Nafisa Ali http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/printedition/070802/detPLA01.shtml Is this the same Atal Bihari Vajpayee who made that celebrated speech in Goa and protected Narendra Modi? After the shameful petrol pump scam exposed by the Indian Express, how come the prime minister acted so fast, and with such conscientious statesmanship? Why did he not similarly act and dismiss Narendra Modi when thousands of Indians were killed and raped? I want to blank out the horrors in Gujarat. I heard the survivors convey their deep sense of betrayal. Their FIRs are not being registered. If people want to return to their homes, then it is with the condition that the names in the FIRs be dropped. Be it Godhra or after, you only feel shock and anger. I grieve for all, irrespective of their religion, caste or status. All the guilty must be punished. Why is the Modi government and the Centre shy of revealing the names of the passengers in the Sabarmati Express on that tragic day? Were they all kar sevaks who died, as the VHP/BJP claimed? If not, who are they? Why have 19 bodies still not been identified? What about the passengers in the adjacent bogies? Why have their testimonies not been taken? Why is Advani so hurriedly trashing the forensic report, without even allowing a transparent CBI enquiry? How was the inflammatory liquid allowed inside the carriage? The Modi government was quick to declare the Godhra massacre as an ISI conspiracy. If so, why were law-abiding Indian Muslims of Gujarat punished in such a ghastly manner? If it was not the ISI, who are the real killers of Godhra? According to reports, the Godhra killing was not premeditated but a result of a mob violence following continuing humiliations at the hands of kar sevaks who were mostly travelling ticketless in the trains. I was told of some Muslims trying to board the earlier Sabarmati Express train on its way to Ayodhya, but who were not allowed to. Instead, they were stabbed with trishuls by kar sevaks. The same train then returned from Ayodhya. One report said a policeman registered a complaint that kerosene cans and stoves were being carried by the kar sevaks which perhaps helped in the mass igniting of coach S-6. A magazine reported that a handful of anti-social elements carrying jerry cans of inflammables were trying to enter the train. Let the truth come out. The solution lies within the problem. The answer lies in every question asked, investigated and made public. Mere inflammatory rhetoric for communal polarisation will not do. Those responsible for the Godhra killings should be punished, as should those who organised the post-Godhra carnage with direct support from the Modi government. What happened after Godhra was orchestrated genocide and Modi is now trying to profit from this carnage. Is this possible in any civilised democracy? Modi has become a challenge to the Constitution of India and the secular, pluralist foundations of the Indian State. That is why the horrors in Gujarat need to be thoroughly probed by an impartial body. Why should Hindus and Muslims be made sacrificial goats for the vested interests of some politicians? The prime minister promised Rs 150 crore for relief, but compensation has been a farce. Our image as a democratic and liberal country has taken a beating. We must reach out and help ordinary people who have been devastated. Ninety per cent of Muslim homes have been destroyed. Their material assets do not exist. Crores have gone up in flames. More than 1 lakh people have no home to return to. A father and a son recently returned to their home, only to be murdered in their sleep. The Gujarat government says that 1,000 people died. But the truth is that 2,000 Indians are still missing. Will they ever be located? Yet, the government wants evidence of their murders. Can proof be found in their ashes? Who do we blame? Industrialists do not want to speak out on Gujarat because they fear that this may annoy the powers that be. How will 12 per cent of defenceless Indians rebuild their lives and come to vote if there are early elections in the state? Or is it that the 12 per cent do not count? What gives the BJP, the RSS and the VHP the right to be custodians of the Hindu dharma? This is not Sarva Dharma Samabhava. The reverence for god should bring out the good in each one of us. We, the people of India, have to take charge. Hinduism as a way of life allows us to grow into good human beings. Those who kill, burn and rape are not Hindus. Must liberal Indians stand by in silence? Why has Vajpayee let the country down? I appeal to President Abdul Kalam ? please help reconstruct the riot ravaged victims' material and spiritual lives in this land of Vedanta. The answer lies within each one of us. Let us plant the seed of prosperity, hope and right action. |