India's broken tryst. quoted in Madhu Purnima Kishwar: Modi, Muslims and Media. In spite of strong and widespread anti-Muslim feelings, Hindus have shown remarkable patience and forbearance in past instances of Islamic terrorism. p. 197, Kishwar, Madhu (2014). They were very annoyed that the Gujarat carnage was so unambiguously started by Muslims with their massacre of Hindu pilgrims, mostly women and children. In the original East-European setting, if 58 Jews got killed, that was called a pogrom, right? The court also acquitted 63 people in the case. This incident was used to organize large scale massacres of Muslims across the state. When measured just by numbers what happened to the Sikhs in 1984 was twice as bad. My mother was in flames, her clothes were on fire,’ she said. Lalu Prasad today accused Nitish of closing the Railways' probe in Godhra train burning incident to suit the interest of Narendra Modi. The Centre in 2005 informed Rajya Sabha that the riots claimed the lives of 254 Hindus and 790 Muslims. Which newspaper article stated that the most violent events took place following provocations by leaders of this sort? Some individuals who had participated in the conspiracy appear to be involved in the heinous act of setting coach S/6 on fire. The Gujarat riots were not the worst communal riots even by Gujarat’s own standards. The Commission in its report submitted that most of the 59 people killed were kar sevaks who were returning from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. On a parallel track, reports in print media as well as TV began reiterating that it was the logical outcome of the Ram Mandir movement. This case has also been registered in court but no action has taken place over it. Such was his minute detailed explanation that I felt being transported to Godhra and Gujarat of those times. It is not as though a crime is a crime only if it is committed against the minorities and not so if it is committed against the majority community. The 63 people acquitted also include the prime accused in the case Maulana Umarji, Mohammad Hussain Kalota, Mohammad Ansari and Nanumiya Chaudhary. Does anyone remember who the chief minister of Maharashtra was during Mumbai riots which were no less deadly than the Gujarat riots of 2002? Kay Benedict, “Bad PR Charge on Atal, Modi” The Telegraph. Elst, Koenraad. The mob was reportedly armed with petrol bombs, acid bombs and swords. The Union Home Ministry's Annual Report of 2002-03 stated that 40,000 Hindus were in riot relief camps. How to classify those 250 victims? On the other side of the partition, there was a squint-eyed man from Karnataka. The latest is their "report" claiming that the Hindus in the train had themselves lit the fire, in a gigantic mass suicide. Therefore, they wanted to drag on the camps for as long as they could. With such media, who needs rumors? That would help us learn from our mistakes. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines. Godhra city had communal riots in 1947, 52, 59, 61, 65, 67, 72, 74, 80, 83, 89 and 90. Modi, Muslims and media: Voices from Narendra Modi's Gujarat. Justice Nanavati and Justice Akshay Mehta submitted the final report of the Nanavati-Shah Commission that same year describing the train burning as a conspiracy. His position was taken over by Justice Akshay H Mehta. BJP leader V.K. Does anyone recall the name of the chief minister of UP during Malliana and Meerut riots or Bihar CM when the Bhagalpur or Jamshedpur riots under Congress regimes took place? Voices from Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, Manushi Publications, Delhi 2014. Two thousand people were standing on all sides of the compartment to prevent the karsevaks from running away and saving their lives from the fire. These included 26 women and 12 children. This inflamed the Hindus and they went on a rampage. Were all of these caused by the Rathyatra ?" A Special SIT Court in Ahmedabad on Wednesday sentenced convict Yakub Pataliya to life imprisonment in the 2002 Godhra train burning case. Ayodhya and after: Issues before Hindu society. That canard was borrowed from an Islamist website. p.210, with quote from K.M. A genuine pogrom was, however, what triggered them: Muslims setting a train wagon on fire, killing 58 Hindu pilgrims. The incident took place in March 2002, after the train burning incident near Godhra railway station; a fast-track court acquitted all the accused on 14 Jun'05. The court’s verdict came on appeals filed by the convicts and the prosecuting agency. MANY people have argued that the Godhra train burning incident in which 59 Hindu kar sevaks died was as brutal and violent as the communal riots it triggered in Gujrat. Narendra Modi on the choice of Nanavati to head the commission. Madhu Purnima Kishwar: Modi, Muslims and Media. No one talks about the fact that we maintained absolute peace even after that provocation. Mr. Modi paused for a little while and then started explaining to me in detail the events which happened on that day and thereafter. also at. Madhu Purnima Kishwar: Modi, Muslims and Media. Unfortunately, these bizarre stories about the self-ignition of the coach were given respectability by the then Railway Minister Lalu Yadav who appointed the one-man committee in September 2004 under retired judge U.C. A detailed examination of the events shows that elements of both planning by Hindu extremists and a spontaneous uprising of the populace at the outrage of Godhra were present in the Gujarat violence. p.198. “Dalits suffered heavily during Gujarat riots. Godhra Train Burning: HC faults State Govt, Orders Rs 10 Lakh for Victims' Kin. Even the Gujarat carnage remained confined to a few cities in one state, and when Islamic terrorists killed more than thirty Gujarati Hindu worshippers in the Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar only a few months later, there was no Hindu retaliation, in accordance with the old pattern. They told us about the earlier riots in which the Hindus were mostly at the receiving end. Many of the bodies were charred horrifically. There was no one to ask them for accounts. Injuries were suffered by another 48 passengers in the train. That is their only agenda. Modi, Muslims and media: Voices from Narendra Modi's Gujarat. She was crying hysterically in front of journalists. On 27 February 2002, the Godhra train burning incident initiated a series of riots in Gujarat. A group of Muslims dragged him into the gali near their masjid. Abdullah Ibrahim Syed, quoted from Madhu Purnima Kishwar: Modi, Muslims and Media. This too enraged the mob and they went on a rampage. So, the secularists were losing credibility day by day. Was this a modern case of, Elst, Koenraad. KM Munshi quoted from Kishwar, Madhu (2014). Was even one family of Hindu victims interviewed following the criminal burning of the Sabarmati Express? Gujarat riots: The true story ; the truth of the 2002 riots. The victims included 15 children, including some toddlers and some old people of above 65. ‘I don’t know what happened in 1984,’ she said, ‘but I was in Ahmedabad in 2002 and I know what happened and blame Modi for it.’ It was a response I had heard many times and yet it never failed to annoy me. In fact, I even added in its terms of reference that all the charges against me should also be examined. For all the latest What Is News, download Indian Express App. The second incident took place around 11 a.m. A Muslim owner of an Eicher truck was surrounded by a Hindu mob. Koenraad Elst, On Modi Time : Merits And Flaws of Hindu Activism In Its Day Of Incumbency – 2015 Ch 30, But then, four years into the BJP regime, the prayers of the secularists were answered at last. Violence Spreads Across Indian State By ASHOK SHARMA,Associated Press Feb 28, 2002 (URL: That the survivors of the February 27 Sabarmati Express blaze at Godhra are a bitter lot will be an understatement. Modi, Muslims and media: Voices from Narendra Modi's Gujarat. Yakub Pataliya is accused of being a part of the mob that torched the coaches of Sabarmati Express near Godhra railway station on February 27, … Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya on the Sabarmati Express train were attacked. Publication: UNI Date: March 8, 2002 also reprinted at, The arguments they put forth to rubbish the charge of pre-planned attack by a group of miscreants (some with pronounced Congress Party links) not only added insult to injury but also revealed the extent to which the, Kishwar, Madhu (2014). There is absolutely no evidence to show that either the Chief Minister and/or any other Minister(s) in his Council of Ministers or Police officers had played any role in the Godhra incident or that there was any lapse on their part in the matter of providing protection, relief and rehabilitation to the victims of communal riots or in the matter of not complying with the recommendations and directions given by National Human Rights Commission. 7. About 550-odd residents of the Prem Darwaja Vagheri Vas, Dariyapur, had no choice but to leave behind their belongings and take shelter in a near-by temple, following the violence of March 21. All the suppressed passions broke loose at the Godhra carnage, and no government, Modi or no Modi, could have stopped what followed—despicable and condemnable as both the Godhra and post-Godhra killings were. A Muslim mob threateningly gathered around a train carrying Hindu pilgrims returning home from Ayodhya, and then, in the secularist version, a wagon suddenly caught fire from the inside. HEIDELBERG PAPERS IN SOUTH ASIAN AND COMPARATIVE POLITICS. Narendra Modi: A political biography. Koenraad Elst: Religious Cleansing of Hindus, 2004, in: Elst, K. The Problem with Secularism (2007). Malhotra , Reported in Times of India,17/12/1990. The first charge-sheet in the Godhra Train Burning case was filed by DySP KC Bawa, the Investigating Officer, on 22nd May 2002 alleging that the S6 coach was burnt from outside by the use of some inflammable fluid (He did not clearly specify whether the inflammable fluid was petrol, kerosene or diesel). People started using them to garner massive funds from within India and abroad. 59 karsevaks were burnt to death in a most horrifying manner. The television news channels showed the pictures of the burning S/6 coach and the dead bodies throughout the day. The yagna was part of Ram Temple building programme. The SIT's conspiracy theory claimed that these 31 people held meetings, planned to target the train when it reached Godhra station and that they burnt the coach. It is to be hoped that the same is realized and adequate measures are taken to address the shortcomings, and prevent such incidents in the near future. Such acts of senseless violence should be condemned no matter who is responsible for them and no matter who the victims are. 11 of the 31 convicts were given the death penalty while the remaining were given life imprisonment. Simpi (Witness-25). At least 2,000 kar sevaks, who had gone to attend the Purnahuti Maha Yagna at the instance of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, had boarded the train from Ayodhya. Salim Khan, quoted in : Madhu Purnima Kishwar: Modi, Muslims and Media. “Sixteen-year-old Gayatri Panchal saw her mother, father and two sisters die before her eyes in the train fire as they returned home after participating in a religious ceremony at Ayodhya. The SIT court concurred with the charges of the prosecution that this was not an incident of unplanned mob outrage and rather it involved conspiracy. The victims included 27 women and 10 children. October 9, 2017, 15:59 IST explore: India The charge that the CM forced the relief camps to close while the victims were not ready to go back is baseless. It had become a daily ritual to bring in media persons, especially the foreign media, to talk to tutored victims, who began to exaggerate and overstate their case in order to garner more funds from abroad. So, they falsely started describing the victims as "extremists" and inventing stories of how these Hindu children had kidnapped a Muslim woman into their riding train. My idea was to bring out whatever lapses occurred either by way of decision-making or in the implementation of orders in both these cases. There is no evidence regarding involvement of any definite religious or political organization in the conspiracy. It became another political platform for racketeers. According to the investigation, the conflict started when the Hindu militant activists attacked a Muslim woman and pulling off her headscarf. One of these comes from a group led by a few members of the Indian parliament who are trying to get the facts straight about the issue. There was no trace of indignation ...A few days after the event, Jaya Jaitley of the Samata Party, wrote: “...on Godhra there was stubborn silence when the Treasury benches begged the Opposition to join in a unanimous condemnation of the event...” Sonia Gandhi did not feel the need to call on the prime minister on February 27... S.K. One fourth of the dead in the ensuing riots were Hindus. The Indian Express, dated 7th May 2002, also written by Palak Nandi: “With no relief, they turn to religious places for shelter Palak Nandi. I handed over to the Nanavati Commission the entire list of charges they had listed in their memorandum. Baldeep Singh photographer was with me. He was handed over to the Special Investigation Team (SIT). The details were later published at the recommendation of the National Human Rights Commission. By and large, Hindus have shown remarkable self-restraint in the face of violent provocation, a fact for which they are given insufficient credit. Fifty-seven Hindus were killed, including 25 women and 14 children, who were burned alive aboard the Sabarmati Express... Christophe Jaffrelot describing the Godhra train burning attack. The Gujarat High Court on Monday commuted the death sentence awarded to 11 convicts to life term in the Godhra train burning case of 2002. I was a personal witness to the following incident. “It’s because they were returning from Ayodhya, where they asked for the reconstruction of a temple at the traditional birth place of Rama; this offends the feelings of the Muslims.” In sum, the victims, roasted alive, were guilty. The attackers poured petrol into the compartment and then set it afire. The Indian Express is now on Telegram. The report claimed that the attacks on Muslims were all state sponsored and planned in advance of the Godhra incident. So, Muslims committed a pogrom, and then riots ensued; big riots but by no means “unprecedented”. The camps had also become important showpieces for certain NGOs. What made those 40,000 Hindus rush to relief camps? K. Srinivas quoted from Madhu Purnima Kishwar: Modi, Muslims and Media. These Dalit families claim that they had been attacked by the people belonging to the minority community, who damaged their houses, property and drove them out of the area. I personally didn’t know Justice Nanavati. They alleged that the Godhra incident was due to government’s failure or complicity, not a planned attack by Muslims. Do we hear the names of earlier chief ministers of Gujarat under whose charge hundreds of riots took place in post-Independence India? FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES- GODHRA AND AFTER- A Field Study By Justice D. S. Tewatia, Dr. J. C. Batra, Dr. Krishan Singh Arya, Shri Jawahar Lal Kaul, Prof. B. K. Kuthiala. Those accused of terrorism often receive political support, are benevolently portrayed by the media, and a host of “human rights” organisations are always on hand to fight for them. Also be examined of Maharashtra was during Mumbai riots which were no less than! To break out into the 1984 riots latest what is news, download Express! Entered Shah Alam dargah, which is why Indian theocratic Islamists call themselves `` secularists '' also acquitted people... 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