The alleged involvement of Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the Gujarat 2002 pogrom has once again come to the fore with a senior IPS officer Sanjiv Rajendra Bhatt, in a sworn affidavit before the Supreme Court, testifying that Modi in a high level meeting allowed Hindus to “vent their anger” against Muslims to “teach them a lesson”. This is nothing new; earlier, in March 2005 another senior IPS officer R.B. Sreekumar revealed Narendra Modi’s intrigue, subversion and manipulation during the Gujarat pogrom. Besides, the Supreme Court, various national and international Non-Governmental organisations, Ms. Zakia Ahsan Zafari’s Special Leave Petition No. 1088 of 2008 before the apex court as well as media indicted Modi not only for failing to protect lives and properties of innocent citizens but giving free hand to state machinery and Hindutva vandals to see the dance of death go unchecked.
We need not reiterate that Gujarat 2002 was not a mere communal flare-up but a well-hatched anti-Muslim massacre bordering on state-sponsored terrorism. It is an irony that Hindutva tentacles have penetrated so deep into the police and administrative machinery of the state, which has emerged to be the first Hindutva laboratory in plural India, that even the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) is alleged to have hands in gloves with Modi. The SIT is said to have scuttled every effort of the witnesses appearing before it to give testimony against Modi.
The irony of ironies is that while the world knows it for certain, our central administration as well as judicial system has failed rather miserably to take action against the real culprits behind this ugliest massacre in the post-Independence history.
Various political parties have demanded in the right earnest removal of Narendra Modi from the chief ministership and imposition of President’s Rule in Gujarat. Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Ram Vilas Paswan, in a protest rally in Patna City, made a demand to this effect. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Laloo Prasad has also demanded the ouster of Modi. M. Badruddin Ajmal, President All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), in a letter to President Pratibha Party and forwarded to Prime Minister, Home Minister, UPA Chairperson, and National Human Rights Commission, sought the intervention of the President to “direct legal actions against Mr. Narendra Modi and his crime-associates in the Gujarat assembly”.
It is high time the civil society and voluntary organisations came forward to exert pressure on the Government to seek justice in Gujarat pogrom in a manner Anna Hazare did to wage a war against corruption.