Gujarat four years later
Juzair Bandukwala (March 2006)
The Best Bakery, with all its twists and turns, has
become a symbol of Gujarat 2002. In all 14 people,
including three Hindus were burnt alive. All of them
were poor. Many more people were killed in places like
Naroda Patiya and Gulbarga Society. Yet a number of
factors combined to make this case the mirror of the
tragedy of Gujarat. Oddly the most important was the
determination of Zaheera Shaikh to bring the culprits
to book.. The Bakery belonged to her family. She lost
an uncle and a sister on that fateful day. In the
immediate aftermath, she pledged that she would never
marry until the culprits were punished. She filed the
original complaint that named all of those who were
finally convicted.
The Gujarat police and judicial system were equally
determined to prevent any conviction. Prosecutors were
appointed from the VHP. The police investigation was
deliberately most sloppy, to the extent that the
district administration did not even know how many
people died in the burning of the Bakery. This
careless attitude led the then Chief Election
Commissioner, James Michael Lyndgoh to describe the
Vadodara District magistrate as a joker. Narendra Modi
responded by describing Lyndgoh and Sonia Gandhi as
Christians defaming Gujarat. Incidentally this
district magistrate came from a hard core RSS family,
and belonged to the state administrative Service. He
was promoted by Modi to the IAS and given the
sensitive posting . The same was true of the Police
Commissioner, who belonged to the State Service, but
was promoted to the IPS, and made the police chief of
the city. In both cases many senior IAS / IPS officers
were bypassed. Needless to say these two worthies were
staunch Modi loyalists, from whom the riot victims
could expect absolutely no support.
In similar manner the trial judge was pulled out from
retirement to preside over this vital case. He watched
in silence as the prosecutor and the defence became
one. Key prosecution witnesses were deliberately not
called to testify. The court room was filled up by
highly aggressive VHP men. Most witnesses turned
hostile. The minimum the trial judge could have done
was to clear his court room of all outsiders, and
honestly tried to find why the witnesses were turning
hostile. Instead he conducted a kangaroo trial,
acquitting all the accused, and went on to blame
Nehru’s industrial policies, the reservation system
and even the communists for the communal riots. On
appeal to the High Court, the acquittals were
confirmed, with two judges, to the eternal shame on
the higher judiciary, describing those helping the
riot affected as anti national and anti social. This
farce only confirmed that it is impossible for one
community to get justice in the Gujarat of Narendra
Modi.
No wonder there was a nation wide outrage, that led
the Supreme Court to order a retrial outside Gujarat.
As usual Modi called it an insult to the five crore
people of Gujarat. Yet the persistence and idealism of
Teesta Setalvad, combined with excellent special
prosecutor and judge in Mumbai, saw the wheels of
justice grind once again. The witnesses who were
deliberately not called in Vadodara, agreed to testify
in Mumbai. They identified the accused. For the VHP,
the only hope lay in winning over Zaheera Shaikh, the
original complainant. Even during the original trial,
Vadodara was full of rumours of a BJP MLA, making
fantastic offers to Zaheera. Later Tehelka.com ,in a
sting operation got this MLA to admit that he paid Rs.
18 lakhs to Zaheera , to become hostile in the
Vadodara trial. To regain her credibility, Zaheera
flip flopped, joined Teesta in Mumbai, and accused the
BJP MLA of threatening her. The next flip flop came
just prior to her Mumbai deposition. She changed into
a five star avatar, living in posh hotels and driving
the best cars. She stood totally behind the accused
and the VHP, declared piously that she would never lie
during Ramzan, and went on to charge Teesta with
kidnapping her to Mumbai. The poor slum girl was now a
page three socialite. But her frequent flip flops
destroyed her credibility totally.
The Best Bakery conviction is a huge relief for all
those who value justice. Yet there is no happiness at
the conviction of the accused. After all they are all
from poor families. Their families will be ruined.
They were provoked to a frenzy by political leaders,
desperate to win the Gujarat Assembly elections. In
every case examined, we have found that the fuse was
lit by politicians, who cleverly vanished as soon as
the violence began. They won the election by a huge
margin, but the price was paid by the poor Muslims who
were killed, and by the equally poor Hindus who are
being convicted for that offence. Further there is
hardly any mention of VIP’s in the category incitement
to mob violence. A totally communalized police force
saw to it that their political masters were not
mentioned in any FIR.
Where does Gujarat go from this stage? Obviously the
first focus must be on the large number of remaining
cases, particularly the big ones, such as Naroda
Patiya and Gulbarga Society. The cases must be handed
over to the CBI, and tried outside Gujarat.
It is also time to expose the role of the leaders of
Gujarat society , whether in Government, business,
intellectual elite, Gandhians , the media and even
religious figures. The then Governor did not even send
a mandatory report to the President, on the breakdown
of law and order in the State. The then Prime Minister
went to Ahmedabad after a month of mayhem, advised
Modi on his rajdharma, and then three days later at
Goa, did a perfect flip flop and blamed Muslims for
the killing of Muslims. Cabinet Ministers sat in
police control rooms to prevent any help reaching the
victims. The language press, particularly Sandesh
reduced itself to the level of gutter journalism, to
keep the frenzy against Muslims alive. Many Gujarati
intellectuals justified the attacks on Muslims, and
came out with homilies on the need to civilize the
barbarian Muslims. The less said about religious
leaders the better. Swaminarayn sants blessed the
trishuls given out by the VHP to the rioting killers.
.Jain munis ,who normally become very disturbed when
people eat eggs, kept quiet, while trishuls were
inserted into the private parts of women , before
being killed. Even so eminent a figure as Ela Bhatt, a
Magsaysay award winner, publicly declared twice, that
no rapes have occurred in Gujarat. The attack on the
Muslims of Kawant was started from the nearby Gandhian
Ashram of Harivallabh Parikh, considered a close
disciple of Vinoba Bhave. Leading businessmen and
industrialist responded to the call of the VHP for an
economic boycott of Muslims. No wonder today it is
difficult to find a Muslim in Nirma.
Yet there were rays of hope in the darkness of
Gujarat. Chunibhai Vaidya , Narayan Desai and Jagdish
Shah, kept the Gandhi spirit alive. Kirit Bhatt, Indu
Jani, Rohit Prajapati, Mukul Sinha and Gagan Sethi ,
Teesta Setalvad and their countless, silent friends,
fought the forces of darkness ,at great risk to their
lives. Eminent Gujaratis like Dr.I.G.Patel, Manubhai
Patel and Jinabhai Darji wept at the madness that had
engulfed their community. Their sense of remorse will
ever live in our hearts. Nation wide, the media,
senior lawyers, judges and progressive forces did
everything in their power to see that Gujarat comes
back to its senses. In a vital show of inter faith
unity, our Christian brothers, particularly Father
Cedric Prakash played a leading role in bringing
Gujarat to the attention of the world.
Today the Muslims of Gujarat have substantially
emerged from the trauma of 2002. Grace be to God, that
instead of withdrawing into their shells, they opened
out to the outside world. There has been a sharp
increase in education among Muslims, particularly
girls. The demand is for quality education, especially
in the subjects of English, Maths and Science. The
community no longer looks upto crime dons as their
saviours. There is an increasing realization that we
have to live with our Hindu brothers and sisters, and
as such we must avoid hurting their feelings. That is
a huge step forward. Further there is an awareness
that Muslims have to generate wealth, through business
, as the only way we can come out of poverty.
There is a healthy cynicism about political leaders.
The Congress policy of soft Hindutva is widely
resented. In particular the widely held notion among
Gujarat Congress leaders that Muslims have no choice
but to vote for them,; as the other side is saffron,
touches a raw nerve among all Muslims. It was this
belief that led the Congress party to avoid even a
hint of identification with Muslims, all through the
worst phase of 2002. It is in the vital interests of
Muslims and even of Gujarat, that they be not viewed
as a captive vote bank of any political party. Muslims
must learn to view politics beyond their immediate
concern for security. They are a part of the country,
and must give greater priority to social and economic
issues that touch their lives.
Most important Muslims must recognize that it is in
their paramount interests that a dynamic secular India
must succeed. That alone can provide impetus for an
Islamic renaissance ,both within India and throughout
the world..The twenty first century belongs to those
who can bridge the divide between the Muslim and the
non Muslim world. By Grace of Allah ,Indian Muslims
are rightly positioned for this historic role.