MEMORANDUM TO THE GOVERNOR OF GUJARAT
March 12 2002

Communist Party of India (Marxist)
27-29 Bhaivir Singh Marg
New Delhi
Camp office:Prarthna Samaj,
Raikhad,
Ahmedabad

To
The Governor
Raj Bhavan
Gandhinagar
Gujarat

Dear Rajyapal ji

A CPI(M) delegation along with leaders of the All India Democratic
Women's Association have visited various relief camps and affected
areas in Ahmedabad and Godhra on March 10, 11 and 12. The team
comprised of Member of Parliament and Central Committee member,
Subodh Roy, Central Committee member Brinda Karat, Subhashini Ali,
Kiran Moghe and Mariam Dhawale accompanied by Arun Mehta, State
Secretary, CPI(M). The delegation met about a thousand people
including citizens living in affected areas, victims of the communal
carnage, administrative officials, members of various NGOs and
intellectuals. It is difficult to recall any parallel with what has
happened in Gujarat since March 27. It can only be described as State
sponsored violence directed against a particular community. We have
also been shocked to hear of the Chief Minister's claim that the
violence has been "controlled within 72 hours"-the implication is
that this is a reflection of efficiency when in fact seventy two
hours is itself a long enough period to destroy a whole community
spread over the State. Moreover the violence continued at least a
week after the initial incidents. The official estimates of the
violence are a gross underestimation both in terms of the numbers
killed, injured or the
extent of property looted and burnt.

We give below some of the main findings of the delegation:

1. The Godhra incident on 27th February has outraged the whole
country. Our delegation visited the site of the terrible atrocity
committed on passengers of the Sabarmati Express. It is reported
there is an anti-terrorist squad investigating the incident and a
Commission of Enquiry has also been set up. The delegation found
widespread disquiet amongst citizens about the nature of the enquiry
as also the credentials of the individual heading it. His past record
shows a communal bias therefore his appointment requires
reconsideration.
Secondly, the delegation was shocked to find that the investigating
agencies involved have made no effort to protect the crucial evidence
in the railway carriage itself. There is easy access to the affected
carriage which means that valuable evidence can be tampered with. For
example, we saw quantities of foodgrains, stoves and jerry cans in
the compartment which points to the possibility of the presence of
inflammable material inside the compartment. It is essential to
immediately cordon it off. According to the information we gathered
the urgency on the part of the State Government required to enquire
into an atrocity of this magnitude is completely absent.

2. We were impressed by the fact that the situation in Godhra town
itself was well under control except for a few incidents of arson and
looting in the morning of the 27th. This challenges the
controversial, and to us highly objectionable, justification by the
Chief Minister of Gujarat that the communal carnage, arson and
looting that occurred in the State particularly in the capital,
Ahmedabad, was only a "spontaneous reaction" to the Godhra incident.
If this was true, the first place to have been affected would have
been Godhra where the incident actually occurred. The sequence of
events in Godhra and comparison with what happened elsewhere, makes
it very clear that swift and firm administrative action made the
crucial difference.

3. We would like to stress this point as it substantiates the
already strong prima facie evidence available from the patterns of
violence in Ahmedabad and later in other parts of the State. The
violence was in fact planned, organised and led by organisations like
the Vishwa Hindu Parishad backed by the State administration
including the police. The most widely publicized example of this was
the burning to death of former MP, Ehsan Jafri in spite of the fact
that he had repeatedly informed senior administrative officials that
his house and colony had been surrounded by an ever-increasing,
violent and well-armed mob. Another example is from Naroda Patiya
where some of the worst incidents took place including the burning of
women and children. The police refused to listen to the repeated
appeals for help of the Muslim residents. They arrived only after the
mayhem. The most telling examples were those where even Muslim
dominated areas were razed to the ground. Areas like Bapu Nagar,
Sone ki Chali, Madina Chali, Ansar Nagar, Akbar Nagar etc. all areas
neighbouring each other were cordoned off and then attacked by huge
mobs that burnt and looted all the shops and most commercial
establishments and many houses. Religious structures like a mosque
and madarsa were burnt, broken and desecrated. It is also a
commentary on the conept of justice that although it was the Muslim
community which has been targeted they also have been the victims of
police atrocities and firing.

4. The brutality of the killings has been shocking, the number of
dead, appalling. Women, children and infants have been killed in the
most vicious fashion. Many have been burnt to death. We have also
heard reports of cases of rape. Others have seen their family
members being burned before their eyes. The delegation has first hand
witness accounts from the traumatised survivors. The delegation was
extremely disturbed to find the number of children who have been
separated from their parents. The children in particular have been
extremely traumatised and require umgent help.
In such a situation it is incumbent on the administration to
immediately ensure that the criminals are arrested and charged so
that the victims can at least feel that justice is being done. The
delegation, however, has been shocked to find no action is being
taken in this direction.. Relatives of those killed are today in
refugee camps, many of which are far from their areas of residence.
They are either too frightened or unable to reach the thanas where
their reports can be registered. Members of the delegation were told
by the District Administration that the Police Commissioner had made
arrangements to post police officers to each camp to file the
complaints but this has not been done anywhere. Victims from Akbar
Nagar which was situated just behind the H Division ACP office are
presently in the Bapu Nagar camp just across the road . They are able
to go and file their FIRs but while there are more 300 FIRs to be
filed, they are being registered at the rate of about 20 a day. What
this means is that evidence of crimes will be destroyed, the number
of dead will never be officially accepted, compensation will be
denied and the criminals will go scot-free. Even worse, in cases
where the police has been forced to register FIRs in which BJP, VHP
and Bajrang Dal leaders, including the brother of the State Home
Minister, have been named no arrests have been made.

5. The loss of property has been staggering and very widespread.
All over the city, on the highways and all along the route to Godhra,
the delegation saw that hotels, restaurants, shops, factories, carts,
houses, workshops, petrol pumps, trucks, vehicles , homes and
religious establishments of Muslims had been targetted and
systematically destroyed. While this large-scale and systematic
destruction could not have occurred without State complicity, it
reveals that the economic back-bone of a whole community has been
broken and this cannot but have disastrous consequences. Not only has
arson and loot been resorted to but, because of administrative
inaction, all traces of many of these establishments and structures
are being removed; buildings are being completely razed and the empty
spaces levelled out as if the building that once occupied them never
existed as has been done in Ramol. This will not only make
compensation impossible to claim but will actually lead to
expropriation of the property of an entire community.
Religious structures like mosques have, in some place, been converted
into temples and in others have had all traces removed. The worst
example of the latter is the tomb of the poet, Wali Gujerati, revered
by all communities, that has not only been destroyed and levelled but
which has had a paved road built over it. These are direct attacks on
the constitutional right to freedom of worship and on our composite
culture.

6. The delegation visited the following relief camps in Ahmedabad:
Shah Alam, Bapu Nagar Aman Chowk, Sunderamnagar, Juhapura, Kankariya
Municipal Schools 7 and 8; and in Godhra: lqbal Primary School.
While the camps had started functioning on the 28 February, the GR on
relief was issued only on March 5 giving details of the ration to
be issued to each person in the camps but except for the camp in
Godhra which has been receiving the rations, even five days later the
order has not been implemented. The Shah Alam camp where there are
more than 8000 people has received only 1500 kgs of rice, some tins
of cooking-oil and a few hundred packets of powdered milk when this
falls short of even its daily requirements. The Bapu Nagar Aman Chowk
camp had also received 1500 kgs of rice only once. The other two
camps had received no rations from the Government at all.

7. It is a measure of the complete callousness of the State
Government that even ten days after the camps started not a single
Minister or senior official has visited the camps which are in dire
need of immediate and massive help.
When the delegation visited the Kankaria camp, there was a banner on
the gate proclaiming it to be a Government relief camp and the
organisers said that since March 4 they had been receiving their
daily requirements from the Government. This camp is inhabited by 175
Hindu families. This camp is mainly of poor scheduled caste families
who reported that 40 of their houses have been burnt. Urgent action
is required for their rehabilitation. It is good that these poor
people are at least receiving some attention including a visit from
the Chief Minister. Why can the other camps not receive similar
attention?
The other camps required medical help and supplies. The delegation
met scores of injured including women and children. But doctors are
few in number and stayed for only two hours and did not include any
lady doctors although there are many women in the camps many of whom
are pregnant, ill, wounded or suffering from burns. The toilet
facilities provided by the Municipal Corporation are highly
inadequate and there has been no effort made by the administration to
clean the camps. The danger of an epidemic breaking out cannot be
ruled out. The delegation was witness to the tremendous work being
done by a number of voluntary organisations and individuals apart
from the help of the community institutions, without whom the plight
of the over one lakh persons displaced persons presently in the camps
all over Gujarat would have been unimaginable.

8. All the points raised above need to be acted upon immediately by
the State Government. The priority, however, has to be strong steps
to stop the violence which is still being spread in an organized
manner to the rural areas. In many districts of the State like
Kheda, Dahod, Panchmahal etc., homes of Muslims in villages are
being burned down and all the Muslim villagers who are able to save
their lives are forced to take shelter in camps at the taluka
headquarters. In the camp and in the General Hospital at Godhra, the
delegation met survivors from villages like Randhikpur (Dahod
District), Pandharwada (Panchmahal). All the Muslims have had to
leave their land and shops in these villagers. Not only have members
of their families been subjected to the most unspeakable atrocities
including rape of women but many of them have been hunted down by
communally inflamed people. At least one family from Randhikpur had
16 of its members, including a 2 day old infant girl, murdered
several kilometres away from their village, four days after they had
been forced to run away by people who had followed them in a vehicle.
As late as on March 5, the Muslims of Anjanwa village (Panchmahal
District) were attacked. In the Godhra General Hospital, the
delegation met Maksuda Bibi who had been attacked and thrown into a
well with 4 other women and 2 children. She was the only survivor.
This diabolical process of "cleansing" rural areas of their Muslim
population has still not ended. Even on the 10th March there were
reports of attacks being carried out in villages in Chhota Udaipur
District.

Obviously, in such a situation, even the concept of rehabilitation
becomes a mockery. It is, therefore, imperative that the violence be
stopped at all costs. More army and para-military personnel are
urgently required and their deployment in all sensitive areas must be
ensured. In the coming days, apart from the tension that is
escalating because of uncertainty and fear about what will happen on
March 15 in particular and that has been generated by the VHP on the
Ayodhya issue in general, important religious events like Moharram
and Holi are also going to take place towards the end of the month.
In view of all this, presence of the army and para-military forces
becomes essential to the maintenance of peace. The delegation was
horrified to learn that the State Government is actually thinking of
removing the army from sensitive areas. This will be nothing less
than an open invitation for genocide. It is also shocking that
kaesevaks are being allowed to proceed towards Ayodhya even though
the UP Government has declared all such movement illegal. Such
movement should be immediately stopped.

9. The Government of Gujarat has completely failed to discharge its
duty of ensuring law and order, peace and justice. Its Chief
Minister, Narendra Modi, is intent on pursuing his own agenda of
Hindutva for political gains unmindful of the cost that this entails.
In fact, he has been justifying all the horrors that have occurred
since 27 March in ways that make his complicity in their perpetration
only too obvious. When you were Governor of Bihar, after one attack
in one village in which valuable lives were lost, you had recommended
removal of the State Government and imposition of President's rule.
In a situation in which thousands have been killed in acts of
State-sponsored terrorism and carnage and are still continuing to be
killed, the least that can be done is the removal of the present
Chief Minister Narendra Modi. This is the very least which must be
done to ensure that the writ of the constitution of India runs in
Gujarat.

Citizens of this country have been concerned and also disturbed at
your deafening silence on the terrible events in Gujarat.

Yours sincerely,
Subodh Roy (Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha) ,
Brinda Karat, Subhashini Ali, Kiran Moghe, Mariam Dhawale, Arun Mehta