Politicians often make loaded remarks to convey what they have in mind without spelling it out explicitly. However, when a country’s Prime Minister takes to such an exercise, it means he wants to say something specific but does not like to face the storm it might evoke.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at Kolkata a few days ago that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has given more jobs to Muslims than the Left government in West Bengal. He may be factually correct. But does this lessen Modi’s crime of planning and executing the killing of Muslims in 2002? Roughly 3,000 Muslims were killed and many more thousands looted and ousted from their homes and lands.
This uncalled for praise of Modi is ominous in many ways. The Supreme Court had appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to reopen the cases of fake encounters and other crimes. The Gujarat government and, more so, Modi were in the dock. Do the Prime Minister’s remarks reflect in any way the central government’s thinking on the judgment? The verdict was yet to be delivered and Modi had already started preparing the ground for criticising the judgment.
Some 14 policemen, who were being prosecuted, had said that they had no faith in the SIT inquiry. Another disclosure has tumbled out of the State’s cupboard. This time the state Inspector General of Police Sanjeev Bhatt has spilled the beans. He has said in an affidavit that Modi wanted the police to let Hindus “ventilate their feelings” and “teach a lesson to the Muslims.” The police officer was referring to a top-level meeting on February 27 after the Godhara incident when a train compartment was set on fire.
I have had no doubt about Modi’s involvement from day one. When I visited Ahmedabad two days after the killings and talked to men and women in refugee camps, I could reconstruct a story of a pre-meditated murder of Muslims in the entire Gujarat state and their forcible eviction from homes and hearths. It was a familiar pattern of killing and looting, with police staying at distance.
Looking back, it is apparent that India’s secular polity did little even after knowing Modi’s culpability. Seven years ago, the Supreme Court took notice of fake encounters for the first time. It appointed SIT under its own supervision. Even though late, the entire conspiracy is being peeled out like the skin of an onion. SIT has submitted the report to the Supreme Court this week with the finding on whether Modi had actually ordered police officers to take no action against rioters.
One person who could have taken action against Modi was Bhartiya Janata Party’s Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee but he did not have the political support to take on the RSS and Advani at the same time. However, lack of action does not change the fact of Modi’s involvement. A police official has said that Bhatt was not present at the meeting. But Bhatt’s driver has told the media that he drove his boss to Modi’s bungalow for the meeting.
However, lack of action does not change the fact of Modi’s involvement. A police official had said that Bhatt was not present at the meeting where Modi had given the instructions. But Bhatt’s driver had told the media that he drove his boss to Modi’s bungalow for the meeting. Strange, the entire campaign of government was directed at denying Bhatt’s presence at the meeting. More important was his affidavit which leaves no doubt about Modi’s guilt.
All eyes are focused on the Supreme Court, although there are allegations that SIT has been selective in admitting evidence. Whether his fresh affidavit was taken into account before SIT gave its report is not known.
The question which the government of India has to answer is whether it would take any action at all. If it were a matter of moral responsibility, the chief minister should have quit long ago. Instead, Modi built a campaign to show how Gujarat had achieved 12 per cent growth rate and how his tight administration was an example for the rest of the country.
Ultimately, the centre will have to decide how to punish Modi. I do not think that the Manmohan Singh government or, for that matter, the Sonia Gandhi-headed Congress has the gumption to do anything even if the Supreme Court passes strictures against Modi, without directly blaming the chief minister. The Prime Minister’s remark at Kolkata gave clear indications about his attitude.
What the nation has to worry about is that one Modi has distorted India’s ethos of pluralism. That he has brainwashed most Gujaratis is a dangerous development. He won the state election even after “ordering” the massacre. The very ideology of secularism is endangered if Modi gets away with what he did. This is the reason why the constitution makers had laid down that the centre could impose President’s rule if there were the breakdown of law and order in a state. Political considerations came in the way of what should have been done nine years ago. His government should have been dismissed. Should the centre be dependent on political exigencies?
It would be a tragedy if such planned killings as happened in Gujarat are decided in a way where he gets the benefit of doubt. Modi’s is a test case for the entire nation, particularly the minorities. Neither the court nor the centre can afford to play with India’s basic structure of the constitution.
The writer is a senior Indian journalist.
