Gujarat: Narendra Modi and State Complicity in Genocide

Gujarat: Narendra Modi and State Complicity in Genocide

Summary

Under Narendra Modi’s leadership, between February 28 and March 02, 2002, more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in Gujarat, a state in western India, aided and abetted by the state. Sporadic violence against Muslims in Gujarat continued in the months that followed. In the aftermath, 200,000 people have been rendered homeless and internally displaced.

Numerous inquiries and commissions, such as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India, have held that Narendra Modi, as the chief executive of the state, had complete command over the police and other law enforcement machinery during February 28 through March 02, 2002. They have condemned the role of the Government of Gujarat headed by Modi in providing leadership and material support in the politically motivated attacks on minorities in Gujarat.

Mob of Hindu nationalists on rampage Photo: BBC

The European Union, and every major Indian and international human rights organization: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Commonwealth Initiative for Human Rights, Citizen’s Initiative, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), have condemned the Gujarat violence, and pointed to the complicity of the Government of Gujarat in the execution of the event. Coverage in the Indian and international press, including the New York Times (July 27, 2002), Washington Post (June 03, 2002), and Boston Globe (July 12, 2002),[1] reported the failure of the state machinery in Gujarat.

Former President of India, Kocheril Raman Narayanan, stated that there was a “conspiracy” between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments[2] at the Centre and in Gujarat behind the riots of 2002 in Gujarat. President Narayanan said:

“There has been government participation in Gujarat riots. I had sent several letters to the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, and also talked to him. But he did not do anything effective."

Former President Narayanan said he had directed sending in the army to Gujarat to stop the violence. "How many instances of the serial killings could have been avoided if the Army had resorted to shooting against rioters? The slaughter could have been avoided if the Army was given the freedom to stem the riots".[3]

According to independent human rights observers, the events that transpired in Gujarat between February 28 and March 02 conform to the specifications of genocide. These events can be classified as a genocide under the Second Article of the Genocide Convention of 1948, adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on December 09, 1948, which delineates the following criteria in determining ‘genocide’. ‘Genocide’, the Convention clarifies, occurs when any of the following acts are committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, such as:[4]

A. Killing members of the group.

B. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.

C. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

D. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

E. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

In Gujarat, as the International Initiative for Justice identified, the (first) four of the above criteria were met: killing members of the group through massacre; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group through massacre, rape, burning, stabbing, beating, etc.; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part through massacre, economic boycott, psychic, physical, and social trauma; and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group through rape, trauma, destruction of family, sexual violence and mutilation.[5]

Genocide in Gujarat

Genocide in Gujarat
The Sangh Parivar, Narendra Modi, and the Government of Gujarat

This report was compiled by Angana Chatterji, Associate Professor, Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies; Lise McKean, Deputy Director, Center for Impact Research, Chicago; and Abha Sur, Lecturer, Program in Women's Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the support of various members of the Coalition Against Genocide. We acknowledge the critical assistance provided by certain graduate students, who played a substantial role in shaping this report through research and writing.

In writing this, we are indebted to the courage and painstaking work of various individuals, commissions, groups and organizations. Relevant records and documents are referenced, as necessary, in the text and in footnotes.

Book Release: Macmillan (Narendra Modi's book "Convenient Action" launched)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dariyaganj, Delhi, India, Republic of (Free-Press-Release.com) December 23, 2010 --
Need for debate shift from 'Climate Change' to 'Climate Justice' - Narendra Modi

Wastage of energy and pollution at the root of Climate Change - A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Gujarat has shown action, way to combat Climate Change - R. K. Pachauri

Former President Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam today complimented Chief Minister Narendra Modi for providing an exemplary leadership to make Gujarat a carbon-neutral state, through sustainable development and saving wastage of energy at different levels.

He was releasing Mr. Modi's book on climate change, titled 'Convenient Action: Gujarat's to Challenges of Climate Change', published by Macmillan Publishers India Ltd, at a largely attended function at Tagore hall in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Modi is the second political leader in the world after former Vice President of USA Al Gore to have written a complete book on climate change. This is his first book in English.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Modi said how his Vedic readings inspired him to believe in the complementary relationship between human beings and nature.

Referring to Mahatma Gandhi’s concept of Trusteeship, he said the present generation had the responsibility to act as a trustee of wealth and nature for the future generations. And, the reckless destruction of ecological harmony has heightened the ethical responsibility of our generation. He focused on the need to bring in ethics and equity at the core of the debate on climate change.

He said the future generation and the poor and downtrodden are the most vulnerable groups when it comes to the issue of climate change. Climate change definitely affects the future generation which, as of now, has no voice on the actions of present generation. And of course poor and downtrodden are and will be worst affected by climate shocks, extreme weather conditions, etc. Thus he called for attention to shift the whole discourse on ‘climate change’ to one of ‘climate justice’.

He urged everyone not to let this ecological debt be transferred to the future generations and keep climate justice in mind in all our actions.

Dr R K Pachauri, Director-General, The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI) and Chairman, Noble Laureate Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who also graced the occasion, said that 12 countries in the world are on the verge of becoming failed states due to climate change. If we have a failed state amongst us then no state can remain immune.

He said that climate change is a real threat today and there is no time to cast doubt. Environmental degradation is a reality. Green house gases are the root cause of the problem. Gujarat is better placed to respond to climate change under the able leadership of Mr. Modi to bring about a change in societal order,"
Elaborating on the devastation that climate change can cause, Mr. Pachauri recounted the 2009 floods which affected a number of states in India and the drought in other parts that affected 86 million people of 14 states. "If we have to avoid repeat of such catastrophes we need as a bare necessity judicious water management and inter-linking of rivers.

Only two leaders in the world have written about climate change. One is former vice-president of the United States Al Gore and another is Narendra Modi, "Narendrabhai has chosen a subject that is pertinent. He is not preaching as he has documented facts what he has done in this regard in Gujarat. In a way, Mr. Modi's 'Convenient Action' is an answer to Mr. Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth'."

When a new idea crops up in a new area there is resistance from certain quarters. True leadership is making the impossible possible and in the chief minister's book 'Convenient Action' I see a vision of commitment, he said.

Referring to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on the foreboding climate change, Pachauri reitered to those who feel that it is still not time to worry about it: "Environmental degradation has become a reality. There is no need for 100 per cent proof."

Pointing to the impact of environmental degradation, Pachauri pointed out the case of Maldives. The ocean around Maldives was once rich in Tuna fish but today it is vanishing from the island due to acid formation in the ocean due to green house gases.

The function was graced by some of the prominent national and international personalities. Mr. Avinash Tyagi, from World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Geneva, Switzerland, who specifically flew in to take part in this book launch ceremony. Mr. Arvind Mishra, Head, Climate Change Division, TERI, New Delhi.

Ms. Aditi Dass from the Climate Group, officers from Government of Gujarat, Vice Chancellors of Gujarat University, Saurastra University, Nirma University etc. More than 2000 people attended the launch.

Narendra Modi: The Second Coming

Narendra Modi: The Second Coming

Do Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitly think that there is a certain amount of immaturity in the democratic set up which they conveniently address through their maneuverings? Has Modi a sleight of hand ready for any occasion and all the times? He made out March 21st tryst with SIT to turn it upon the head of SIT figuratively and literally. These gimmicks of Modi made 21st as the ides of March. What kind of Macbeth (or, Caesar) is he that he fears for life at the old secretariat housing SIT office in old Gandhinager while in his house in the new Gandhinager he feels safe? Perhaps he sees a menacing ghosts of Banquo in some of those who deposed before him: DGP K Chakravarthi, RB Sreekumar, additional DGPs Kuldip Sharma and Shivanand Jha, deputy inspector generals of police Rahul Sharma and Vivek Srivastava.

How Modi took the people for a ride is plainly discernible despite the chicanery and sophistry of his ‘ace’ lawyer mentor, Jaitley. The SIT had sent him notice on March 11 to join in the investigation which is based on Widow Zakiya Jafri’s petition that 69 people including her husband were killed because Modi had used state apparatus in favour of predetermined (conspired?) leniency to the Hindus who were incited to perform pogroms on the pretext of protest against Godhra incident. He had told the police and administrators to let the Hindus vent their anger despite the fact that the collector of Godhra had called the burning of the train an accident. The SIT had asked him through the notice to find a suitable date after 21st March and communicate it to them. They specified “after 21st ” which would be Sunday and their offices would be closed. In a Machiavellian move Modi deliberately ignored the notice and did not communicate his choice of date. This conspiratorial silence of eleven days was calculated to build suspense which they thought would end in a melodramatic way when the duo would make the crafted open letter to “my beloved countrymen” public.

The letter released on March 22nd would be the last ditch battle to brow beat the SIT using the familiar tactic of what Dr Samuel Johnson said three hundred years ago, “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”

The letter turns around the “purveyors of untruth” and “purveyors of lies” and the “vested interest.”Modi views them unpatriotic and hostile to Gujarat. Whatever they have done and said according to the letter is “canard.”It is essential to deconstruct this web that Modi has woven and see it in the light of what RK Raghvan said that the questioning is a step forward in removing some mystery regarding the carnage. As a democratically elected chief executive of the state he was duty bound to protect the lives of all the citizens of the state. When Ahsan Jafri made his last call to Modi, the chief minister abused him “sale, tu abhi zinda hai!” The people standing close to Jafri heard what was spoken on the phone. If the SIT finds out the transcript by any miracle you can easily nail the lie. Given the kind of dispensation Gujarat has had under Modi that is impossible. If he blared out through loudspeakers abuses at Muslims and the SC or NHRC wanted a tape recorded cassette, the police and intelligence never obliged.

However, Modi’s ministers were in the police control rooms across the state. Phone call details are available. But even this record is fudged. There is no hope of retrieving such vital proofs as long as Modi and his party are in power. Haren Pandey, his finance minister, had dared to reveal what transpired in the house of the CM on February 27th 2002, and you know his end.

The police commissioner PC Pande had visited Ahsan Jafri at 10 in the morning of February 28th and offered safe exit to the former MP. Jafri did not accept it because more than sixty people had taken refuge under his roof and he was morally bound to protect them. After the last phone call to Modi, Jafri surrendered himself to the blood thirsty mob appealing them to spare the refugees in his house. They enacted their gory plan of cutting his hands, feet, torso, head, etc. They played cricket with his skull till the darkness settled on the house. Few of the marauders had the temerity to tell this to reporters!

Zakiya Jafri knew that the Government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee had shot down the motion in parliament of mourning the death of her husband. Vajpayee had not even bothered to heed what President KR Narayanan had written to him about the disturbing developments in Gujarat 2002. Zakiya was overwhelmed by widespread murder and mayhem but in 2006 she went to DGP to lodge a complaint against Modi and 62 others. He refused to register her FIR. On April 27, 2009 the Supreme Court asked SIT to probe her complaint.

During all this time Modi and now his buddy Amitacb Bachan had turned a deaf ear to the weeping and wailing of the orphans and widows of the pogroms. Modi closed down the refugee camps, pre-poned the elections and turned out the refugees on the road to fend for themselves while facing boycott everywhere in the state. Muslims arrested by police were booked under TADA and they are still languishing in jails while Hindus were set free because of the flimsy ground in the registration of crimes they had committed on their fellow countrymen. One of the most enduring mascot of shame of Gujarat and indeed India is Babu Bajangee (Babubhai Patel) and police officer KK Mysorewala. Modi had personally housed Bajrangee in the posh government guesthouse at Mount Abu so that he could abscond from the laws the Chief Minister had sworn to uphold when he took office and now he boasts of respecting.

Mysorewala is the notorious cop whose sentence denying shelter to Muslim women and children became title of reports by Human Rights organizations. He had told the hapless and the hounded that there was order from above that the police should not protect them that day. He has enjoyed state patronage and got promotions despite the charges leveled against him.

This is the tip of the iceberg of genocide in Gujarat 2002. After having Rip Van Winkle’s slumber of eight years, the Chief Minister and Amitabh Bachan have resorted to politicking. Modi and Bachan are using the material prosperity as the eyewash that would wipe out the stigma of the genocide while the men of sanity look at 2002 events as eyesore. Bachan thunders “I want to see who is going to stop me from glorifying them! (achievements of Gujaat)” Modi castigate the concerned citizens of conscience as “the Talibans of the public life.”

Rising above the hubbub is the woebegone face of Zakia, weeping and yet smiling. The rainbow of hope in her face. “The laws are not so blind that it will not provide me justice. Definitely, I will get justice.”

Narendra Modi: The Second Coming

Narendra Modi: The Second Coming

Do Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitly think that there is a certain amount of immaturity in the democratic set up which they conveniently address through their maneuverings? Has Modi a sleight of hand ready for any occasion and all the times? He made out March 21st tryst with SIT to turn it upon the head of SIT figuratively and literally. These gimmicks of Modi made 21st as the ides of March. What kind of Macbeth (or, Caesar) is he that he fears for life at the old secretariat housing SIT office in old Gandhinager while in his house in the new Gandhinager he feels safe? Perhaps he sees a menacing ghosts of Banquo in some of those who deposed before him: DGP K Chakravarthi, RB Sreekumar, additional DGPs Kuldip Sharma and Shivanand Jha, deputy inspector generals of police Rahul Sharma and Vivek Srivastava.

How Modi took the people for a ride is plainly discernible despite the chicanery and sophistry of his ‘ace’ lawyer mentor, Jaitley. The SIT had sent him notice on March 11 to join in the investigation which is based on Widow Zakiya Jafri’s petition that 69 people including her husband were killed because Modi had used state apparatus in favour of predetermined (conspired?) leniency to the Hindus who were incited to perform pogroms on the pretext of protest against Godhra incident. He had told the police and administrators to let the Hindus vent their anger despite the fact that the collector of Godhra had called the burning of the train an accident. The SIT had asked him through the notice to find a suitable date after 21st March and communicate it to them. They specified “after 21st ” which would be Sunday and their offices would be closed. In a Machiavellian move Modi deliberately ignored the notice and did not communicate his choice of date. This conspiratorial silence of eleven days was calculated to build suspense which they thought would end in a melodramatic way when the duo would make the crafted open letter to “my beloved countrymen” public.

The letter released on March 22nd would be the last ditch battle to brow beat the SIT using the familiar tactic of what Dr Samuel Johnson said three hundred years ago, “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”

The letter turns around the “purveyors of untruth” and “purveyors of lies” and the “vested interest.”Modi views them unpatriotic and hostile to Gujarat. Whatever they have done and said according to the letter is “canard.”It is essential to deconstruct this web that Modi has woven and see it in the light of what RK Raghvan said that the questioning is a step forward in removing some mystery regarding the carnage. As a democratically elected chief executive of the state he was duty bound to protect the lives of all the citizens of the state. When Ahsan Jafri made his last call to Modi, the chief minister abused him “sale, tu abhi zinda hai!” The people standing close to Jafri heard what was spoken on the phone. If the SIT finds out the transcript by any miracle you can easily nail the lie. Given the kind of dispensation Gujarat has had under Modi that is impossible. If he blared out through loudspeakers abuses at Muslims and the SC or NHRC wanted a tape recorded cassette, the police and intelligence never obliged.

However, Modi’s ministers were in the police control rooms across the state. Phone call details are available. But even this record is fudged. There is no hope of retrieving such vital proofs as long as Modi and his party are in power. Haren Pandey, his finance minister, had dared to reveal what transpired in the house of the CM on February 27th 2002, and you know his end.

The police commissioner PC Pande had visited Ahsan Jafri at 10 in the morning of February 28th and offered safe exit to the former MP. Jafri did not accept it because more than sixty people had taken refuge under his roof and he was morally bound to protect them. After the last phone call to Modi, Jafri surrendered himself to the blood thirsty mob appealing them to spare the refugees in his house. They enacted their gory plan of cutting his hands, feet, torso, head, etc. They played cricket with his skull till the darkness settled on the house. Few of the marauders had the temerity to tell this to reporters!

Zakiya Jafri knew that the Government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee had shot down the motion in parliament of mourning the death of her husband. Vajpayee had not even bothered to heed what President KR Narayanan had written to him about the disturbing developments in Gujarat 2002. Zakiya was overwhelmed by widespread murder and mayhem but in 2006 she went to DGP to lodge a complaint against Modi and 62 others. He refused to register her FIR. On April 27, 2009 the Supreme Court asked SIT to probe her complaint.

During all this time Modi and now his buddy Amitacb Bachan had turned a deaf ear to the weeping and wailing of the orphans and widows of the pogroms. Modi closed down the refugee camps, pre-poned the elections and turned out the refugees on the road to fend for themselves while facing boycott everywhere in the state. Muslims arrested by police were booked under TADA and they are still languishing in jails while Hindus were set free because of the flimsy ground in the registration of crimes they had committed on their fellow countrymen. One of the most enduring mascot of shame of Gujarat and indeed India is Babu Bajangee (Babubhai Patel) and police officer KK Mysorewala. Modi had personally housed Bajrangee in the posh government guesthouse at Mount Abu so that he could abscond from the laws the Chief Minister had sworn to uphold when he took office and now he boasts of respecting.

Mysorewala is the notorious cop whose sentence denying shelter to Muslim women and children became title of reports by Human Rights organizations. He had told the hapless and the hounded that there was order from above that the police should not protect them that day. He has enjoyed state patronage and got promotions despite the charges leveled against him.

This is the tip of the iceberg of genocide in Gujarat 2002. After having Rip Van Winkle’s slumber of eight years, the Chief Minister and Amitabh Bachan have resorted to politicking. Modi and Bachan are using the material prosperity as the eyewash that would wipe out the stigma of the genocide while the men of sanity look at 2002 events as eyesore. Bachan thunders “I want to see who is going to stop me from glorifying them! (achievements of Gujaat)” Modi castigate the concerned citizens of conscience as “the Talibans of the public life.”

Rising above the hubbub is the woebegone face of Zakia, weeping and yet smiling. The rainbow of hope in her face. “The laws are not so blind that it will not provide me justice. Definitely, I will get justice.”