Stop the Riots in Gujarat
Resist the Fascist VHP


On 27th February, several compartments of a train were set on fire near
Godhra in Gujarat. The train was carrying many "kar sevaks" of the Viswa
Hindu Parishad. For several months, the VHP has been whipping up communal
tension and targeting Muslims with its renewed focus on temple building at
Ayodhya at the site where the Babri Masjid had stood till 6th December
1992. With a BJP dominated government at the centre (and in UP till
recently) as well as a BJP government in Gujarat, the VHP had had ample
support. Its forces had carried on extremely provocative activities without
any hindrance. Without in the least condoning the Godhra massacre, it must
be set in the perspective of continuous Hindutva provocations ­
provocations that had goaded some people of the minority communities
evidently beyond endurance and had led to such a reprehensible act.
We the citizen of and activist of Gujarat unreservedly deplores the
torching of the train compartments leading to a large number of deaths.
While warning the people of minority communities that this cannot be any
legitimate response, and condemning the action, we also need to situate it
in the proper context. There has been continuous violence against Muslims
in BJP ruled provinces (also elsewhere, but particularly in those states).
In recent times, the promulgation of POTO has targeted Muslims ­ even when
communalists have been attacked, only the Muslim communalists of SIMI have
been the target, while the Bajrang Dal or the VHP have not had a single
hair on their heads touched.

The immediate reaction of Hindu communalist and fascist forces has been to
talk, as usual, of Hindu tolerance and its abuse by the perfidious Muslims.
The truth is quite different. Massive riots have been unleashed, with the
epicentre at Gujarat and tremors being felt as far away as Andhra Pradesh
and West Bengal. The organised lumpen-gangs and storm troopers of the
Hindutva brigade went on the rampage for two days. The promulgation of
curfew did not halt them. By the afternoon of 1st March, even the
government was admitting to formally 150 deaths, a figure that rose to over
300 by the end of the day. The former Congress M.P. Ehsan Jaffrey has been
burnt to death in Ahmedabad. Prof. Bandookwallah's house was burnt down in
Vadodara. In both cases , despite repeated urgings, the police played the
role of silent spectators. In Naroda, near Ahmedabad, a thousand strong
crowd surrounded a slum, dragged out people, and burnt 67 of them alive. In
every case, where the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, has at all bothered to
comment, he has asserted that if the sequence of events is rationalised,
then the blame cannot fall on the VHP etc. Mr. Modi patted the police on
the back, AND CLAIMED THAT Jaffrey was responsible for his own death,
because he had opened fire. The home minister of Gujarat, it is to be
noted, is a VHP leader, Gordhan Zadhapia. Ahmedabad Police Commissioner P.
C. Pande, in open justification for the communal role of the police,
stated that the police "were not insulated from the general social milieu".
After allowing 36 hours to pass without any serious intervention (the same
pattern as in 1992 after the Babri Masjid destruction) now the army is
being deployed.

By declaring a curfew, the government had formally taken the position that
the situation was serious. But nothing was done beyond the formality. And
it is not only the state government, but equally the Central Government,
that is to be held responsible. We have opposed the Prevention of Terrorism
Ordinance. But the government which claimed it was needed in India's
interest, why did it hesitate to apply it to the VHP? The kar sevaks and
the VHP as a whole have been treated as extremely reasonable forces by the
Central Government ­ naturally, since the VHP is part of the Sangh Parivar
as is the BJP. So each case of intensification of communal provocation by
the VHP has been met by warnings to Muslims not to lose their cool while
the VHP has been given still more elbowroom.

When The Central Defence Minister Mr. George Fernandes was to pass through
sensitive areas of Baroda, women from minority community in several areas
were desperate since last three days and they don't have milk vegetables or
any necessities to feed their children in their home. Children are crying
without food. At night they can't slip because of treats and mobs moving
around freely in the area. In desperation women from one mohalla of Wadi
area decided that they will stop Mr. Fernandes and request him to listen to
them. They went out of their homes as his Kafala with several cars and
police vehicles moved from the curfew installed area. They tried to waive
hands and made gesture to stop him but the big kafala did not stop.
Immediately after his car left the local police attacked all these women
beat them with lathi and gave vulgar sexual abuses for trying to tarnish
their image in the eyes of Fernandes. This lead to fear among women and
their family members that if this can happen when Mr. Fernandes was just
few meters away that what will happen to them at night ! Unfortunately this
is not an isolated stray incident but in several places women have suffered
abuses and violence in the hands of police.
We demand immediate action on who so ever is responsible for this incidence
and safety of all those women and their families.

Since women and children suffer most in absence of necessities, we also
demand that the collector should take necessary action to see that the
supply of Milk, vegetable and other necessities reaches in all the curfew
affected areas. There should not be any discrimination on the bases of
caste and community for making such necessities available to people.
On 3rd March, local TV cable operators in Gujarat were instructed to block
Star News Channel as they were showing the ground reality where
government's utter failure was shown by continuous of violence.
Even as violence continues, there is a ray of hope from people's
initiatives at some places forming peace committees, involving people from
both communities and having daily meetings so that no outsider also comes
and creates any tension in the area. There are instances of majority
community people saving their neighbours following minority religion.
As a matter of principle, we believe that the state should not be given the
right to curtail civil liberties of anyone, because such empowerment is a
weapon that the state is likely to turn against the oppressed. In order to
defend human lives and conditions of existence, the governments, both at
the state and the centre, must be compelled to take a firm stand.

We demand:

1. Immediate and effective application of the army to stop all riots.
2. The sacking of Gujarat Home Minister and Chief Minister for their
failure to apply the law of the land and to stop riots, indeed, for their
complicity in the riots.
3. The arrest of all VHP leaders under the ordinary criminal laws.
4. The scrapping of POTO.
5. The weeding out of all communalist elements from the police.

We call on democratic/human rights movements, feminist, trade union,
environment activist in India and abroad to publicly voice their concerns,
and to mobilise against the fascists. We urge that messages of
condemnation, and demands for action, be sent to the he National Human
Rights Commission, Sardar Patel Bhavan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi-110001.
Phone (011) 311560; 3348478 fax (011) 3340016. We request you to send the
protest letter to Chief Minister of Gujarat and you can paste your protest
on this site of for Chief Minister of Gujarat www.gujaratindia.com, Fax
Number of Chief Minster of Gujarat, 091-79-3222101/3222020. Send copy to us
also.

Rohit Prajapati
Trupti Shah
Dr. Maya Valecha
Kiritbhai Bhatt
Anand Mazgaoankar
Thakorbhai Shah
Ziya Pathan
Nandini Majrekar
Medha Patkar
K.Sukumaran
Sanjay Sangvai
Sanjay M.G.
Pervin Jehangir
Devram Kanera
and others more.
add your name and circulate