The Truth – Gujarat Riots

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?”

Saffronazis

Cries of nationalistic sentiments are on a rise all across this great nation. Most of them being narrow-minded pseudo nationalists who promise to give salvation to this developing nation with millions of problems at hand. They preach what they don’t practice, and practice that which none with straight mind would intend to. These wolves in goat skin are emerging all over the country mainly by getting hold of popular (meaning religious or spiritual if it concerns India) sentiments.

The cruel blood hungry picture of these men was seen in the Gujarat riots in 2001. The perpetrators of this headhunt, who occupied the highest seats of administration and the doers claim that they have done the greatest deed for the Hindu community.

In the recent Tehelka expose they have claimed (not confess) that they themselves did the cruelties. And one can understand the mental derangement of these minds when one says he had torn open the abdomen of a pregnant woman and toasted the foetus. Another man claims in front of his wife that he had tasted some grapes, since fruits were available in plenty. An elaborate account of these would be dealt in yet another blog.

But the sad thing is that the then PM Vajpayee who is believed to have some minimum humanitarian concerns, not even talked against Modi, but supported his moves. It was shameful to let free the event managers of a man-slaughter of such an extent. And the real shame came when other countries began to reject entry for Modi on their soils. And the manager became wordless when asked in a TV interview about the riots and went out of the show. And he believes he can repeat the performance after the next elections and also spread this to other parts of the country, even to the south.

It all began to get popular when the karsevaks stripped down the Babri-masjid in Ayodhya. And another national leader had flagged off the karsevak march to Ayodhya, but ultimately became the innocent lamb. Another blot to the pride of the country, which boasts to entertain a vast number of castes and religion with a slogan of unity and integrity in each ones’ lips.

RSS and VHP karsevaks (having their logo itself as the trident or thrishul) had been given weapon training to build a Hindu nation by force. In front of the educated ones this Hindu nation means a nation with many traditional and spiritual values, but when it comes before the illiterates it’s a nation devoid of other religious groups who are said to be anti-Indian. And when something bad happens its all the problem of illiteracy and minority friendly attitude of the governments.

Shivsena too began to march into the arena by destroying cricket pitches of India-Pakistan cricket matches, pulling down internet cafes for not banning orkut for its anti-national contents. But the ultimate ‘victory’ of the Sena is claimed to be the Bombay riots. Killing and mutilating hundreds and making the life of minorities unsafe was the immediate result. They had even resorted to violence when a book said to have derogatory remarks on Chatrapati Sivaji was published.

Are all these happening because Hinduism as a faith originated when the kingdoms were on the war front? Or the Gods were all warrior-Kshatriyas? But there was a difference. The God’s had been waging wars for the victory of the Good over the Evil. And never had they fought against weapon less opponents. When is the true Hinduism going to get into their heads? As everything else ends, these are all the faults of corrupted politicians who can’t think beyond the margin of vote bank politics. And literacy, social security and balanced development would mar their dreams completely. There would be no end to this problem unless the responsible citizens start another movement, another freedom struggle or a youth government with novel thoughts and dreams come forward. As it is said it never ends, it just goes on everyday, everywhere.