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Justice Sawant releasing Citizens Tribunal report at a press conference in New Delhi
Friday |
By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
New
Delhi, November 22 (IslamOnline) - The Gujarat government, the
eight-member Concerned Citizens Tribunal, headed by retired Supreme
Court of India judge, Justice VR Krishna Iyer, held the Bhartiya Janata
Party (BJP) government in the western Indian state responsible for the
genocide perpetrated against Muslims earlier this year. The tribunal
included retired judges, senior advocates, academicians, and
distinguished human rights campaigners.
The
tribunal report released here Friday, November 22, indicted the chief
minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, a number of his ministers, chief
secretary of the state and the director general of police as well as
many leaders from Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP-World Hindu Council) and
its militia, the Bajrang Dal, for the genocide. The VHP and Bajrang Dal
are sister organisations of BJP and are all part of the RSS family.
The
600-page report, "Crime Against Humanity", is in two volumes,
the third is to come in the near future. Releasing the report at the
Press Club in Delhi, Justice PB Sawant, deputy chairman of the tribunal
said, “Aftermath of Godhra (where on February 27 this year, a rail car
was set ablaze killing 58 passengers) was not a simple communal riot but
a state-sponsored, well-scripted and directed genocide.” The genocide
began within hours of the arson attack.
Talking
of the state's complicity in the violence, the report, released on
Thursday, November 21, said: "The post-Godhra carnage in Gujarat
was an organised crime perpetrated by the chief minister and his
government." The report is expected to be submitted to President of
India, APJ Abdul Kalam shortly.
The
report has not spared anybody. The media, the secular outfits or the
Central government. But it specially mentions Modi in the chapter on
'state complicity'. He is described as "the chief author and
architect of all that happened in Gujarat after February 27". The
report has also accused him of refusing relief and rehabilitation to the
victims.
The
report said that cadres of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal were trained to
target Muslims "and the Godhra incident provided an
opportunity". "The uniform pattern of violence in Gujarat, the
day after the Godhra incident, showed that the killings were
pre-planned," it said.
The
report mentions the shifting of the bodies of the Godhra victims to
Ahmedabad the same night Modi's conclusion the same day was that the
attack on the train was pre-planned by the ISI and the bandh call given
by the VHP and supported by the BJP the next day as "evidence of a
well thought-out scheme to extract maximum political capital out of
Godhra".
The
tribunal said what happened in Gujarat was a "genocide and not a
communal riot as generally perceived". "In communal riot,
communities are at war with each other while in this case, 94 per cent
of those killed were Muslims"
"The
centre must bring in a new legislation to implement the Genocide
Convention which India has signed and ratified to punish all those
participating in the planning and execution of murder, destruction and
rape during communal carnages" the report said.
Charging
the police and bureaucrats with "criminal dereliction of duty
during the violence", the tribunal asked the Government to adopt
"stringent and extensive measures to de-politicize and
de-communalize" these sections.
The
voluminous report was prepared after recording evidences from more than
16 districts of Gujarat during field visits. The tribunal recorded 2,094
statements, written and oral in Gujarat, including over 1,500
testimonies of eye-witnesses, victims and survivors of the violence. The
tribunal has also taken into account written evidence collected by
others and placed before it.
According
to the report, “The trained mob led by the BJP and VHP leaders used
gas cylinders to explode houses, hotels and business establishments of
Muslims.” The report goes on to say, “The bandh [strike] call for
February 28 and March 1, given by the VHP and supported by the BJP and
state government, made possible exactly what [chief minister] Modi and
the BJP, VHP, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bajrang Dal
leadership wanted to happen after the Godhra incident.”
Justice
Sawant pointed out, “Only coach S-6 was burnt, that too from inside
and not from outside as Modi and Sangh leaders stated hundreds of times
to justify the aftermath of Godhra.”
Criticizing
the state government for its connivance in the genocide, Justice Sawant
said, “The distinct and similar pattern to the violence point that it
was a state-sponsored and engineered crime.”
Echoing
him, Justice Hosbet Suresh, member of the tribunal and a retired judge
of Mumbai High Court, said, “Modi government failed completely on both
the fronts — in anticipating the Godhra incident and controlling the
large-scale violence which stretched for more than three months.”
He
added, “Modi’s support to the statewide bandh [strike] called by VHP
was completely unconstitutional and the Centre should have interfered
into the matter.”
The
tribunal report said senior ministers from Modi's cabinet met hours
after the train attack and drafted plans handed out to BJP leaders and
far-right Hindu groups "on the method and manner in which the
72-hour-long carnage that followed would be carried out."
"We have collected enough evidence in our report on the basis of
which charges of conspiracy can be framed from Narendra Modi
downwards," said a panel member, Public Union of Civil Liberties
president and senior advocate K.G. Kannabiran.
Addressing
the press, KG Kannabiran said, “The riots against Sikhs in 1984 and
the latest genocide of Gujarat in which Muslims were targeted indicate
that minorities are unsafe in this country.” He further said,
“Without secularism no democracy is possible in a plural society like
ours.”
Advocate
KG Kannabiran told reporters: "The report is comprehensive enough
for any Central agency to file charge-sheets against everybody, from
Narendra Modi downwards."
The
report mentions many horrible incidents, in one a six-year-old child,
Irfan of Naroda-Patia, asked for water, his assailants made him forcibly
drink kerosene, or some other inflammable liquid, before a lit match was
thrown inside his gullet to make him explode.
Justice
Sawant informed the press that despite serving two notices to Modi
government to testify before the tribunal, none turned up.
According
to the report, across Gujarat, over 1100 Muslim-owned hotels, more than
100,000 family homes, over 15,000 small and big business establishments
of Muslims were badly damaged or completely destroyed in the attacks.
The
report says, “The leaders from BJP, VHP, Bajrang Dal and RSS leading
the mobs running into thousands, often carried computer printouts
mentioning names and addresses of Muslims. … Formation of arson
battalions, distribution of swords, trishuls [tridents], guns and other
weapons and explosives in advance across large tracts of the state was
clear indication of planned violence.”
Besides,
the report mentions names of many BJP leaders of Gujarat who led mobs
— Minister for Revenue Haren Pandya, Health Minister Ashok Bhat,
senior state BJP leaders Bharat Barot and Maya Kotdani, a woman MLA from
BJP.
The
Tribunal report makes a series of short- and long-term recommendations.
It has asked the government to implement all the recommendations made by
the National Human Rights Commission and prosecute all, including
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
Other
major recommendations are:
*
Ban VHP and the Bajrang Dal under the relevant provisions of the
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
*
Prohibit the distribution of trishuls [tridents] and swords since
attempts are being made to arm a section of Indian society to unleash
violence against other sections.
*
Gujarat government should crackdown on arms camps being conducted by the
RSS, VHP and Bjarang Dal.
*
Immediate detention and prosecution of Praveen Togadia and Ashok
Singhal.
*
A legal framework should be developed to institutionalise the rights of
the victims of wanton violence to compensation and restitution from the
state. Also, a legal framework should be developed to promote the rights
of victims of violence and underdevelopment.
*
Central government should amend electoral laws to disallow parties that
espouse a particular religion.
*
Center should also bring in legislation to implement the Genocide
Convention, which India has signed and ratified.
*
A standing National Crimes Tribunal must be established. It should be an
independent body, the personnel of which should be selected by a
committee consisting of the Chief Justice of India, the Prime Minister
of India and the leader of the opposition.
The
indictment by the Citizens Tribunal comes following similar indictments
by the National Human Rights Commission and the chief election
commissioner of India.
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