The Hindu : 'It is State-sponsored pogrom'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 08, 2002

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'It is State-sponsored pogrom'

By Our Special Correspondent

The president, National Federation of Indian Women, Dhina Pathak (right), makes a point at the Federation's conference at Chennai on Tuesday, while actresses and social activists Nanditha Das (left) and Nafisa Ali (centre) look on. — Photo: K. Srinivasan

CHENNAI May. 7. The National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) has called for the an inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the violent incidents in Gujarat, in the place of the K.G. Shah Commission of Inquiry constituted by the State Government.

The Commission should include one or more High Court judges as members, said a resolution passed at a plenary session of the NFIW's on-going national conference here on Tuesday. It also called for the establishment of special courts to try the guilty, including leading politicians. Immediate relief and rehabilitation measures and setting up of peace committees were also an imperative for restoring normality.

Reiterating the demand for the immediate removal of Narendra Modi as the Gujarat Chief Minister, the resolution said the brutal incidents could not be categorised as communal riots but only as carnage. The culprits in the ghastly Godhra train attack were yet to be arrested.

But, the violence against Muslims was ``a deliberate, State-backed pogrom.'' While Gujarat still burned, the Narendra Modi Government survived with sustained support from the Centre. The breakdown in law and order showed that the State administration was a total failure. In the light of the State-sponsored communal offensive and pogroms against the Muslim community, Mr. Modi had not only ``failed in his duty, but had even connived with the rioters and therefore should be immediately removed.'' ``We also demand stringent steps to depoliticise and decommunalise the administration and police,'' the resolution added.

Earlier, addressing the session, film actress and activist, Nanditha Das said while she supported the call for Mr. Modi's ouster, she said he was only part of the greater evil of fascism, which had to be fought against by a most broad-based movement. ``Let us all go back home and try to broad-base the movement and make our voices louder. We cannot allow the voices of fascism to enfeeble our own voices,'' she said. Noting that people should realise how ``insecure'' it was to be a member of the minority community in today's Gujarat, she said this realisation should place more responsibility on the majority community to protect the minorities and preserve secularism for the sake of ``our future generation'', she added.

Speakers from Gujarat, including eyewitnesses, described in detail the carnage.

Another actress and social activist, Nafisa Ali, challenged the Gujarat Government's viewpoint that the violence had not spread beyond a small part of the State. ``But the fact is all those affected were from the minority community and thousands lived as refugees within their own land. Today, Muslims cannot hope to go out of the relief camps''.

Ms. Ali said that secularism and Constitution could not be allowed to be subverted by a `cult agenda'' that was masquerading as Hindu philosophy.

In a separate resolution, the NFIW termed the Defence Minister, George Fernandes' remarks (that such incidents of rape had happened before) was ``shameful, cynical and downright dangerous for every woman''. Condemning the remarks, the Federation demanded his immediate resignation.

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