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Gujarat
chief minister Modi
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By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, May 3 (IslamOnline) – The National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC), India's official human rights watchdog, severely criticized
the Modi government in Gujarat for its comprehensive failure to
control persistent violation of the rights of life, liberty, equality
and dignity of the people of the state.
The
commission demanded that the guilty be brought to book and asked for
handing over the investigation of the riots to the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI), India’s premier intelligence agency.
In
its final report, the commission documented the manner in which
criminal cases arising from the violence are being fudged. The
commission pooh-poohed most of the claims the Gujarat government made
in its April 12 reply to the commission’s preliminary report.
The
NHRC has taken the state government to task for failing to respond to
its earlier confidential report. It said that there was a
comprehensive failure of the state to protect the constitutional
rights of the people of Gujarat. The Gujarat government's
responsibility, according to the commission, is "tacit if not
explicit."
The
commission squarely blamed Modi government for the Gujarat carnage.
"The Godhra tragedy should have itself demanded a higher degree
of responsiveness from the state government to control the likely
fallout, especially in the wake of the call for Gujarat bandh [strike]
and the publicly announced support of the state government to support
the call.
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National
Human Rights Commission chief Justice Verma visiting a camp in
Ahmedabad
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“Regrettably,
immediate and stringent measures were not adequately taken; the
response of the government thus proves to be unequal to the challenge,
as vividly illustrated by the numbers who lost their lives or were
brutally injured or humiliated as the violence spread and
continued," the commission noted.
Even
in its preliminary report, made public April 1, the NHRC had asked the
government to transfer the investigation of the worst cases of carnage
to the CBI. It had also asked for the establishment of special courts
for trying the culprits.
The
commission had spent three days in Gujarat from 19-22 March, when the
anti-Muslim pogrom was still in progress. The commission later came
out with a 27-page confidential report and asked the Gujarat and
central governments to file their reply to its comments. Modi-led
Gujarat government responded with a report April 12 which the
commission rejected and asked for another. So far, the state
government has failed to submit its second report.
In
its final report, the commission says: "Despite the measures
reportedly taken by the state government which are recounted in its
report of April 12, that report testifies to the increasing numbers
who died or were injured or deprived of their liberty and compelled to
seek shelter in relief camps… The commission has, therefore, reached
that there was comprehensive failure of the state to protect the
constitutional rights of the people of Gujarat."
Quoting
the central principles of criminal justice, the report says:
"Those against whom allegations are made should not themselves be
entrusted with the investigation of those allegations… It should be
travesty of the principles of criminal justice if such cases were not
transferred to the CBI."
The
commission urged the central government to intervene under Article 355
of the Constitution and "go beyond a mere invocation of the
existing rules" on cases when the CBI should take investigation.
"Politically connected persons named by the victims of the crimes
committed remained at large, many defying arrest. These are grave
matters that must not be allowed to be forgiven or forgotten,"
the commission added.
The
commission also questioned the state government’s claim of arresting
27,780 people. On the pattern of arrest it says: "The questions
that arise, however, are when and where were the arrests made, who
were arrested and for how long were they kept in custody, and were
those who were specifically named arrested." It referred to the
report given by its special representative in Gujarat, PGJ Nampoothri,
who said that almost 90 percent of those arrested even in heinous
offences like murder, arson etc have managed to get bail."
This
is in total contrast with the assertions made by Modi government in
its April 12 report that bail applications of all accused persons are
being strongly defended and rejected." The commission also
criticized the government for failing to file first information
reports (FIRs) with the police and demanded the immediate booking of
all violators of law through proper registration of FIRs.
Naroda
Patia was the worst case of massacre where around 100 people were
burnt alive. On arrests in this case, the commission says that though
22 have been arrested, the government is silent on whether they have
been released on bail or are still in custody. The commission alleges
that in sensational cases the FIRs show accused persons as
"unknown."
The
report clearly describes how partial the government has been in
arrests. It says that till May 10, of the 16,245 people arrested for
substantive offences, all but 2,100 have been granted bail. Of the
11,363 Hindus arrested for such offences, eight percent remain in
custody while 20 percent of the 4,882 Muslims arrested remain in
custody.
On
atrocities against women and children, the commission said that
"the report [of Gujarat government] also testifies to the assault
on the dignity and the worth of the human persons, particularly of
women and children, through acts of rape and other humiliating crimes
of violence and cruelty." It also said that such victims were
facing problems in "having FIRs recorded, in naming those whom
they had identified and in securing copies of their FIRs."
The
report also says that due to the lack of policewomen and to
insensitive questioning, many women were not coming forward for
recording FIRs.
Despite
the repeated indictment of Modi government and demands for his
removal, the central government has so far refused to remove Modi from
the chief minister’s post.
The
BJP president Jana Krishna Murthy, who was in Ahmadabad May 31, has
denied that there was any plan to replace Modi. He also denied that
there was discontent brewing among party workers over Modi’s
continuance in the office.
The
BJP, on the other hand, is hinting that it is contemplating an early
assembly polls in the state. "I had negotiations with party
workers and office bearers and told them to be prepared for elections
as it can be held any time," the BJP supremo said. The BJP
president was accompanied on his Gujarat tour by Pyarelal Khandelwal
who is the party general secretary in charge of elections.
An
assessment of the ground political situation is expected to be made
before the party makes up its mind. The party fears that it can fail
to utilize the so-called political gains from the pogroms if it does
not go for polls immediately. It believes that it will not be able to
capitalize on the communal carnage if elections are held too late and
the level of frenzy comes down.
Meanwhile,
the continuing violence in the state has entered its fourth month.
Intermittent violence keeps flaring up in various locations. Police
suspects that the renewed violence and the recent series of bomb
blasts in Ahmadabad were handiwork of the extremist VHP and Bajrang
Dal goons who do not want the violence to end.
