The Hindu : A sharp indictment

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 27, 2002

Opinion

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A sharp indictment

WHAT THE NATIONAL Human Rights Commission chief, J. S. Verma, has had to say after a visit to the riot-hit areas of Gujarat constitutes a stern rebuke to the State administration for the way it handled the evolving situation in the aftermath of the Godhra horror and, more importantly, it also amounts to a stinging rebuff to the official claim that normality was restored within 72 hours. Telling indeed is Mr. Verma's testimony that three weeks after the gruesome episode he found a pervasive "sense of insecurity" and "fear psychosis" still haunting the people affected by the communal rage, and this surely cannot add up to `normality'. Rebuffed by him is not merely the discredited Narendra Modi regime, which as the one directly charged with the responsibility of governance has to bear the cross for "inaction" and "inefficiency". The snub he has delivered is as much to the Centre which has had little compunction in giving a clean chit to Mr. Modi. Only recently, Parliament was witness to the Union Home Minister, L. K. Advani, making a `valiant' bid to defend Mr. Modi and extolling him for having brought communal violence under control within such a short time span; a `feat' few Governments in Gujarat have accomplished before, he proclaimed.

A severe indictment as his observations undoubtedly are, Mr. Verma has however chosen not to go public with his reaction to the numerous independently-sourced complaints of "collusion" between the law enforcing personnel and the rampaging mobs that targeted the minority community ostensibly to avenge the Godhra carnage. Perhaps, he has reserved his findings on this point for the `full Commission' which is due to take a comprehensive look at the Gujarat developments after getting a report from the Government. But there has been a pile of credible evidence to suggest that behind the so called "inaction" and "ineptitude" on the part of the administration was, in most cases, a sinister design aimed at serving the partisan cause to which the political establishment is committed. Nothing else can explain the stark reality that saffron brigades and their associates had a free run for two full days and more, going on a spree of barbaric revenge under the very nose of — and sometimes with support from — the guardians of law. If the State's bureaucracy and the law enforcing machinery have been notoriously communalised, Mr. Modi's insensitivity in citing the Newtonian `every-action-has-a-reaction' theory by way of justifying the minority-targeted pogrom inevitably led to the phenomenon showing up in its abominable forms. That the police officials in higher echelons should now be `asking' the Government to "give them a free hand to act" is a telling commentary on the appalling state of the administrative dispensation under Mr. Modi, what with its penchant for unabashed partisanship. It has been given to Mr. Verma to remind the officials that they need no one's "permission" to perform their duty under the law.

The yet-to-abate communal violence, the still pervasive "sense of insecurity", the serious administrative lapses in "anticipating and controlling" communal backlash, the Government's perceived lukewarm response to rehabilitation needs of riot victims (mostly Muslims) and the originally proposed and later abandoned `selective' application of POTO against the suspects in the Godhra train burning case — all these clearly point to Mr. Modi's `swayamsevak' mindset that seems to have got the better of his constitutional responsibilities as the head of Government, chiefly the obligations to maintain public peace, ensure the safety of all the citizens and, above all, uphold the rule of law. In fact, with every passing day, since the Godhra massacre, Mr. Modi's continuance in office is steadily becoming less and less tenable. Now that Mr. Verma has come out with a sharply critical assessment after a field visit, the case against Mr. Modi's continuance has acquired a greater force and depth, thanks to the weight that attaches to his views by virtue of his position as the head of the NHRC, a prestigious statutory body.

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