People's Democracy

Patriots Have To Rise In Unison

WHAT took place in Gujarat after February 27 and is still taking place is no communal riot in the commonly understood sense of the term. It is a pogrom, pure and simple, directed against a particular community by organised, armed groups of hooligans who are masquerading as the champions of Hindutva.

This is the common impression that has gained ground in the last eight weeks, and this is by no means unfounded. It was the same impression that we got when we visited Ahmedabad on April 24, as a Lok Morcha delegation.

The delegation consisted of Lok Morcha convenor Mulayam Singh Yadav, Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Deve Gowda, SP general secretary Amar Singh, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, RSP general secretary Abani Roy and Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biawas, besides myself. A group of journalists accompanied us.

The anti-Muslim bias of the administration under Narendra Modi was clear from the fact that the DIG Police initially tried to prevent us from visiting any affected locality or relief camp. The verbal tussle continued for some time, and we were allowed to visit certain, not all, camps and localities only after we made our determination known that we would go to the camps and localities in any case. It is notable that if the state administration behaved in this manner with a delegation that included five members of parliament (including a former prime minister) along with leaders of two national parties, it is not difficult to imagine how it would be behaving with others.

It is to be noted that we were not allowed to go to the Shah Alam camp and other major camps where tens of thousands of the riot victims have been passing their days in an utterly hopeless situation. Yet, whatever we saw in the camps and localities that we visited was enough to convey the horrific ordeal the Gujarat Muslims have been made to pass through.

Further, we were able to visit only Ahmedabad and were shaken to the core by what we saw. But the anti-Muslim carnage is not confined to Ahmedabad; rather a very big part of the state has been affected. It will still take some time to more or less accurately estimate the loss of life and property all over Gujarat.

While a fuller report of our delegation’s visit is being given alongside, what appeared undoubted during our visit is the fact that the violence that started after the most condemnable Godhra train attack, was no innocuous reaction to an action, as everybody in the Sangh Parivar from K S Sudarshan downward is trying to convey. Also, it was the same "action-reaction" thesis that our prime minister parroted in Goa. When we visited the Dariyakhan Ghummat relief camp in Shahibaug, we were told that policemen had started combing the Muslim houses selectively on the very morning of February 28 and took away even vegetable-cutting knives, dubbing them as "weapons." Then the VHP let loose its hordes in the concerned localities, where they started their arson and loot, burnt Muslims’ properties and killed Muslim people in police presence. It was clear that the said combing operation launched by the police was intended to render the intended victims helpless in face of the attack that was to come soon.

Similar stories were heard from the other camps and localities we were able to visit.

This gives credence to the theory that the Sangh Parivar was preparing for an ethnic cleansing drive for quite some time and, Godhra or no Godhra, the state would have witnessed an anti-Muslim carnage in any case, sooner or later. The reports that the RSS-VHP goons as well as the officials had been identifying the Muslim houses, shops and other properties for the preceding six months further boost this conclusion. It is clear that the heinous Godhra incident only gave the brigade an alibi that it was waiting for. Evidently, if Godhra had not been there, the brigade would have utilised, or created, some other excuse for its plan.

Stories of discrimination on religious grounds were also galore. For example, we came to know that when a mixed-population area was attacked, not only Muslims but even Hindus suffered losses of life and property. These Hindus were housed in a separate camp where our local party cadres took us, and there the story was quite different. Here the inmates told us that they were getting regular and adequate food, other requirements, medicines, and were looked after quite well. The same things were, however, not heard from other camps where the Muslims were housed. Certainly these Hindus too were the victims of a terrible tragedy and deserve not only sympathy but all necessary help for rehabilitation. But the question is: Is similar treatment not being denied to others only on the ground that they are Muslims?

The Gujarat carnage has not been without a class angle either. According to the trade union representatives whom we met, even though Muslims of all sections including traders have suffered losses of lives and property, working people have been the worst victims. In Ahmedabad district alone, these include tea stall/hotel/restaurant workers, diamond workers, garment/powerloom/textile workers, vendors and hawkers, beedi and agarbatti workers, construction workers, rag pickers, auto drivers and rickshaw pullers in urban areas and the cultivators and agricultural workers in rural areas. And these, over six lakh, people include not only the Muslims but Hindus also. Evidently, the saffron brigade is killing not only the minorities but even the hapless people of the majority community. The image of a Hindu couple committing suicide in Vadodara (The Statesman, March 30) simply because they had lost their source of earning due to the riots and the curfew may be an extreme instance, but this kind of misery has been witnessed all over Gujarat.

According to the said trade union representatives, the working people in Ahmedabad alone are suffering a loss of more than five crore rupees per day for the last eight weeks.

The hospitals we visited presented heart-rending images. People who have suffered grievous knife or burn injuries, people who have lost their limbs, women and even small girls who have been raped or suffered other insults --- these are the common images in hospitals today. Also, we were told that the hospitals in Ahmedabad, as in other parts of the state, are simply unable to accommodate or treat all the suffering people. Just like in the camps, in these hospitals too we did not meet a single person who has not lost at least one family member in the carnage.

Our visits to some of the localities also indicated what utterly inhuman atrocities have been committed. In one house we met only women, as all the male members of their families were done to death. The stories of arson, murder and rape which these women narrated to us, with tears in their eyes, were enough to put anybody to shame.

Quite recently, the Gujarat government sought to take the credit for "successfully and peacefully" conducting secondary/higher secondary exams in the state. Its claim was that more than 95 per cent students took to the examinations. But our visit to the camps and localities indicated that this was a bogus claim and that the media have rightly lambasted the state government for making the claim. We came to know that at some places Muslim children where either attacked or threatened when they were on their way to their examination centres.

Even though our delegation’s visit was by no means exhaustive, it has given us certain impressions which are undeniable and inerasable.

First, the carnage in Gujarat since February 28 is really unprecedented in the history of independent India. Though we have witnessed a number of riots and anti-minority carnages in the last 55 years, they all pale into insignificance in face of what we are witnessing in Gujarat today.

Second, even though the magnitude of the tragedy has horrified the whole country and the world, the most condemnable part of the story is that the Sangh Parivar is still trying to justify its inhuman cruelties. This is in total contrast to the days of partition when, despite committing all sorts of atrocities, communal forces on both sides did not have courage to justify what they were doing. Today, even petty officials of the state government, barring a few conscientious ones, are trying to convince everybody that nothing serious is really happening in Gujarat. This is the impression they tried to convey to us also.

Third, the central government’s attitude to the Gujarat carnage has been really deplorable. We have given several instances of this attitude in these columns earlier and do not intend to go into the details again. Suffice it to say that as late as on April 24, the union ministry of home affairs, presided over by L K Advani, sought to give Narendra Modi a clean chit in its annual report, that is an official document.

Fourth, though the union government has started talking about army-withdrawal from the state, it is certain that the situation is still full of dangers and withdrawing army at this stage will be yet another move to connive with the communal forces. Cases of arson, murder and rape were being reported everyday even when our defence minister, perhaps the most notorious windbag of Indian politics, was camping in the state. Therefore, one can well imagine what horrendous consequences the withdrawal of army units at this stage will lead to.

Fifth, the whole economy of the state stands paralysed because of these depredations. Though Hindus too have suffered in many areas, Muslims have been the worst sufferers. Lakhs of them have lost their sources of income; many families have lost their bread-winners and become destitute. Rehabilitating them and the economy will be an uphill task in such circumstances. Moreover, how far will the BJP government come forward to rehabilitate the Muslim victims, is itself doubtful.

Last but not the least, it is clear that the Sangh Parivar is treating the state of Gujarat as the laboratory of its Hindu Rashtra project and wants to purge the state of the minorities altogether as a part of this project. That was how the state witnessed a spate of anti-Christian attacks not very long ago. At the same time, it is also apparent what the face of the country will be in case the Parivar succeeds in its anti-national fascistic design. One must remember that in Germany, Hitler did not remain content with the holocaust of the Jews; even the progressive, justice-loving Germans were jailed, tortured and even exterminated. In India too, the minorities alone will not be the sufferers.

In such circumstances, it is for the Left, democratic and secular forces to vigorously intervene in the situation to see that the chief minister is ousted for his connivance with and protection to the marauding gangs of the Parivar. It is certain that till Modi holds the reins of power, neither the perpetrators of the carnage or conniving officials can be brought to book nor can the victims be properly rehabilitated. Hence his removal is the foremost task of the day.

The Left, democratic and secular forces have also to see that the army deployment continues in the state till the situation returns to normalcy and the victims, currently living a miserable life in camps, feel secure to return to their already devastated homes. They have also to see that the administration moves into action to stop the smuggling of swords and daggers from Rajasthan and Punjab.

This intervention is all the more necessary in view of the fact that despite making subdued protests over the carnage, the BJP’s allies have indicated that they are not going to take any determined, principled stand on the issue. For instance, if only these allies had pressed for army deployment on February 28 or March 1, hundreds of innocent lives could have been saved. But they did nothing of the kind. The way the Samata Party demanded Modi’s ouster one day and retraced its demand the very next day, goes to show how they are more concerned with their ministerial gaddis than with our national unity and future. In fact, they have directly or indirectly given a new lease of life to the BJP government in Gujarat so as to save their own gaddis at the centre. Sooner rather than later, they will certainly have to account in the people’s court for their acts of omission and commission. But there is no doubt that by that time the saffron brigade would have done immense harm to the country. It is here that all the patriotic forces --- parties, non-political organisations, mass organisations, citizens’ forums and even individuals --- will have to rise in unison, close their ranks and force the union government to act and bring the situation under control. They will also have to channelise the already agitated public opinion in the country so that the communal forces are given a shattering defeat and are not in a position to raise their ugly heads again.

The trade unions of Gujarat, with their limited resources and across their affiliations, have already moved into action to mobilise relief for the victims and also to rouse public opinion against communalism. This very drive has to be given an all-India shape.