Front Page   

Riot victims, NGOs not for early polls in Gujarat

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD Aug. 9. Barring the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, almost all the political parties, non-government organisations, prominent citizens and riot victims whom the Chief Election Commissioner, J. M. Lyngdoh, and the two Election Commissioners, T. S. Krishnamurthy and B. B. Tandon, met here today opposed early elections to the Gujarat Assembly.

A BJP delegation, however, maintained that the situation in the State was conducive to holding elections and that the people should not be denied their democratic right to elect the popular government at the earliest. As for the 6,000 voters still living in the seven relief camps, it suggested creating facilities within the camps to enable them to exercise their franchise if they were apprehensive of doing so from their original places of residence.

Mr. Lyngdoh and his two deputies, who arrived here on Thursday night, began their on-the-spot study this morning with visits to the riot-hit areas of the Naroda-Patiya and Chamanpura Gulmarg Society — two worst affected areas where more than 150 persons were burnt alive on the day of the Gujarat bandh, called after the Godhra train carnage.

They also visited Kasai-ni-Chali in Behrampura and the relief camps in Shah Alam Roza and Sankalitnagar in Juhapura. Later, they met senior Government officials, representatives of political parties and voluntary organisations, prominent citizens and others to elicit their views on early elections.

The CEC and his team met many riot victims and asked them about their views on elections, their status of rehabilitation and the amount of relief received from the Government. They also asked the victims whether they had the documents to establish their identity in the elections and were willing to cast their votes if polling booths set up in their camps.

Invariably, the victims said that elections could be held only after proper rehabilitation. They hardly possessed any documents for proof of identity and they were still haunted by a fear psychosis, they claimed.

The Commission was visibly moved on seeing Khaled Noormiya at the Shah Alam Roza camp, who showed photographs of his seven family members who had perished in the riots and broke down. Many others narrated their tale of woe and told the authorities that rehabilitation, not participation in the elections, was their priority. Some victims also raised slogans against elections.

Asked whether they were prepared to return to their homes, the inmates said that neither the Government had provided adequate compensation to them nor was the situation conducive to their return. Particularly in some rural areas, they were still being threatened.

The representatives of the Citizens' Initiative, We the People, the Socialist Unity Centre of India, the Concerned Citizens and other voluntary organisations, and some prominent citizens also told Mr. Lyngdoh that priority should be given to rehabilitation.

Asim Roy of the Citizens' Initiative maintained that the elections should be delayed as long as legally permissible to help the affected get over the trauma.

The EC team also took note of his suggestion that the Government and police officials named by the victims or indicted by the National Human Rights Commission for their alleged role in the riots should be kept out of the election machinery.

The leader of Concerned Citizens, Girish Patel, said that the BJP, by dissolving the Assembly, could not force early elections and alleged that the party was trying to "impose normality.'' Kirit Shah of We the People claimed that the elections could not be held now when the rehabilitation of last year's quake victims and this year's riot victims were yet to be completed and the State was facing a severe drought.

The BJP in its memorandum, however, argued that the threat of a possible drought made it all the more necessary for elections to be held early because around February or March, when the elections were due, the situation would further deteriorate engaging the entire Government machinery for drought-relief operations. It would be easier for a popular government to take necessary steps to provide relief to the drought-affected.

The Congress and most other political parties maintained that the riots were politically motivated and that the BJP was demanding early elections to try to cash on the communal sentiment generated by the riots. However, they were ready to face the elections whenever the Commission decided to hold them.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Riot victims, NGOs not for early polls in Gujarat
• President to visit Gujarat on Monday
• Talks offer to Hurriyat
• `Colombo not in a hurry'
• Scam stalls LS, RS work
• Hunt on for Sharma's wife

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu