(Ahmedabad Newsline
Friday , March 02, 2007)
‘Memories vivid, but justice remains hazy’
As survivors share Godhra experiences, activist Tendulkar blames politicians for instigating riots
Express News Service
Ahmedabad, March 1: As part of an ongoing series of programmes — Sach Ki Yadein Yadon Ka Sach — organised by over 25 NGOs to commemorate the communal riots of 2002, the survivors of the post Godhra carnage shared their experiences on Thursday.
Speaking on the occasion, Zakia Jafree, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafree said that while it is now getting tiring to relate the same sequence of events over and over again, she is still perplexed as to why she has been denied justice so far. While Teesta Setalvad from Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) pointed out that there have been major anomalies in compensating the riot-hit, noted activist, playwright and CJP President Vijay Tendulkar said it was sad that communalism has spread among people. “Sirf Modi ko dosh kyu dein? Yeh zaher to yahan ke logon mein bhi phail chuka hain, jinhone use vote de kar satta pe pahunchaya (Why blame Modi alone, the venom has spread among the people here as well, who have voted him to power),” he said. “However, some of the people who took part in the riots are now realising that they were used by someone else,” he added.
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Zakia said, “The memories are all too vivid even today.” She added that though a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court in this regard, she is also trying to file an FIR against State Chief Minister Narendra Modi and all the cabinet ministers of the state of that period.
“Mujhe aaj tak samajh mein nahin aaya, ki mujhe insaaf kyun nahin mila, (Till today I could not understand why justice has been denied to me),” she said.
Rupa Mody, who lost her 13-year-old son Azhar in the same incident of Gulbarg Society, recalled how her frantic phone calls to police for help went unanswered. “In that one incident, not only I lost my child, so many other mothers too lost their children,” Rupa pointed out.
“Azhar had earlier asked me to leave the society as the tension was building up,” Rupa said adding that, it was she who insisted that the family would stay back in the society.
“Now one man Babu Bajrangi calls up the multiplex owners and declares the film Parzania will not be released in the state and the film is not released. How can one expect justice in such a situation?” Rupa asked.
The meeting of the riot survivors, which had representations from almost all the affected districts of the State also pointed out how the State police refused to register cases and tried to create road blocks to enquiry. “What happened in 2002 was madness,” Tendulkar said adding while some amount of it is inherent in all individuals, political parties often capitalize upon this for power.
He said not only BJP, but opposition Congress too on several occasions have played with ‘inherent madness’ of its electorate and engineered riots in Gujarat and other places. “We’ll certainly not shoot someone as I had said in a fit of anger after reading about the riots, but we will stand before the ones who wield the gun and put up resistance,” he said.
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