The BJP is attributing the Godhra incident to a sinister conspiracy and yet another intelligence failure. An enquiry commission has been set up to probe the Godhra carnage, but the chairman of the Godhra municipality has already been arrested for alleged links with the ISI. The thickness of the alleged plot leading to Godhra would probably never be revealed fully, but whatever has happened since that fateful February morning tragedy cannot be obscured by any means.

No sooner had the news of Godhra spread like wild fire than the whole of Gujarat was allowed to turn into a saffron slaughterhouse. From posh residential areas in metropolitan Ahmedabad to smaller towns and surrounding villages, Muslim neighbourhoods were systematically singled out and people burnt alive. The government simply withdrew itself and waited and watched as the killer squads of VHP and RSS went about their slaughter campaign with absolute impunity. The only job left for the Narendra Modi government was to provide justification for the killings. Modi had the audacity to invoke Newton's laws of motion to justify all the killings in the name of 'emotional reaction' to the Godhra incident. The deployment of the Army happened very late and that too in a very slow and selective manner letting the killer fire spread and engulf the whole of the state.

The Gujarat government stands guilty of not just inaction or callousness. Narendra Modi and his communal police and bureaucracy have been active sponsors of the Sangh-led slaughter campaign in the state. No peace can return in Gujrat with such a communal government at the helms. No trust and harmony can be restored in the state under BJP rule. Dismissal of the Modi government has to be the first step for any restoration of trust and harmony in Gujarat.

It took Home Minister LK Advani who also happens to be the MP from Gandhinagar and who had used Gujarat as the launching pad for his Ayodhya rathyatra in 1990 full three days to reach Ahmedabad. Gujarat has once again pointed to the diastrous implications of having someone like him as the country's home minister. India cannot afford to suffer his blood-stained tenure any longer. It must be brought to an end. Advani must go.

Once again, it has been Ayodhya which triggered it all. While condemning the Godhra carnage in no uncertain terms, we cannot ignore the spate of provocative utterances and acts indulged in by the VHP and other Sangh outfits. Even as Gujarat continues to burn, the VHP remains adamant. Such organisations can have no place in a civilised society and no state which swears by the rule of law can allow such a criminal communal outfit to take the law in its own hands. Banning the VHP and arresting its arrogant leaders can be the only option. To prevent a repeat of the kind of lawlessness witnessed in Ayodhya a decade ago, the government must act decisively and without any further delay. The kar sevaks must be flushed out of Ayodhya and all stones and other materials meant for temple construction must be seized immediately.

Only a week ago, the Assembly elections gave such a roaring verdict against the BJP and all its disastrous plots and policies. The fire in Gujarat has been kindled precisely to silence the people and vitiate the social and political climate in the country. It is not difficult to see that the anti-people measures announced in this year's budget and before can only be pushed through in such a distorted and disturbed situation. "There can be no compromise with this fascist scheme of things. The saffron slaughterers must be brought to justice. The communal fire has to be doused by all means. Secular and democratic India must emerge victorious. Peace and harmony must prevail.

[A central fact-finding team of CPI(ML) comprising General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Member of Parliament Dr. Jayanta Rongpi and incharge of the party's Gujarat unit Ranjan Ganguly visitedriot-torn Ahmedabad on 4-5 March. The team was accompanied by Ahmedabad-based trade union leaders HJ Pagare, Dasrathbhai Sinhali, and KL Dabhi. Apart from visiting several riot-affected parts of the city, the team also spoke to a number of injured riot-victims in the Ahmedabad civil hospital and groups of survivors now living in the shadow of fear in the dozen-odd relief camps of the city. Members of the team also had the benefit of many insightful observations and relevant information provided by noted author and social scientist Achyut Yagnik and human rights campaigner Girish Patel and several secular activists. They also took part in the peace march taken out by progressive secular citizens on March 5 which was the first initiative of its kind since the outbreak of communal violence on February 27. Following are the major findings and conclusions of the team.]

1. Almost every body the team spoke to described the present riots as the worst in Ahmedabad since 1969. While the death toll reported so far remains mercifully less than the 1969 casualty figures, the present riot has decidedly been much worse than 1969 in terms of brutalities. Never before have people been burnt alive in such large numbers - the city civil hospital alone confirmed more than 200 deaths caused primarily by burns, most of these bodies charred beyond recognition. The other horrific feature has been the killing of large numbers of women and children and many women survivors the team met in the Shahibagh municipal school relief camp alleged that many women had been raped and maimed before being set on fire. While the official death toll has already gone past 500, the tally is bound to be much higher if one takes into account the large numbers of individuals who are still categorised as missing by their friends and family members.

2. The riot victims condemned the Godhra carnage in no uncertain terms. While reports of provocative activities of kar sevaks were quite common to hear, not a single riot victim the team spoke to ever sought to justify the Godhra incident. This stands out in refreshing contrast to the shameless manner in which the Gujarat government and sundry spokesmen of the Sangh Parivar are still trying to justify every killing that followed Godhra as an inevitable and even legitimate reaction. The violence that rocked Ahmedabad in the wake of Godhra was of course widely anticipated, but the riot victims and all other concerned people unanimously felt that had it not been for the government's complete 'withdrawal' for full 48 hours, the magnitude of the violence could have been much less. The thin line of demarcation between a marauding mob and the powers that be, between the Sangh Parivar's riot wing and the wing that is supposed to govern by the book called the Constitution of India has been lost completely in what remains of Ahmedabad after the macabre dance of death and destruction on February 28 and March 1. In the eyes of the riot victims and all sane and secular sections of the citizens of Ahmedabad, the Narendra Modi government has not been a mute spectator but rather a co-sponsor and co-organiser of communal violence. The government stands accused for its criminal connivance at various levels with the perpetrators of the riots.

3. The riots revealed a well-planned and systematically executed pattern of anti-Muslim cleansing operation directed against the entire community. Poor Muslim families have of course been the worst sufferers, but even prominent citizens have not been spared. The former Congress MP Iqbal Ehsan Jafri was burnt alive along with almost all his family members and several other families in the Gulbarg colony of Chamanpura, sitting High Court judge MH Kadri and Special IG of Police AI Saiyed had to run for cover and Justice Akbar N Divecha's house was burnt down. Shops owned by Muslims including vehicle showrooms, hotels, shoe and garment stores, bakeries were looted and destroyed in all corners of Ahmedabad. The demolition of mazars, dargahs and mosques and overnight installation of 'Hullaria' (Hullar in Gujarati means riot) and 'Godhria' Hanuman statues in all those places has been another obnoxious aspect of this anti-Muslim pogrom. The team met families in releif camps who have been victims of successive riots over the last two decades and all their attempts to rebuild their lives have once again been frustrated.

4. The city police behaved in a thoroughly callous and communal manner. The Gujarat government now claims that it is structurally deficient in terms of police forces. But the riot-affected people of Ahmedabad see the whole thing not so much as a deficiency of logistics as a deficiency of political will on the part of the government and the communal bias of the police administration. After all, the highest number of arrests under TADA was reported from Gujarat. It has taken quite a few hours for violence to spread even in Ahmedabad and then in far-flung areas. The extent of police inaction could be seen from the fact that the heart of Gandhinagar, the seat of power, was left to be virtually taken over by the rioters and the police just watched as the communal build-up was allowed to gather momentum. The belated deployment of the Army could also do little to inspire public confidence and the team heard any number of allegations about the so-called 'tactical deployment' of the Army with relatively peaceful and undisturbed areas getting all the attention. The question of the Army not being given proper briefing and lack of cooperation and coordination between the State Government and the Army was also very much there.

5. The dozen-odd relief camps which are providing temporary shelter to tens of thousands of Muslims in the city are running totally on private initiative with little assistance from the State Government or for that matter even from the Congress-led Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. No central minister or state government representative has bothered to visit these camps till date. With no immediate relief in sight even after almost a week, it is not difficult to see how, if at all, the question of long-term rehabilitation of the riot-devastated population would be addressed by the insensitive and communalised machinery of the state government. Meanwhile, the government has already begun to make highly discriminatory announcements about payment of compensation, while a grant of Rs. 2 lakh has been announced for every victim of the Godhra carnage, riot victims of Ahmedabad have been promised only Rs. 1 lakh.

6. The communal fascist character of the Narendra Modi government stands completely exposed on every count. In fact, Mr. Modi is hardly seen as a Chief Minister of a government. The recent spate of communal violence has only reinforced his role and image as a pracharak of the Sangh, refreshing the public memory of Mr. Modi returning with a brick of the demolished Babri Masjid from Ayodhya in December 1992 to proclaim that the BJP was a party of 'men, and not eunuchs'. While the government is busy justifying the anti-Muslim pogrom in Ahemdabad and elsewhere in the state as a legitimate reaction to Godhra, it wants the proposed judicial inquiry to remain limited to Godhra. The arrests made so far also exhibit the government's communal bias. While the chairman and another councillor of the Godhra municipality, both of them Muslims, have been arrested, VHP leaders like Mr. Togadia who has been systematically whipping up communal passions and all his accomplices have been left free to terrorise not only Muslims but whoever has got the courage to insist on peace and harmony. Even the students and faculty members of the Indian Institute of management, National Institute of Design and Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology got a taste of the prevailing saffron culture of intolerance and intimidation when they tried to stage a dharna for peace outside the IIM campus gate on 3 March, 2002.

7. The Central Government's response to Gujarat has also been predictably callous, insensitive and even mischievous. It appears that after Godhra, while the Home Ministry put states as distant as Mizoram and Manipur on red alert, Gujarat was not alerted. Narendra Modi has however gone on record claiming he has been in constant touch with the Prime Minister. Either way, the Central Government cannot dissociate itself from the happenings in Gujarat, more so when the same party is in power in both the state and the Centre and the Union Home Minister LK Advani happens to represent riot-torn Gandhinagar in the Lok Sabha. Prime Minister Vajpayee had the good sense to cancel his scheduled visit to Australia, but he did not consider it necessary to rush to Gujarat. Advani's convoy sped past all the affected areas avoiding any interaction with the riot victims in Ahmedabad. Shahnawaj Hussein who accompanied Advani to Ahmedabad did not bother to visit any of the relief camps. Mr. Arun Jaitley, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, also chose to stay away from the burning state and remain ensconced in Delhi to devise ways to transfer the Ayodhya land to the VHP.

8. In this situation, the team firmly believes that the communal scar inflicted on the society and polity of Gujarat cannot heal with an RSS-led communal government at the helm. The dismissal of the thoroughly communal and inept Narendra Modi government and resignation of LK Advani from the Union Home Minister's post have become absolutely essential to inspire even a minimum degree of public confidence and restore peace and harmony in Gujarat.

9. Ayodhya remains the core issue behind all the violence that has gripped Gujarat and rocked the entire country. Even as Gujarat burns, a jubilant VHP is threatening to unleash more violence in the name of their proposed Ram Mandir. Far from taking a firm stand to maintain the status quo at Ayodhya and defend the law, the Vajpayee government has only emboldened the VHP to go ahead with its campaign. Instead of striking any compromise and brokering any deal with the VHP, the government must ban it, arrest its leaders, and seize all the stones and other building materials that have been amassed in Ayodhya for the proposed construction. The staus quo at Ayodhya must not be allowed to be altered however 'symbolically'. A deal with VHP cannot be termed a solution to the Ayodhya question, it will be a surrender to the forces of Hindu Rashtra and the country cannot permit it.

10. Apart from cooperating in Gujarat with other like-minded and progressive secular forces for restoration of peace and harmony and rebuilding the shattered lives of the riot victims, CPI(ML) will campaign all over the country demanding dismissal of the Gujarat government, resignation of LK Advani and ban on VHP and Bajrang Dal. As part of this "Save Gujarat, Save India" campaign, nationwide protests will be organised on 9 March and a massive "Loktantra Bachao" rally will be held in Patna on March 14, 2002.

CPI(ML) held a protest demonstrations in various centres of the country, including Patna, Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow, Haldwani, Ranchi, and New Delhi against Sangh Parivar's fascist campaign that has flared up communal tension in Ayodhya and Gujarat and also against the Union Budget on 1 March. The Party has demanded an immediate ban on VHP. The demonstration and protest meeting held in Delhi was led by CC members Swapan Mukherjee and Kumudini Pati. Expressing shock and condolences to the family members of the carnage victims of the Sabarmati Express and Gujarat killings, Party leaders said that the Central and Gujarat governments are fully responsible for the current turn of events as these govts. deliberately allowed the VHP and RSS to flare up communal tension which resulted in Godhra incident and then both the governments allowed Sangh Parivar hooligans to perpetrate one of the most heinous massacres in Ahmedabad and other districts of Gujarat killing more than 500 people belonging to the minority and looting their property. They demanded a ban on VHP, resignation of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister LK Advani, and a stop on whatever communal preparation has been going on in Ayodhya.

Speakers also asserted that this year's Union and Rail Budgets are elitist to the core which will lead the national economy to a state of complete bankruptcy. The Union Budget has put a stop on employment, giving every facility to WTO and corporate houses and hiking excise duties for small industries. After raising freight charges on all essential commodities, the so called 'Freedom to the Farmer' budget will in fact "force the farmers to commit more suicides". The increase in the prices of fertilisers, Kerosene, LPG, Fertilizers and hike in postal rates, etc. while stepping up the defence outlay will directly affect the poor people and the middle classes.

As part of nationwide agitation against communal violence perpetrated by Sangh Parivar in Gujarat under patronage of Narendra Modi's BJP Govt in Gujarat and BJP-led Union Govt., as well as against the most anti-poor union budget, hundreds of Party activists and sympathisers brought out a march in Patna on 1 March and burnt the effigy of the Atal Bihari, Advani and Yashwant Sinha and demanded their resignation. The march terminated at AIR crossing where a mass meeting was held. It was addressed by Party state secretary Ramjatan Sharma, CC member KD Yadav and other Party and mass organisation leaders including Prabhat Chaudhary, Ranjit Abhigyan, Manohar, Kamlesh Sharma, Paramhans and Abhyuday. They demanded ban on VHP and arrest of Ashok Singhal. Similar programmes were also taken in Arrah, Jahanabad, Nawada, Bihar Sharief, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Samastipur and Siwan.

In West Bengal, apart from Kolkata, a protest march was brought out in Siliguri Town in North Bengal. An effigy of Union Finance Minister was burnt at Hashmi Chowk at the end of the protest march. The agitators also demanded immediate banning of VHP and Bajrang Dal. They appealed to the Siliguri citizens to maintain peace and harmony among various religious communities. On the same day, a protest meeting on the above demands was held by CPI(ML) in Cooch Behar town.

On 3 March, CERAS organized a vigil in downtown Montreal to protest the communal killings in India which have now reached an official death toll of over 500. Over 50 people attended and the press came to cover it.

CERAS is organizing another vigil in solidarity with organizations in India who have given a call that this day be used to mark "National Unity Day" - which means respect for all religions and protection of minorities.

"There is something deeply distasteful about the manner in which Narendra Modi, the discredited chief minister of Gujarat, is behaving... Almost all of the Gujarat government's positions are contradictory. Mr. Modi says that the Godhra massacre should not be seen as retaliation for Ayodhya for what it really was: an inuman and barbaric act. But he then goes on to add that the massacres of the Muslims throughout Gujarat should nevertheless be seen as retaliation. He cannot have it both ways."

"Next, his police commissioner goes on TV to explain the failure of his police force to stop the slaugher. Well, he says, you cannot expect policemen to be exempt from the mood of the community (i.e., they wanted to attack Muslims). This is not only a deeply offensive statement ... but it also shows the chief minister in a poor light. If Mr. Modi knew that the police could not be counted on (becase they shared the so-called 'mood of the community') then why he didn't send for the army at the first sign of trouble. Why did he delay and then, when the troops finally arrived, why did he refuse to extend administrative cooperation? "

"Mr. Modi had his chance to be chief minister. During his brief tenure in Ahmedabad over 500 people have died. It is time for him to accept what everybody else can see -- he is not cut out for ministerial office, or for any office for that matter. It is time to throw in the towel, to fly back to Delhi and to resume his normal lifestyle of appearing on Zee News and Aaj Tak each night. At least that way he will do less damage, and lives will be saved."
(Hindustan Times, Editorial, 5 March, 2002)

CPI(ML) expresses grave concern over the Supreme Court verdict sentencing noted writer Arundhati Roy for contempt of court in the Narmada case. The Party holds that the verdict bodes ill for the functioning of democratic polity in our country as it signals a threat to the forces of movement representing downtrodden people against the powers that be.

Corrigendum

By mistake it was mentioned in the editorial of our last issue that CPI(M) has won only one assembly seat from UP. In fact CPI(M) has won two seats. The error is regretted. --Ed.

Nationwide Protest Day against Communal Violence

9 March, 2002

Dislodge Narendra Modi Govt. immediately
Home Minister Advani, Resign immediately

Nationwide Protest Day against Communal Violence

9 March, 2002

Ban VHP and Bajrang Dal, Maintain status-quo in Ayodhya, confiscate building materials piled up near the demolished Babri Masjid