The Hindu : 'Gujarat carnage was planned much before Godhra'

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Sunday, Jun 02, 2002

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'Gujarat carnage was planned much before Godhra'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 1. The groundwork for the Gujarat carnage was put in place long before the Godhra carnage on February 27, according to a fact-finding report by a Delhi-based rights organisation, People's Union For Democratic Rights. In its report "Maaro, Kaapo, Baaro: State, Society and Communalism in Gujarat,'' PUDR has said that the organisers of the carnage tapped on a seam of hatred, based on anti-Muslim propaganda, which had been carefully cultivated over many years.

The hate propaganda increased in the six months prior to February, the report claims. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal organised "trishul" distribution ceremonies in villages with a Muslim population, and speeches were made abusing and threatening Muslims. In Pandarwada, where one of the worst massacres took place, such a meeting was held about a fortnight before the attack, the report says. And "organisational meetings'' were held in many villages, affected by the Godhra incident, on the evening of February 27 and 28.

In many cases, those who attended the meetings participated in the attacks that followed.

The PUDR team spoke to officials, members of traders' associations, the VHP, the Jamait-e-Ulema Hind and NGOs, visited 21 relief camps and 75 villages and towns.

The report focuses on the rural areas and small towns of the six worst-affected districts. It provides detailed lists of people — several of them functionaries of the BJP, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal — named as organisers and attackers. It also gives a list of victims in some of the mass killings, which establish that their numbers were higher than the ones the Government will admit to.

The report illustrates how the criminal justice system in the State is complicit in the denial of justice to the riot victims. It corroborates the widely-reported fact that police is making a mockery of the investigative process. And that even the courts have shown a reluctance to do their job.

It cites the instance of 137 victims from Himmatnagar who moved the High Court, pleading registration of FIRs relating to the burning of their shops and businesses establishments. Despite an assurance from the State, the High Court failed to pass an order or chastise the administration for failing in its duty. No FIR has been lodged so far.

Another instance it has cited is with respect to 22 persons arrested for the massacre of over 24 persons on March 3 from Ode village in Anand. The court granted interim bail to them for "celebrating Shivaratri.''

The report also says that the Gujarat Government is not serious about providing relief to the affected. While the focus has been on the abysmal conditions in the Ahmedabad relief camps, with 22 toilets for 12,000 people at the Shah Alam camp, the situation in the rural areas is far worse. Most have no sanitation or medical provisions.

The district authorities do not have a complete list of camps in their jurisdiction and the official figures underestimate the numbers in camps. They claimed, for instance, that the population in the relief camps of Anand district was 1254. The PUDR team found that the Kohinoor Rahat camp in Anand town alone had 1155 persons and that there are 17 camps in the district.

While Gujarat had not set up any camps, it had issued guidelines on the basis of which it `recognised' only a small number of them. Most camps in the rural areas were not recognised and, therefore, did not even receive the insufficient, and irregularly provided, food rations that the Government was doling out as relief.

Most of the NGOs running the camps "are really religious organisations or trusts,'' according to the report. The Government's failure to provide relief is pushing people into the folds of religious organisations, "which would further communalise society.''

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