People's Democracy

Justice For Gujarat Victims: Whose Responsibility?

 Nalini Taneja

WHILE the pros and cons of the consequences of Zahira Sheikh’s change of stance as witness with regard to the Best Bakery Case are being discussed threadbare, along with a lot of gossip, one pertinent question is yet to be asked: on whom rests the responsibility to ensure justice for the victims of Gujarat? Who must ‘find’, ‘identify’, and recognise the perpetrators of the mass murders in 2002? While all those ensconced in seats of power in the Gujarat administration and political circles sit pretty, it seems the entire burden of ensuring punishment rests with the few courageous victims themselves, who are prime witnesses.

Did police officials, local leaders, and other important people not witness what was going on? Have individual members from among them not been suitably equipped with information and evidence to testify in court? As we all know, the crimes took place in broad daylight, in full view of one and all, in public as it were, and there must be thousands of potential witnesses all over Gujarat, as there are thousands of those complicit in the crimes.

How, and why, has it come to pass that all the cases hinge on the testimony of a few ‘star witnesses’ from among the victims themselves, already harassed and punished enough without having to take on the lonely and very heavy burden of confronting the machinery of the state and the Hindutva goons all over again?

CONFIDENCE OF SANGH PARIVAR

Gujarat is not just another case. The mass murders, looting and rapes were perpetrated with great impunity and without fear of reprisal, with the confidence that fear could and will be made to silence the Muslims, should they dare speak up. The crimes would not have been so open had this confidence not prevailed even then. And the Gujarat state government, headed by Narendra Modi has not belied this hope of the criminals and the votaries of Hindutva and their fascist organisation which organised them.

Does the government of this country not know any of this? Not once has this government spoken of bringing the guilty to book. Perhaps it is in no position to do so, not having done anything about 1984, and all those anti-Muslim ‘riots’ in post independence India, all of which have remained unpunished. The confidence of the Sangh Parivar derives from this one fact, more than from its own strength and mass support in Gujarat.

The travails of the legal cases need to be seen in the light of lack of political will by the bourgeois political leadership across the spectrum and bad faith on the part of the Congress-led government. The new government has done absolutely nothing about Gujarat. It has not even spoken on it, for fear that it may be taken seriously and asked to implement what it has said. It has therefore preferred silence in the face of all that is happening in Gujarat even today, three years after.

The turn around made by Zahira Sheikh has to be seen in the context of this silence by the government and the continuing state of siege that Muslims face in Gujarat even today. The state of "normalcy" pronounced by the government is a patent lie.

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

A report recently published by the Human Rights Watch is one harrowing tale of obstruction of justice, and intimidation of witnesses and citizens’ groups who have been helping them, by the Gujarat state government and its machinery. According to the report, “the climate of fear in Gujarat is so great that activists and witnesses are often reluctant to publicly discuss or even be privately interviewed about the threats they receive for fear of retribution from those who make the threats or their allies, including some in powerful positions in the state government or police.” (Full report available on their website)

In several cases the Hindutva goons have actually threatened and assaulted activists and lawyers, even in the court, and no action has been taken. Displaced witnesses and victims now live in clusters and are protected by just a few armed guards, and are vulnerable as soon as they venture out. Apart from a few prominent and well known activists, others are left to their own mercy. Witnesses have repeatedly expressed fear of the Gujarat police, in one case actually giving their refusal in writing.

The state government on its part has seen to it that most organizations involved in helping the Muslims resettle or seeking legal redressal are flooded with enquiries from tax officials and police on spurious complaints. What Teesta Setalvad is facing today in the form of a victim-witness turned hostile and a barrage of accusations not just from this witness (Zahira Sheikh) but also the Hindutva leaders and the chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi (incidentally responsible for her safety according to Supreme Court directives) flows directly from inaction by the central government. The government in power needs to explain why Teesta faces threat of arrest and Modi does not. He not only remains in office where he obstructs justice with impunity, continues to justify the 2002 killings, but has ensured that Zahira’s complaints are filed in the Vadodra court.

Several websites, claiming to support the cause of Hindus brand activists as traitors. One such site (Patriotic Sons of Mother India) has a lead entry: “Shame Shame Indian Leftists! You want human rights for terrorists?” As the report points out, such rhetoric threatens the security of secular activists, especially as addresses and phone numbers accompany those “listed” as anti-India and anti-Hindu.

Muslims have been continuously treated as traitors and terrorists by the state government and arrested under POTA. Of the 287 cases registered under POTA in Gujarat since December 2003, 286 have been Muslims, and one Sikh. The failure of the government to make the abolition of POTA applicable in retrospect leaves its victims undefended and is another aspect of justice denied in the context of Gujarat.

Police pick up youths, whoever they want, from streets, keep them on remand for weeks and months. All this has contributed to an atmosphere of fear and dread among Muslims. On the other hand of the approximately 4000+ cases registered more than 2000 were closed down quite soon, and in those remaining the accused have been allowed out on bail, and form the nucleus of those involved in threatening and intimidating Muslims, particularly witnesses, even today.

It is well known, but does not get written about any more that the over two lakh Muslims who were displaced or lost their all, have yet to be rehabilitated. The Gujarat government has of course done nothing about it, but neither has the central government taken cognizance of the matter. Most displaced persons continue to live in temporary shelters set up by Muslim relief committees, without water, electricity and medical facilities.

Thousands who found their education disrupted have yet to find new admissions elsewhere. Shops, bakeries, workshops eating places and other such establishments have not been re-started. Places from where Muslims were thrown out at the call of the Hindutva goons, have not taken them back. Unemployment, hunger and lack of shelter remain unattended issues.

VIOLENCE SINCE THE GUJARAT POGROM

The violence has extended far beyond the duration of the pogrom and has had an impact well beyond the lives of the tens of thousands who were directly affected. There were reports of displacement due to of killing and looting during 2003 as well - carried out with the same impunity. In 2003, there were more than 25 instances of communal rioting in Ahmedabad district alone; and the state government continued to be complicit in this on-going violence.

The Hindutva forces have managed to sustain a systematic economic boycott against the Muslim community in all the affected areas of Gujarat, aimed at depriving survivors of their means of livelihood. (International Initiative of Justice, report December 2003, p. 59). For example, in Champaner-Pavagarh, in Panchmahals district, nearly three years later, only 8 of the 49 families that used to live here have dared to return and that too only this September, and with a permanent police point. However, despite this partial return no Muslim is allowed to reopen his shop or be part of the taxi service to the Kali temple up the hill. Numerous attempts to involve both the police and the district administration to help them start the service have failed. Until the riots, Muslims were an integral part of the Pavagadh foothills providing a variety of services to the pilgrims. At least 10 of their jeeps ferried pilgrims to the temple while there were at least 30 dealing in everything from snacks to repairing bicycles. Today, a group of men aligned with the Bajrang Dal allow Muslims to ply only handcarts (Times of India, October 7, 2004). This is a story true of most areas where violence was widespread.

According to Jean Dreze (Gujarat Revisited, on website Lines), in Naroda-Patia, widely considered as the epicentre of the violence that swept through Ahmedabad on February 28, the worst violence occurred in Kumbharwas, a Muslim neighbourhood located in a predominantly Hindu area, which also happens to be a hotbed of RSS and VHP activism. According to the survivors, the first building to be demolished was a large house known as “Balochi House”, situated on prime land near the main road. On February 28, Balochi House was razed to the ground, people were killed and construction was started the same day by the owner, a Patel, the Muslim tenants having been got rid of. In Patia, the worst violence occurred in a working-class basti where close to 500 houses (including about fifty houses belonging to Hindu families) were demolished on February 28. The surrounding neighbourhood is rapidly being transformed into shopping complexes, affluent residences, modern factories, and so on. Land prices have shot up year after year, and it is not difficult to guess that many a property dealer must have his eyes on that basti. There are, in fact, hushed accusations that a local dealer, who is also a BJP leader, played a key role in the massacres.

According to Dionne Bunsha’s report (a Frontline correspondent) picked up by the New Internationalist, June 2003), in Vadali, a small town in north Gujarat, refugees from surrounding villages were still living in tents. 'What can we go back to? Everything is burned to ashes. The Patels (higher caste) have declared a boycott of Muslims,' said Mohammedbhai Mansoori, from Lakshmipura village. Posters put up in his village proclaimed it 'Muslim-free'. The few brave refugees who returned to their homes were harassed and shunned. Several Muslims said their tormentors are after their land, shops and small businesses.

In Randhikpur, Sharifa, who dared testify to the police, was being hounded from place to place. Speaking up against the powerful carries a price. Twelve residents of Naroda Gaam in Ahmedabad testified to the role of powerful local politician Dr Jaideep Patel in a Gujarat massacre. Six months later, the police jailed these 12 witnesses, accusing them of murder; they still have not been able to get bail (Dionne Bunsha).

GHETTOISATION OF MUSLIMS

In Pandarvada, Zahir Kalubhai Sheikh used to earn enough from farming his 2 acre plot and doing occasional odd jobs on his neighbours' farms to support his wife and four small children. He now lives in a tarpaulin tent under a tree, wondering where his next meal will come from. He, and twenty others like him, who survived the killings, on top of dealing with the grief and hardship visited on them during the riots they now face a social boycott and a 10 ft (3 metre) wall built by Pandarwada's majority Hindus. (Indian Express, September 7, 2004). This is true of most rural areas where the killings took place.

Agricultural land holdings of Muslims, small and large, have been taken over by dominant community and caste groups (Asian Human Rights Commission Report, June 23, 2004, posted on their website).

In Signal Falia, Godhra, municipal workers were not cleaning the place even as late as March 2003, a year after the Godhra incident. There is hardly any water supply, and they are often told they should go to Pakistan. Within Godhra, ghettoisation is complete. "Most of my friends are Hindus. But we can't visit each other's houses anymore. I hardly meet them. Sometimes, I bump into them on the street," explains Anwar. "For months I have not been to the main market, which is a Hindu area. Muslim children have been shifted out of schools in Hindu localities." (Frontline, March 1-14, 2003). Situation was the same in many other places according to this report.

In cities like Ahmedabad, the segregation is already complete. Many refer to the lanes dividing a Hindu and Muslim colony as 'borders'. Muslim ghettos are called 'mini-Pakistans'. During the violence, the few Muslim tenants who lived in Hindu apartment buildings were asked to leave (Dionne Bunsha).

In such a situation how are cases to be pursued, and what are the chances of obtaining justice and meting out punishment for the guilty?

19-year old Raees Khan Pathan has identified five persons as members of the group that attacked the Best Bakery in Vadodara on March 1, 2002, and killed 14 people. There is Rehana Vora who has been adopted by yet another NGO. She too is a key witness to a massacre, this one in Ode village in the Anand district of Gujarat, in which 27 persons were killed on March 1, 2002. And Bilqees Yaqoob Rasool, who is pursuing the case against those who gang-raped her and killed fourteen members of her family and has had to relocate her residence twenty five times already with the help of her lawyer and the NGO that is helping her.  They are all people who have lost most if not all their family members, have seen their meagre economic support system collapse and are still trying to recover from the trauma of being abused by the state and its agencies.

ENSURING JUSTICE

A whole set of organizations and individuals are being continuously threatened and harassed. The political leadership of this country has yet to recognize the kind of precedents such threats set. With no witness protection programme worth the name or any political campaign to help the victims, things are difficult, to say the least. And finally, leaders like Ashok Singhal openly state nearly three years after the killings: “What happened in Gujarat after the Godhra carnage had the blessings of Lord Rama”. The Congress in Gujarat is silent.

While we may agree or disagree on whether what is happening in our country can culminate in fascism or not in our given conditions, there is no doubt that those who are responsible for what is going on in Gujarat today are fascists and are applying well established fascist practices to further a political agenda that is fascist in inspiration. Our response must be in proportion to this goal of the Hindutva forces; not a piecemeal response to this or that irritant as it comes.

The new government must be held accountable for what is going on in Gujarat today, as much as Advani and the likes were responsible when they held the reigns of government. To ensure justice is not the responsibility of Zahira Sheikh: it is the responsibility of the government in power.