Indian Express, April 30 2011
editorial
Insecure state
IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt of the Gujarat cadre filed an explosive affidavit with the Supreme Court, accusing Chief Minister Narendra Modi of deliberate inacti-on after the Godhra train burning in 2002 — even as communal riots tore the state apart. He also claimed that the SC-appointed special investigation team (SIT) had been reluctant to record testimony of those prepared to indict Modi, and were actively fudging facts and coercing witnesses. That’s a serious claim, and Bhatt better be fully prepared to back it up. However, if true, it would be devastating confirmation that the CM was intentionally, vengefully derelict in his duties, and that later, the state’s police and administration were under instruction to deny justice to Gujarat’s Muslims.
Whatever the truth-value of that claim, now that it has been made public, Bhatt has invited grave danger upon himself, in a state as polarised as Gujarat. However, the government has now withdrawn his security cover — one that he had to put together himself, with four men from the training college where he is principal. This, despite the explicit requirement that those deposing before the investigators should be given full protection.
Nearly a decade after the riots, the legal process of bringing the perpetrators to account has been dogged by trouble — after patent lack of progress in Gujarat, key cases were shifted to the SC, and then this SIT was set up for an impartial probe. However, the sad fact remains that the Gujarat riots have been reduced to mere rhetoric, the horrors unnecessarily inflated by Modi’s opponents, the tragedy defiantly ignored by his supporters. Only a solid, committed legal system can bring closure — and actions like this reveal the vulnerability of that process.
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