People's Democracy

WHAT normalcy are we talking about? The situation is little different from that on February 27-28, 2002. This is what Father Cedric Prakash had to say of Gujarat, contradicting the government’s loud claims of normalcy, and the media’s relegation of the Gujarat happenings to inside pages of newspapers. The occasion was a Convention organised by SAHMAT in New Delhi on July 14 to apprise people of the real situation in the state, even as the Modi government is announcing elections on the plea that Gujarat is now "normal".

Father Cedric Prakash is one of the main activists and coordinators of the NGO based Citizen’s Initiative network that has been working tirelessly among the carnage affected people in relief camps. He pointed out that the normalcy being claimed by the government is their way of saying that that the Sangh Parivar’s war against minorities and their second class citizenship is normal in a Hindu Pradesh.

The first session centred on a discussion of two themes: the condition of the families who had somehow escaped with their lives and the impact of the closure of the relief camps, and what exactly the normalcy claimed by the government means in real terms for these thousands of families. Despite its own assurance in response to protests and despite the High Court directive that relief camps must not be dismantled till all occupants within them are rehabilitated, the Modi government is using every trick up its sleeve to force closure of these camps. It had begun this process in April itself. The result is that in Ahmedabad alone, of the twenty-three camps thirteen no longer find mention in government records. The little that the government was forced to give in terms of daily ration has also consequently stopped. It is a different matter that despite this derecognition and denial of even the minimum facilities like water, toilets and ration, many relief camps still exist and thousands still remain in them.

Outside Ahmedabad, as Cedric Prakash, Latifa Jani and Prof Iliyas who have been involved in coordinating the relief work testified, the camps in the rural areas of Godhra, Anand-Kheda have already been closed. Prof Iliyas informed the Convention that in the Anand-Kheda area alone fifteen to twenty thousand people had been rendered homeless. His organisation ran twenty relief camps in which there were twenty thousand people. They were forced to close down all of them after two and a half months. Similarly, Mohammad Yusuf, coordinator of the camps in the Godhra region mentioned that about 4,200 people stayed in four camps, but the government agreed to provide compensation to only 1,640, and they too have been provided ration cards for just six months. Officially even these camps are considered closed by the government.

The question being raised again and again was, what should be done and who would be responsible for their rehabilitation, the government having already washed its hands off them by closing the camps. The need for ration and other daily needs till remains acute, and the NGOs involved in the work are still having to provide relief. The closure of camps is no sign of normalcy. The need to send children back to schools, a shelter that can be a home, and avenues for livelihood remain acute problems.

Most people are unable to return to their homes. Prof Iliyas said that a hundred and fifty villages had been engulfed in the anti Muslim violence in the Anand Kheda area, and following one single incident 260 families fled for their lives, not one of which has been able to return. In this village 27 people, including a four-year-old child and a 70-year-old woman were burnt alive. In surrounding areas 600 other families have not been able to return home. The state of tension is such, that even with police escort, survey of damage has been carried out only in twelve villages. Where some few have managed to brave a return, there is little assurance of security, from the administration and police. In all cases they have been asked to withdraw and refrain from any FIRs.

All three speakers also spoke on the VHP enforced economic boycott against the Muslims. Particularly in areas where Muslims are in small numbers it will become impossible for them to survive in their own villages. Muslims in many areas have not only been thrown out of work in many parts of the state, the boycott has made it impossible that they find means of self-employment.

Prof Iliyas showed how the killings involved systematic planning. People were first forced to flee at the violence, their houses were then robbed, and only after being robbed were the houses burnt. The police instead of helping the victims terrorised them. They also narrated other horrific incidents. Of a young girl chased and raped by three men, after witnessing the rape of her companions/relatives who were later hacked to death and burnt. Her sister who was pregnant gave birth to a baby in flight, who was later killed when just two days of age. She managed to flee, survived somehow through the night without water, entered a hut of an adivasi family and finally was given clothes to wear. She was absolutely silent in the camp, and had to be coaxed into telling what had happened to her. Of incidents where 105 people were burnt alive in three tempos, and the government refuses to recognise them as dead, and relatives have been told they can only be listed as "missing", and that death would be considered only if they fail to return for seven years.

Lawyer Amrish Patel of Jan Sangharsh Manch talked of the role of the administration, and informed that his organisation has come to the conclusion that there is no evidence to show that the Godhra incident was a conspiracy of the Muslims. If anything there was a conspiracy by the VHP, which is reflected in the way ISI was named and blamed on the first day itself and thereafter the reference dropped. The entire blame game was aimed at perpetrating the anti Muslim pogrom. His organisation has filed a counter affidavit on the issue.

Dr Mukul Sinha informed that there is no law in existence as far as the Hindutva forces are concerned. He also pointed towards some interventions by the Court. The Panch Mahals court let off after a day or two the goons who had destroyed the houses/shops of the Muslims, while those caught for attacking the train continue to be in police custody. This because the police failed to produce eyewitnesses against those who burnt Muslim shops, and those that did give an eye witness account were not considered credible because they belonged to the Muslim community and therefore not unbiased in the matter. In other cases where it was not possible to ignore the attacks on Muslims, the firings on Muslims were attributed to self-defense. Dr Sinha also underlined the singularity of the Godhra FIR, which simply states that the attack on the train by Muslims was aimed at fermenting a communal riot. According to him Modi’s government, prior to the pogrom, had prepared all legal safeguards for the Hindutva goons.

Filmmaker and freelance journalist, K Stalin, discussed the role of the Gujarati papers, Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar, in creating the atmosphere for pogroms. He also pointed out how Modi soon became the hero of the VHP cadres whom he claimed to have controlled after "seventy-two hours"--a fact that underlines the complicity between them. He repeatedly exposed the falsity of Modi’s charge that it was the English media’s reporting of the carnage that resulted in the aggravation of the situation. He described the trishul and sword wielding mobs at the Jagannath yatra, essentially a show of strength, which throughout its route threw a challenge to the minorities to come out and face the Hindutva forces.

Dr Harsha Hegde, a senior surgeon from Baroda, described how most bodies were deliberately mutilated or burnt beyond recognition through widespread use of tires etc in order to obfuscate evidence. Doctors, either out of sympathy or fear of the Hindutva forces have been understating the extent of violence and cruelty and not writing what they should in their postmortems, particularly in the rural areas where there is little scope for resisting the intimidatory stance of the Hindutva cadres.

Nirmala Deshpande, a very senior Gandhian, was still full of hope that Fascism would never succeed in this country, and she pointed towards two major developments- a meeting of peace activists of different religions in Ayodhya, and the expression of opposition by many major Hindu Akharas to the VHP programmes –which gave hope for the future.

In the afternoon session, Bhavana Ramrakhyani spoke of the 40,000 families who have become homeless, and said not even 40 per cent of these have found any form of rehabilitation. Such help that has come has been only from the NGOs. The Modi government must therefore explain what it has done with the 150 crores of rupees that it has received from the Centre for this purpose. Sulakshna Siroor of the Tata Institute said children who had been pushed into thinking in terms of Hindu-Muslim enmity can be brought out of this damage to their minds if adequate efforts are made.

Tripti Shah of Baroda PUCL described how the demonisation of the "other" community was used for attacks on that community. Violence in Baroda occurred in two phases: first in the outskirts of the city, followed by an attack by people coming out in a procession from the mandir to invade the Muslim majority areas.

Father Cedric Prakash called the VHP the Vishwa Hitler Party and said that what has been happening in Gujarat is akin to fascism. He reminded the Convention of the anti Christian pogroms in Dangs and other areas throughout the years 2000-2001, and of how all Vajpayee had to say was that there should be a debate on conversions. He expressed concern at the support that the Hindutva forces are today enjoying among the middle classes of Gujarat, and the fear that these forces have been able to inculcate in the ordinary citizen who now hesitates to oppose them. The Hindutva forces have decided to make Gujarat a test case he said, and pointed out that it was absolutely essential to get their sources of funds from abroad stopped by making an appeal to international agencies. It is time their bluff of being a charitable organisation was exposed for what it really is. He also stressed that the economic boycott of Muslims is creating a precarious situation for them.

Wilfred D’Costa went on to inform the Convention that the Chellia community ran 1200 vegetarian hotels of which hardly 100 exist today. He said that calls for economic boycott were also made earlier, but today there is a systematic move to completely destroy their avenues and sources of livelihood. He said that the pogrom was very well planned and pointed towards the enormous funds received by their so-called charitable organisations from abroad on some pretext or the other. He also pointed out that just as women and children of the Muslim community were specially targeted this time, women of the Hindu community were mobilised by them to participate in the loot and killings of the Muslims. This is cause of great worry he said.

Noted psychologist, Achyut Yagnik, who presided over this session, made the point that the entire government machinery has been communalised and this will outlast the Modi ministry. Attacks on minorities had gone beyond urban areas to the villages. While it is true that not all adivasis are communalised, their participation this time is a cause for worry.

The Convention ended with the resolve to fight communalism everywhere, because what happened in Gujarat could well occur anywhere if these forces are allowed to carry on their programmes.