What is the meaning of these endless
debates and discussions, consultation and chronicles, symposium and seminars on
2002 genocide of Gujarat? What is the meaning of mining the detritus of the
Gujarat pogrom for positive stories? What is the meaning of praising our
so-called syncratic (or stinking) culture, our unity in diversity (or disparity), our federalism (or feudalism)? What is the meaning of these endless
narratives aiming at igniting collective conscience of civil society?
Call to punish Narendra Modi is must.
The murderer must be prosecuted. But, is there any provision to purge and
punish a defunct and degenerated judicial system of a state (and perhaps,
entire country)? There is a high court, agitated and excited on cows sitting
and distracting traffic on roads. It does not move a millimeter, it does not
awake Suo Moto, even if thousand are massacred in broad daylight in a state
where the chief minister and his colleagues marshal the hooligans hired for
mayhem and mass slaughter unprecedented in the history of a nation. I have read
such narrations in Genghis Khan, Nadir shah, Taimur Lang ……………. Narendra Modi. There must be
a full stop.
The legal activism is praiseworthy.
Can we pat our back by citing example of one and only Bilkis Banu? Minal devi, mother of king Sidhraj
Solanki, ordered to change plan of a pond to protect hut of a widow. Jahangir
commissioned a bell. Under medieval darkness, Justice was like a sound and
light show, full of visual effects. Our judicial systems are like a tunnel of
fatigue and frustration. Temples of justice are facing danger of being overtaken
by rabid communal, irrational, casteist forces. An organization is openly
distributing tridents in the streets, are they not more harmful then wondering
cows? The silence of three - police, politician and
judge, is scorching and treacherous. Certainly, I am also talking about this trident!
They killed Ehshan Jafri. No, they
killed the democratic representation of a community. They annihilated the most
legal, political aspirations of a group. For me Jafri is a symbol of one of the
noblest representatives of civil society. He was face of Muslim moderation. A
fact, that Muslim can become leader of main stream politics. They want to turn
this fact into a fiction. Muslim must be a terrorist or a bootlegger. Muslim cannot
be our leader. This was the message. In 1985 a slogan was written on the wall
of civil hospital in Ahmedabad, "burn gaddar, Ehshan
Jafri". It takes them 25 years to complete their pernicious and vicious
agenda. Story is not just about murder and rape.
When BJP
made Kalam president of India, another slogan was written on the walls of
Ahmedabad, "they gave Abdul Latif, we give Abdul Kalam." Community
may need good scientist, but it can not survive without good representatives. If
your democracy does not provide this simplest opportunity, then it is hell.
Such hells produce blood-soaking trauma centers and traumatize the most
innocents on earth.
Commemoration’s
flash point is not exactly 2002. We cannot sum up history in ten years. Mr.
Modi is a student, definitely a novice in this pathshala of fanaticism. We cannot
forget K.K. Shastri (Keka) who was unanimously chosen as president of Gujarati
Sahity Parishad, the most creditable and the most reputed literary institute of
Gujarat. By choosing Keka, the then president of Viswa Hindu Parishad, the
Gujarati writers, the most enlightened stock of Gujarati creed, stamped Keka’s
authority as an intellectual. They endorsed his list of 3000 mosques. They
joined chorus of “Ram lalla hum ayeng, mandir jarur banayenge.” Twenty five
years on, not a single Gujarati writer has expressed remorse for selection of
Keka as Sahiya Parishad’s president in 1985, and we are expecting such gesture
from an illiterate, drunkard of Chamanpura! It is pitiable pathology of our
polity.
Massive
efforts are on to camouflage the suffering and sorrow, anguish and agony of
masses under enchanted, captivated and enthralled mist of masti and manoranjan.
When the survivors were running from pillar to post to get justice denied and
delayed, the rulers were inventing new avenues of amusements, recreations and
celebration of their victory. Only one phrase suits their efforts - from carnage
to carnival. It was exactly a carnival of cannibals, not silently whispering on
their successful carnage, but trumpeting big drums given by Radias, Tatas,
Adanis and Ambanis.
Rs. 120
million riverfront schemes displaced thousands thrown on the outskirts of city
and they celebrated it in their own style - the kite festival; Air-conditioned
tents with cost of Rs.7000 per unit have been installed for ranotsav (for
political honeymoon in desert!) in Kutch where average 50 to 85
percent people in villages migrate in search of employment. Rs.300 billion is
the amount of profit Mr.Tata has booked, after being allotted land at Rs.900
per square foot, the market value of which is Rs.10,000 per square foot.
Rs.2500 strong Nirma group of companies’ owner Mr. Karsan patel, the richest
person of Gujarat, was allotted the most fertile land of Mahuva for the
construction of a cement plant. (In his lesser known village Ruppur, When Karsan’s
relatives usurped graveyard of Dalits in 2003, the advocate general of state
appeared on behalf of patels to defend the respondents in a writ petition
filed by Dalits. Ruppar is constituency of Anandi patel, the in- charge of
Modi’s Sadbhavna Celebration.) The cannibalistic celebration of carnivals is
creating a self deceiving atmosphere where aggrieved may find solace in musical
melodies.
Unfortunately
we have creamy celebrities, not lofty leaders. We have celebrities, wherever
they go, they immediately attract attentions of bite-hungry
media. We have celebrities addicted of rummaging their names in the headlines of daily news
papers. We have celebrities who never dare to thrash ‘rogue’ media which has
precipitated and polarized entire Gujarati masses. Can anyone forget that news
item published on the day after Godhara tragedy in one of the leading Gujarati
dailies on “Muslims cutting breast of Hindu girls.” The rapes on Muslim women
were the only result. Can our law punish that vernacular daily? (Our
organizations are fighting two such cases in courts). They had done it in 1981
against Dalits. They have done it against Muslims in 2002. (they isolated both communities one by one and then made them fight each other, and now, we are dealing with projects about their unity!)
I called
for political encounter of Mr. Narendra Modi in a recently held convention in
Godhara. Some misconstrued it as support to congress. The fact is congress has
been taking soft Hindutva line after Godhara. In coming legislative election
congress may win or may not. Can congress fulfill political aspiration of
minorities? Can congress give adequate
representation to Muslims? This is
the question we must ask to ourselves and congress. In 1981 there were nine
Muslim MLAs, at present they are only four. Merely defeating BJP cannot be our
goal.
(Paper
presented in seminar organized by Institute of Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution (IPSCR) under programme ‘Insaf ki dagar par’, 10 year commemoration
of genocide, 2002 Gujarat)
