June 10, 2002 [ Washington, D.C.]

1. The events in Gujarat from 27 February 2002 mark a turning point
in contemporary Indian politics. These have profound consequences for
the continuation of India as a multi-cultural, secular society, for
survival of democracy, and for the unity and integrity of the
country. There have been riots and pogroms in India before but the
Gujarat carnage is exceptional in the extent of state sponsorship,
official justification and cover-up, the suborning of the state
apparatus, and the legitimation of genocide as an instrument of
electoral politics.

2. Gujarat has a history of sectarian [communal] violence, going back
to decades before Indian independence in 1947. The small town of
Godhra is no exception. There was communal tension in the town and
the State because of proposed Hindu rites at a disputed site in the
town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. Hindu volunteers travelling in the
Sabarmati Express train to Ayodhya or back to Ahmedabad in Gujarat,
had reportedly been misbehaving with Muslim passengers, both men and
women, for days without any police intervention. Around 7.45AM on
27th February some incidents at Godhra station, including the
attempted abduction of a teenaged Muslim girl by a Hindu volunteer
travelling on the train, led to stone throwing, followed by an attack
by a Muslim mob of 2,000 from nearby slums when the train was stopped
half a mile away. 1,500 Hindu volunteers on the train countered with
stone throwing. Fire bombs were used by the Muslim mob, and one
railway coach was burnt leading to the deaths of 59 Hindu passengers,
mainly women and children. This incident, which was a communal riot
in a town with a long history of communal outbreaks, became the
trigger and justification for the carnage that followed.

3. The Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi, who is also a senior
RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghathan: National Volunteer
Organization--a Hindu fundamentalist organization] leader, arrived in
Godhra and alleged that the attack on the train was planned by
Pakistani intelligence [the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)]. This
charge was repeated a couple of days later by federal Home Minister
L.K. Advani, also a Member of Parliament from Gandhinagar, the
capitol of Gujarat. Ministers alleged that the same terrorist groups
who had attacked the American Center in Kolkata were behind the
Godhra attack, and promised to teach them a lesson. Consequently an
impression was created with official sanction, that the Godhra
Muslims were agents of Pakistan, a traditional enemy. The Chief
Minister insisted that the badly charred bodies of the victims be
sent for post mortem to Ahmedabad the same night. The time of arrival
of the bodies was announced over the government radio and frenzied
mobs came to the railway station to receive the bodies. Ram dhuns
[religious rites] were performed that night and the next day all over
Ahmedabad. The same day, the Vishva Hindu Parishad [World Hindu
Council] called for a 'bandh' [a total strike including stoppage of
traffic] on February 28th in protest against Godhra. The ruling
Bhartiya Janata Party [BJP] supported the bandh, and the Chief
Minister reportedly told top officials, including from the police, to
refrain from interfering with the bandh supporters.

4. On 28th February organized Hindu mobs, sometimes as large as
20,000 controlled Ahmedabad, while the police stood by. VHP-Bajrang
Dal [an RSS affiliate]-BJP workers organized the mobs and led them.
The Minister of State for Home Affairs Gordhan Zadaphia flashed the
'V' for victory sign while passing rampaging mobs. Zadaphia and
another Minister sat in the police control rooms in Ahmedabad and
Gandhinagar for hours, reportedly immobilizing the police and fire
brigade but directing the mobs. Mobs were transported by trucks and
buses. They had detailed lists of Muslim institutions, commercial
establishments, residences and shrines. These were looted and burnt.
The information was so detailed that even shops with minority Muslim
ownership were identified and attacked. The mobs carried thousands of
liquefied petroleum gas [(LPG) cooking gas] cylinders which were used
to blow up the properties they attacked. Significantly, these LPG
cylinders had been in short supply for weeks. There were widespread
attacks on Muslim men, women and children who were hacked with knives
and swords, and in many cases, later burnt. There were many cases of
rape and gang rape, even of minor girls, and a large number of the
victims were then brutally killed. To cite just a couple of
instances: a former Congress Member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri who had
campaigned against the Chief Minister in an Assembly election weeks
earlier, called for help for hours but no help came, instead a huge
mob attacked his residential colony in Chamanpura. He was hacked into
three pieces and the rioters reportedly urinated on his body. Ten
women were stripped, raped, hacked and thrown into fires. Only one
survived. In Naroda-Patia where more than 90 people were killed and
many women and girls raped, an eight month pregnant women Kausar
Bano's belly was slit open, the fetus extracted and both were killed.
The police, in most cases, not only did not intervene to protect the
Muslims, but in many cases connived with the rioters. In
Naroda-Patia, the Special Reserve Police refused shelter to the
Muslims and forced them in the direction of waiting mobs. More
Muslims than Hindus were killed in police firing. Curfew was imposed
more in Muslim localities than in Hindu ones.

5. Unlike in earlier episodes, anti-Muslim violence spread later even
to rural areas, including tribal areas, apart from other urban
centers. According to official estimates, less than 1,000 people have
died, overwhelmingly Muslim. Informed unofficial figures are much
higher around 2,500 but the death toll may be even higher when the
list of the missing, particularly in the rural areas, is checked. The
property and business losses are colossal and official compensation
is selective and niggardly. Very large numbers of Muslims have no
viable shelter to return to. Many like those from Naroda-Patia are
scared to go back. Hundreds of Muslim shrines have been destroyed and
desecrated. The shrine of the medieval saint-poet Wali Gujarati was
razed to the ground and a round built over it. More than 100,000
Muslims live in NGO-run relief camps throughout Gujarat. The State
does not run these camps and provides insufficient uncooked food and
other essentials for them. For example, the largest camp in Shah Alam
in Ahmedabad has 12,000 inmates but only 22 toilets.

6. The official machinery has been obstructive in registering cases
against the allegedly guilty. In most cases, the police have not
filed charge sheets. In the relatively few cases in which these have
been filed, in most cases the names of the accused are not mentioned
and only an anonymous mob is cited, making the cases legally very
weak. In the few cases charge sheets have been filed, key BJP
operatives have been excluded. And in most of these cases the Muslims
are shown as having incited the violence. For example, in the Ehsan
Jafri case it is recorded that he fired first on the mob, whereas
there is no evidence that Jafri fired at all.

7. Police officers and civil service officers who controlled violence
in various parts of Gujarat were summarily transferred to other
areas, and other, more pliable officers posted in their stead.
Officers sympathetic to the BJP were posted to investigate crucial
cases like Naroda-Patia and Chamanpura. This is a pattern throughout
the State.

8. All official propaganda referred to the Godhra incident as a
'carnage' and the subsequent violence as 'disturbances.' This was
true not only of the Chief Minister but also of the Prime Minister in
the initial stages. This was intended to explain away the genocide
against Muslims as a 'natural' reaction to the killings in Godhra. So
some 2,500 killings were a 'disturbance' while 59 were a 'carnage.'

9. In April, well before the violence ceased, the Chief Minister
advocated elections to the State Assembly. Clearly the attempt was to
cash in on the communal polarization and the antipathy of Hindus
towards the minority communities [Muslims, Christians] to bolster the
BJP's electoral prospects. A number of political commentators have
alleged that the basic reason for the communal violence in Gujarat
was electoral, an attempt to consolidate the Hindu votes. The public
outcry against elections in a disturbed and disrupted State, forced
the federal government to rule out immediate elections.

10. On the basis of such information and analysis, the National Human
Rights Commission [NHRC] and various non-official inquiries have
exposed the state-complicity and according to some, state-sponsorship
of the anti-Muslim violence. It appears that this pogrom and genocide
was organized some months prior to February. The preparation of the
detailed lists of Muslim properties, institutions and residences
would have taken months of prior planning. Similarly, the stocking of
LPG cylinders, weapons, organization of transport, deployment of
forces, would have taken time and considerable organization.

11. Despite such reports, the BJP State government is contemptuous
of such criticism. It dismissed the NHRC report as insulting the
sentiments of millions of Gujaratis. Police intelligence has reported
that the Chief Minister in recent weeks has campaigned in rural areas
implicitly castigating the Muslims on the basis of a Hindu
fundamentalist agenda. Just a couple of days ago the Governor of
Gujarat, a RSS leader, stated that Assembly elections were now
possible. So the cynical game plan of the State government to make
electoral gains at the cost of a section of its own electorate has
been exposed once again.

12. The Gujarat genocide has very serious implications for Indian
democracy. India is the most variegated and diverse society in the
world. It has some 3,000 communities speaking some 150 languages and
dialects. Any attempt to impose a rigid Hindu fundamentalist agenda
on such a diverse people is bound to lead to vigorous resistance,
possibly Balkanization. If a State government, like in Gujarat, is
able to carry out genocide with impunity, it means that the secular
edifice that guarantees multicultural democracy in India has been
gravely eroded. This is bound to have a demonstration effect all over
the country. Muslims are around 14 % of the population. When a
section of the Sikhs who totaled just 2% of the population revolted
against Indian rule with Pakistani support, in the 1980's there was a
bloodbath. In the case of Muslims, given the Pakistan-backed
insurgency in Muslim-majority Kashmir which has brought India and
Pakistan to the brink of war, the threat is even greater. If the
Muslims of Gujarat feel that they will not receive justice, as seems
very likely, some of them and other co-religionists may be drawn to
terrorism to seek revenge. In view of Pakistan's support to
anti-Indian terrorists, there is every possibility of such embittered
individuals obtaining foreign support. If rumors about Al- Qaeda
presence in Indian Kashmir are correct, then such elements may well
link up with Al-Qaeda. After the Mumbai riots in December
1992-January 1993, the Mafia don Dawood Ibrahim linked up with
Pakistani intelligence and unleashed terrorism in India. So a similar
linkage with the addition of Islamic fundamentalists like Al-Qaeda is
perfectly conceivable.
13. The just resolution of the Gujarat genocide is thus vital not
only for the survival of a multi-cultural, secular, democratic India
but also for the stability and peace of the sub-continent. It has
possible implications for the global fight against terrorism.