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Action Alerts
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October 7, 2003 Playing Godhra politics The
fact that there is something rotten in the state of Gujarat has been
evident ever since the Narendra Modi government got into
‘selective action’ during the riots. If
there were accusations of the state government looking the other way
when the Muslim community was being targeted by Sangh parivar goons,
the maltreatment of relatives of Muslim victims of the riots also
deserved condemnation. Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh was
even attacked by the BJP government — both at the central and
state levels — for pointing out the communal rot in the system run
by Mr Modi. Now
it seems that the very group on whose behalf the Hindutva camp was
speaking has seen through its shenanigans. Relatives of some of the
victims of the Godhra train carnage have now alleged that BJP and
VHP leaders have been using them as mannequins for their own
political purpose. Like the victims of the riots, they too are now
demanding that the hearings of the Nanavati Commission be shifted
out of Gujarat. It is not surprising to find the ‘Hindutva
experiment’ in the ‘laboratory’ of Gujarat starting to go
wrong. This is what happens when the official machinery plays
politics with human tragedy. That the VHP and the Bajrang Dal had
been given a free hand by Mr Modi was never a secret. Now that the
relatives of the victims at Godhra have named the BJP leader who
‘pressured’ them to ‘keep their mouths shut’, and have said
that the party functionaries deposed as ‘representatives’ of the
victims’ families, it seems that Mr Modi and his men need to
answer some very uncomfortable questions. That these allegations have come from those who trusted the government’s ability to ensure justice for a heinous crime — and not from those who the BJP write off as ‘pseudo-secularists’ bent on giving Mr Modi’s government a bad name — is telling. Those now insisting on taking the Gujarat government out of the picture are a disillusioned lot. Mr Modi should realise that playing politics with tragedy has its own occupational hazards. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/printedition/071003/detEDI02.shtml
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