The Hindu : `Gujarat must not be India's future face'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 20, 2002

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`Gujarat must not be India's future face'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 19. Challenging the description of the "Gujarat carnage'' as a "riot'', the CPI (M)-AIDWA report of the events following the Godhra incident, has asserted that "Gujarat cannot and must not become the future face of India''.

Of the view that the Army should remain longer in Gujarat — given reports of fresh violence — and the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, must go, the joint delegation's report on "State-Sponsored Carnage in Gujarat" noted that the violence was unparalleled; both nationally and in the "admittedly communally-affected State''.

The joint delegation toured the affected areas between March 10 and 13.

Stating that the events in Gujarat following February 27 had "rightly been described as an example of a State-sponsored carnage against the Muslim community'', the report also expresses concern over the way in which the burnt railway carriages — crucial evidence in investigations into the Godhra incident — had been left unattended by the Government.

As for the oft-touted comparison between the Gujarat violence and the 1984 riots, it is the submission of the team that "the comparisons are limited''.

"In Gujarat, the events are the bloody harvest of years of the systematic spread of communal poison and hatred against the minority communities by the constituents of the Sangh Parivar in the implementation of the political slogan of Hindu Rashtra.''

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