A true story of cruelty and unprecedented vengeance unveiled before the nation when Ashish Khetan presented his extra-ordinary piece of investigative journalism. It gave clear evidence that the riot following the Godhra carnage was well planned and everything went ahead with the remarks and backing of the one man force Narendra Modi. Without wasting lines a direct dive into the Gujarat riots.
It all began with the Godhra train carnage. It is found that, as the train reached the Godhra station in the early hours, the karsevaks in the train started some feud with some Muslim hawkers. The sevaks are alleged to have kidnapped a Muslim girl from the platform. Just as the train began to roll on, there was immense stone-pelting from the platform. These are from the eye-witness accounts of an army man on board. Many of the passengers had to leave their seats due to threats from sevaks. Just as the train was outside the station someone grabbed the chains and the train halted.
At that time there were people following the train shouting to release the girl. After correcting the fault as the engine began to move on the chain was pulled one more time and it was then that the carnage took place. There was immense stone pelting, but there is no neutral account that anyone in the mob was having fire or fuel jars in hands. The Gujarat forensic lab reports also claims that none could pour any fuel into the train from the ground due to the height, and all the doors were tightly locked. Just as the flames began to get high only the doors were opened and passengers could get out. And the lab has certified that the fire could have originated from some internal elements only.
The true story was heard from the mouths of the perpetrators itself. These were not confessions, but claims of some extra ordinary divine deeds. One of the senior leaders of the VHP himself claims that he has torn open the abdomen of a pregnant woman and roasted the foetus inside. Yet another claim of a person in front of his wife is that he had tasted some grapes, since fruits were available in plenty. All of them say in one voice that they had the support of the administration, police as well as the judiciary.
The fateful events that followed the carnage had its inspiration from the flaring
remarks of the Chief Minister Narendra Modi. It has to be believed that he was the mastermind behind all the succeeding incidents. The party members have told that they had been given three days for the completion of the massacre before army enters the scene. And the worse thing is that he used the same as the trump card for his election victory and is still using it for glory. There was no action from the higher levels of the party to suspend or at least warn the person who had done such a crime which had brought just shame to the country.
It is clear from the tapes and official accounts that the BJP, Bajrang Dal and VHP are involved in the riots. The members of the organization had done the head hunt with such haste and vengeance that there is no precedent for it in history. Even the Congress president didn’t visit the house of murdered congress-man and former MP Ehsaan Jaffris house being afraid it would take them back in the elections.
The police too were inactive, no so active that they themselves shot at the running victims. And there were warnings to police men that their Hindu:Muslim casualty ratio were reversing at some places. Post mortem examination was not done on hundreds of bodies and they were even redistributed so that the figures at some places do not become too high.
The judiciary had their duty too. They had too give bail to the culprits. And the lawyers who represented the convict side were later seen in the clothes of public prosecutor. It is extremely shameful that the highest court in the country which usually takes suo motu files against almost all incidents had not uttered a word against the riots after the Tehelka expose. It’s the only way forward since the spy cam shoots cannot be taken as evidence in any court.
The Ahmedabad district collector wasted no time in banning the broadcasting of these tapes. The basic right of information was denied to the common man. All these incidents make us ‘rise’ to the status of Hitler and Nazis. But they would not have done this to their own people, who are just separated by a thin line of faith.
And in the next issue there was a tsunami of replies from various parts of the nation and abroad. Many have asked to ban the parties involved in the incidents. But much of these were submerged in the rate hiking news in the media. The morality of this country is almost lost. There was a basic question which still haunts my mind “Why had the Indian government asked the Muslims to stay back in the country in 1947, promising that they would be treated in par with Hindus?”
