Stand Up To Save India!
Stand Up Against Engineered and Engulfing Insanity!


Ghastly Murders at Godhra
On the last 27th February in the early morning a
ghastly scene was enacted near the Godhra railway
station in south Gujarat. The Sabarmati Express coming
from Faizabad and heading for Ahmedabad was carrying a
large number of Karsevaks returning from Ayodhya in a
couple of coaches occupied by them. This was of course
no extraordinary event - a routine spectacle these
days. What, however, was shockingly different that
followed subsequently. After some reported clashes
between a section of the Karsevaks and the locals,
presumably Muslims, and a spate of aggressive slogan
shouting, the train was brought to a halt just after
it had left the station. An angry mob which sprang up
in no time assaulted the Karsevaks with stones, sticks
and other such weapons and subsequently at least one
of the reserved coaches was put on fire after being
doused with kerosene and petrol. Consequently about
sixty persons locked inside the compartment,
comprising adults, women and children, were burnt
alive.

Such acts of revolting barbarism are by no means
unknown in India, far less in the state of Gujarat.
But even then the sheer gruesomeness, regardless of the causes that
sparked it, did not fail to
shock each and every conscientious Indian. The
criminal act attracted universal condemnation.

The Ghastlier Aftermath
But what followed subsequently was even more shocking.
In a vivid illustration of "stigmatise and emulate",
this gut-wrenching, and roundly condemned, methodology
of mass murder was adopted on a massive scale by the
goons of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal,
two affiliates of the Rashtriya Swaymsevak Sangh. All
over Gujarat Muslims, without the remotest connection
with the Godhra carnage, were made targets of such
bestial assaults in an orchestrated orgy of violence.
Muslim properties and means of livelihood were also
targeted for large scale destruction. Not only that,
places of worship by the Muslims were systematically
razed and makeshift temples erected in their stead.
Even tombs and graves have been converted into
temples, which in ordinary times any average Hindu
would look upon as a grave act of sacrilege against
his/her own religion. This evidently is a deliberate
attempt to not only intensify the feeling of
humiliation among the Muslims, and thereby cause
despair and alienation, but also bestow a sort of
permanency to the ugly scars of the present episode.
The fact that the riots started spreading to the
outlying countryside only after getting thwarted in
the cities, particularly Ahmedabad, further
underscored the non-spontaneous and highly organised
nature of the current wave of mass murder.

Shocking Complicity
The state government, led by the members from the
Sangh fraternity, did not fail to fulfil their duties
and obligations (to their mentors). The ministers, who
themselves are accused of actively participating in
earlier riots, issued incendiary statements and the
administration came out fully in support of the
organised gang of marauders. Not only the police kept
away from the most gruesome acts of violence, it has
been reported by members of a delegation, mainly
consisting of MPs, which visited Ahmedabad on 2nd
March that petrol for rioters were transported in
government vehicles.
The central government, led by the same forces, did
not remain far behind either. Deployment of army was
inordinately delayed, in spite of issuing placatory
statements. And nothing was done to ensure that the
armed forces were properly utilised to minimise loss
of life and property.

The Grave Damage
As a result of all this, the final death toll is
likely to end up somewhere near a thousand. The number
of injured would evidently be much higher. The loss of
assets, both productive and non-productive, must be in
terms of crores of rupees.
But the most serious damage that it has caused is in
the realm of popular psyche, the deep division that
has been etched out and sharply redrawn between the
two communities - "Hindu" and "Muslim".

The Politics Behind
The whole phenomenon becomes more easily
understandable if we keep in mind that at the moment,
the levers of state power in India is by and large
under the control of an ideological/political current
which is committed to promote in a planned and
systematic manner a heightened sense of contrived
insecurity, paranoia, hatred and aggression among the
majority of Indians to accentuate their "Hindu"
identity, in perpetual confrontation with the
adversarial and menacing "others", subjugating all
other identities e.g. class, caste, gender, ethnicity,
language etc., and mobilising them on that basis so as
to actualise the project of constructing/erecting a
"Hindu" nation-state (Hindu Rashtra) by demolishing
the rather impressive edifice of the
democratic-pluralist India which emerged through the
process and as the culmination of a long drawn out
anti-imperialist national liberation struggle suffused
with egalitarian, modernist and universalist values,
despite some serious pitfalls and shortcomings. Being
in control of the state-power, or its vital
components, they are uniquely advantaged to set the
agenda before the nation, and stir up mass hysteria - whether by
triggering off
nuclear explosions, dragging the country into an
extremely dangerous and open-ended armed confrontation
with nuclear Pakistan or creating a near-permanent
ambience of civil war - against the "enemy within".

The still continuing blood-letting in Gujarat, the
ascending tempo of the Mandir-Nirman movement, the cry
of "terrorist" menace, and the running feud with the
neighbouring Pakistan - all are in a way convergent
from this particular perspective and being made use of
to consolidate the "Hindu" identity in pursuance of
the "Hindu Rashtra" project which had been inaugurated
and unveiled back in 1925 at the birth of the RSS.
But the project in the recent days, very much unlike
in the spectacularly successful nineties, has suffered
a serious, though by no means irreversible, setback,
as is manifested in the latest round of election
results.
And precisely this has given a sense of urgency to the
"Hindutva" forces. Hence, the gory blood-letting in
Gujarat and the shrill cacophony in Ayodhya - which
became the only alternative on their failure, under
explicit American pressure, to pursue the
confrontation with Pakistan to its logical, and maybe
horrendous, consequences . But that is also the
reason for the common people of India who have a
tremendous stake in the continuance of India as a
pluralist democratic state to counter this real "enemy
within" with a matching sense of urgency and
earnestness.

India at the Crossroads
Dear Friends, today India stands at the crossroads!
On the one hand, there is mounting revulsion amongst
us, the Indian people, against the current wave of
gory violence unleashed by the affiliates of the Sangh
Brigade. Even the NDA government at the Centre is
finding it not too easy to reconcile the politics of
unabashed sectarian violence with not only the
compulsions and obligations of a democratic polity,
which has taken some roots in India over the last
fifty years or so, but also with their economic agenda
of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation
(LPG). Hence, the talk of the "blot" on the India's
"image", but not on the "character".
On the other, emboldened by the state patronage and deliberate
vacillations, the votaries of "Hindu Rashtra" have
today most menacingly taken to the streets,
brandishing Trishuls and all, in Gujarat and Ayodhya
in complete defiance of "the rule of law" -
threatening to overwhelm the nation with an avalanche
of fresh sectarian violence and in the process
destroying India as it stands today. Any concession to
them, any surrender to their aggressive demands, will
only further embolden them, radically reverse the
balance of forces, and threaten India with complete
destruction!
So, Friends, it is time to stand up and to stand firm!
It is time to make our voices heard and demand the
following of the Indian Government to start the
process of healing of the deep scars and damages
caused to "India" by the marauding goons.

Let Us Demand :
· Immediate and complete stoppage of rioting by taking
all necessary administrative measures including proper
utilisation of the Army.
· Adequate relief and rehabilitation measures for all
the victims of violence, in Godhra and elsewhere, on a
war footing following a uniform standard.
· Immediate dismissal of the Gujarat Chief Minister,
and Home Minister, for abdication of their duties and
worse.
· Immediate arrest of the perpetrators of violence, in
Godhra and elsewhere, under the same set of common
criminal laws.
The infamous and anti-democratic POTO
must not be resorted to.
· Restoration of status quo ante as regards all the
places of worship.
· Immediate scrapping of the enquiry commission headed by a
retired
High Court judge hand-picked by the Chief Minister, who himself is a
prime accused, and institution of a judicial commission headed
by a sitting Supreme Court judge, assisted by a
dedicated team of investigators, to go into the
background, causes, actual events of Godhra and the
violence that followed, and remedial measures for
future - within a given timeframe.
Its recommendations must be mandatory.
· A special court to try expeditiously all those found
guilty prima facie.

· As regards Ayodhya dispute, the rule of law must be
upheld.
Status quo to remain undisturbed till the
final court verdict is delivered. The Supreme Court to
be requested to expedite.
All threats to defy law to be strictly dealt with.