Statement by Maitree on the Gujarat Communal Violence


Maitree, a network of women's rights groups, NGOs and individual
activists functioning in West Bengal, is registering its protest
against the large-scale devastations and communal violence in
Gujarat. The developments in Gujarat and in Ayodhya for the last one
month make it clear that this violence is not a riot in the
traditional sense, but an extremely planned, systematic, state
sponsored, and one-sided pogrom.

We deeply condemn the Godhra massacre and the systematic and brutal
violence inflicted on members of the Muslim community in Gujarat
subsequently. The Hindutva forces had been seeking to communalise
civil society, polity and administration and educational
institutions, and the preparation for the pogrom and economic war
along communal lines was going on for a long time. Godhra was merely
an opportune incident utilized by the extreme communalist forces to
unleash a pogrom. We emphasize that the Gujarat State Government has
no moral right to continue in office as it has not only actively
encouraged and supported those who have planned and perpetrated the
violence, it has also justified these acts of terror as "spontaneous
outbursts" by citizens, and has failed miserably to punish the
criminals and bring back normalcy to the State. The Home Minister
also commended the role of the Narendra Modi government, for having
allegedly created a record of sorts by controlling the violence
within '72 hours'. The theory of a spontaneous outburst of popular
Hindu anger contrasted to the pre-planned massacre of VHP 'pilgrims'
by ISI funded Islamic fundamentalists, lies at the core of the overt
and covert justifications of the pogroms, put forward by the
RSS-VHP-BD-BJP. However, this has now been thoroughly deflated, along
with the role of the Modi government. The National Human Rights
Commission, as well as independent civil liberties groups like the
PUCL and SAHMAT's investigating team, have indicted the government,
while even the police has failed to provide any proof of ISI
involvement in Godhra.

The lack of will on the part of the State Government is encouraging
communal flames to spread further and it is the biggest offender of
our constitution which guarantees secularism and denounces
discrimination on grounds of religion. The most glaring instance of
such discrimination is evident from the differential compensation
package provided to the victims of communal violence; while the kin
of the Godhra incident is entitled to Rs 2,00,000/-, only half the
amount has been granted to those whose relatives fell prey to Gujarat
violence. Needless to say that Hindus constituted the former group
while the latter mostly comprised Muslims.

The consequence of this government-backed communal terrorism has been
unimaginably violent. People have been murdered most brutally.
Children have been butchered. A great many women have been raped.
Reports from everywhere attest to the excessive brutalities including
sexual violence against women and children and burning alive of
helpless people. An additional fall-out has been the economic
paralysis due to curfews and the utter helplessness of people
belonging to the unorganised sectors, who are getting no work and no
pay, leading to suicides in some case.

As citizens of a 'sovereign, secular, socialist, democratic republic'
we feel that there has been a gross violation of civil rights and the
security of our civil society stands endangered today. The communal
carnage, systematically carried out, is part of a wider RSS -VHP
strategy of forcing minorities to become second-class citizens in
India. This open violation of our constitutional laws continues to
this day and no appropriate measures have been taken as yet to punish
these offenders of law. We strongly protest against such atrocities
and demand punishment for all- individuals, religious or political
groups, institutions and even governments, who directly or indirectly
participated or supported such criminal activities.

As peace-loving citizens of India we want your immediate intervention
to ensure that the mandate, principles and spirit of our secular
constitution are upheld.

We demand:

* The immediate dismissal of the Gujarat Government; the
resignation of L.K. Advani for giving a clean chit to the Modi
government;

* Relief, rehabilitation and compensation equally to all those in
the relief camps and those affected by the violence

* Special protection for new-born babies and their nursing mothers
in the relief camps;

* Immediate steps for the poorest layers, for example the daily
wage-earners who have not been getting wages for close to a month

* The setting up of a time-bound judicial commission of
investigation under one or more serving Supreme Court judges;

* The registering of cases under criminal law against every
minister, official and police personnel mentioned by
survivors/eyewitnesses;

* Immediate action under existing criminal laws against the VHP
and BD and any other organisations that propagate and practice
communalism and violence.