It’s a matter of serious concern
that thousands of men, women and children are missing;
large number of women widowed or children orphaned ...
the mutual trust among communities has been totally
destroyed. A pervasive sense of fear haunts the people
and the displaced people are unable to return to their
homes.”
Mr Justice Krishna Iyer (retd Supreme Court judge) is
the Tribunal chairman while other members include Mr
Justice Lone (retd Bombay High Court judge) and Ms
Aruna Roy, former IAS official and social activist.
The Tribunal has been conducting inquiries in various
parts of Gujarat over the past few days.
“During the course of the hearings where dozen
testimonies were recorded, witnesses have repeatedly
testified to the abject loss of confidence in
the...administration, including police. The Tribunal
received complaints from victims about police
inaction, participation and connivance in the crimes
that were committed. Worse still, police, according to
the testimony of witnesses, have been working to
positively sabotage the due process of law. The
Tribunal recorded evidence that revealed that the
police simply did not follow the legal procedure for
registration of crimes and the process of
investigation.”
It further says: “Hearing evidence about heinous
crimes on women was also recorded. The Concerned
Citizen Tribunal also recorded evidence, through oral
testimonies and written evidence, about government
policy and functioning that relates to the build-up of
the atmosphere and tensions prior to 27 February.”
The Tribunal heard evidence presented by
representatives of the media, academics,
representatives of the Vishwa Samvad Kendra, police
and government officials.
It has examined witnesses from Ahmedabad, Abasaum,
(Ahmednagar district), Himmatnagar (Sabarkantha
district), Kadih and Visnagar (Mehsana district),
Kalol, Dailol, Pandharwada, Eral, Godhra (Panchmahal
district) Dahod, Bharuch, Ankleshwar and Vadodara.
In Ahmedabad, evidence was recorded at camps including
the Shah Alam Camp, the Charroda Kabrastan,
Sundaraninagar, Kankaria and Anand Flats. Relief camps
housing the Hindus were also visited.
There is evidence on the record of the Tribunal that
includes statistics of losses, details of FIRs filed,
fact-finding reports by independent teams and official
documents. Tribunal members also visited the Godhra
carnage site.
Having recorded the evidence, the Tribunal will now
examine and analyse the voluminous material placed on
record.
According to the report, evidence has been received
accusing the VHP and the Bajrang Dal of recruiting
volunteers, training them in the use of arms and
ammunition, collecting information about houses, shops
and other business establishments of the minority
community.
There is also evidence to the effect that attacks on
the minority community started simultaneously in all
the places in the state on 28 February 2002, the
report says. Witnesses told Tribunal members that the
police, when approached by the public for help during
the violence, told them they were under orders not to
do anything.
The reports says compensation for the strife-torn
state should not only be monetary. It should include
reparation of loss of life, dignity, and assaults on
the freedom of faith.
Meanwhile, the Centre had despatched 12 more CRPF
battalions to Gujarat to help the state deal with the
continuing violence, officials said, PTI adds from
Delhi.

`Tribunal disputes official toll in Gujarat carnage`

DECCAN HERALD
Thursday, May 16, 2002

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may16/n4.htm

A citizen’s tribunal today claimed more than 2000 persons were killed and
about 500 missing during the communal carnage in the state even as the State
government claimed less than 1,000 deaths in the violent incidents.
The tribunal alleged that at least three state ministers were involved in
the riots. More than 250 cases of atrocities against women were recorded in
the hearings of the tribunal, chaired by former Supreme Court judge, Justice
Krishna Iyer.
The citizen’s tribunal, consisting of former Supreme Court P B Sawant, two
retired judges of Mumbai High Court --Justice Hosbet Suresh and Justice
Lone, Magsasay award winner and social activist, Aruna Roy along with other
advocates, IPS officers and academician, heard witnesses from Ahmedabad,
Godhra, Bharuch, Ankleshwar and Vadodara to draw the conclusion.
Non governmental organisations and social activists are planning to file a
number of public interest litigations in the Supreme Court against Chief
Minister Narendra Modi on various issues based on the tribunal report which
will be finalised by August 15. The report will be made available to the
public as well as international bodies.
Justice Sawant told reporters that Bajrang Dal was gearing up for violence
since the last eight months and had the Godhra carnage not happened, the
Hindu outfit could have used some other incidence to trigger the communal
violence. Though there were evidence that women were involved in looting, it
would be too early to say whether Sangh Parivar’s women’s outfit -- Durga
Vahini -- were actively involved, he pointed out.<
The citizen’s tribunal has heard testimonies of more than 1,500 victims
along with a section of government officials and some insiders of Sangh
Parivar, who parted ways with the organisations before the communal riot
broke out. They have also visited five camps.
Evidences of police inaction was evident throughout the state, said Justice
Suresh, adding that the tribunal invited Mr Modi to present his version
before the tribunal but had not received any response from him.
The tribunal recommended no dismantling of relief camps till the
rehabilitation process is complete, which in any case had been promised by
the Modi government, and implementation of suggestions made by National
Human Rights Commission.
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Goa polls: BJP trying hard to deflect attention from
Gujarat violence
rediff.com,
Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji,
May 16, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/16goa.htm

Facing its first assembly election in Goa in the
aftermath of the violence in Gujarat, the Bharatiya
Janata Party is making a conscious effort to avoid the
burning issue, and even Hindutva, and instead trying
to focus attention on its performance in the last 16
months in power.

Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, whose 1990
rath yatra had whipped up a religious frenzy, which
ultimately led his BJP to power, hoped that elections
would be fought on issues like good governance rather
than 'emotional ones like Ayodhya or Indira Gandhi's
assassination'.

Kicking off the BJP's election campaign in Goa, Advani
said, "Such down-to-earth issues should be placed
before the people."

However, he does not agree that Ayodhya was not the
right issue to be placed before the people during
elections.

"Every issue has its relevance at various points of
time. Good governance is the right issue at this
juncture," he said while recalling that the first
election in India was fought on the issue of freedom
for the country.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar refuses to even
believe that Gujarat is an issue for Goans.

"We are fighting elections in Goa, not in Gujarat," he
quips.

Booklets highlighting its performance and its future
plans for the state are to be distributed among the
electorate.

The party's advertising campaign and website are also
focusing on these issues.

But the opposition is not willing to play along.

Union Minister Sushma Swaraj, who was also in this
coastal state to campaign for the party, accused the
Congress of raking the Gujarat issue to garner votes.

While Christians and Muslims are not expected to vote
for the BJP, Congressmen are hoping that the Gujarat
violence may prompt even Hindus in the state to vote
against the BJP.

However, BJP minister Shaikh Hassan claims that Goan
Muslims are wise enough to realise that the BJP is not
responsible for the Gujarat carnage.

Copyright (c) 2002 rediff.com.

Riots vs razing: Muslims question police priorities
Milind Ghatwai,
Indian Express.

http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=2771

Godhra, May 15: When Gujarat was burning the day after
the Sabarmati train massacre, the demolition of more
than 250 illegal shops and cabins belonging to Muslims
in Polan Bazar and Signal Falia areas of Godhra got
only a passing mention. But two and a half months
later, the swift operation — that lasted from February
28 to March 2 — may come to haunt the administration
as the Muslim community plans to use the demolition to
shore up its case of bias against the state
government.

More than 200 security personnel, including the Rapid
Action Force and the state reserve police, had stood
guard as demolition squads had moved in quickly while
the town was under curfew. This even as violence was
raging nearby. About 30 people were burnt alive in
Pandarwala village (around 70 km from Godhra) late on
February 28. The other incidents took place in a 30-40
km radius, all in the Panchmahals: more than 35 people
were killed when two tempos carrying 67 refugees were
set afire near Limbdiya chokdi in Khanpur and Sapadia
village; about 35 persons were killed in Delol
village; and nine others killed near Derol Railway
Station on March 1 and 2, while the demolition was on.

‘‘Many innocent lives could have been saved had the
personnel who provided security to the demolition
squad been posted at places where they were
required,’’ says Ahmed Hussain Raliyan, a Muslim
community leader, recalling how ‘‘we watched our
sources of livelihood being snatched away’’ in the
demolition. They complain they weren’t even given a
chance to retrieve their belongings. ‘‘In all our
petitions against the state government, we will
highlight this point because it has been claimed on
various occasions that the force was inadequate to
control largescale violence that broke out
simultaneously at many places,’’ Raliyan says. The
community has already engaged a Supreme Court lawyer
to take up its cause.

More than 500 families lost their livelihood in and
after the operation. At a meeting the owners of shops
and lorries had with the district collector last year,
they had been promised that the administration won’t
let them become unemployed. But that’s what happened
in the drive. The administration moved in so quickly
and bulldozed shops and cabins from Polan Bazar to
Signal Falia as these were considered a security risk
after the train incident. Says Panchmahals District
Collector Jayanti Ravi: ‘‘The demolition was
considered necessary from a law and order point of
view. When they move court on the issue, we will give
them a suitable reply there.’’

However, counters Iqbal Pocha, a Muslim leader and
secretary of the Pradesh Congress Committee: ‘‘We
admit that the shops were illegal, but so are
thousands in other areas. The administration could
have carried out the operation at a later date.’’ He
also pointed out that the demolition site was nearly a
kilometre away from the place where the train was
attacked.

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

Homecoming in Naroda for a few hours
Indian Express.
Under heavy security cover, riot refugees visit burnt
homes to survey damage
Janyala Sreenivas

http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=2791

Ahmedabad, May 15: This was one homecoming that was
painful, tinged with fear and grief. Around 450
residents of Naroda Patiya visited their charred homes
on a scorching Wednesday afternoon to salvage what the
mobs had left behind. Most of them came away
empty-handed, their hands soiled with soot, their
hearts broken at what they had lost.

The broken bangles were still strewn around
15-year-old Sarina’s house. Back home after 75 days,
she sat in a daze on a platform outside her home,
paying no heed to the garish sun. Her mother,
Khatijabanu, hunted in vain in their ransacked home
for something to salvage as Sarina’ father, Basubhai
Moinuddin Sheikh, waited outside.

A survey team from the District Collectorate came up
from behind, but left the family alone for a few
moments. When the surveyors finally started asking
them questions, the answers came in nods and shrugs.

After a few minutes, Sheikh, a rickshaw driver, put
his thumb imprint on the paper thrust in in his hands.
‘‘It hardly matters. Nothing is left,’’ he said and
turned away.

A little ahead in Pandit ni Chali, Mansoori Zakir
Hussain, a taxi driver, hesitated before entering the
narrow lane where his partially demolished house is.
Two policemen from the Crime Branch encouraged him to
go in, and when he finally did, he broke down. ‘‘I hid
some gold bangles and money in this before fleeing,’’
he said, pointing to a small black pouch lying on the
floor. Hussain and 450 other residents of Naroda
Patiya, who’re now at the Shah Alam relief camp, were
brought here today by Crime Branch officials and
District Collectorate officers to conduct house-damage
surveys. Crime Branch officials initially had a tough
time convincing the frightened residents to accompany
them to Naroda Patiya, where around 85 Muslims were
killed by armed mobs on February 28.

‘‘Around 70 people came in one truck in the morning.
They agreed only after we told them that three
inspectors, six sub-inspectors and at least 40
policemen would accompany them,’’ Assistant
Commissioner M.T. Rana told The Indian Express.

However, once the first truck had left, District
Collectorate officials conducting the house-damage
surveys were able to persuade others to accompany them
as well.

Around 370 people then travelled to Naroda Patiya in
three trucks, accompanied by two circle officers and
four guards of the Revenue

Department.

Outside, the Naroda main road was swarming with more
than 100 Crime Branch and District Collectorate
officials. A 50-member team of Crime Branch officials,
including writers, recorded panchnamas from the
residents whose houses had been reduced to ashes and
rubble.

After two-and-a-half months, many said that they could
not recall the precise details of the events of
February 28 and what they had left behind.

‘‘The panchnama is okay. I am just happy that I could
see my home today... whatever remains of it,’’
Mohammed Abdul, a steel furniture maker, said.

Residents carried away whatever was retrievable,
especially vessels and stoves. ‘‘We need foodgrains so
that we can cook at the relief camp. We are sick of
eating the camp food,’’ said Younisbhai. A fortunate
few managed to smile through their tears. Ahmed, a
mechanic, found his spanking new scooter unharmed
although his house was gutted.

An autorickshaw, an engraved Koran case, a boy’s
cricket bat and a watch that was still ticking were
some other belongings recovered from the debris.

Since the residents are too afraid to leave the camps,
District Collectorate teams decided to complete the
survey of all those who accompanied them today. Y.W.
Christian, Circle Officer and Executive Magistrate in
the Revenue Department, said 16 teams had fanned out
in Naroda-Patiya today. ‘‘We have to finish this
today, otherwise they may not like to come here again
tomorrow and the work will remain unfinished. Within
two or three days, we will give them the cheques for
house compensation,’’ Christian said. ‘‘These people
have lost everything. The least we can do is help them
get the money as soon as possible.’’

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

First riot-arrest on rape charge
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

[ THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2002 2:04:36 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=10009086

AHMEDABAD: After all the hype over the Kausar Bano
case in Parliament, the prime accused in this case,
which was part of the Naroda-Patia massacre, Ratilal
Rathod, 50, alias Bhavani Singh, was arrested by the
city crime branch late on Monday night.

Rathod works with the Ahmedabad Municipal Transport
Service as a driver. This is the first riot-arrest
made in the city on charges of rape and murder.
Interestingly, on Monday, Congress president Sonia
Gandhi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee stating that a separate FIR be filed in this
case and the investigations be carried out by the CBI.

The arrest comes 11 weeks after the incident shook the
city with its gory details being repeated over and
over again at the Shah- e-Alam relief camp. The
incident’s sole eye-witness, Jannatbibi Kalubhai
Hidubhai Shaikh, claimed to have seen the eight- month
pregnant Kausar Bano’s stomach being ripped open by a
sword, the foetus removed and swirled on its end,
flung around and then burnt. Shaikh also claimed that
the woman was first raped.

It must be noted here that Shaikh’s complaint was
included in the same FIR 100/2002 of Naroda- Patia
only on May 2 and section 376 (rape) roped in.
Eighty-six persons had been hacked and then burnt
alive during the Naroda-Patia slaughter.

Interestingly, Rathod’s son is a lawyer and they
reside in the Gangotri society’s first house located
just where Jawannagar ends. Kausar Bano lived in
Jawannagar in Naroda-Patia.

‘‘I had approached the police time and again but leave
alone lodging an FIR the investigating officer did not
even wish to take note of my narration,’’ said Jannat
Biwi. Sources said the matter was hastened after Sonia
Gandhi’s letter to Vajpayee.

For over two months after the incident on February 28,
a police inquiry, headed by an additional police
commissioner, had remained inconclusive. The
Naroda-Patia, an area which houses around 800
residential quarters, case had later drawn in no less
than 756 FIRs of which 598 were registered by
eye-witnesses and riot-victims sheltered in different
relief camps like those at Shah-e-Alam Roza and
Dariakhan Ghummat.

During her visit to Ahmedabad and Godhra soon after
the riots, Sonia along with an all-party delegation on
a fact-finding mission was not allowed to visit the
Shah- e-Alam Roza camp lest such matters get ‘‘blown
out of proportion’’.

Sources said four other cases with rape and murder
charges have been registered against accused named in
FIRs lodged by the riot-victims.

‘‘Offences have been recorded after investigations
have proved that those accused had instigated the
mob,” the sources said.

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights
reserved.

Gujarat riot toll: millions of pounds
RASHMEE Z AHMED
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2002 8:10:04 PM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=9984880

LONDON: British contracts worth several million pounds
to Gujarat-based companies are no longer likely to
happen any time soon, in an economic backlash that
could challenge the state government’s claims that it
is business as usual.

Exactly 13 weeks after the first-ever UK-partnered and
European Union-supported ‘Resurgent Gujarat’ meet was
held in Ahmedabad to promote trade links between
India’s industrial powerhouse and Europe, British
business facilitators report at least a 60 per cent
drop in signed and sealed contracts to Gujarati
companies.

The Indian companies competing for lucrative
contracts, particularly from leading British Gujarati
manufacturers here, include the leading textile
exporter Anmol.

The apparent loss of investment confidence in Gujarat
comes as a visiting business delegation from the state
tours the English Midlands region, from where several
hundred British Gujarati manufacturers had
participated enthusiastically in February’s ‘Resurgent
Gujarat’ initiative just a fortnight before the
violence began.

Habib Patel, general manager of the Asian Business
Federation, which represents 1,000 mainly British
Gujarati firms, and is responsible for putting
Gujarat-based companies in touch with potential
British buyers, investors and importers, told The
Times of India, "There is a big problem. We find
people not wanting to buy from Gujarati companies now,
after the riots, because they’re worried shipments
could stop."

Business analysts said Patel’s concerns and those of
some of the Gujarati delegation he is shepherding
around Britain, sit oddly with the boastful claims of
chief minister Narendra Modi’s government website that
Gujarat remains a "thriving economy…the transaction
value at banks’ clearing houses in April was going up…
and unfounded apprehensions about the industrial and
investment climate are propaganda".

Commentators believe that at least some of the decline
in business confidence is an emotional reaction by
wealthy British Gujarati Muslims to the violence in
their home state.

Patel readily admitted this was partly the case and
the emotional link levy on business was underlined by
Zafar Sareshwala, a leading Gujarati financier from
Ahmedabad, who started Europe’s first fully-recognised
Islamic investment company last year.

In a pattern Patel said he had personally seen
repeated, a leading denimwear manufacturer of
north-west England had raised doubts about giving a
large order to Anmol. "The good thing is that Anmol
has a manufacturing base elsewhere too, in Bangalore
and so on, so it can convince this manufacturer and
others to build a business relationship", he said.

Patel, who attended February’s ‘Resurgent Gujarat’
meeting, said that the actual value of multiple "lost
contracts was worth two-to-three million pounds,
probably more, but the real worth is greater in image
terms".

Sareshwala, meanwhile, said his meetings with 220
Gujarati Hindu and Muslim businessmen, in the company
of the visiting Gujarat delegation, revealed that
"economic enthusiasm on both sides was waning."

He said he had found a marked drop in his clients’
willingness to invest in Gujarat-based products at the
moment.

Analysts said much needed to be done if the financial
levy on Gujarat’s 77 days of gross misconduct was not
to have a long-term business impact greater even than
2001’s catastrophic earthquake.

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved

MODI TRIES TO SET A BAD PRESS RIGHT
FROM BASANT RAWAT
The Telegraph.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/front_pa.htm#head4

Ahmedabad, May 15:
Rattled by the bad press it has been getting, the
Narendra Modi government has asked three news agencies
in Ahmedabad to refurbish its image by putting out
positive stories.

The agencies — PTI, UNI and the now-defunct Hindustan
Samachar which still has a representative here — have
been directed to file at least five articles/features
every month to highlight the government’s development
activities.

The information department’s directive has shocked the
agencies. “This is unprecedented. I do not think any
state government has ever issued directives like this.
I have worked in several state capitals but never got
such a letter from the information department,” said a
UNI official.

The letter he received yesterday said the agency will
have to release all press statements “without fail”
issued by the state government. They will also be
required to submit a list of press releases carried in
different newspapers.

Seen as an assault on the freedom of the press by
many, the letter is described as “routine”
instructions issued by senior officials of the
information department.

It comes in the backdrop of a ban Modi had clamped on
a TV channel two months ago and his (and his party’s)
frequent complaints against the national media. Of
late, even the vernacular press, which had earlier
praised Modi, has changed its tone and started
questioning his ability to rule.

Asking news agencies to report on government plans and
list papers that use these stories is a practice that
has always been there, said a senior information
official. “It was just a routine letter and the
agencies had agreed to comply with the conditions laid
down by us,” he said.

The agencies, however, said this was the first time
they had received such a directive. “It has no
business dictating to us what stories are to be
carried,” said a journalist working with PTI.

The information official explained that the government
pays the agencies for their services. “If the
government wants certain stories to be released and
the details about the articles they have released, I
do not think there is anything wrong. It is just a
mutual agreement that suits us,” the official
explained.

He said the government has no intention of curbing the
freedom of the press.

As it is, the agencies have been putting out on the
wires almost all press releases issued by the
information department, he added. “This is what we
expect in return for the payment we make to them.”

Copyright © 2002 The Telegraph.

NRIs campaign to collect $1 mn for Gujarat riot
victims
PTI
New York, May 16

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/160502/dlfor14.asp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A US-based organisation of Non-Resident Indians has
launched a campaign to collect $1 million to assist in
the relief and rehabilitation of victims of the
communal riots in Gujarat.
NRIs For Secular and Harmonious India said it plans to
help in the rehabilitation of 100,000 riot victims now
staying in more than 100 refugee camps across the
state.

At its just concluded meeting, the group set up a
national steering committee to coordinate its
fund-raising efforts.

©Hindustan Times Ltd. 1997.

Cops corner vehicle, 99 swords, Bajrang man tumble out
Hiral Dave,
Indian Express

http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=2772

Rajkot, May 15: The city police on Wednesday arrested
two persons, including a Junagadh-based Bajrang Dal
activist, carrying 99 swords and 200 other other sharp
weapons, including knives and daggers, in a jeep.

The jeep was detained for checking at Green Land
Chowkdy — the junction of roads connecting Rajkot with
Ahmedabad, Morbi and Junagadh — where a police post
was set up recently following a disclosure by three
Lashkar-e-Toiba men, arrested in Delhi, that they
wanted to set up base in Rajkot.

Those arrested have been identified as Mansukh Kanji
Patel, a Junagadh-based Bajrang activist, and jeep
driver Dinesh Hasmukh Vekaria, a resident of Rajkot.

Police said that a case of violating the notification
prohibiting carrying of weapons was registered against
them.

Police Commissioner Upendra Singh said that Patel is
Bajrang Dal ‘Sangathan Mantry’ of Joshipura area in
Junagadh and has 2,000 Bajrang Dal workers under him.
Patel is engaged in diamond polishing work in
Junagadh.

Singh said that Patel told police that he was taking
the weapons to Junagadh for distribution because they
‘‘feared retaliation’’. Singh said that police in
Junagadh had been alerted.

President of the Junagadh unit of Bajrang Dal, Lalit
Suvagiya, who is also joint secretary of Gujarat
Pradesh Bajrang Dal, disowned Patel, saying that he
was not a member of Bajrang Dal.

But Bajrang Dal’s Rajkot city unit chief Chamanbhai
Sindhav admitted that Mansukh was a Bajrang Dal
activist. Sindhav said that Mansukh had bought the
weapons for self-protection.

Asked what was the need of weapons in Junagadh which
has remained peaceful, Sindhav said: ‘‘There are
reports that once Ahmedabad becomes calm, violence
will spread to Saurashtra. Therefore, we need weapons
for self-protection.’’

Following Mansukh’s disclosure that he had bought the
weapons from Chotila town in Surendranagar district,
police arrested one Channabhai Chauhan in Chotila.
Police said Chauhan manufactured weapons.

‘‘In a police raid conducted at Chauhan’s place, about
150 finished and raw swords, and machinery and
material used for making these were found,’’ said
Singh.

‘‘Whether he had supplied weapons to Bajrang Dal in
the past can be found after further investigation,’’
Singh added.

Inspector K.N. Patel of the Detection of Crime Branch,
who conducted the raid at Chauhan’s shop, said, ‘‘He
told us that he had been selling swords for the last
five years and supplied these to anyone who approached
him.’’

Police Inspector B.C. Baranda said that the jeep was
registered in the name of one Manubhai Bharwad, who is
a resident of Gujarat Housing Board quarters in
Rajkot.

Driver Dinesh Verkaria, a relative of Bharwad, is a
minor and did not have a driving licence. Baranda said
that Bharwad and Vekaria had no connection with the
Bajrang Dal.

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

In this Ahmedabad locality, fear has no religion
Indian Express,
Shefali Nautiyal.

http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=2770

Ahmedabad, May 15: Raikhad Darwaja is unlike any other
riot-hit locality in Ahmedabad. All 900-odd houses
here are empty after both Hindus and Muslim residents
fled.

The streets are littered with crude bomb shells and
stones. They tell a story. Untouched by communal
strife over two months and a half, a mob picked on
Raikhad Darwaja on Friday and threw crude bombs and
fired from a nearby three-storeyed building.

Both Hindus and Muslims were hurt and both fled. The
Hindus shifted to the Sabarmati river bed into which
the colony opens out and the majority Muslims escaped
to Jamalpur relief camp. The state has been trying to
shut down the camps, yet refugees keep trickling in as
violence flares up every now and then.

‘‘We don’t want to go back. They could attack us
again. We sleep in the mud and stay close to the river
bed all day,’’ said Basantiben Marwadi, who was hit in
the eye by a stone. Some have found shelter in a
cloth-shed, but most are living in the open. They are
so scared that they brave the day temperatures of 46
degrees Celsius and stay put in the scorching sun.
‘‘We move only to get water or retrieve some of our
belongings,’’ said Marwadi. The refugees now cook on
the river bed.

Some of the Hindu families which escaped have found
shelter in the nearby Mahadevji temple. None has
shifted to a relief camp. ‘‘That’s because there is no
Hindu camp nearby and we don’t want to leave our
houses. All our stuff are still there,’’ said
Shakarbhai Kahar, a panipuri seller. ‘‘If we leave,
they will loot them.’’

In the heat of the riots, around 1,000-odd Muslims too
accompanied the Hindus to the river bed. Later, they
shifted to Jamalpur relief camp. ‘‘We have complete
faith in our Hindu neighbours. But we feared that
people from other localities could come and attack
us,’’ said Rafikbhai Shaikh, a garage mechanic who has
lived at Raikhad Darwaja for 40 years.

Rickshaw driver Anwar Rasool Khan too shifted to
Jamalpur on Sunday with his family because he felt
vulnerable. ‘‘We did move to the river bed. But many
Muslims had already left for the relief camp. So we
were scared that we could be easy prey,’’ he said.
Anwar has locked up his house and believes his
neighbours won’t loot it.

‘‘We have been living together for decades. But times
are bad. So we decided that we better leave,’’ he
said. Now that they are away from danger, the one
thing on their minds is a regular livelihood.
Residents of Raikhad Darwaja have been jobless for
over two months. ‘‘Who will help us?’’ said
Mohanjibhai Marwadi, a 50-year-old labourer.

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

I want revenge: 16-yr-old victim
Raveen Thukral
Hindustan Times,
(Ahmedabad, May 16)

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/170502/detNAT01.asp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I feel like doing what they did to me and my people.
In fact, I want to pay them back with interest," says
16-year-old Aslam (name changed), who saw his father
and brother being killed at Naroda-Patiya.
Aslam says that after losing all he had in life, he is
prepared to go to any extreme. "My mother died a
couple of years back and my father and brother were
all I had," he laments. "And those who are responsible
for all this are still at large."

Farooq (name changed), 19, who was lucky to escape the
mob that set his house on fire said his father was
stabbed repeatedly. He says he saw his neighbours
being burnt by the mob of over 200 people.

Retribution is on Farooq's mind all the time. He says
if given a chance, he would avenge the humiliation and
atrocities committed on him and his people.

Aslam and Farooq aren't alone. There are many like
them for whom revenge has become the sole purpose in
their lives. In the Shah Alam Relief Camp, where there
are about 12,000 riot-affected people, there are at
least 1,000 males in the age group of 12 to 25. They
have witnessed brutality up close and personal.

"We are sitting on a potential landmine," says a
police official. He says these people are prone to
anybody who wants to exploit them.

Former Punjab DGP and security advisor to the Gujarat
Chief Minister, K.P.S. Gill says there's still hope.
Pointing out that it isn't unnatural for riot victims
to talk revenge in the aftermath of violence, Gill
says the state has to restore their confidence in
society. "Better and modern education that would make
them qualified to meet life's challenges would
certainly wean them away from violence," he says.

Dr Prashant Bhimani, a psychiatrist in Ahmedabad, says
the media has a major role to play. Referring to the
Sept. 11 attack on the US, Bhimani says not a single
photograph of the victims was shown on television or
in newspapers.

©Hindustan Times Ltd. 1997.

Ahmedabad's riot looters weren't exactly the great unwashed
Look who was out stalking the streets of Ahmedabad during riots:
executives, middle class housewives and businessmen
MEGHDOOT SHARON
TOP STORIES
Thursday, March 07, 2002
Special Report

http://www.indian-express.com/ie20020307/top7.html#

AHMEDABAD, MARCH 6: You've read all the reports of shops being looted in
Ahmedabad. Of people breaking into fancy showrooms on CG Road, of people
walking out with hands full of jewellery or a TV set in their arms. But
did you know that many of those people were People Like us, middle-class
housewives and their middle-level executive or trader husbands?

It's a strange phenomenon, given that the image of a typical Gujarati is
a mild-mannered, disciplined person focussed mainly on getting the day's
work done. Not so on February 28, when the looters had their day out.

While much of the looting in the old city was communal, the activity on
the western side - the new, cosmopolitan areas - that took place on
February 28, the day of the VHP-sponsored bandh, was plain and simple
looting for the sake of looting.

Those who ventured out during the rioting and saw the looting first-hand
speak of people using pager and SMS messages to invite friends and
family to join them. Proof of the networking lay in the cars lined up
outside the showrooms to carry home the goods.

Sonalben, a resident of the posh Navranpura area, saw crowds ransack the
Pantaloons showroom there. ''People from well-to-do families arrived in
cars and laid their hands on whatever goods they could. The news spread
fast, soon many cars arrived at the showroom. Entire families, including
women and children, entered the showroom and looted whatever they could.
They only left when they couldn't accommodate any more.''

And, for those who couldn't enter the showroom because of the rush, some
enterprising youth even made bundles of clothes. ''They priced each
bundle at Rs 100, irrespective of what was inside and sold these right
outside the showroom to car owners, who filled their vehicles before
leaving,'' she said.

A similar scene was going on at the Akbarally's showroom down the road.
''The showroom was broken into by a mob but immediately afterwards I saw
cars lining up outside the showroom and their owners rushing in to loot
whatever they could. Women were seen coming out of the showroom carrying
microwave ovens, imported LPG stoves and many other items. Others were
seen carrying decorative objects, crockery and the like to waiting cars.

Many even returned to loot the showroom for the second time after
emptying goods in their houses,'' Shailesh Mistry told a reporter of The
Indian Express who was also witness to some of the looting. At the Metro
Showroom on C G Road, the mob first opened the showroom and took
whatever it could.

Next, they began selling the looted shoes outside the showroom itself.
There was still a lot left inside, which is when the families moved in.
B D Pandya, on his way to work, told this paper that he saw
well-dressed, seemingly well-off people leaving the shops with blankets,
readymade clothes and other items which they stacked in their cars
before speeding away.

''It seemed funny at first, but then I began to wonder why rich people
should need to loot a showroom. People literally filled their cars with
shoes before driving away'', Pandya said.

Shrikant Mistry, who owns a paan shop in the Ellisbridge area, stood and
watched as respected citizens looted the Pantaloons showroom off C G
Road. ''It seems as if the message was passed on very quickly. Within
minutes, many cars began to arrive outside the showroom and entire
families took part in the loot,'' he said describing the incident.

Ahmedabad psychiatrist Dr Ramesh Parikh, seeking to explain the
phenomenon, offered two reasons. First, the traditional Gujarati
discipline is fast disappearing as the society itself is getting
transformed.

Second, people now show a tendency to get things, wherever possible,
without working for them. ''That's the main reason why lotteries and
gambling flourish. That's also why the stock market is so popular with
us, because is gives us money without any effort.''

OPINION

Harvest of the Grim Reaper
Modi may after all end up loser
From Kalyan Ray
DH News Service
AHMEDABAD, May 15

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may16/n3.htm

With 78 days gone by since the communal violence broke out, Sangh parivar’s
initial plan of cashing in on the Hindutva wave has taken a backseat
throwing open the possibility of a clash of conflict between BJP and VHP-RSS
group, as well as a hung assembly in the coming election.
The BJP and Chief Minister Narendra Modi seems to be the two losers. While
Mr Modi is getting isolated in the cabinet with senior cabinet ministers
such as Industry Minister Suresh Mehta openly expressing their displeasure
about the manner in which Mr Modi tackled the riot situation — or rather
failed to tackle it, there are signs that BJP is loosing its base among the
trading community and Patels due to continued violence.
Add the monsoon factor and the situation does not look rosy for the Modi
government. With Saurashtra, Kutch and parts in South Gujarat reeling under
water scarcity, a bad monsoon may spell doom for the Modi government because
issues like water and electricity are almost certain to override the
Hindutava wave. One of the factors why the government is pushing the
election beyond June is that it wants to plan its strategies after seeing
the monsoon, onset of which is due on June 15.
The two-party political situation in the State has undergone a rapid change
in the last three months. Before Godhra, common perception was that the
Congress will return to power due to the inept handling of the quake
rehabilitation work by the Keshubhai Patel government, along with charges of
rampant corruption and incompetence against the government. The BJP’s loss
in panchayat, municipal corporation and assembly and parliamentary
by-elections were the indicators.
Then violence engulfed the State. In the first month there was a general
sense of rejoicing among the middle class Hindu voters. But violence
continued and a feeling of disenchantment about BJP crept in particularly
among the traders. “The situation was so bad that we did not have even the
one customer,” said a shop owner on Ashram road which was unaffected in the
violence.
“BJP is in a dilemma. The leadership has been overpowered by volatile Sangh
parivar outfits. The party understands the situation but could not do
anything because of Mr Modi and lack of any acceptable leader in the State,”
said a BJP insider.
However, a section of party workers are of the view that replacing Mr Modi
with someone with administrative experience is the only way to regain the
lost ground. “Unless he is replaced it will never be known whether the
replacement is better or worse. In fact, in Karnataka and West Bengal, it
had turned out to be better,” he said.
Seat allotment could be another problem area for BJP as there is every
possibility that some of the old school BJP leaders might be sacrificed for
VHP and RSS leaders who had been allowed to overpower BJP leaders in the
districts. “They are calling the shots and will not be backseat drivers in
the elections,” he said.
Now it depends on the Congress high command and the State party leadership
to take advantage of the situation. Whether the feud-ridden Gujarat Congress
can do that is the million dollar question!
------------------------------------------------------------------------©
Copyright, 1999 The Printers (Mysore)Ltd.
[E-mail to Editor] [Main Page..Text Version] [Main Page..Graphic Version]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Camp Gujarat: Crying Need for Healing Touch
[ THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2002 1:05:38 AM ]
ANJOLIE ELA MENON

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=10005402

Yes, like so many of us, I too postponed the moment of
reckoning for two whole months. But until we touch
them in the flesh, see them with our own eyes, hold
their hands in our hands, hear their cries of despair,
they remain a statistic in the morning paper, pawns in
the games of politicians. They are far removed from
us, creating no disturbance in our daily lives.

In the relief camp in Ahmedabad I am aghast at the
numbers. I am deeply humbled that someone rushes to
offer me cold water. How can I accept this when right
at the entrance of the makeshift office, a 10-day-old
baby lies on the bare floor beside its mother while
the grandmother fans the flies off them in a gesture
that speaks of both love and despair.

Despair is the flavour of the morning, it wafts across
the compound perceptibly. Outside, hundreds of women
sit on gunny sacks under a thin cotton canopy. It is
45 degrees and blisteringly hot. Not a fan in sight.
The children run about with great abandon, mercifully
gifted with amnesia. I think of our own pampered brood
at home who have to be coaxed to eat.

The women think that I am some kind of neta to whom
they can address their complaints. No, I try to tell
them, I am only a kalakar. I put my arms around one
woman who is weeping and 20 others just want a hug, to
be comforted even if I can’t offer them hope, justice,
money, freedom. Only apologies for what all of us have
allowed to happen. One by one the tales of horror and
brutality unfold as each one tells her story. Every
story is beyond the pale, unbelievable. But each
re-telling is a catharsis, the only therapy available
for trauma. What a miracle that they sit here weeping
silently. One would have expected screams of anguish,
the madness of terrible grief for each one of them has
lost someone beloved.

Realising the futility of my own tears, I move to the
‘office’ to talk to the very competent older inmates
who are running it. The camp seems to be self-run with
no sign whatsoever of any government representative.
Apparently in this particular camp the ‘beast of
Belsen’ is a police inspector, who lost a relative in
a riot many years ago and is now the archetypal sadist
cop. A few days ago, six young boys from the camps
were rounded up in the middle of the night and carted
off by the cops. Then there was a sudden, unprovoked
tear-gas attack. An old woman died of fright and the
children howled with pain in their eyes for nearly two
days. The empty teargas shells were shown to us like
trophies.

The good intentions of the managers notwithstanding,
it is sheer bedlam in the camps. The women sit around
the whole day under the shamianas, or out in the open
in some camps, the kids run wild and the men hang
around in sullen groups. Used to organising things in
the navy, I immediately had a wish list. Better
cleanliness, play groups for the kids, getting the
women to help with the cooking, cleaning, serving etc.
Perhaps some organised activity would help raise the
morale of those who have already spent 60 days here
with apathy turning to despair.

I am shocked that no norms have been laid down as to
the minimum legal requirements of a refugee camp.
(UNCHR, where are you?) Seventeen rupees per head.
That’s it. What about the norms laid down for space
per head, medical attention, a roof overhead, insect
repellents, cleaning materials, sterile drinking
water? How many loos for how many people? What about
bedding, sanitation, a place for people’s belongings?
Are they supposed to exist perpetually in temperature
of between 40 and 45 degrees, sitting on gunny sacks?
For example, how many full-time doctors are prescribed
for a camp of 6,500 people? Every tenet of decent
administration is being shamelessly flouted by the
government.

If the government was capable of organising the Kumbh,
surely it can do what is humane and correct here, even
if belatedly? Where is our pride? If Mr Modi can’t
manage, he should hand over the camps to the army or
an NGO, to be run like relief camps, not concentration
camps.

Yet, despite the nightmarish conditions in the camps,
the prospect of their closure is even more terrible.
These are people who have lost everything — homes,
breadwinners, jobs, possessions. If they don’t get
attacked by a hostile neighbour they will perish from
sheer want. The question each one asks is, ‘where will
we go from here?’ If there is even an iota of good
intention on the part of the government, then efforts
should be already on to document the situation
statistically, and put in place a comprehensive
rehabilitation plan. But that is doubtful. Let’s
declare the Gujarat situation a ‘national calamity’.
Maybe this will bring help and justice to the victims
to match the great public outpourings of sympathy for
the earthquake or Kargil.

I appeal to the government in the name of humanity to
rise above both politics and religion at this grave
and shameful moment in our history and bring some real
solace to the victims of Godhra and its horrendous
aftermath.

=====
Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited.

Home truths from foreigners
Delhi diary by S Viswam
Deccan Chronicle,
May 16, 2002.

http://www.deccan.com/columnists/col2.shtml

The wife didn’t mind being beaten up in public by the
husband, but she took serious objection to the
neighbour laughing over the event. This is roughly the
gist of a well-known Tamil saying. The tale fits in
neatly with the stand taken by our Foreign Office in
respect of comments critical of the Gujarat situation
by some countries.

South Block was not moved by the human tragedy that
was enacted and continues to be enacted in Gujarat.
Its hackles were up the moment the world began voicing
concern over the continued mayhem.

“Interference in India’s internal affairs,” screamed
the External Affairs Minister and his ministry. “Keep
off the subject and mind your own business” was the
message sent to the foreign missions.

The Foreign Office didn’t mind Narendra Modi’s
government beating up the people in public but it
didn’t relish the sight of the world telling us to
stop.

Then there was that spat over the envoy of the
European Union handing over a demarche to an Indian
delegate across the table at a conference in Spain.
The story actually broke through the Foreign Office,
but when it appeared in print, the MEA hastened to
deny it .

“We do not consider there is room for any ‘demarche’
to us on Gujarat by a EU that seeks to play to the
public gallery,” protested the MEA.

Was it a formal “demarche” or was it a verbal one? Did
the EU describe a mere discussion across the table as
a “demarche” while India preferred to call it just a
discussion? The ding-dong lasted for a few days.

The EU neither denied nor confirmed the report even as
New Delhi sulked. Apparently, foreign “friends”
decided wisely that discretion was the better part of
valour and took the Foreign Office advice to heart.

The world suddenly clammed up just as speedily as it
had begun to express views on the Gujarat tragedy.
Gujarat is now “off limit” for foreign missions.

What was the “diplomatic breach “ against which we
were complaining? The answer is not clear. Presumably,
we do not want the neighbour laughing at us when we
beat up our wives in public. But is that all?

Surely, there must have been something more to that
cry of “interference in India’s internal affairs” than
a violation of diplomatic conventions and niceties.

The Foreign Office cut a pathetic figure when the
British High Commission conducted “an internal
inquiry”, discovered the horrors of the Gujarat
happenings and had the findings leaked to the press.

The predictable hue and cry which the disclosure
raised must have nettled Minister Jaswant Singh, who
must have been already rattled by the concerns openly
articulated by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw,
the White House spokesman, and by the visiting US
Assistant Secretary of State whose one-word reaction
“horrible” summed it up tidily.

So, what got New Delhi’s goat, as Americans would say,
was the hurt to its ego caused by the embarrassment of
listening to home truths from the mouths of
foreigners.

And, naturally, with the Minister’s equanimity
disturbed, New Delhi over-reacted.

The Centre was unfazed by these collective
articulation of what was soon becoming a national urge
to see Modi go and violence end. In the face of all
these, what the world told India was that it was
saddened and that it would like to see the end of the
violence.

The “diplomatic breach” was not all that monumental as
to warrant the rebuff to the foreign missions
administered by the South Block. Whatever happened in
Gujarat was unforgivable and unacceptable.

Because the Gujarat massacres were horrendous enough
to infuriate anyone sensitive enough to react to
unnatural human deaths, deaths by deliberation and
vengeance. Such deaths concern the entire humanity.

New Delhi’s stand on this matter has also been
puzzling to some extent. During the first two
post-Independence decades, thanks to Nehru and V K
Krishna Menon, the world as a whole was at the
receiving end of caustic comment and criticism of many
policies and actions which could clearly and
unambiguously be categorised as “internal affairs” of
the concerned countries.

While Nehru addressed his concerns from the high moral
pulpit, Menon used sarcasm and wit with savage aim to
admonish the non-socialist, non-communist blocks in
the United Nations.

But the western world did not take kindly to the
constant “moralistic preaching” by India. An American
journalist wrote that “Nehru has a big nose and pokes
it everywhere as if the weight of running the world is
on his shoulders alone”.

Nehru was normally critical of many western policies
but after his active involvement in the non-movement,
his criticism often turned strident. The West might
have understood India better had New Delhi also taken
the Soviet Union to task occasionally.

But Moscow was beyond criticism during the Indo-Soviet
bhai-bhai days. The world sneered when Nehru was
ambivalent in his reaction to the Soviet invasion of
Hungary.

Years later, it sneered again when Indira Gandhi
refused to condemn the Soviet intrusion into
Afghanistan. She did give a big piece of her mind to
Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and asked Moscow to
get out of Afghanistan. But the world only believed
that New Delhi approved Moscow’s presence in
Afghanistan.

The point, however, is that New Delhi has no need or
cause to be so touchy about its weak points. Gujarat
is a weak point and whatever excuses New Delhi may
offer for the wrongs done, acceptance will be wanting.

Once upon a time, references to poverty used to anger
the political class and even the Indian media. The
Indian people rejoiced when Satyajit Ray won
international recognition for his magnum opus Pather
Panchali, but the official establishment was unhappy
that the praise for the film came from “its realistic
portrayal of poverty and hunger”.

Then, corruption became the sore point. Indira Gandhi
foolishly defended it and even justified it on the
ground that it was a “global phenomenon”. And,
needless to say, Kashmir and references to it in the
foreign press always generated controversies.

New Delhi always believed that it has a right to
criticise policies by virtue of its being a regional
power or a non-aligned nation or a developing Third
World victim of western capitalism.

But when the world expressed sadness over barbarism in
Gujarat, it at once shouted “interference”.

In the case of Gujarat, our vulnerability has been
colossal, and there is no escaping it. Whichever way
one looks at it, one cannot escape the fact that it is
going to haunt India and Indians for very many years
to come.

Copyright (c) 2002 Deccan Chronicle.