2002 Gujarat violence
2002 Gujarat violence refers to a series of riots and other incidents of mob violence that occurred in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002. According to a Central Government report released in 2005, 254 Hindus and 790 Muslims were killed with an estimated 223 deemed missing, in the riots, which were driven by tensions between Hindus and Muslims in the state. The human rights groups estimate the death toll to be more than 2000 with about 140,000 people turning refugees. [1]
The riots were triggered on February 27, 2002 by a fire on a passenger train, the Sabarmati Express, passing through the town of Godhra. The train was carrying Hindu activists called Kar Sevaks returning from a disputed religious site in Ayodhya. An estimated 59 passengers were killed, many of whom were women and children.
While some refer to the violence as riots others refer to it as an anti-muslim
pogrom.
In one of the worst incidents, on
February 28 a mob set fire to the mainly muslim locality of
Naroda Patia in
Ahmedabad, killing at least 65 people. The community religious place was burnt using LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinders. According to
Human Rights Watch, who visited Naroda Patia three weeks later, homes in the area were completely burnt for the affected. Several witnesses claimed that the police failed to protect residents. In the following days, hundreds of young people with swords, daggers, axes, and iron rods walked around the area, shouting angry slogans.
Among those lynched during the first few days of the pogrom was the former muslim MP of the city,
Ehsan Jafri who was burnt alive along with 37 others by a mob that attacked their housing society. This incident further highlighted the inabity of the state administration in controlling the mobs. [
2]
Over two months, mobs ruled Gujarat. With inter-state traffic paralyzed, mobs killed, burned and looted en masse. Statewide, the police took no major action to stop the mobs. At the peak of the violence, mobs paraded noisily right outside the Gujarat police commmisioner's offices.
These killings were investigated in an unofficial inquiry comprising of Justice (retd)G T Nanavati and Justice (retd) K G shah. The inquiry included gathering and analysis of 2094 oral and written testimonies, both individual and collective, from survivors and independent
human rights groups, women's groups,
NGOs and academics.
Various human rights groups as well as major
Indian newspapers accused the Gujarat state government, led by
Chief Minister Narendra Modi for supporting the riots. On 3rd March, 2002, Modi stated : "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." He further added that Gujarat's 50 million people had shown "remarkable restraint under grave provocation", implying that the violence could have been worse. [
3]
The
Gujarati media neverthless claimed that Modi's words were blown "out of context" by the English media.
As a result of Narendra Modi's alleged role in abetting the riots, the
US government revoked his visa under Section 212 (a)(2)(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act which makes any foreign government official who was responsible or directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religions freedom, ineligible for the visa.([
4]) This decision was protested by the Indian government, but in response the US government pointed out that their decision was based on the report by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India. [
5]
On part of the government's effort to control the riots:
* Deployed the army, after 72 hours.
* Made preventive arrests of over 33,000 people.
* Fired over 12,000 rounds of bullets
* Fired over 15,000 rounds of tear gas shells
However, the
President of India at that time,
K. R. Narayanan, later blamed the ruling
BJP government for supporting the pogroms. In an interview to the Malayalam magazine Manava Samskriti on the eve of the third anniversary of the Gujarat riots he said :
"If the army had been given the powers to suppress the violence, but the [BJP] state government did not do it; the Centre also did not do it. It was a conspiracy between the state and the central government that was responsible for the Gujarat violence." ([
6]) Narayanan's views were consistent with reports by
Rahul Bedi that the soldiers were held back by the government in the initial days of the pogram which gave the rioters a free hand. [
7]
The Best Bakery Case
The
Best Bakery case, one of the most famous in recent history, is still ongoing. The incident involves the gruesome killing of 14 people when the Best Bakery, in the Hanuman Tekri area of Vadodara, was attacked by a large mob.[
8]
A Sessions court in Vadodara had acquitted 21 accused in the case as witnesses turned hostile. The Gujarat High Court also upheld the decision. Later, a key witness
Zahira Sheikh asked for retrial of the accused outside Gujarat and said that she changed her statement in the court due to threat to her life by the
Bharatiya Janata Party leader
Madhu Srivastav. The Supreme Court of India ordered a retrial, out of the state of Gujarat and described Gujarat's administrators as "modern day neros", saying that they "were looking elsewhere when Best Bakery and innocent women and children were burning, and were probably deliberating how the perpetrators of the crime can be saved and protected". [
9]
Zaheera, however changed her stance and said that the decision by the Sessions court was correct. This time she accused social activist
Teesta Setalvad of getting her signature on the petition by telling her that the petition filed was for her property. A "sting" operation carried by the magazine Tehelka seemed to reveal that she had accepted bribes from the
BJP MLA and close associate of
Narendra Modi, Madhu Srivastava. [
10]
The other witnesses in the case have mantained their stand and some of identified the accused in their depostions.
The reasons for the train fire and the riots are fiercely disputed.
*One hypothesis states that the attackers were Muslim vendors at the Godhra station who had an altercation with the Kar Sevaks earlier, and that the riots were an expected retaliation to the train fire.
*A railway ministry inquiry led by Retired Supreme Court judge Umesh Chandra Banerjee concluded that the fire was accidental. "There has been a preponderance of evidence that the fire in coach number S6 originated in the coach itself without any external input," he said, "The possibility of an inflammable liquid having been used is completely ruled out as there was first a smell of burning, followed by then (sic) smoke and flames thereafter.". The report was attacked by the BJP and other social service organizations as politically motivated.[11]).
*
A report on the altercation between the Muslim tea vendor and the kar sevaks in magazine Outlook*
Human Rights Watch (HRW) report 'We have no orders to save you'*
The HRW Report on Gujarat: Another Assassination Commentary on the HRW report
*
After the carnage: the predatory 'intelligentsia' Commentary on the "predatory 'intelligentsia" by Rajeev Srinivasa
*
Crime Against Humanity - An Inquiry into the Carnage in Gujarat published by Citizens for Justice and Peace
*
Gujarat page on site of Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of Penguin book, Gujarat: The Making of a Tragedy (2002)Compilations of newspaper articles
*
Indian Express-Full Coverage *
The Gujarat Riots Homepage*
Efforts to bring justice to the victims of the violenceNewspaper articles
*
In India, a Child's Life Is Cheap Indeed, The New York Times, March 7, 2002*
After Deadly Firestorm, India Officials Ask Why, The New York Times, March 6, 2002*
India Death Toll Passes 300 in 4th Day of Religious Riots, The New York Times, March 3, 2002*
More Than 200 Die in 3 Days of Riots in Western India, The New York Times, March 2, 2002*
Hindu Rioters Kill 60 Muslims in India, The New York Times, March 1, 2002*
Firebombing of Train Carrying Hindu Activists Kills 57, The New York Times, February 28, 2002*
Early news reports on the violence*
The sufferings of victims*
India: Hate speeches on the violence in Gujarat must be stopped
