India’s proud heritage of non-violence was born in this Gandhian land of Gujarat. Today, not just the philosophy but the every moral fibre of every Indian has met its sad demise in this very abode.

What led to the Godhra massacre is still behind drapes. What is, however, evident is a wild spree of murder, arson and looting all over the State. And what is, however, more disgraceful is that normalcy refuses to reside in Gujarat even today and Chief Minister Narendra Modi continues to remain in the saddle to ride Gujarat towards its destruction.

The incidents of Godhra have proved to be an eye opener for us all. A time to wake up from the long slumber of our conscience. There were innumerable statements issued in the newspapers condemning those ‘responsible for the violence’. But can there be anything more condemnable than the violence itself? Apparently a million reasons were thrown around as bait to catch the most gullible public and stir the most sought out emotion - ‘revenge’. Fingers pointed in every direction trying to pin the blame on the most probable enemy and a lot of secularism crap thrown to the sentimental audience to camouflage the communal feelings of the State authorities.

The scapegoat for conflicts in India has always been the ISI of Pakistan. We refuse to accept our shortcomings and acknowledge our weakness but instead we accuse ISI whenever something goes wrong in our country. Don’t be surprised if a broken tap in Prime Ministers Vajpayee’s bathroom also gets termed as an ISI sabotage plot! For when the Indian Government is in deep shit and cannot be accountable to her people they play the ISI Plot Mantra to shrug off their responsibility and win back their voters fast losing confidence.

But what they conveniently overlooked was that lives have been lost, property has been damaged beyond the point of repair, fear has crippled hundreds and deceit has wounded confidence in the State security mechanism. Atrocities were committed in the name of religion. But did they really have anything to do with religion or was it just a dirty game of politics under the guise of religion? Are we- the average secular Indian been forced to participate in a war that was never ours?

On February 27, the coach of Sabarmati Express carrying 'kar sevaks' (religious workers) was set on fire by a mob. Kar sevaks although termed “religious workers” are a gang comprising of mostly hooligans who are puppets in the hands of the Sangh Parivar, which controls the State machinery. And if you study Gujarat you’ll notice that this State has churned out more kar sevaks than any other state in India and is a lucrative breeding ground for the virus of Hindutva Philosophy [aims at converting secular India into a Hindu nation]. Indian officials have characterized the riots as Hindu rage for an attack on “innocent activists”. However, interviews with passengers on the train, witnesses to the incident and local police and railway officials suggest that the train fire was not a premeditated ambush by young Muslims, but rather a spontaneous argument, provoked by the kar sevaks, that surpassed control. One such version also includes that the Kar sevaks refused to pay for the snacks they purchased and thrashed an old bearded Muslim tea vendor and abducted his young daughter, took her in S-6 coach and locked its doors and closed windows. This was reported by many Urdu, Hindi, English dailies and weeklies of Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Calicut etc. Washington Post [USA] and Independent [London] had also published it but it was successfully subdued. Yet it cannot be denied that the provocation was definitely there and the reaction was undoubtedly strong!

But nevertheless 58 people were brutally torched and with it every ounce of sanity buried in the ashes. Yes, the train attack was deplorable and without doubt it has to be absolutely condemned. But how can we overlook the fact that what followed suit is equally despicable? Perhaps even more so since the cannibalistic Hindu fanatics seem to develop an insatiable appetite for human blood under the guise of ‘revenge’.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi [the man leading the bandwagon] called this a "terrorist attack". “Terrorism” has now turned synonymous to any and every incident that can be used as a shield to justify State atrocities. Like a raging forest fire, it got propagated that those who committed the crime were 'Muslims'. Mr. Modi iterated and reiterated that 'Muslims' have been brought on the firing line only as a ‘reflex action’. He claimed the carnage that ensued from the following day as a “justified reaction".

“Justified Reaction”? Then Mr. Modi, we ask you to justify the outbreak of violence of such staggering magnitude? Justify the state police force obliging the rioters by looking the other way around if not actively participating in their crime? Justify how you proudly announced on national television that the 'situation is under control' while even till date Gujarat is in ashes and still fuming! Justify the intensity of the violence, the brutality and meticulous manner of destruction? Justify why Muslims were attacked in cities and villages across the state, their life’s savings looted and their houses and business establishments reduced to rubble? Justify why entire Muslim localities have been completely wiped out of teh surface of Gujarat? Justify why two hundred and forty dargahs [holy shrines] and 180 mosques were destroyed all over the state and Qur’an burnt to ashes? Justify why temples have started sprouting in places where there recently were mosques or Muslim shops? Justify why the foundation of a civil society was utterly destroyed by the law enforcing agencies, politicians, peoples' representatives and professionals from all walks of life? Mr. Modi, justify why humanity met its demise in your state and yet you refuse to step down but instead still instigate the spark of communal hatred and wait to witness the flames cause one massive explosion after another?

Mr. Modi, step down from your high and mighty pedestal and listen to what people in your very own State have to say, listen to their screams of panic, look at their wounds that won’t heal, their scars that will forever remain and the trauma that has changed their life forever. Listen carefully Mr. Modi they all have something to say...

Ahmedabad: Taherabibi Sheikh iterated, "A mob gathered from all directions about 9:30 in the morning, with all kinds of weapons, and carrying chemicals and gas and oil. First they put a saffron flag on a big pole, put it on a tanker with liquid propane gas cylinders, and pushed it inside the shrine, then blew up the shrine. The houses on all sides were blown up in smoke with those cylinders. Maybe they used some bombs too -- we heard very loud blasts. I was hiding with others behind a house and saw it all. They crowded around each slum and house and set them on fire, with women, children and old people still inside.” Sheikh and neighbors ran for the police, who only suggested they run, she said. Small children "who could not run fast enough" were caught and burned alive. When some young boys came forward to defend their families, Sheikh and others said police -- who had merged with the mob -- fired at them. A "well-known face" of a local Hindu ruling party leader was in the mob.
"The Bajrang Dal came shouting 'Jai Sri Ram'. They burnt everything. Only my wife and daughter are alive," Rehmanbhai said. Afsana, his daughter [who marriage was set for next month], sits on the bed, her head shaved, her hands burnt and her torso covered in bandages. "They set fire to my brothers after dousing them with petrol. I tried to save them but the mob surrounded me and I had to run away. Who will marry me now," she asked?
Sabira Bano, an intense, disheveled woman in her 30s says, "Those big families of six to nine members were not left alive. I saw them dragging the dead bodies and throwing them in that Tisra well. Police only counted corpses found in lanes and alleys, they have not checked that well."
Ayub Kureshi said his 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son were snatched from his hands and doused with petrol and set on fire. "I had to run for my life," he said, a pained, bleak stare in his eyes. "I have not yet found several of my neighbors. My wife was horribly burned, and I could not save one of my hands, which was cut by a sword."

Godhra GIDC Area: “All factories of Muslims were burnt and looted in the presence of the police. There are several Bohra [Muslim] settlements in all parts of Panchmahals district where Godhra is located and the entire losses could amount to Rs 200 million”, Jabeen said. "The VHP also threatened the convoys which were escorting Muslims and tried to attack them. They threw stones and chased the trucks. They tried to burn my grandchildren but we managed to rescue them. They kept saying "Yahan se Muslim hatao" (Drive out all Muslims)," said 35-year-old Miriam Yakub Sayed.

Naroda: "We saw young women being raped and killed, pregnant women speared to death with their unborn children. People came with petrol cans, they exploded cooking gas cylinders in our houses. The police watched and when we pleaded for help, they told us to run away or we would be shot." said Salim with utter disgust on his face and hopelessness in his voice.

Mora village: “All 106 homes belonging to members of the Bohra community have been destroyed. A mob looted my father's cycle shop and burnt my husband's tailoring shop. I managed to break the window of my house and run out. My family of 14 stayed in a small bathroom for three days. We had no food or water. I used to hit my children and tell them to stay quiet. I refuse to go back there -- we will be killed. What will we do now?" wept Farida Abbasi Boliwalla.

Dekwa village of Halol taluka: A resident store owner, said three months ago meetings were held near Pawagadh, under the guise of social upliftment by the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. "Even at mohallas (street corners), secret meetings were held to tell people that the Muslims were their enemies," he said. The Bajrang Dal has been paying people and giving them trishuls (tridents) to kill Muslims, adds the resident. "They tell Muslims that they will pay them Rs 5,000 not to offer namaz (prayers). Voters' lists have been used to identify and kill our people," he added. [The long-term plan to decimate the Muslim population is now becoming clear.]

Sundarpur village in Mehsana district: It has 700 homes of Muslims in a population of 3,500. The mob came on the evening of February 28 and started burning houses. "By the time the police came, everything was burnt. Their plan was very clear," said residents.

Randhikpur village: Thirty km from Godhra, a Muslim girl had gone to celebrate Eid at her mother's house. Their homes were burnt and a large group fled the village. They traveled from village to village and on the way to Panivela, the group, which had eight women including her, were assaulted by upper caste people from her village who then gang raped her and other girls and left them on the road. She could name the perpetrators - they include a doctor, a lawyer and a local sarpanch (elected village head). She sat on the road for a day and a night before the police found her. "When I recovered I was the only one alive, there was no one else. My mother was killed as well," she said. The 22-year-old can barely articulate her traumatic experience.

Eyewitnesses recount how a young pregnant Muslim girl begged for her life in the name of her unborn baby. The VHP hooligans responded by ripping open her abdomen, took out her foetus, stabbed it repeatedly before her eyes, and then sprinkled paraffin on the mother-to-be and set her aflame. Another pregnant woman's stomach split open with a sword, the fetus speared and thrown into the flames. Several women were stripped naked by a large crowd, raped, dismembered and set on fire. In yet another incident 19 members of a family were first sprayed with water as they huddled together in a room, and then a live high-tension electric wire was thrown on them. All 19 died of electrocution. A 2-year-old child was forced to gulp a cup of gasoline, a lit match thrown into his mouth. Other incidents are too horrifying even to recount but the techniques used to murder Muslims speak of a brutal and sadistic conspiracy, akin to that of Nazi Germany.

Mr. Modi, is all this sufficient indication of your vitriolic bias against the minority community? Do you finally see yourself following the footsteps of the man most admired by your Sangh Parivar-Adolf Hitler? There are clear-cut articles published in most newsmagazines (The Week, Outlook, India Today) which clearly point to a well-designed conspiracy to eliminate Muslims. Is this another holocaust, Mr. Modi?

A diabolical scenario was revealed by the spot surveys conducted by human rights and civil rights groups who found that the massacres were not a “spontaneous reaction” to the train tragedy in Godhra as claimed by the State. They found a definite pattern to them highlighting the strategic planning involved. All reports produced by independent bodies have described the backslash on Muslims as “pre-planned, State-sponsored ethnic cleansing” executed by the Hindu fanatics belonging to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and its affiliates which receives its patronage from the ruling BJP party. The State has also been accused of participating actively in the massacre by none other than the National Human Rights Commission, a quasi-Governmental body affiliated to the United Nations. What have you to say to their accusations, Mr. Modi?

What is a shocking reality is the precision with which the attacks were planned. Its plainly evident that the VHP had been collecting names, addresses, business establishment details of Muslims through municipal records, telephone bills, electoral rolls, employment registers and even PRO lists of businesses, much before the Godhra incident. This clearly provides the necessary evidence of the manner in which pedantic identification of Muslim homes and businesses occurred during the massacre. The mob had mobile phones to communicate with each other, trucks loaded with thousands of gas cylinders, hoarded weeks in advance, which they used to blow up Muslim commercial establishments and homes. Similarly, the frantic calls of the former Muslim Congress MP Iqbal Ehsan Jaffri for help were systematically ignored because members of the VHP and RSS were effectively directing the Police. Was it just a coincidence that this very MP was a voice against the Chief Minister during his campaign for the Rajkot Assembly by-election in February?

In Gujarat, Bajrang Dal admits that it has an army of over 300,000, placed in every village in the State. Harish Bhatt, Vice-President of Bajrang Dal, claimed that he recently “armed 65,000 of them with trishuls (trident) at impressive ceremonies throughout the State”. Now, we all know that it wasn’t the peace loving secular Indian Hindus agitated by the train carnage but this very army of fanatics, which was used to carry out the genocide. Where wondered why the hundreds of RSS shakhas and Saraswati shishu mandirs across the country have been indoctrinating thousands of children and young people, stunting their minds with religious hatred and falsified history? Do we have another terrorist outfit in the making?

Mr. Narendra Modi, your ministers are brazen enough to even dispense with the need to camouflage their motives. Isn’t it true that State Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Barot, has actually set up a Hindu refugee camp in his Daryapur constituency where the inmates are not victims but Hindu hoodlums who have been placed there simply to oversee the nearby camp of the genuine Muslim riot victims in Shahi Bagh?

So what is your logic Mr. Modi? To ignore large-scale evidences of state collaboration and encouragement of anti-Muslim violence and say that they are merely "propaganda" reflect an ostrich-like stance. Burying your head in the sand will not shut our eyes to the truth, Mr. Modi. No matter who they were, or how they were killed, each person who died in Gujarat in the weeks gone by deserves to be mourned and you are accountable for their death.

Yes Mr. Modi we all are waiting to hear your justifications... for we refuse to buy your lame “reaction theory”, we refuse to be taken for a ride in your Hindutva chariot, we refuse to be treated as pawns to be sacrificed in order to check mate your opponents, we refuse to be a part of your dirty political games which builds castles over our corpses, we refuse to accept your philosophy which instigates hatred in our hearts and fear in our lives, we refuse to let our women be gang raped and our children lead traumatic lives after witnessing their parents bludgeoned to death in front of their eyes, we refuse to be a part of your killing spree- your hands have choked hundreds to death and your mind still contemplates the destruction of thousands.

Yes, Mr. Modi we absolutely refuse to accept you as our leader. Its high time you step down Mr. Modi, we’ve had ENOUGH!