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The Hindu, Opinion, May 12, 2002
The survivors speak
By Mari Marcel Thekaekara
I returned from Gujarat a week before the Prime Minister's visit
as part of a fact-finding independent women's commission to
report on the violence against women. Till the end of March, the
National Women's Commission had not deemed it necessary to
conduct a probe into the massacre and rape in Gujarat. Yet Muslim
women had been specifically brutalised as seldom before in the
history of India's riots. Every Gujarati Hindu was called to arms
using an evil, fabricated, totally false newspaper story that
Hindu women had been raped and mutilated. "Avenge your
women,'' was the challenge thrown to Hindu men. Bangles were sent
to villages where Hindus refused to attack Muslims. "Are you
men or women,'' was the taunt. So "Women'' became the
battleground and the weapon in the Gujarat genocide.
Our report was called "The Survivors
Speak''.
We decided it was imperative to state upfront and without
ambiguity, (and every Independent Commission later has done the
same) that Gujarat was genocide, not a riot. A planned,
premeditated pogrom that would have taken place whether Godhra
happened or not. We underlined our condemnation of Godhra.
However, Godhra was merely an excuse that the Sangh Parivar used
to start their pogrom. We witnessed evidence of months of
planning and we concluded that the State had geared up for
violence, for a final solution to end their "Muslim
problem'' long before Godhra. The RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang
Dal used this opportunity of almost a decade of BJP power to
consolidate and finalise its plans to conduct its annihilation
experiment. Gujarat was their laboratory. There is photographic
and video documentation to prove this.
If it was the spontaneous outburst of ordinary citizens' anger,
how could thousands of talwars (swords), knuckledusters and
panjas (metal clawhands to mutilate the opponent) have been
manufactured and distributed within two days of Godhra?
A few months before the massacre, a detailed survey of Muslim
homes and families was conducted. When the attack began, these
lists were with the mobs. According to eyewitnesses, in many
places, outsiders, professional assassins and thugs were brought
in to lead the mobs. They did not speak Gujarati. A systematic
campaign of hate was carried out for the last few years, telling
Hindus that Muslims were the enemy and unless Hindus united to
drive them out, they would know no peace. Printed circulated
leaflets have been collected as evidence by the various
commissions.
Immediately after Godhra, `Sandesh', a leading Gujarati daily
printed a blatantly incendiary lie designed to fuel the anger of
the people. It stated falsely that Hindu girls had been dragged
out of the Sabarmati Express and brutally raped, mutilated and
murdered. Further inflammatory lies were added such as the girls
breasts were cut off, burning rods shoved into their vaginas and
that they had died while being raped. None of this was true. But
printed pamphlets were distributed by the thousands to every
village of Gujarat. The figures were multiplied and more
salacious, poisonous details added. This was done to bring the
mob to fever pitch. Many of the attackers arrived carrying these
pamphlets and copies of `Sandesh'. When national dailies rushed
to the spot to investigate this story they could not find a shred
of evidence to support it. Neither could the police.
Subsequently, `Sandesh' carried a small retraction in its inside
pages. But within days, this story had been deliberately spread
throughout the State and become folklore, nothing and no one
could convince Gujaratis that it was not true.
As a direct result of the `Sandesh' hate campaign, the most
monstrous acts of cruelty were perpetrated on Muslim women and
children in particular, emulating the vile acts outlined in the
false `Sandesh' story. Further evidence of the planned nature of
the Gujarat pogrom lies in the fact that there was systematic
looting of only Muslims homes. This was preceded by the
loudspeaker-toting leaders who exhorted the mobs to loot, attack
and murder. They promised them complete immunity and a totally
free reign of terror for 72 hours.
The State did not merely remain passive. It actively encouraged
the looting and murder. The BJP organised the display of the
burnt remains of the Godhra victims. The arrival time of the
train carrying their corpses was announced over the radio to
ensure that huge crowds would be present at the Ahmedabad
station. Leaders shouted slogans such as "khoon ka badla
khoon, blood for blood''. Inflammatory speeches were made by
leading BJP politicians. The State Bandh was supported by the
State BJP Government. When the mobs were exhorted to attack, the
police were ordered not to interfere. Senior police officers have
given evidence to this effect.
In some places the police did not merely stand by. They attacked
Muslims and led them to the mobs. In the few places where senior
police officers decided to disobey their political bosses'
diktats, they controlled the violence. Kachch, Surat and Amreli
were such examples. The Superintendent of Police of Kachch, Vivek
Srivastava, was transferred because he arrested the area's Home
Guards Commandant, Akshay Thakkar, a member of the VHP, local VHP
leader Vasant Patel and a Shiv Sena pramukh for attacking the
priest of a dargah in the area. The State Home Minister, Gordhan
Zadaphia, a hardcore VHP man and an appointee of the VHP leader,
Praveen Togadia, called Srivastava asking him to drop the
charges. This was followed by a call from the Chief Minister's
office. Since he did not comply, Srivastava was transferred.
After his transfer, communal violence has erupted in Kachch as
well. Any senior police officer who did his duty by protecting
Muslims has been transferred.
Taking all this into account, our commission and others after us
have concluded that justice will not be done under the BJP
regime. The Chief Minister presided over the genocide. He was
abetted by the Minister of State for Home, Zadaphia, who has
ordered all cases against VHP criminals dropped. The Governor of
Gujarat, S.S. Bhandari, did not think it necessary to even report
to the Centre on the violence. The judiciary in Gujarat is
largely saffronised. The police force and the IAS are completely
demoralised.
Space constraints prevent the detailed recommendations pertaining
to women being reported here. In a nutshell, detailed testimonies
of raped women need to be recorded urgently. And FIRs lodged
immediately. Medical examinations were not possible as women
could not be brought to hospitals till days later. So a special
task force of women police, lawyers and leaders needs to deal
with these cases. Urgent counselling specialists are needed for
the traumatised women. As I write this, women activists in
Gujarat are being harassed, intimidated and prevented from
working freely among the survivors.
Several civil rights groups have used this and other reports to
appeal to the UN, Amnesty International, the Hague and
International courts for Modi's extradition and trial and for
justice for the survivors of the Gujarat pogrom.
The efforts are being led by British Gujaratis both Hindu and
Muslim. They are aghast at the barbarity and savagery unleashed
on a civilian population in peacetime. Cynics, however, are
sceptical about justice from within. They think the survivors
will finally have to wait for divine retribution. In the
meantime, the fight for the victims goes on with outraged Indians
from India, the U.S. and the U.K. leading the battle. Join the
battle. Because if not we may lose the freedom our forefathers
fought for and won with blood, sweat and tears in 1947. This is a
defining moment in the history of India. And the future of this
country is in our hands.
(The writer is part of an independent women's commission. The
others are: Syeda Hameed, Muslim Women's Forum, Delhi; Ruth
Manorama, National Alliance of Women, Bangalore; Malini Ghose,
Nirantar, Delhi; Sheba George, Sahrwaru, Ahmedabad; and Farah
Naqvi, journalist, Delhi.)