Narendra Modi finally steps into the SIT’s witness box to explain his role in the 2002 communal violence that engulfed Gujarat, which lives on as one of the most scarring episodes in our recent history. This is a reminder why the trials must be exemplary, and one that holds the state machinery of that time to full answer on their complicity.
This special investigation team, headed by a former CBI director, was set up last year on the National Human Rights Commission’s plea to track 14 of the most critical cases from sites like Gulbarg Society, Naroda Patiya and Sadarpur. This is the first, preliminary step to determine whether Zakia Jafri’s (widow of a Congress MP killed in one of the communal flashpoints) testimony has enough substance for a full-blown FIR and criminal investigations against Modi and the other accused. Despite the Supreme Court’s full backing, the SIT’s integrity has been questioned by a range of civil society voices, who claimed that three of the investigating officers are from Gujarat cadre, one even directly implicated in Jafri’s list. But both Modi and the SIT director took pains to clarify that his interrogation was conducted by a non-Gujarat officer. The questioning lasted nine hours, though there is little detail on the content of the proceedings.
The legal process on Gujarat so far resembles an obstacle race, and it has created an exploitable vacuum — on one hand, stories about the 2002 violence have been inflated and dramatised by many activists, as if the real violence wasn’t terrible enough. On the other hand, Modi’s ideological brethren have reacted with defiance, keeping up a mechanical “1984” chant every time the matter is brought up. Of course, the Congress’s glibness was also on display, as they dismissed Modi’s SIT appearance. “In public perception, Modi has been held guilty,” the Congress spokesperson sweepingly claimed — never mind what public perception is of the 1984 accused who have managed to dodge justice this far. Between them, they have managed to reduce the tangible horror of Gujarat into a set of rhetorical talking points. Activists too must resist the temptation to turn every development into a point-scoring opportunity. It would be a great disservice to the victims if we turn the tragedy into a tale told, and distract from the laborious, important work left — that of making sure that we clinically extract a thorough accounting from those in Gujarat’s
administration during those awful days in 2002.
Crocodile tears of BJP for SIKH communityBy: Naim Naqvi | Monday , 29 Mar ‘10 10:32:54 AM Reply | Forward 1984 was the horrendous incident of history. The perpetrators of that unfortunate aberration should have been dealt with long ago. Please tell me if congress was complacent than who stopped your great able Statesman P.M.Vajpayee and your Steel Loh Purush Advani to expedite the investigations when they were in power? Why they wasted so many years and didn’t bring the SIKH killing episode to the logical end ? These RSS bajrangess who are shedding crocodile tears for Sikhs today have no sympathy with any one. They need their votes and money to stay in power in Punjab and keep calling Congress names. I can understand the vulnerability of Sikh community to the propaganda of RSS but I’m sure, by now, they also have realized that this fascist organization which has many venomous heads of chimera is cornering the cow to the shed. They are trying to milk the cow of Sikh sympathy to divert the attention from the noose that is tightening for alleged complicity and patronage of Mody.
