India's
Election Commissioner Tours Gujarat, President Kalam to Follow
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Chief Election Commissioner JM
Lyngdoh |
By
Zafarul-Islam Khan, IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, July 10 (IslamOnline) - India's powerful Chief Election
Commissioner (CEC) JM Lyngdoh has indicated that he will water down
efforts of the riot party in Gujarat to hold elections in order to cash
in on their acts of omission and commission during the anti-Muslim
pogroms in the state. He has said that the rehabilitation of the riot
victims is more important than holding elections.
The
CEC with the two other members of the national election commission (EC)
is touring the troubled state in the wake of the earlier report of his
commission's team last week that Gujarat was not ready for elections.
The all-powerful EC can shoot down government's plans to hold elections
in Gujarat next September or October.
The
EC's decision, which will be final, will make or break the BJP's chances
to retain Gujarat, the only state in the country it is still ruling at
present. All other states are ruled by other parties though the BJP is a
junior partner in some states. It fears that any delay will rob it of
the fruits of its adventure in Gujarat. Observers have said that if the
riot party wins the Gujarat elections it will repeat the riot-elections
formula elsewhere.
The
new president of India, Abdul Kalam, too is giving jitters to the riot
party by choosing Gujarat as his first destination outside Delhi after
his election to the high post. He is scheduled to fly to Gujarat next
Monday and has made it a point to visit relief camps, which still team
with displaced victims of the pogroms engineered by the riot party.
Many
have nowhere to go as their houses have been burnt down and razed to the
ground while others are prevented from approaching their properties.
Entrances to some Muslim localities have been blocked by shops and
kiosks that have come up in no time and the police is extending no help
to remove such eyesores.
CEC
Lyngdoh observed Friday that "the situation in Gujarat looks quite
delicate on the face of it." The election commissioners made it a
point to visit worst-hit areas like Gulbarg Society where dozens
including former member of Parliament Ahsan Jafari were burnt alive by
the rioters.
They
also visited Naroda Patia, the scene of the brutal massacre of 89
persons by a "mob". An old woman, Rashida Begum, when asked
about holding of polls now, told the commissioners: "My house was
burnt, my children are sick and we are still to receive help."
Another
victim, Roshanbibi Mahboob Tamboli (65 years) told the commissioners how
rioters razed 10 houses at Juna Dhor Bazaar in Maninagar area and how
she was not being allowed to return to her house. Without wasting a
moment, the commissioners cancelled their scheduled plan and turned
their motorcade towards Juna Dhor Bazar. On reaching the spot,
Roshanbibi’s claims were found correct. They discovered that
Roshanbibi's house has become forbidden territory for her and miscreants
have replaced the entrance to the small courtyard leading to her house
with a cement wall.
The
commissioners' on-the-spot surprise verification also included Gheewali
Chali and six adjoining slums which are part of the Jamalpur legislative
assembly constituency. Local residents pointed out how 105 houses had
been looted and burnt by mobs.
"They
don’t allow us to reconstruct our houses or even our shops," said
one. The motorcade moved into narrow roads to reach Jhyasi Ram Ki Chali
in Behrampura area. Here the enclave’s entrance was found to be
blocked by a shop named ‘Jai Shree Ram pan [beetle leaf] parlor’.
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Burning shops in
Ahmedabad |
The
commissioners also visited Vadodra, another city badly hit by the riots.
Here the CEC openly reprimanded the district administration for not
giving an accurate account of what happened in the city during the
violence.
On
the other hand, President Abdul Kalam's scheduled trip to Gujarat early
next week is evoking strong reactions from various political parties.
Apart from the riot party all have welcomed it as it will help focus
attention on the real situation of the riot victims who still struggle
to resume their lives within the camps and without.
Only
the BJP, ruling the center at the head of a plethora of small parties,
seems apprehensive about the President's trip. Its spokesmen parrot day
in and day out that conditions in Gujarat are normal and that this is
the ideal time to hold elections there.
It
is difficult to believe that the election commissioners will share the
BJP view. The CEC has already made it evident that the state government
has failed in its duty to provide accurate information on the communal
violence and rehabilitation in the state.
President
Abdul Kalam's visit is giving sleepless nights to the BJP. The President
has made it clear that he will "use the opportunity to learn
personally of the rehabilitation measures undertaken by the government
of Gujarat and NGOs there in the wake of recent disturbances". He
also plans to visit Bhuj to learn about programmes on earthquake-related
disaster relief work.
Meanwhile,
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has said that he will revive his
Gaurav yatra [pride march], which was called off last month by the
Center to avoid further communal tension. Modi and his party want to
keep the pot boiling until the elections in order to safeguard the
communal polarization in the state brought about by the pogroms.
Riot
party's musclemen outfit, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad [World Hindu
Council] has expressed shock over the President's Gujarat visit and has
urged him to instead go to the refugee camps in Jammu and Kashmir to see
the "plight" of Kashmiri Hindus living there.
Some
recent developments have shown that the Godhra train incident used by
the riot party to teach Muslims a "lesson" may have been
engineered by the criminals themselves in order to unleash their
pre-planned terror exploiting the resulting anger.
The
official forensic report about the train fire and other secrets slowly
coming out in the open are showing that the fire started from inside the
train coach, that the travelers had stored large quantities of petrol
inside the coach, that the victims may not be the religious pilgrims
returning from Ayodhya but innocent passengers whose seats were usurped
by these rogue elements who are known to travel ticket less and harass
ordinary passengers.
The
government has failed to publish the list of the coach travelers
according to the railway reservation chart or name the victims. Former
central minister Mamta Bannerji, who is at loggerheads with the central
government, although her party (Trinamool Congress) is part of the
ruling NDA, has charged the railways minister Nitish Kumar of
suppressing facts on the Godhra train carnage. The minister has denied
the charge.
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