Kashmir Times
March 7, 2006
Editorial
Misuse of a concocted cause
Modi, other BJP leaders are guilty of miscarriage of justice
Only a week ago India has observed in silence the fourth anniversary of the sad day when, on February 27, 2002, fifty-seven passengers of Coach No. S-6 of the Sabarmati Express were burnt to death in a fire that had engulfed it soon after the train had left the Godhra railway station in Gujarat. It was sad and shocking, indeed. But, what followed thereafter was much sadder and bloodier. The news went round, rather was deliberately circulated, that a mob of Muslim hoodlums was waiting on the platform with petrol and kerosene only to torch the compartment full of Karsevaks, after locking all its four doors from outside. The BJP, the party in power in Gujarat, decided to organise bandhs and protest marches on the following day, and Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, reportedly, called a meeting of senior administrators and police officers, that very night, to ask them to be rather soft toward those going to ventillate their natural rage and grief on Feb 28, 2002. What happened on that dismal day and intermittently for two months thereafter is now history written in blood. It was, in the words of the veteran RSS leader, Nanaji Deshmukh, nothing but an "organised genocide" of the Muslims, who were collectively held responsible for the killings at Godhra. For all these two months, when Gujarat burnt and the Muslims were systematically but cheered, Narendra Modi just fiddled and his police looked the other way.
However, the story about the Godhra mayhem was never well-taken by the neutral observers of the national scene. The SHO of Godhra railway station, a Sikh himself, confirmed later that there was never in that fateful morning a Muslim crowd there. Then it was pointed out by railway officials that it is only they who have the keys and the means for locking the railway doors from outside, and no crowd could have done it to prevent the karsevaks from escaping. The forensic experts later said that the marks left behind by the fire clearly suggested that the fire came out from inside, and not the other way round. Passengers in other compartments too refused to confirm the scuffle that allegedly took place between the karsevaks and the reported Muslim crowd yelling for their blood. So, to arrive at the truth behind the events leading to the massacres that shook Gujarat, if not the entire nation, the UPA government, soon after assuming office, appointed a commission of enquiry headed by Retd. Justice UC Banerjee of the Supreme Court. Now, the report he has submitted only a couple of days ago clearly and categorically rules out the possibility of a murderous Muslim crowd being in Godhra railway station ready with inflammable substances to torch the Hindu karsevaks to death. Both the fire and the deaths it caused are facts, but the former was just accidental, there having been never any conspiracy to kill the karsevaks. So, the Banerjee commission has only confirmed, what many NGOs and human right activists had been shouting for so long, that an unfortunate accident had been cruelly and cleverly misused by the BJP and the Modi-led government to serve their social and political purposes. The CM, of all persons, must have been aware of what actually had happened at Godhra. But, instead of letting people know the truth and fighting motivated rumours, he and his government only fuelled the fire of Hindu vengeance, indirectly helped it through inaction, and even justified the massacre of Muslims by parroting Newton's Third Law that "every action has its exact and opposite re-action." Not only he but even his seniors then in power and office in New Delhi, must have been in the know of what exactly had happened at Godhra and who had deliberately and unscrupulously misused that one bloody incident. So, they all stand accused before the bar of history as guilty of mis-carriage of justice, of misuse of the administration, and of massacre of innocents. The Indian electorate have already punished the latter, two years ago. Narendra Modi now deserves an exit notice from the office he has enjoyed for rather too long. Never probably have so many been sacrificed at the altar of an ill-conceived untruth. We have to guard against its possible repetition.
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