The
metropolitan court on 26th December 2013 exonerated Narendra Modi
and 59 others for their complicity in the Gujarat carnage. Fully accepting the
report of SIT (Special Investigation Team) the court endorsed the view of Modi
and Government about their role in the carnage. The Court rejected a petition seeking the prosecution of Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 communal
riots case. There were varied reactions to this. Mrs Jafri broke down but vowed to continue her legal
battle. She has alleged that Mr. Modi colluded with senior ministers,
bureaucrats and the police to facilitate the communal violence that tore
through the state. Narendra Modi stated that he felt relief for facing the
trial by fire and also wrote a blog
saying that he was shaken to the core by the violence, he felt 'Grief', 'Sadness', 'Misery', 'Pain', 'Anguish', 'Agony'.
Responding to the poor state of the justice delivery system in Gujarat social
activist Mallika Sarabhai said today that it was
"silly to have expected anything else but a clean chit" for Mr. Modi
from a Gujarat court." As per her everyone in Gujarat was "terrified of Modi's
vengeance".
Just to recapitulate,
the massive Gujarat violence which took the communal violence to harrowing depths,
the open collusion of state and the perpetrators of violence stood nakedly for
all to see. This was also the violence where the social activists took up the
case of justice in a determined way leading to shifting of crucial cases
outside of Gujarat as in the atmosphere of intimidation prevailing in Gujarat;
the process of justice is difficult. The SIT (Special Investigation Team) was
formed under the Supervision of the Supreme Court, but those in the SIT could
not rise above the objectivity of the law. Interestingly as SIT gave ‘clean
chit’ to Modi, the Amicus Curiae Raju Ramcnadran appointed by Supreme Court
stated that there is enough evidence in the report to prosecute Modi under
different clauses. Immediately after the judgment was out the BJP activists
celebrated by bursting crackers and Modi tweeted, ‘Satyamev Jayate’, Truth
wins. Interestingly there seems to be different truths depending on which side
of the divide you are. While ‘Modi’s truth’ seems to have won for the time
being the truth of Zakia Jafri and thousands of victims of Gujarat is
struggling to get justice.
The same events seem to
be in different light for different people. In the aftermath of the verdict the
BJP spokesmen have been aggressively defending the verdict. The press release
by Teesta Setalvad (Citizens for Justice and Peace), which is helping Zaki
Jafri, gave a detailed account of the petition. The work done by the team of
lawyers for Mrs Jafri points out that state had deliberately ignored the signal
which indicated the build up towards disaster.. They produced concrete
evidence, fax messages, telephone call records amongst others to show that
state administration was in the know of the aggressive behavior of the returning
Kar Sevaks who were giving provocative slogans. The rowdy nature of the Kar Sevaks
was documented. The word of Chief Minister, who now seems to be projecting as
if it was a period of pain, is contrary to his actions during that time. He
openly alleged the role of International terrorism, Pakistan’s ISI and local
Muslims in the burning of the train. He created a provocative atmosphere by
involving the VHP in the episode. The post mortem of the bodies was conducted
in the open in the presence of RSS-VHP workers. Modi himself instigated the
communal forces by giving statements like, ‘every action has a reaction’. This
statement is being denied now for political reasons. In the meeting attended by
top officials he did ask the administration to sit back as the reaction of Hindus
will take place. Haren Pandya who testified to the Concerned Citizen’s Tribunal
and told this to the tribunal was murdered later. Other official Sanjeev Bhatt has
also testified the same. The military was called in late and not deployed properly;
many severely hit areas were left out. During this time Modi went on to say the
‘they are being taught a lesson’.
Sting operations have
also showed the role of communal forces and collusion of state machinery. Dr.
Maya Kodnani, Modi’s cabinet colleague and Babu Bajrangi of VHP are currently
serving life term for their crime. During the process of relief also, the state
shirked from its responsibility by saying that the refugee camps are ‘children
manufacturing centers’. The Godhra train burning was called an act of terrorism
and the carnage was treated as mere violence. The violence victims are now living
in abysmal conditions in the ghettoes like Juhapura. With the help of
propaganda all these ‘truths’ of Gujarat are being pushed under the carpet. Any
criticism of the state policy is being projected as the insult of the people of
Gujarat. The majority community has been made to feel insecure through the propaganda
unleashed by the communal forces.
Many other culprits got
clean chit at lower courts but law did catch up with them in due course as in the
case of Maya Kodnani. Same state saw the spate of fake encounters, the ones
like that of Ishrat Jahan. Many top police officers of the state are behind the
bars for their collusion with the divisive agenda, Vanjara and company. Sarabhai
correctly depicts the picture of the justice in Gujarat. So it is a battle
between two sets of truths, the truth of Modi on one side and that of Zakia Jafri
on the other. Modi benefitted from the whole tragedy as first the tottering BJP
hold became stronger in Gujarat. Through a carefully orchestrated propaganda of
development he came to position himself as the prime ministerial candidate of
BJP. Zakia Jafri and the score of victims lost their near and dear one’s, lost
their home and hearth and have to live in the dark tunnels of the haunting memories
of what happened to them during the violence.
Yes truth will prevail.
This is the beginning of the battle for justice and the resolve of Mrs Jafri and
the social activists supporting her is not just for her personal grief but also
for the cause of justice all over the state. Surely truth will prevail
