Gujarat challenge

These VHP-Dal men have admitted, during a sting operation by Tehelka newsmagazine, aired by TV channels later, that Modi had sanctioned the violence against the state's Muslims in the aftermath of the Godhra train tragedy in which 59 passengers returning from a Hindu demonstration were killed. None other than the BJP legislator from Godhra has been quoted as saying the chief minister had given rioters a 'free hand' for three days. By any reckoning, this is an unpardonable action by a senior politician who has been vested with the authority to govern-the maintenance of law and order being his key responsibility. More than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims had been killed during the communal violence. The revelations seriously implicate the chief minister in the stirring of the communal cauldron.

The Tehelka investigation also presents 'irrefutable evidence' of several complaints that have always been vehemently denied. The narration by some of the accused, as to how former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffri was hacked limb-by-limb and burnt, how dozens of Muslims hiding in a pit in Naroda Patiya were roasted alive, and how a mob pierced out the foetus from the womb of a woman, with a sword, was too chilling and macabre to take six years after the carnage. Some of the other revelations, like bombs being manufactured in factories set up by the Bajrang Dal and VHP leaders, and of arms being smuggled from other states to carry out attacks by squads led by elected people's representatives and Sangh Parivar members in Gujarat, presented the real face of the hard-core Hindutva activists.

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The footage might come in handy to the Nanavati-Shah Commission probing the Godhra train fire and the subsequent riots. Indeed, it is likely that the Gujarat BJP would run for cover, calling the expose a 'political stunt' on the eve of assembly elections. Yet, the admission by the activists raises a question mark on the state of affairs in Gujarat that boasts, in recent times, of massive development and growth. If this is called a developed state, where the religion of a man determines his survival and growth, then one might rather be tempted to remain a poor in some other state!

The BJP's central leadership must come clean on the latest expose. It must make clear whether it sanctions such violence. If not, it must take the chief minister to task. As of now, the party can't wash its hands of the accusation that it is seeking to gain strength by unleashing a hate campaign against the minorities.

Nevertheless, there is hope. There is one community, the electorate, cutting across creeds and religions, which is mature enough and all-powerful, to guard against the communal mindset of some leaders and organisations, and to thwart their divisive agenda.