The Hindu : Investigation as collusion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 01, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Investigation as collusion — II

By Brinda Karat & Subhashini Ali

You cannot commiserate with wounded and violated women and children... without exposing, condemning and bringing to justice those who are responsible.

"NO ONE is thinking of the future," Ms. Dhagamwar laments. She should have put this question to the Chief Minister whose Government has ensured the continuance of an environment that makes it virtually impossible for camp inmates to return home. Just last week, a well-known NGO in Gujarat reported that of the five houses it had helped rebuild in an area of Ahmedabad, three were destroyed again in 24 hours. As recently as May 20, a group of Muslims from the Shah Alam camp had gone to check their belongings and were told in no uncertain terms by the so-called leaders of the area where they lived that they were not "wanted" back. A report was filed with the police but the members of the group had to return to the camp.

A recent AIDWA delegation to Santrampur was told in the camps that when people went back to their villages they were warned to accept certain conditions, including the condition that they agree to earn only the exact amount required for their daily expenditure. This bizarre condition is meant to ensure that the community remains destitute and dependent. The refusal to arrest the main criminals involved in the carnage because of their political affiliation with the ruling party has ensured that the victims remain victimised.

Women's organisations and NGOs in Gujarat and outside have been pointing to the need for special rehabilitation packages for those who have been widowed and orphaned. It should have been a priority with the NCW to persuade the Government to work out such a package. This is all the more urgent given the fact that in a large number of cases no compensation at all is being given to women because they could not provide "proof" of the deaths. For example, in one estimate, although there are 220 missing persons in Panchmahal district, only 87 have been recognised officially as being dead and their families eligible for compensation. During the time of the earthquake, when bodies could not be found, the Government had correctly waived the condition of proof of death if there was corroboratory evidence from neighbours. This humane approach is missing today. Ms. Dhagamvar and the rest of the NCW team could not hear the voices of the women in the camps but they did hear other voices, which, apparently, moved them greatly. These are the voices of those who accuse "secularists" (and Ms. Dhagamvar counts herself among them), of being anti-Hindu. The second half of Ms. Dhagamvar's article is devoted to her understanding of the limitations of such secularists. In describing Godhra and later events she never even once questions why Central and State Governments continue to defend and justify the post-Godhra violence. On the contrary, she blames the activists who have been bringing out the truth about the pre-Godhra events and the activities of the kar sevaks.

Why should the facts of the pre-Godhra violence be concealed from the people? We personally followed up the story published in the Jan Morcha of February 25 describing how kar sevaks travelling on the Sabarmati Express had attacked people visually identifiable as Muslims at railway stations. On March 7, we met such a victim in the Lucknow Civil Hospital. He was Mohammad Asar, a construction worker. Asar was, as usual, on his way to work in Rudauli, Barabanki district, when he was attacked by kar sevaks at a railway crossing. His stomach was slit open and his shoulder was broken; his crime was that he is a Muslim. Ms. Dhagamvar is right to say that nothing can justify the burning of women and children and passengers in a railway carriage, as happened in Godhra. It is heinous, whether unplanned or pre-planned. But how is it "secular" to refuse to recognise and acknowledge that the Gujarat violence was preceded by an almost year-long, hatred-filled campaign orchestrated by the VHP on the Ayodhya issue?

Ms. Dhagamwar gives a new twist to the involvement of Adivasis in the carnage. She makes the case, quite correctly, that Adivasis everywhere are the victims of terrible and rapacious exploitation. She then goes on to say that, in many parts of Gujarat, their exploiters were both Hindus and Muslims. Finally, she says that when Adivasis attack minorities (Muslims in Gujarat and Nellie, Assam or Christians as in the Staines attack in Orissa), this fact is not kept in mind. And she ends with this horrendous statement that "One almost prays to God that they will go on the rampage against Hindus so that we will at least ask the much-needed questions and will have the courage to apply the findings". Even if one were to take her concern against Adivasi exploitation at face value, that "concern" is questionable in the context of targeted attacks on members of the Muslim community in many parts of Gujarat. It is entirely possible that some of the Muslims so attacked had an exploitative relationship with some Adivasis in their areas. Surely this cannot be the reason — and certainly not the justification — for hounding out entire communities from their homes and villages, brutally killing many of them, including little children; hunting people down, mile after mile, like animals; raping their wives, daughters and sisters, and committing arson that involves not only their homes, shops, and crops but even their domestic animals. Giving a `class' veneer to incidents of brutality committed at a time of communal frenzy can in no way be construed as contributing to an understanding of a grave social problem, that of Adivasi exploitation.

Ms. Dhagamvar conveniently ignores the evidence of the sustained RSS campaign among the Adivasi communities. The campaign has attempted to spread hatred and lies against the minorities, first against Christians and now against Muslims. A slogan recalled by many victims was: "pehle isai, baad mein kasai" (first Christians, then Muslims). Ms. Dhagamvar also ignores the evidence presented in several reports that a systematic disinformation campaign that Muslim attacks had taken place against Hindu women was conducted in Adivasi areas, inciting Adivasis to "take revenge".

Ms. Dhagamvar asserts there is a "communal divide" among NGOs in Gujarat, and also uses terms like "pro-Hindu" and "pro-Muslim" to describe their political positions. How would she have termed the opposition to Hitler's pogroms against Jews? Would she have termed those who opposed the pogrom "pro-Jew" or anti-fascist, would she have called the Nazis "pro-German" or fascist? If women's organisations in Gujarat assert, on the basis of hard facts, that the main brunt of the violence has been borne by the Muslim community and that all cases of sexual violence have been against Muslim women, how does it make them "pro-Muslim"? Those NGOs in Gujarat that are in the forefront of relief and rehabilitation work in spite of the threats of violence they face almost every day from those who have declared Gujarat a Hindu rashtra, and have virtually seceded from the Constitution. Surely institutions such as the NCW should be helping their work. You cannot preserve your credibility and put your signature to reports that lack just that virtue; you cannot embark on a venture having decided that Narendra Modi is none of your concern and then claim that there is no evidence of state involvement; and you cannot commiserate with wounded and violated women and children, lying in the open in camps and deprived of food, water and human dignity without exposing, condemning and bringing to justice those who are responsible.

(Concluded.)

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