-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | OSTAD TIATRIST staged by KGTS in Kuwait | | | | Read the report by William Fernandes and Gaspar Almeida at | | http://www.goanet.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=341 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'SANVORDEM-CURCHOREM RIOTS SHOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED'
[GOMANTAK TIMES, SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 2006] GOMANTAK TIMES/WEEKENDER brings you excerpts of a discussion, which had a very distinguished panel consisting of people who have been part of Goan society, are sensitive to this issue, and are affected in some way or the other by the riots. The panel consisted of Ramrao Dessai, BJP MLA of Curchorem, Dr Oscar Rebello, a person who speaks his mind and speaks forcibly and Dr Ulhas Parab, crucial member of the GPCC and representative of the ruling party. We have Tahir Dawood, who is an unfortunate victim of the riots as he was trapped inside the mosque on Friday, and also M K Shaikh, who besides being the GPCC vice-president was also a victim of the riots on Friday. Last but not the least, we have Nandita Haksar, an eminent lawyer, who came out of hiding to talk on this critical issue. Sujay Gupta moderated the discussion. * * * * * SUJAY GUPTA: We can start with Tahir; who suffered because of the riots. He can express himself and then we can take the discussion further. TAHIR DAWOOD: On Thursday, when we learnt that a "renovated structure" at Sanvordem was demolished, we decided to conduct a peace march on Friday to protest against the incident. On Friday, around 3 pm, the police asked us to stop the peace march, as they feared some disturbances and we agreed. Within 15 minutes we were trapped inside the mosque. Finally, at around 5.30 pm, police vehicles evacuated about 75 percent of the people out of Curchorem. But another 100 trapped in the mosque were moved out only after the mob dispersed at around 10 pm. SUJAY: Who were around the mosque? TAHIR: There was no one near the mosque. The roads were blocked and people were pelting stones, which continued till about 7.30 pm. Thus, we couldn't move out of the mosque. Then we had to wiat for sometime because there was no conveyance available. SUJAY: I ask Ramrao to respond to that, primarily because he is a local MLA and is deeply involved in the whole issue. RAMRAO DESSAI: The structure was declared illegal by the panchayat. When the panchayt issued a demolition notice, they got a stay from the Deputy Director of Panchayats, showing it as a 35-year-old structure. People were against the structure and when they realised that the panchayat was going slow, they attacked it. Seven were arrested and released on bail for the offence. On Thursday, when some Muslims gathered at the Curchorem police station and decided to stage a morcha there, residents wondered why the Muslims wanted to carry out a morcha to Curchorem, Quepem taluka, when the incident occurred in Sanvordem, which is in Sanguem taluka. They told me, they have heard some Muslims saying, "kal ham unko dikha denge, bakri jaisa katange. Hubli, Bhatkal, Dharwad se hamara log aa rahe hain." The message was spread in Curchorem town. SUJAY: By whom? Did you hear this yourself? RAMRAO: No, I didn't hear. People from Curchorem told me about it. Muslims in Curchorem are good friends of mine. If something was wrong, we could have sat together and settled, instead of taking out a morcha. SUJAY: We are interested in knowing what happened on Friday evening and Saturday. RAMRAO: I was not apprehensive, but the people in Curchorem were. The local Muslims are on good terms with Hindus. Though the local Muslims were against the morcha, they co-operated because their mullahs threatened to throw them out of the community. This is what the local Muslims told me. SUJAY: But why were local Muslim homes attacked, cars burnt, shops ransacked? How is it that 100 percent of the victims were from one community? If people from Bhatkal and Hubli had come to attack, then how did they become victims? RAMRAO: The locals were saying that it is the local Muslims who sponsored people from Bhatkal and Hubli, offered them lunch and tried to create problems in Curchorem. SUJAY: We understand what you are saying. Let's throw the court open to others. We will now ask Dr Oscar Rebello to give his views. DR OSCAR REBELLO: Mistrust between communities is going to be there. Mario Cabral e Sa rightly said that it is a myth that Goa has got communal harmony. What we have here is communal tolerance. Here we have groups running amok, breaking structures and looting shops. What is the law doing? It is shameful and unpardonable that other than Rane, not a single Congressman set foot in Sanvordem during the riots. SUJAY: I ask Ulhas to react. ULHAS PARAB: It is wrong to say that no Congress member went there or didn't act. On Saturday , GPCC president Ravi Naik tried to go there, when he got a phone call that someone was shot and the situation would worsen, he came back and visited the person at the Goa Medical College. We want peace at the earliest and so we have a peace committee headed by Subhash Shirodkar. SUJAY: But didn't the ruling party and government have enough intelligence feedback to pre-empt this and nip it in the bud? The problem here is that even as the mob was attacking petrol pumps, burning cars, police just stood there. Nobody chased the culprits. ULHAS: You are right. Our law enforcement agency has completely failed. I accept that the law enforcement agency needed to tackle the situation and not leave it open to political volunteers or leaders. SUJAY: We would like Nandita to look at it from the legal and law perspective. NANDITA HAKSAR: There are two aspects of law covered here. One, the structure was illegal and so it was demolished. This is taking shelter behind the law to almost justify what happened. We should stop calling it riots, because two communities were not involved. Secondly, the law is not on the side of the people and is often biased. All this talk about peace is peace without justice. Unless justice is given to the aggrieved community, there can be no peace. There is politics of fear. Why didn't the MLA go to the people? Every riot begins with a rumour and is organised with the backing of a political party. SUJAY: A quick response from Ramrao. RAMRAO: The sarpanch declared the structure illegal and he is a Congressman. OSCAR: How do you justify the mob destroying the illegal structure? RAMRAO: I am not justifying it. They went and got a stay on the demolition of the structure upto June 28, 2006 while the normal Civil Procedure Code is that within a month it should be disposed off. OSCAR: There are so many crosses and ghumtis built illegally. No action was taken. Why attack only this particular structure? RAMRAO: Guddemol residents were against the illegal structure. They complained about it. Police arrested them, nowhere is the question of justification. SUJAY: When Muslim property was being attacked, why didn't you as an MLA go and stop them? RAMRAO: I tried to convince the mob, but it was difficult. Whatever happened was wrong. TAHIR: When ordinary people like us could control the Muslims and ensure that no one retaliated, couldn't you, as an MLA of the area, control your people? RAMRAO: No OSCAR: But how do you justify destroying local Muslim property? RAMRAO: All this happened because the police were standing as mere spectators. It was the outsiders who were looting. SUJAY: Let's talk to M.S.Sheikh. He has been waiting for some time. M S SHEIKH: I agree that the structure was illegal. But there is also an illegal structure, which is a temple, in Guddemol? No one came from Bhatkal or Hubli. Many of us didn't want to stage the morcha because we anticipated trouble. SUJAY: But why are you looking at a peaceful morcha as reason for provocation? SHEIKH: You mean we should allow people to react and we should die? NANDITA: I don't think that Muslims do any service to their community by continuously apologising for the Constitutional rights they have. SHEIKH: It is very easy to speak in terms of Constitutional rights of the minorities, but we know the ground reality is altogether different. SUJAY: Ramrao, the charge is that the BJP instills a fear and that's what happened at Sanvordem and Curchorem. RAMRAO: The happenings at Guddemol had nothing to do with the BJP. ULHAS: You knew Section 144 was imposed, yet you conducted a series of meetings? RAMRAO: I know the Congress government would say that I tried to provoke the mob. So I stayed away from them. SUJAY: Let's sum up with solutions, though there is no magic formula. Ramrao feels that the whole issue would have been controlled if the police had acted on time and de-linked participation of the BJP; but he admits that the local leadership and the police failed to control the violence. Nandita emphasised that we can't talk of peace without justice. Dr Oscar said that the biggest loser in this whole process is one community and the whole process of law. Sheikh and Tahir feel that the situation could have been controlled and the mob wouldn't have gone on a rampage unless there was some kind of political support. What is very heartening to know is that Ulhas accepts that the police machinery and police force under the Rane government completely failed to control the situation. OSCAR: Till the wrong committed here is not corrected, justice is not delivered; nothing is going to come out of it. SHEIKH: There is a lack of knowledge of each other's religion and we need to create awareness about it. Government should book the culprits who have instigated people, and punish them. NANDITA: We need to fight the politics of fear.Even as we say that the police was wrong, government was wrong, we need to know how wrong we were. ULHAS: Don't succumb to rumours planted by anti-social elements. TAHIR: For a long time there will be fear in our minds. We feel unsafe in our own country. From our side there will be no distrubances or problems. SUJAY: We will ask Ramrao to sum it up and give solutions. RAMRAO: It is the failure of the administration and the government. The mob was outsiders. Government machinery should be prepared to handle such situations. SUJAY: Ramrao are you suggesting that people who attacked Muslim property were not from the mob and knew exactly where to attack? Where are these outsiders from? RAMRAO: From Margao, Vasco and other parts of the state. SUJAY: Though everyone has given solutions, there are a few things that are still of concern, and need to be addressed. What is disconcerting is that there is still differentiation of an outsider, even if he is in the radius of five kilometres from where you are staying. I would also touch upon a point that has not been discussed at all, and that is the rapid communalisation of the police force. The problems start when the policeman doesn't look at the law book but looks at his political master before he lifts his lathi or presses his trigger. If we want peace and justice, then we need to have a police force which is devoid of any kind of interest. Feedback to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- GOANET-READER WELCOMES contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. We share quality Goa-related writing among the 8000-strong readership of the Goanet/Goanet-news network of mailing lists. If you appreciated the thoughts expressed above, please send in your feedback to the writer. 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