Author: M. V. Vaidya
Publication: Mumbai Tarun Bharat
(Marathi Daily)
Date: February 29, 2004
27th February 2002. The day, 58
Hindu devotees were burned alive by Muslims of Godhra in the coach of Sabarmati
train. The reaction - The blood of Gujarat boiled over and it expressed
itself in unprecedented riot all over the state. Many Muslims were also
burned alive. Their properties, business remises were burnt down. Why these
almost docile Gujaratis became so violent? Everybody was surprised.
But for it, all Hindu Society, Hindu organizations, Government of Gujarat
and the then Chief Minister, Narendra Modi were vilified all over the world.
A pleasant scenario
Last week Shri Vaidya had been to
Surat in Gujarat. What he found was very pleasing. All life was going
on as usual. On the other hand, he found Surat now cleaner and nicer town
than he remembered. Then he went to Ahmedabad. He found that the
city was also normal. Yet I remembered Godhra. The reason was a news in
papers there. Two accused who were responsible for Godhra and who were
absconding had come to Godhra. Police went there to arrest them, but the
Muslims in Godhra resorted to such stone throwing there that the small
force which had gone there on instant notice had to retreat. Meanwhile,
they ran out of Godhra. Some Policemen were wounded in the stone throwing.
The locality was the same - Signal Falia.
Another reason was he met on 20th
February a freelance scribe Shri S. K. Modi. Vaidya had just received a
book written by him: "Godhra, the Missing Rage". Modi was not very closely
related to Sangh and he had some opinions of his own. But he had
a great respect for Narendra Modi. Where he wanted to praise him, he was
not miserly. He also criticized when he felt something was wrong.
The book written by him is not to
justify the riots in reaction of the Human Charring episode. But he has
made a systematic and painstaking effort to analyze the reasons, which
had caused so much ebullition of anger of the people. He comes to the conclusion
that the Gujarati mindset became enraged because of the one sided picture
painted by English newspapers and Television channels, their efforts to
justify the horrible burning of innocent citizens, their writings and statements
which was totally unjustified, drab and without any sympathy or feeling.
The so-called intellectuals moving in air-conditioned premises poured oil
over it. Modi has described accurately how these English media and
the intellectuals giving lip service of sympathy were hypocrites and liars
with clear evidence. This may be the first book written from this side
of Godhra and the violence. The style is straightforward as well as interesting
too.
The introduction starts:
"Morning of the second day. I was
there on the morning of 28th." The reporter of NDTV told to Modi by him
on 23rd September 2003. Modi writes in his introduction, "This was absolutely
false. I knew personally that the reporter had arrived in the evening of
28th February. I was present at the airport on that evening.
I was happy, not because I caught the reporter lying, but because he was
forced to lie. I think, this may be a thread of repentance. Indirectly
or through indication, shame was visible from it. Shame for this reason
that he did not feel the necessity of taking cognizance of the Godhra massacre.
"
What is the difference of 28th morning
and 28th evening? The difference was on 27th February the massacre of 58
people by burning had taken place and not a single TV channel felt the
need to send their representative and photographers for covering the event
and next day in the afternoon, to cover the violence erupted in Ahmedabad
reporters of TV channels and photographers rushed in huge crowd! This was
the difference, because on 27th February the victims were Hindus and on
28th the victims were Muslims. The army of TV channels and press reporters
had invaded Ahmedabad with the intention of showing the world how cruel,
brutal, and demonic Hindus are and how Narendra Modi was a ruler worth
being aligned with Chengizkhan and Hitler.
The writer is surprised to note
that the entire country did not feel a thing about the Godhra massacre.
Till noon, the news of 55 Ramsevaks having been burnt alive was spread
everywhere. But there was no expression of any anger or rage. Parliament
was working as usual. The writer says, "The calm of 27th February was numbing.
The neglect was total. Absence of feeling was enraging."
In this book, the true account how
the coach was set to fire from inside is given. Muslims cut the belts
of vestibule joining the two parts and entered. They threw inflammable
things in the coach. The mob started throwing stones at the passengers
who were trying to escape. All this was planned to make the people die
with extreme pains by burning.
Everybody thought that because the
victims were Hindus, there would not be any reaction. In fact, at such
times, Hindus have a tendency to think that such things go on happening.
But the media remained strangely partial. Everybody knew that in Signal
Faliya only Muslims live. The train was stopped by pulling chain and immediately
the coach was set on fire. But the English media and papers were not ready
to state that the crowd, which set the coach on fire, was Muslim. They
gave many false descriptions of the mob but this word. Generally there
is an unwritten rule that the names of the rioting communities are not
to be disclosed. But this rule was thrown in the dustbin next day and it
was emphatically told by these TV channels and papers that the attackers
were Hindus and the victims were Muslims. When the toll of death was reported,
it was never told that the victims were Hindus also. The horrendous carnage
of Godhra was described in the English media just like a bus accident is
reported. The writer has produced a number of samples from English papers
showing no anger or sympathy.
While the TV channels and intellectuals
were searching some fictitious reasons for this carnage, nobody ever thought
of analyzing as to how within 5-10 minutes, a crowd of 2000 people gathered
with all the inflammable material and cut the belts and burn the coach.
The reason is clear. They did not want to tell the truth. They wanted
to vilify the Hindus.
Only 'Asian Age' carried an item
stating that along with karsevaks, there were some girls too and Muslim
rioters had kidnapped 10 of them. Varsha Bhosle, Rediff columnist asked
the District Collector about this. She was told, "We have got the news
that girls were kidnapped. We are going to investigate it but this work
will be done later." Such was the stoic indifference. Because the
girls were Hindu and kidnappers were Muslims.
The violence erupted in reaction
was unprecedented. It was not a plan of VHP or Bajrang Dal. It was
not the usual criminals. The entire society had become violent. People
of Congress were among it. People of Congress had informed Sonia Gandhi
that many active workers of Congress, corporators and office bearers had
become violent. This angry Hindu crowd was ready to face any consequences.
Even when Congress MP Ehsaan Jafferi fired bullets from his pistol at the
mob, the crowd did not retreat, but it dispersed only after burning his
house and the inmates.
The media gave a lot of publicity
to the accusations of rape on Muslim women. A video film was made which
gave priority to the rapes on Muslim women. But not a single raped women
was shown. Everybody was telling, after rape, the woman was killed. It
came to light later that all these events were false. The Booker prizewinner
Arundhati Roy had mentioned in her article that the daughter of Jafferi
was raped. The editors knew it was false and nobody wanted to print
it. The report was already contradicted outright by Jafferi's son by stating
that his sister was in America at that time. Even after this explanation,
the article was published. Government of Gujarat gave notice to Outlook.
Vinod Mehta, the editor apologized and got over it. But nevertheless, the
article denigrated Hindus throughout world. Because how the world will
know the explanation or apology of Vinod Mehta? Vinod Mehta knew that the
report was false and yet he published. The writer says. "I tried
to talk over phone with Mehta and tried to meet him personally too, but
Mehta every time refused to talk also. Avoided meeting also."
There is detailed account of the
attack on Jafferi's house in Gulberga society in the book. The pranks of
dancer Mallika Sarabhai and Medha Patkar are described in detail in it.
There are subjects like the praise of Pakistani Dictator, Parvez Musharraf,
the indifference shown by English newspapers about the activities of ISI
are also included in this book. The wise-acreness of NHRC, the arrogance
of Lingdoh, the attacks by so called secularists on Narendra Modi, the
strategies planned to end the rule of Modi, the wishful-thinkings of the
media about the 2002 assembly elections, the iron man Narendra Modi who
did not succumb to any pressure, the Gaurav Yatra which wiped out the calumny
of Gujarat and established the pride of Gujarat, Modi's success in impressing
the world community that Gujarat is very good for foreign investment, so
many other things which are generally unknown to common reader are detailed
in this book. It must therefore be read in original. Writer S.K.Modi
is a free lancer. Those who want to contact him may do so on the
following address:
S. K. Modi,
111, Sakansh,
Gurukul Road,
Ahmedabad 380052.
Sukumo@vsnal.com.
I acknowledge that I was impressed
by the discussions I had with him and the book. Otherwise, Godhra would
have been forgotten in the history.
