(Indian Express - Nov 1 2004
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=58046 )
1984 in the life of a nation
By Indira Jaisingh
Twenty years in the life of a nation is not too long a time. Today is the 20th anniversary (if one can call it that) of the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi following the death of the Indira Gandhi. December 3-4 will be the 20th anniversary of what is described as the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster. In between we have had the genocide in Gujarat in February-March '02.
Is there perhaps a pattern emerging from these events which should alert the nation to its failure in preventing and then dealing with the wanton killing of innocents? Twenty years after the Sikh killings, justice has not been done. There have been no convictions of the politicians who led crowds to kill Sikhs for no other reason than that they were Sikhs. The question arises, are we perhaps using obsolete legal concepts to deal with mass killings which have the backing of the state?...
In December '84, a gas leak in the UCC facility killed more than 2,000 people living in the vicinity instantly and left thousands seriously injured. Those victims, too, are still awaiting justice. The liability of UCC was never determined. Instead, the apex court recorded a settlement to which the victims were not a party, accepting US$470 million as compensation on their behalf...
With the killings of the Muslims in Gujarat in '02, it became clear that they were genocidal in nature. Many of us, who responded on behalf of Gujarat victims, were equally active in the '84 Delhi massacres. Having been through that experience, we realised that unless the question of state complicity was addressed, justice would remain a distant dream. Soon it became apparent that this was not just an act of failure but part of a design. It seemed that through periodic communal violence, the state had gained experience not only in organising violence but also organising the denial of access to justice. It is now clear that the cover-up plan was in place before the violence was unleashed. Failure to investigate the crimes, refusal to name leaders in FIRs, appointing public prosecutors who were VHP members, ensuring witnesses turn hostile, were only some of the methods used to ensure acquittals. While this happened, the judiciary remained a mute spectator until the NHRC moved the apex court with the active assistance of members of civil society...
It is the failure to hold the killers of '84 liable, the failure to hold the UCC liable, that led to the belief that criminals enjoy immunity from the legal process. It is easier to convict for a single murder, than it is to convict for 2,000 mass murders. The significance of describing the Gujarat killings as genocide is that they enable us to hold the CM personally liable for the killings that took place on the theory of command responsibility. The position of a CM or PM is one of command and neither can claim that they were not responsible for the acts of their subordinates.
What Gujarat has done is to help us understand '84 better. Equally, '84 helped us to understand what was required to be done in the post-Gujarat killings. I am amazed when people say, "What's new about Gujarat?" The difference is that in Gujarat, those at the helm of power have been challenged by human rights activists. The very act of challenge hold promise for the future.
The writer is a senior Supreme Court advocate
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