People's Democracy

ANY references to implementation of Article 355, if not Article 356, by the government must be exposed for what it is—a hoax, accompanied by appropriate noises on the part of the union home minister. It would be a mistake to think the government has played out its role in the pogrom and is now sitting pretty.

It is still very much active; only the forms of intimidation and violence have become more ingenuous in its bid to further marginalise, and literally starve out, survivors. It is conniving towards setting the stage for carrying the war beyond Gujarat into other states. Its initial act of killings, rape, looting, large scale destruction of property of the Muslims having already been effected through leading, protecting, providing cover and justifying the attacks under the umbrella of its Goebelsian myth of ‘spontaneous reaction’, it has now positioned itself for the next, logical stage of its ethnic cleansing programme. Its Goebelsian propaganda is being refashioned to suit its next logical stage of action, by reverting to the older more permanent myths.

Over the last few days, the attacks on neighbourhoods have been substituted for attacks on individual citizens by mobs, still well organised, to prevent those who dare, from returning to work or retrieving their homes. M A Kothawala, a 35 year old lecturer, two daily wage labourers, those returning to their village homes, a truck driver who got back to his job were brutally and instantly murdered. In tune with the orchestrated myth the Special IG Police Chitturi Surendra Prasad says, "Here is so much hate between the two religions that as soon as they see any one of the other community they are attacked." The Joint Commisioner of Police Ahmedabad Rural, Vikas Sahay, absolves the police of responsibility saying, that after the long spell, "violence has got ingrained in their minds and is finding its expression this way". "It has become difficult for people of one community to venture into any area dominated by the other community. You never know what can happen to you," says another, while yet another helpfully suggests that his beard probably identified Kothawala. (Indian Express, May 8, 2002).

This is clearly the language of the RSS. Why was the man sporting a beard (he should "Indianise" himself)? The two religions are separate civilizational entities and cannot live together, and we cannot presume peace; we must rather presume war between them, and so on. So what has been happening is part of normal life and to be expected; the state is helpless in times of religious antagonisms, just as it was in the face of ‘natural reaction’.

The number killed and injured in what is now being called "sporadic violence’ is not small, as the killings are still well organised, and the state government is not cracking down on the mobs. FIRs registered in this "sporadic violence" still do not name the accused leading the mobs, and not a single person named by the people as leading the mobs has been brought to book (Hindustan Times, May 1, 2002). The so-called "stray" incidents in the name of this "ingrained violence" are relentlessly pushing up the death toll as individuals and small groups are targeted in place of whole neighbourhoods.

In the relief camps, the police are carrying out intimidation as they come looking for "criminals". The camps are being attacked with tear gas shells, and there is absolute terror among the people in the camps. The government, on its part, has begun an all-out drive to close relief camps all over Gujarat by May 31. Contrary to prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's assurance during his visit that the camps would continue ''as long as required'', chief minister Narendra Modi has ordered ministers to ''urgently'' work out a plan to close down the camps.

Four refugee camps in Dahod have already been closed down by the government under the pretext that they harbour "anti-social elements", although the government has played no role in running these relief camps, most relief being provided by community and NGOs. On the other hand people are being systematically attacked as they return home. (Indian Express, May 1, 2002). Not a single Muslim home in Panwad, for example, is intact. Messages written on the walls warn Muslims not to come back. Graffiti on the walls of their homes threatens murder and that their wives and daughters will be raped, and "cut into pieces". The police say no arrests could be made because the injured could not give names.

The deliberately created myth of ingrained hostility now falls in place. People are shown as warring each other when in actual fact it is the BJP government and its machinery which is completing the job of frightening people into fleeing the state, leaving behind their homes, property, businesses, means of livelihood, jobs that can now be earned as rewards by the Sangh Parivar stormtroopers, and land which can now be acquired by land mafia once the ‘offending’ minorities are out of sight. This is the game that is now being played out in the name of the people and their "ingrained" propensity for violence and religious hostility.

After leading the raping goons, the RSS mouthpiece distances itself from them by stating that this is no part of their life values. Colour photographs of the Godhra incident are being dispatched for mass distribution, ensuring the communal fervour does not dissipate, so that it is not the RSS and its stormtroopers but the ‘people’ who effect the ‘final solution’. There is a need to be alert to this diabolical conspiracy being played out in the name of the Indian people.

The national media has no doubt covered the entire carnage with rare objectivity this time on, but the full horror and degree of state complicity in the carnage became known through the testimonies of the survivors. At a public hearing organized by Communalism Combat and SAHMAT at the Constitution Club and another by concerned journalists at the Press Club in Delhi, and through numerous reports by concerned groups who have talked to survivors besides collecting their own data, it has become clear that there is a story that still remains untold.