Two editorials on the court ruling on the Bhagalpur riots
1.
(The Tribune
June 20, 2007)
Editorial
The Bhagalpur shame
Convictions come 17 years after riots
That the criminal justice system has taken 17 long years to punish the guilty of killings in the Bhagalpur riots case speaks volumes about its ineffectiveness and standards of governance in the country. The much delayed court verdict convicting the 14 accused in one of the worst communal riots comes when people had begun to believe that nothing would come out of the court proceedings. This also reflects on the lack of political will and the prosecution and investigation agencies of the state. People often commit crime and get away with no early investigation in sight, not to speak of trial and final judgement. It is a travesty of justice that those found guilty in the Gujarat riots are yet to be punished. The same is the case with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Cases are not investigated properly and the police, being influenced by political or other extraneous considerations, buckle under pressure.
Orphans of the 1984 riots are in their 20s now and most of the guilty are roaming free. What is happening in Gujarat today is a mockery of the criminal justice system in the state which people like L.K. Advani certified as the best administered. The police machinery of the Narendra Modi government seems to be working as an adjunct of the political leadership. The Supreme Court had to shift the Best Bakery case to Maharashtra after the state government refused to see reason.
The Bhagalpur riots were sparked off way back in 1989 by a Ramshila procession carrying bricks to Ayodhya as part of the BJP’s agitation. Though this area had experienced many communal riots in the past, the district administration allowed the procession to go through the town. Monday’s convictions notwithstanding, the last word on the Bhagalpur riots is yet to be said. One does not know the fate of over 600 cases relating to the month-long riots. More important, justice still eludes many riot victims. The judicial commission appointed by the Nitish Kumar government is yet to submit its report. There is a lurking fear among the victims, especially those who want to return to the villages they had left during the riots. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s request to the Centre to help rehabilitate the riot victims on the pattern of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots merits urgent attention.
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2.
(Hindustan Times
June 19, 2007)
Editorial
And justice for all
June 19, 2007
First Published: 00:04 IST(20/6/2007)
Seventeen years make for a long time in anybody’s book. In the reckoning of those whose loved ones were massacred in the violence that erupted at Logai village in Bhagalpur, Bihar, on October 27, 1989, the time between that fateful night and this week must have seemed an eternity. On Monday, a local court convicted 14 of the 24 accused of killing 116 people, women and children included, in a murderous spree that targeted Muslims and would ultimately claim 1,070 lives across the district. Over a period of about two months, Bhagalpur, 15 of whose 21 blocks were torn apart by communal violence, not only witnessed horrific riots but also became a devastated zone from where some 48,000 people were uprooted, leaving its traditional loom economy destroyed.
Why has it taken so long for the guilty to be punished? For one, many witnesses never turned up in court while the police did little to ensure that they turned up at all. The police were also found twiddling their thumbs when it came to pursuing absconders — four out of the 24 accused. Among those convicted this week are two policemen, one found guilty of not taking action against a mob and for tampering with evidence, and the other for suppressing information about the killings (the bodies being hastily buried and discovered under a cabbage patch). Clearly, such complicity in mass murder does not happen unless there is politics involved and Bhagalpur has clearly seen its fair share of politics coming in the way of justice. While the riots may have been triggered by a ‘Ram Shifla’ procession organised by the local VHP — the Ram Janmabhoomi movement was in full swing throughout the country in late 1989 — and fuelled by Hindu mobs trying to grab Muslim property and land, the state and the central Congress governments failed to enforce law and order. The immediate result of the bloodbath before the 1989 elections in Bihar was an outright rejection of the Congress by the Muslim voter, a situation that lasts to this day. With realpolitik considerations to deal with, justice was put on hold for Bhagalpur’s victims, until this year.
That the Gujarat massacres of 2002 are not the complete anomaly that our television generation may think it to be, is enhanced by our remembering what happened in Bhagalpur in 1989. However long and hard the battle for justice has been, the sentences which will be fixed on June 27 against those found guilty of the Bhagalpur massacres will do a lot to restore faith in the criminal justice system.
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