goanet-digest Friday, May 17 2002 Volume 01 : Number 3979
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Date: 18 May 2002 01:00:32 -0000
From: "Rohit Shukla" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [none]
Hindutva = an unquenchable thirst for hatred towards humanity: a
sophistication of Nazi strategy.
Rohit
A relentless hate campaign
Violence continues in Gujarat even two months after it started and
the Sangh Parivar campaign to spread communal hatred gains
strength by the day, seemingly aided by governmental apathy and
worse.
DIONNE BUNSHA
in Ahmedabad
* After unleashing mayhem in Gujarat, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad is
now cashing in on its campaign of hate. A fund-raising pamphlet
published by the VHP's State treasurer, Chinubhai Patel, exhorts
the people to "save our country by boycotting Muslims economically
and socially". The pamphlet, being circulated in Ahmedabad's
middle class colonies, elaborates: "Those who talk of Hindu-Muslim
unity are only maligning their own religion. There can be no
equality between Hindus and Muslims." Playing on the fear and
insecurity that the VHP has created through engineered violence
over the past two months, the pamphlet goes on: "What is your
security even in the most decent and secure locality in spite of
having security guards? Traitors and terrorists are coming by the
truckloads. They will kill your security guards and enter your
bungalows. They will murder you in your drawing rooms and
bedrooms." Finally, after raising the level of hysteria
sufficiently, the VHP's pamphlet gets to the bottom line - the
moolah. "We must organise ourselves, join Hindu organisations and
make financial contributions... After Godhra, cases against
several VHP members and Hindus have been registered and many of
them are in prison now... It is our duty to protect their families
and keep them from starving... You will only be following your
dharma by doing so... Contribute to the VHP and avail of 50 per
cent tax saving."
* During the recent senior secondary and higher secondary school
examinations held on April 21, the Gujarat government did not miss
a chance to sow the seeds of hatred in thousands of young minds. A
question in the English examination paper asked students to join
the following sentences to make them one: "There are two
solutions. One of them is the Nazi solution. If you don't like
people, kill them, segregate them. Then strut up and down.
Proclaim that you are the salt of the earth."
CONSIDERING the extent to which the VHP and the Bajrang Dal have
been given free rein to kill, burn and terrorise people, it is no
surprise that there is no end to the violence. The past two months
have seen over 850 deaths, more than 2,000 persons injured and
upwards of 24,000 homes and shops destroyed - by official
estimates. More than 1,000 people are missing. Unofficial
estimates place the death roll at 2,000. Refugees in relief camps
and those who have not yet fled their homes in Ahmedabad's
ghettoes within the walled city, remain under siege. The
perpetrators roam the streets with impunity, stemming hopes that
the State's 1.5 lakh-plus refugees will be able to return to their
homes anytime soon. The fascist BJP government has no interest in
stopping the carnage in the State which the BJP calls its
'Hindutva laboratory', the only State where its party has a
majority government. Its interest lies in keeping the flames
burning, in order to ensure that its hate campaign generates
enough terror and insecurity to translate the fear of minority
retaliation into votes. The pogrom against Muslims has the silent
approval of Narendra Modi; and some of his Ministers are involved
too.
Firefighters on the job in the Juhapura area of Ahmedabad on April
26.
The most aggressive of them has been Food and Civil Supplies
Minister Bharat Barot. For the past two months, he has been
targeting the Dariya Khan Ghummat camp at Shahibaug in his
constituency, which shelters 6,520 refugees. Barot wrote to Home
Minister Gordhan Zadaphia asking him to shift the camp since his
Hindu voters felt insecure with the refugees living close by. The
local police, supported by Barot, raided the camp on the afternoon
of April 23, claiming that it housed rioters and terrorists. The
police lobbed teargas shells into the municipal school where the
camp is located. An elderly woman died of shock, a camp organiser
was injured and three young refugees were arrested. The police
filed a case against 16 members of the camp, including the
organisers, accusing them of instigating Hindu mobs to burn Muslim
shops (those who actually burned them were not named in the first
information report). Realising the dubious nature of the
complaint, senior police officers transferred the case to another
inspector. Mohammed Sadiq, one of the refugees who was arrested,
said he was on the top floor of the school, calming down women
refugees, when the police dragged him and his friends to the
police station and beat them. "They kept asking us 'How many
people in the camp are terrorists from Godhra? How many people
have weapons?' Finally, they released us at midnight. Not only
have they made us refugees but now we are also the accused," he
said. Other refugees from the nearby Mahakali Mandir also allege
that Barot was involved in the attack on their homes on April 27.
The Dariya Khan Ghummat case clearly highlights the complicity of
politicians and the local police in the continuing witch-hunt
against the minorities.
Finance Minister Nitin Patel was reportedly instigating trouble in
his hometown of Kadi in Mehsana district. Subverting the
government machinery, Health Minister Ashok Bhatt and Urban
Development Minister I.K. Jadeja were monitoring police control
rooms in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar during the first few days of
rioting. It was during this time that desperate calls were made to
the police by former Congress member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri
pleading for help. Hours later, he and 40 others were killed and
burned in the Gulbarga society massacre.
AFP
A car set on fire during renewed riots in the Shah Alam area of
Ahmedabad on May 5.
While the Sabarmati Express tragedy was considered a "terrorist
act", the subsequent planned pogrom against Muslims has not been
considered so. What distinguished the violence from Gujarat's
previous rounds of communal clashes is the fact that these attacks
were premeditated. Planned with utmost precision, using gas
cylinders, swords and trishuls, the initial violence was not
spontaneous. The VHP identified Muslim shops and homes to be
targeted with the aid of survey and voters list data. It is even
alleged that some members of the mob had been trained, much in
advance, to create mayhem. Although the administration anticipated
trouble, it did nothing to stop it. It was an orchestrated failure
of the government machinery. The Sangh Parivar had its men placed
in key posts of the police and the bureaucracy to ensure that all
went according to plan. Those police officers who dared to do
their duty by quelling the attacks were punished with transfers.
The VHP continued to stir trouble during the Ram temple campaign
on March 15 and the Holi festival on March 29. The third phase of
violence has been kept hot by playing on insecurity and rumours at
a local level.
Another reason why there is no end to the violence is the bias of
the police force. Not only did it stand back and watch when mobs
attacked Muslim bastis, but in many recent cases, the police have
themselves gone on the rampage, often shooting innocent residents
at point-blank range. Wali Mohammed Ansari lost his brother Mehmud
Husain (45) and niece Nazia (18) on April 21. They were both shot
in the head when the police opened fire inside their home in Patel
ki chawl in Gomtipur following the stabbing of a policeman in
another neighbourhood. Patel ki chawl has never seen a communal
riot, not even during the violence in 1969. "The police just
entered the chawl and started firing. My niece was studying for
her examinations along with her friends. My brother had just
returned home from work. Even when I was taking them to the
hospital we were stopped on the road by the police," he says.
PARAS SHAH
Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee and Chief Minister Narendra Modi at
the Kankaria relief camp on April 4.
In the adjacent Modi ki chawl, Bashir Sheikh's wife Hanifabibi
also died when a police bullet pierced her skull. The hospital
issued a certificate to Bashir citing the cause of death as "shock
as a result of firearm injury". Seven people died when the police
went on the rampage that afternoon. In other areas like Chandola
in Ahmedabad, there have been similar reports of police excesses
as recently as April 27. "There is no accountability in the police
force anymore. The entire system has been subverted," says a
senior police officer.
The police are making it difficult for victims even to file FIRs.
Taking advantage of the fact that most refugees cannot step
outside the relief camps, they filed vague cases without naming
the accused. In instances where victims named the perpetrators,
the police refused to accept the FIRs until the names were
withdrawn. In many cases, FIRs have been clubbed together,
reducing the number of cases against the guilty. "Everyone knows
who is behind all this. So why aren't the main culprits being
arrested? Even the two big leaders, VHP secretary Jaideep Patel
and member of Legislative Assembly Maya Kodnani, who were named in
the Naroda Patia case, where 92 people were killed, have not yet
been arrested. Unless there is justice, how can there be peace?"
asks a senior police official.
AMIT DAVE/ REUTERS
A policeman and a pillion rider pass through a riot-hit
neighbourhood of Ahmedabad on May 5.
In an incident which epitomised the police's mute response to the
violence, Muslim shops located just outside the Ahmedabad Police
Commissioner's office were burned on April 23. Hindu shops
adjacent to Muslim ones remained untouched. Nothing was done to
stop the mob. The next day, Narendra Modi assigned
Director-General of Police K. Chakravarthy to oversee the
functioning of Ahmedabad Police Commissioner P.C. Pande. It was a
stern but half-hearted dressing down.
Others who have benefited from the violence are local slumlords,
many of whom have links with politicians. Slums in many locations
have been cleared. In some cases, local criminal elements have
ensured that residents do not return, either by burning or
clearing the destroyed houses. In the 60-year-old Khariwadi slum
in Khanpur, where violence broke out on April 22, both Muslim as
well as Vagri residents fled, each blaming the other for the
attack. The end result has been the evacuation of the hutment,
which lies on a prime piece of property adjacent to several
hotels. The municipal authorities had been trying to evict the
residents for several years in order to make way for the Sabarmati
Riverfront Development Project, in which a BJP bigwig reportedly
has a stake. The residents obtained a stay on demolitions from the
High Court four years ago. However, the recent riots ensured their
evacuation without bulldozers. In Naroda Patia too the compound
has been walled off, making it difficult for the tenants to
return, according to Shah Alam camp organiser Mohsin Kadri.
DIONNE BUNSHA
At a relief camp in Vatva, Ahmedabad.
Logic should dictate that given the mayhem that the BJP has
unleashed in the State, the so-called 'peace-loving people of
Gujarat' will topple the government in the next elections, which
the BJP is in a hurry to hold. But logic has no role in an
atmosphere vitiated by hatred and fear, where the slightest rumour
can spark violence. This is exactly what the BJP is hoping to cash
in on. Using deftly propaganda through the Gujarati press,
pamphlets and rumours, it has managed to portray itself to the
middle class as the only 'protector of Hindus' from the 'terrorist
Muslims'. In the tribal areas of Panchmahal and Dahod, it has used
its fascist techniques to pit Adivasis against Muslims, both the
poorest sections who would otherwise be natural class allies.
Similarly, in urban Ahmedabad, it has managed to divide the
working class, mobilising Dalits and the other backward classes
against Muslims.
DIONNE BUNSHA
People whose homes were destroyed in Bamanwad village in
Panchmahal district, camping in the fields.
The BJP has also targeted Congress strongholds in north and
central Gujarat - Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Dahod and Panchmahal.
Forty-seven of the 61 Congress constituencies were riot-hit, as
compared to only 57 of the BJP's 121. Saurashtra and south Gujarat
remained largely unaffected by riots. In these regions, the real
problems facing the State - poverty, water shortages, industrial
slowdown, unemployment - may still be the decisive factors.
DIONNE BUNSHA
Noorbanu Sheikh and her family at the camp. She has received only
Rs.500 from the government to repair her home.
More than two months of sustained violence is not unprecedented in
Gujarat. The 1985 anti-reservation riots lasted five months (see
separate story). However, what distinguishes this latest round
from past violence is that these attacks were not riots. They
were an anti-Muslim pogrom. The State machinery was also complicit
in many crimes. Its negligent attitude towards refugees in relief
camps also reflects the extent to which Muslims were hounded out.
Peace is not likely to return until the culprits, many of whom are
within the government, are brought to book.
Narendra Modi's latest gimmick - doing the rounds of peace marches
- - has come under much public ridicule. Even as he and Union
Defence Minister George Fernandes marched in Ahmedabad on April
28, surrounded by heavy security, five people were killed in the
city's streets. On May 5, at least four persons were killed and 20
were injured in violence in Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Two of those
killed were reported to have been burnt alive.
It will clearly take more than token public relations measures to
get Gujarat back on track. Unless firm steps are taken to restore
peace, the violence seems set to stay. But since hate is the BJP's
trump card right now, it is unlikely to do anything that may
reduce the emotions of fear and insecurity that it hopes will
bring it back to power soon.
_________________________________________________________
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End of goanet-digest V1 #3979
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