What happened in Godhra and Gujarat some nine years ago is so much mired in mistrust and manipulation that even the facts are no more sacred.
A special court has now convicted 31 people and acquitted the other 63 for the Godhra train burning incident after keeping the innocent in imprisonment for nine years. Maulana Umarji, picked up from a relief camp for having ‘masterminded' the carnage, has also been left off for lack of evidence. Maybe, his trial as a leader was wrong from the beginning. When no proof was found of his involvement, the accusation itself seemed concocted.
I am more concerned with the charge of conspiracy which is said to have been ‘proved'. Even the chief of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), appointed by the Supreme Court, has said that "verdict is professionally satisfying." Probably, he is correct in saying so. But the conspiracy theory is going to be stretched by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to justify the Gujarat riots.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's words, "opposite and equal,' may come to be strengthened. This is ominous for the future of Hindu-Muslim relations.
I was among the few who flew to Vadodara within days of the tragedy at Godhra and motored down to the place where the charred compartment was still standing. A habitation of Muslims is a bit distant from the site, not within the reach of the people even if they were to start running after the departure of the train from the Godhra station.
The theory of conspiracy suggests that the Muslims were waiting around the rail track to jump into the moving train so as to reach the pilgrims' compartment and set it on fire. For this sordid act, there has to be a motive. There is nothing to show that the Muslims of that habitation, however "criminal minded," had any rivalry, new or old, against the Hindus or those living in Gujarat.
Diabolical thinking
Nothing else had happened in the country during those days to suggest that tension or communal feelings elsewhere had taken a toll at Godhra. To imagine that the Muslims of the habitation near Godhra took upon themselves to burn pilgrims in the compartment requires a diabolical thinking, not legal reasoning.
When 63 are acquitted, it puts the whole inquiry in doubt. The shoddy work by the police is clear because one of the accused was 99 per cent blind and another a government employee, who was nowhere near the place.
An inquiry held within two years of Godhra happening in 2002 revealed that the fire was accidental. Former Supreme Court judge U.C. Banerjee said in a report: "The fire originated in the coach itself, without external output." However, the Justice Nanavati Commission, appointed by the Modi government, concluded that the fire was not caused by any accident, but petrol was used to set the train compartment on fire.
The two judgments cross each other out. It seems the correct version is still eluding us.
The allegation is that Modi himself had the Godhra staged because he wanted to "fix up" Muslims in Gujarat. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) could have been entrusted with the job but it cannot act independently since it is a department of the Indian government. The general impression is that the CBI is influenced by the party in power.
Laudable task
Compared to the Godhra case, the SIT has done an excellent job on the Gujarat riots. I am surprised by the delay over the report's publication. It has been lying with the court since May. If there was an opportune moment to make the report public, it is now. The special court judgment on Godhra has raised more questions than it has answered.
The SIT report on Gujarat is said to have brought out the political and communal agenda weighed heavily in Modi's handling of the criminal justice system. It has also accused Modi of making "sweeping" and "offensive" comments against Muslim community when communal tension was running high. "The Gujarat government failed in providing justice to the victims" says the report.
The worst indictment is that the Gujarat government destroyed records of police wireless communication during the riots. A brave officer who provided the team with the copies of missing records has been given a notice for breaking the rules. It is disappointing to see the central personnel department keeping quiet on this point.
I hope that the Supreme Court, which had ordered the probe following the petition on a fake encounter, would move into the matter quickly. The Modi government has been content with the appointment of a committee under Justice Nanavati. He was appointed nine years ago. Still there is no likelihood of an early report.
The BJP promised to lay facts before the public within four months. It is now 11 years since the Godhra incident happened. There is yet no sign of remorse on the part of Modi or the BJP. The Godhra judgment is only going to encourage the party to indulge in more and more bravado.
- Kuldip Nayar is a former Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and a former Rajya Sabha member.
