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Gujarat Muslims fled again to refugee camps last week
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By
IOL South Asia correspondent
NEW
DELHI, October 3 (IslamOnline) - The U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended to U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell that India should be designated as one of the “countries
of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act
of 1988.
In
addition to India the list includes Pakistan, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, North
Korea, China and Sudan. In all, there are 12 countries on this list of
pariahs.
The
USCIRF observed Monday, October 1, in its latest report to the U.S.
administration and the Congress that Indian minorities have been
subjected to great violence, including mass killings. To top that,
“Those responsible for the violence were rarely ever held to
account,” it said.
The
commission has established a clear link between the rise of Hindu
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the increase in violence
against minorities. Under the BJP rule, “the climate of impunity for
perpetrators of attacks on minorities appears to have strengthened,”
it observed.
The
USCIRF only confirms the findings and fears of over a dozen earlier
enquiries into the Gujarat killings conducted by private and government
organizations in India.
“Although
the BJP-led central government may not be directly responsible for
instigating the violence against religious minorities, it is clear that
the government is not doing all it could do to pursue the perpetrators
of the attacks and to counteract the prevailing climate of hostility
against these minority groups,” the USCIRF said.
While
unprecedented violence against Muslims continued for weeks, the Central
government refused to budge even under great pressure from the
Opposition and civil society groups. Instead of sacking the state
government, the Center backed the state chief minister, Narendra Modi,
seen by victims and independent observers as the mastermind behind the
pogrom.
India’s
deputy prime minister and Hindu hardliner LK Advani went to the extent
of defending Modi publicly as “the best ever chief minister of
Gujarat.”
This
aspect of the situation was not lost on the U.S. commission, which
observed, “Though the severe violence in Gujarat provided the national
government with adequate grounds — under the Constitution and the
existing laws to counteract communal violence — to invoke Central rule
in the state, the BJP government did not do so, despite many requests,
and the fact that the killing of Muslims continued (on a lesser scale)
for may weeks.”
All
through those weeks of killings the state and Central government kept on
shirking their responsibilities. They refused to listen to not only the
victims’ pleas for help, but to official organizations like National
Minorities Commission, National Human Rights Commission and Election
Commission.
When
Britain, two of whose Muslim citizens were killed in Gujarat, raised the
issue with the Central government, the External Affairs spokesperson
declared that Britain was trying to play up to its voters. Such
shameless denial and dereliction of responsibility marked the Center’s
role during the pogrom.
The
same External Affairs spokesperson declared Wednesday, October 2,
confidently that the USCIRF recommendations would not affect India’s
interaction with the United States.
Meanwhile,
a 5-member delegation of European Parliament members visiting New Delhi
expressed concern over the Gujarat killings in their meetings with Prime
minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and defense minister George Fernandes
Tuesday, October 1.
The
European MPs said the Gujarat killings had affected India’s
international standing. A group member, Neena Gill, observed, “No
investor will like to invest in a country if he fears that communal
violence may break out there and affect business.”
