AMNA RAZZAQ
Under Modi’s decade long chief minister ship in Gujarat, the state witnessed its worst communal riots in 2002, which claimed the lives of over 2,000 innocent Muslims. Sanjeev Bhatt, a senior police officer, submitted in his affidavit in 2011, that on February 27, 2002, the day riots broke out, Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, expressed the view that “Hindus be allowed to vent out their anger” during a meeting. The arrays of uncomfortable questions regarding his role in this anti-Muslim pogrom in the last decade have not been treated kindly by both Modi and his supporters. The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence and the Gujarat pogrom, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The actual violence in Gujarat started on February 27, 2002, when a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was attacked by a Muslim mob and caught fire, killing 59 people. In a retaliatory spree by Hindu mobs, hundreds of Muslims were slaughtered, tens of thousands were displaced, and countless Muslim homes were destroyed. However, there is still mystery attached to what exactly happened in Godhra, and who was responsible for the killings. Secondly, the persons who were responsible for the Godhra killings should certainly be identified and given harsh punishment, but how does this justify the attack on the entire Muslim community in Gujarat? Muslims are only nine per cent of the total population of Gujarat, the rest being mostly Hindus. In 2002, Muslims were massacred, their homes burnt and other horrible crimes committed against them. . The 2002 violence against Muslims in Gujarat persists as a dark blot on India’s reputation for religious equality,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of prosecuting senior state and police officials implicated in the atrocities, the Gujarat authorities have engaged in denial and obstruction of justice.
These Riots are said to be the worst religious clashes since the nation’s bloody partition of British India in 1947. Despite an order from India’s Supreme Court that the site remain intact, L.K. Advani, a prominent leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., and the nationalist World Hindu Council, mobilizes the mob. The incident shakes India’s secular identity, which is enshrined in its constitution. It is pivotal in the B.J.P.’s rise to power in 1998, after which it abandons its campaign pledge to build the Ram temple in order to win the backing of secular parties it needed to gain a parliamentary majority. Tehelka, a weekly magazine, secretly videotapes senior police officers and politicians boasting about their roles in the 2002 killings – how they burned Muslim men, raped their wives and destroyed their homes. The investigation renews focus on what role Mr. Modi might have played. A B.J.P. politician says Mr. Modi had told him they had days “to do whatever we could,” according to a transcript the magazine published the following month. Coordinated attacks against the Muslims community began on 28 February, the day following the burning of the train. These were carried out by men wearing saffron robes and khaki shorts, who drove to the sites of violence in large numbers in trucks. They used swords, explosives and gas cylinders to destroy homes and places of business. The attacks were made in full view of police stations and police officers; however, the police and Narendra Modi did not intervened or tried to stop it from happening? Instead, they stood and watched, hence kind of enjoying the show. In the aftermath of the violence, it became clear that many attacks were focused not only on Muslim populations, but also on Muslim women and children. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch criticized the Indian government and the Gujarat state administration for failure to address the resulting humanitarian condition of the people, the “overwhelming majority of them Muslim,” who fled their homes for relief camps in the aftermath of the events. Human Rights Watch also urged the international community to put pressure on the Indian government to comply with international human rights and Indian constitutional law and end impunity for orchestrated violence against Indian minorities. No riot anywhere in the world happens without state participation. it is clear the CM was involved but unfortunately no one was punished…the same is the case with 1984 Sikh riots or any other communal riots in India…politicians and cops the real culprits besides rioters have gone scot-free. India, therefore, does not belong to Hindus alone; it belongs equally to Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Jains, etc. Also, it is not that only Hindus can live in India as first rate citizens while others have to live as second or third rate citizens. All are first rate citizens here. The killings of thousands of Muslims and other atrocities committed against them in Gujarat in 2002 can never be forgotten or forgiven. All the perfumes in Arabia cannot wash away the stain on Modi in this connection.
Modi has claimed that he has developed Gujarat. It is, therefore, necessary to consider the meaning of ‘development’. Development can have only one meaning, and that is, raising the standard of living of the masses. Giving concessions to big industrial houses and offering them cheap land and electricity can hardly be called development if it does not raise the standard of living of the masses. Modi’s supporters say that he had no hand in the killings of Muslims in 2002, and it is also said that he has not been found guilty by any court of law. I do not want to comment on Indian judiciary, but I certainly do not buy the story that Modi had no hand in the 2002 events. He was the chief minister of Gujarat at that time, and the horrible events happened on a large scale in Gujarat. Can it be believed that he had no hand in the events of 2002? At least I find it impossible to believe it.
