Betrayal  by the State

 Twenty years down, despite a fairly vigilant and tenacious survivors and citizens campaign for implementation of the Justice BN Srikrishna Commission report which in effect means punishment of the guilty, the state, the Maharashtra government has been stark in its betrayal.

Be it in the official affidavits and rejoinders filed in the Supreme Court, or the assurances given at various points of the campaign, the Congress-NCP government that made a specific promise to ensure justice for 992-1993 when it campaigned (and won) for the state elections in 1999, the government has betrayed its promise.

In year 2000 when survivors and citizens called the state’s bluff through an emotive Public Hearing of survivors at the KC College, Mumbai the government – again – tried to obfuscate the issue with then chief minister Deshmukh and deputy chief minister Bhujbal talking exclusively to the Urdu (read Muslim) press. We responded with an open memorandum that called the state’s bluff, and this memorandum was given prominent space in the Urdu media. Again in 2007, when a vigorous campaign Justice for All was launched – this after the 1993 blasts saw convictions but those marauders responsible for 1992-1993 went unpunished – and newspapers played the lead, the specific charge of discriminatory justice was made.

Unfortunately, the state has done little or nothing to refute this charge. In 2007, before and after, each time demands for justice grew to a crescendo, the Shiv Sena-BJP shrieked in protest, veiled threats of violence being always thrown in. And in a cynical throwback to a government that actually allowed the violence on it’s watch in 1992-93, the state of Maharashtra succumbed.