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Gujarat Debated In Indian Upper House of Parliament
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Popular actress and social activist Shabana Azmi shows pictures of Gujarat carnage at a press conference in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal
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By IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW DELHI, May 3 (IslamOnline) - Rajya Sabha, the Indian equivalent of the British House of Lords, will continue Monday debating on Gujarat. Unlike its defiance in the Lower House of Parliament just two days ago, the ruling BJP totally changed its stand in the Upper House as a minority it was certain to lose the censure motion. Therefore, it claimed that it too supported the motion and will vote for it! The matter will be settled with a 'unanimous' resolution condemning the violence in Gujarat.
This may save the BJP from an immediate defeat. Since the motion was introduced under Article 355 of the Constitution, the next logical step will be demanding the dismissal of the state government.
The current text of the draft resolution expresses the Upper House’s deep anguish at the persistence of violence in Gujarat for over six weeks. This led to loss of many lives, destruction of property worth billions of rupees, and urges the central government to intervene effectively under Article 355 of the Constitution to protect citizens’ lives and properties and to provide effective relief and rehabilitation to the victims of violence".
Disagreeing with the government’s sudden appeal for unanimity, the entire Opposition has sought a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the incidents of violence, including Godhra, and also a commission of inquiry by a Supreme Court sitting judge as recommended by the National Human Rights Commission.
Congress leader Arjun Singh moved the motion. Going into the ideological background of communal hatred, Arjun Singh quoted RSS ideologue MS Golwalkar’s praise for the Nazis.
From the government side, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said: "The government shares the sentiments. There is no difference with the phraseology of the motion. We are all naked in the bathroom, so there is no point in the slinging of charges."
However, this sudden change of tactics did not save the government from scathing attacks by opposition members. The most stinging attack came from Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav who described the ruling BJP as the Bharat Jalao (Burn India) Party. He accused the Hindu extremist organisations, RSS and the VHP, of having brought the country to the brink of yet another partition. Lashing out at Home Minister LK Advani, he asked: "I want to know what enmity he has with Muslims?"
Gujarat violence has clearly left the BJP’s credibility in tatters.
The shaken BJP leaders are now admitting in private that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi became a "political liability". According to sources in Delhi a decision has already been taken to drop him at an opportune time in the future but without appearing to be doing so under pressure.
As a direct result of the Gujarat events the BJP has been wiped off in Kashmir where all have left it en masse as a protest against the anti-Muslim pogroms there. Though the effect at other places may not be so dramatic. People in all parts of the country have started to rethink about BJP which used to present itself as a 'party with a difference'. Industry and business leaders are clearly angry and this was shown a few days ago when the Confederation of Indian Industry, the country's premiere industry syndicate, chose the leader of opposition, Sonia Gandhi, to inaugurate its annual conference.
In a significant development, New Delhi TV (NDTV) today disclosed that Godhra train violence was not pre-planned. Hitherto the BJP government at both the centre and in Gujarat state has claimed that the incident which led to the anti-Muslim pogroms was a "pre-planned conspiracy". NDTV reported that investigating officials have now confirmed that they found no evidence so far of any wider conspiracy. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Godhra wrote to the Rail Board, discounting the pre-planned conspiracy theory. It says the violence was the result of events at the Godhra station itself on February 27.
The RPF document says: "A large number of activists of the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad were in the train. They were shouting slogans… There was an altercation between the activists and a few hawkers, who were selling eatables, on the issue of payment. The vendors were from the local Muslim community."
NDTV quoted other investigating officials from the state railway police confirmed this. Gujarat state government jumped to conclusions the same day of the train incident and started claiming that it was pre-planned and engineered by the Pakistan Military Intelligence (ISI).
The Supreme Court Friday issued notices to the Gujarat government, its home secretary and director general of police, on a petition seeking CBI probe into all incidences of communal riots including the Godhra incident which left nearly 1,000 people dead. The state government hitherto refused to seek CBI assistance to probe the riots. Another petition filed by popular dancer and social activist, Mallika Sarabhai and others in the Supreme Court alleges that the state machinery was biased against the minority [Muslims] during the recent riots and sought a special investigating team to probe into it.
The Editors' Guild of India, on the other hand, has demanded the appointment of a judicial officer to examine the writings of those sections of media which allegedly incited violence and preached hatred in Gujarat. The investigating official should also recommend action, if any, against them, the Guild said Friday. "The mischievous role of certain Gujarati newspapers cannot be glossed over.
Some of them have been named for irresponsible and unethical journalism in the past but have regrettably learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. Willful incitement to offence, propagation of hate and fuelling disorder are criminal offences," said the report of the fact-finding mission appointed by the Guild.
The Guild report, titled 'Rights and Wrongs - ordeal by fire in the killing fields of Gujarat', said, "many so-called leaders of destructive movements and even known criminals have been built up, even glorified, by the media.' The Guild delegation was comprised of editors of top Indian newspapers.
In another interesting development the European Union (EU) has expressed its concern over Gujarat, for the second time Thursday during meetings with the Indian Foreign Ministry officials. An early demarche was issued to the Indian ambassador in Madrid when India did not allow an EU delegation to visit Delhi for the purpose. India later claimed that no demarche was issued to its Madrid envoy. So the EU decided to do it again - this time in Delhi during a routine EU-India meeting.
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