NO REAL PEACE
TILL NaMo RULES GUJARAT
by Batuk Vora
Ahmedabad: March 11:
Can there be real peace in Gujarat after the gruesome communal frenzy running riot
following the Godhra carnage?
Can the historic amity between the two communities be revived? Can a reconciliation
be achieved?
Can the planned destruction of homes and businesses of minority community be rehabilitated?
Can those 60,000 homeless-jobless refugees be kept alive through massive relief and
rehabilitation with a full sense of security? How are those 20,000 Hindus moving
out from their ?unsafe? homes to be brought back? Can those near and dear ones of
more than a 1500 people burnt (official figure is 672) or stabbed alive in the cities
and villages be properly distributed Rs 1 lakh[100,000] compensation, as belatedly
declared by the government?
Can those Hindu fanatics of VHP-Bajrang Dal-BJP be curbed and stopped from carrying
on their nefarious design to implement the 'socio-economic boycott of the entire
minority community'? (according a leaflet distributed in nooks and corners of Gujarat-
an anonymous handout, of course)
Answer to all these questions in one sentence stands as follows:
NOTHING OF THIS CAN BE ACHIEVED TILL THE HARDLINE RSS SWAYAMKSEVAK CHIEF MINISTER
NARENDRA MODI (NaMo) WAS REMOVED FROM POWER. REPORTS INDICATE HE MIGHT DISSOLVE THE
ASSEMBLY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SO CALLED 'HINDU WAVE.' BUT THE PRESIDENT'S RULE COULD
BE CONTINUED FOR SIX OR MORE MONTHS TO REALLY STABILISE THE SITUATION.
How can you treat NaMo as a criminal when he himself claimed to 'working hard to
provide relief and rehabilitation to victims of violence'' In that case, don't you
remember that he changed his tune after the prime minister reportedly gave him his
'piece of his mind' ( in his 'carnage is a blot on nation' speech), after three days
of mayhem'
Answer again is this: NaMo is capable to play a double role; he is indeed bent upon
propping up the so called 'Hindu wave' he helped in creating by sabotaging real efforts
at amity and rehabilitation, in devious ways. He is considered to not only having
a high degree of hubris, but having an extremely dogged character. Was he not closing
his eyes to just half a dozen dirty toilets for 3,000 victims in a camp' Or sending
just 500 kg of low quality rice for 8000 in another camp'
Most glaring fact of life in the camps is a frightening sense of insecurity still
haunting those thousands of homeless people. A deadly fear has gripped them. Chief
Minister seems to be completely blind or ignorant or happy about it.
In fact, that is what he is doing, according to a wide range of NGO activists actually
involved in relief work in the 18 makeshift relief camps here and there including
those inside Muslim shrines, schools and in the tents on open grounds. The government
only recognized whatever camps were opened by the NGOs. It has established none of
them anywhere in the state so far. People have fled away far and wide from villages
to save their life after their homes were torched.
Besides, the state government has not yet formed a disaster (man-made) management
committee, different from whatever was functioning for Kutch earthquake victims.
No move has yet come from the government to plan the rebuilding of burnt-out houses.
Nobody knows how was this to be done.
How would those factories burnt by the mobs be rebuilt, at least six plastic factories
on Godhra-Vadodara road, six more at Bhavnagar and several at Rajkot and Surat, rendering
hundreds of Hindu and Muslim workers jobless ' How was this famous Lucky Film Studio
of Nadiadwala at Halol to be rebuilt' Who is going to take care of 120 destroyed
restaurants at Ahmedabad city alone, two luxury hotels at Bhavnagar and many more
at various other towns'
The government has not yet started any systematic survey of destroyed properties
and huge financial loss to the state and people. But some rough estimates of losses
are available in local media reports. They could be compiled as follows:
(i) Rs 2,500 crore caused by most of the closed down shops, industries and commerce
in loss of business;
(ii) Rs 1,000 crore in Surat city only due to heavy damages to two textile mills,
lots of handloom weaving factories and other industries, according to Kashiram Rana,
Union Textile Minister from Surat;
(iii) More than 10 crore due to burnt down 60 glittering Opel Astra automobiles parked
inside the GM Motors unit at Halol;
(iv) More than 2 crore at the Lucky Film Studio nearby;
(v) Rs 4 crore worth damage due to burnt down Honda City and brand new Accord fleet
of cars at Landmark Honda showroom at Thaltej on Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway- burnt
down by a VHP mob taking it as a showroom of some muslim, though, it belongs to Hindu
partners ;
(vi) Rs 600 crore loss to hotel industry at Ahmedabad city alone due to closure,
according to Ratanprakash Gupta, president of the city's hotel 'restaurant association.
He said at least 20,000 workers survive on these hotels and restaurants who were
rendered jobless and many missing. Many of those were migrant workers who have left
the state causing a big slow down in revival process; only those who sirvive on selling
vegetables in the city are worth 2 crore, who incurred great loss;
(vii) Rs 500 crore on the burnt down restaurants at Ahmedabad, plus innumerable small
cabins and restaurants on highways and small towns;
(viii) According to leading Gujarati daily, at least 20,000 two wheeler and 4,000
cars were burnt down at various spots in the city; thousands more at Rajkot, Vadodara,
Bhavnagar and scores of trucks too on KaloGudhra, Ahmedabad-Bhavnagar or Rajkot,
Mehsana-Ahmedabad and Surat Vadodara highways. (including cars of late Ahsan Jafri,
former MP and Prof. Bandukwala). They are all lying like skeletons around everywhere
20 to 30 vehicles lying broken or burnt every one kilometer inner streets of the
city alone. Most of the vehicles belonged to innocent Hindu customers when the garage
owners ran away for life (most of them Muslims) while those vehicles torched by frenzied
mob everywhere. All the state road transport buses and city buses were withdrawn
before bandh days after at least 7 buses were set on fire.
(ix) Besides those six plastic units burnt down at Halol, mob burnt 9 trucks carrying
the cars. Three big industries were heavily damaged at Shapar Veraval area in Saurashtra,
six plastic and other industrial units at Rajkot, several at Vadodara, Surat, Godhra
and Bhavnagar inside GIDC estates (industrial sheds of the government)
(x) Gujarat edition of Times of India reported that incidents in Gujarat will haunt
the IT industry nationwide. International captains of IT industry are stunned and
they are hogged by the carnage here, highly damaging the investment climate. Gujarat
Industries minister Suresh Mehta said this was a temporary phase, but he is not able
to give any guarantee of speedy revival.
It may be mentioned that big fear now haunting the state is a breakdown in new investment
' domestic and foreign ' which was expected after the last month's well organized
'Resurgent Gujarat' seminar. A financial daily editor Jayanti Dave wrote that it
may turn out now into a 'dispersion' instead of 'resurgence.'
According to another report, diamonds, textile and chemicals constitute 88 % of Gujarat's
total exports of Rs 49,500 crore in 2000-2001, but now they have been severely hit
by the communal carnage. The government lost at least Rs 100 crore in taxes, says
Financial Express (Gujarati edition).
One of the loudest comments heard about NaMo here was regarding the police inaction
' or even 'connivance' at many hot spots. NaMo doggedly refused to deploy the army
for two days and two nights of Bandh. Later on he proudly declared at least a 100
deaths in police firing on rioters and more than 3,000 arrests. But a local English
daily reported that in the first three days of intense bloodshed police lacked leadership
all over the state. In many places mobs went moving into the cars and two wheelers
torching and looting the goods of targeted shops without any hindrance. Congress
party had to organize a dharna in front of NaMo's house at Gandhinagar to demand
deployment of the army.
How many riotous vehicle numbers were taken by those 700 city traffic police or 50
of them in Vadodara' The answer is zilch. Is it not true only half of them were deployed,
most of whom watched the mayhem or even encouraged the mobs' Why did not the police
commissioner deploy all the forces available' Why the traffic lights were switched
off under an excuse that 'there was no traffic on Bandh day''?
Even when hordes of people came on their vehicles in an area like Muslim Society,
an elite area at Navrangpura, where the DCP Traffic Saminullah Ansari stays, not
one constable was around. So depressed was he that the word going around in IPS circle
is that he would like to quit the job or get a cadre transfer 'to a less communal
state.'
Several calls to the city police commissioner for help from late MP Ahsan Jafri went
unheeded. Later they fabricated a story about Jafri's action of firing at the crowd
and alleged pouring of the acid too on the crowd resulting into the mob arson!
Actually, when the former prime minister I.K.Gujaral visited this spot where Jafri
was burnt alive with 38 others, the words he mumbled were : 'How could one fire from
this first floor in a very narrow lane inside the cluster of houses when the mobs
broke down the walls and surrounded all the houses of Gulmarg Society, setting fire
to all the vehicles parked in these small open courtyards''?
For the record, police had 18 companies of SRP on Bandh day, but not all were in
position. Almost 40 policemen were on 'sport duty', who were not recalled. A number
of officers were with the DIG office, CID Crime, Anti-Terrorist Squad and Armed Units
' but they were not called. There were no preventive arrests on Bandh eve, despite
an atmosphere of extreme provocation. No intelligence gathering on possible violence
in any of the affected cities was done. No confidence building measures to bring
about amity between the two communities were taken at all.
Situation in distant towns and villages remained even more lawless, as no policeman
or military reached there for four-five days of carnage. Even now, we read the reports
of dead bodies newly found out in farms or factories, and more murders being committed
in distant villages of Central and North Gujarat.
A whisper heard inside the anti-NaMo BJP circles here was that NaMo's removal question
might be taken up only after the Rajya Sabha poll on March 23rd, as BJP had to win
three seats here, including that of the party president and of former chief minister
Keshubhai Patel. But then, there would also be an another excuse to finish the 80
municipal elections before any political change was planned' People however strongly
feel the need for a drastic change in political set-up.
Return to South Asia Citizens Web