Gujarat Riots: Zakia's charges and investigations into Modi's actions

Modi may or may not have had his role in the riots, but some of the important charges against him are source of great entertainment. According to the allegation "Modi along with other ministers in his government, conspired to 'allow the massacre of Muslims'" and "that the chief minister and his colleagues instructed policemen and bureaucrats not to respond to pleas for help from Muslims being attacked during the riots."

In our country, do you have to ever instruct policemen and bureaucrats not to respond? If Mr. Modi spends his time in ensuring things that happen automatically, viz., "policemen and bureaucrats do not respond to pleas of anyone", then that is a sheer waste of tax payer's money on Modi's salary. And for this, Mr. Modi can at best be charged with wasting tax-payer's money, nothing more!

I have picked the details from the news given in MSN. On the last page in the news, the following charges are mentioned:

1. Why were bodies of Godhra train victims paraded on the streets of Ahmedabad?

2. Why was the bandh called by the Sangh Parivar on Feb 27, 2002, not stopped?

3. Why are there no records of the meetings held by Modi Feb 27, 2002, onwards?

4. Why were no minutes of the meetings held by the chief minister and other senior officers for review of the situation from feb 27, 2002, onwards prepared and circulated to the concerned officials?

5. Why were bodies of the Godhra train fire victims paraded through the streets of Ahmedabad city and that too when over 50 percent of the dead belonged to places outside Ahmedabad city and a few bodies were not even identified at that juncture?

Now 1 and 5 say pretty much the same thing, except that 5 informs us that over 50 percent of the dead belonged to places outside Ahmedabad.

I provide some tentative answers to these charges. I am sure the lawyers would do a much more professional job of this.

1. Godhra carnage was a savage act wherein a coach, containing human beings including women and children, was set on fire. If burning helpless humans is not an act of terror then one wonders what an act of terror is. I am sure that a very large number of people, all law-abiding peace-loving citizens, wanted to pay their homage to the innocent victims of this act of brutal savagery. It would be foolish to imagine that the peoples of India who are sensitive enough to pay homage to even a tyrannical DF like Mr. Jyotirmoy Basu, would be heartlessly cruel and not want to pay homage to martyr victims of terrorism. If this paying of homage was facilitated, then the facilitator must be felicitated and not charged with conspiracy.

Those who allege that this was intentionally done, by Mr. Modi, to drive up passions, are, in my opinion, ascribing too much intelligence to our dim-witted friend, I mean Mr. Modi.

2. In a democratic country like India, bandhs are called almost everyday, often for no reasons at all. After a dilapidated structure at Ayodhya fell on December 6, 2002, the number of bandhs called by various democratic groups and secular organizations far exceeded 1000. It might be surmised that Ms. Teesta Setalvad and Ms Zakia too must have joined some of those peaceful bandhs. There is no reason why another organization, viz., the RSS should be forbidden from calling a bandh as a mark of respect to helpless victims of savagery by terrorists.

The short answer is that groups are free to call for bandhs. Unless you want India to become like China where students were massacred by the government troops for merely gathering peacefully at Tiananmen Square in Peking.

3. Firstly, I am not sure if emergency meetings are required to be recorded. It seems highly unlikely. Unless we are cursed with a Home Minister like Mr. Shivraj Patil who was telecasting his meetings live for the benefit of the most afflicted, viz., the terrorists from Pakistan.

Even if they are supposed to be recorded, there are hundreds of ways in which the records quickly become untraceable in India. I wonder if Ms Teesta Setalvad and Ms Zakia can trace their land records in the registrar's office. No points for guessing what the duo would want to be done in case they can not trace the records.

4. This gets me. If no minutes were prepared and circulated, then I fail to understand, how exactly was our dear chief minister allegedly conspiring?

Looks like someone was calling over phones to people and inciting them? But my dear folks, don't you know that one could mimic another person's voice? If you have not heard of Mr. Nagarwala, it would be quite informative to read about his case. A person, allegedly Mr. Nagarwala, allegedly mimicked the voice of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, and withdrew Rs. 60 lac in cash!

5. In light of the facts mentioned in point 1, it is purely human to expect that those who wanted to pay their homage to victims were not as parochial as our large-hearted accusers want them to be. Who would expect that law-abiding, peace-loving citizens of this country would want to deprive homily to someone merely because the deceased person happened to be from another city?

To see a conspiracy where none exists can be termed simple-mindedness. But not to see a conspiracy, when there indeed is one, is criminal-mindedness. It is worthwhile to recall that after the long-awaited though sudden demise of Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1984, when the goons of the Secular Peace-loving Mohandasian-Jawaharian Congress Party, allegedly killed in cold blood, thousands of helpless Sikhs, including women and children, one of our ex-Prime ministers, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, beloved of our current super-prime-minister Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, made a historical remark. And his remark was, "But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little."

It will be much more humane on part of Ms Teesta Setalwad and Ms Zakia to investigate the conspiracy of 1984, than to conspire against a dim-witted politician.

If the anti-Hindu Brigade consists of people of the ilk of Ms. Setalvad and Ms. Zakia, then I still have some hope for the intellectually dead folks on the Hindu Brigade.

My heart feels sorry for Ms. Zakia who lost her husband, and her son who lost his father. I think, they must firmly resolve to fight against the evil designs of Jihadis.

On another level, I also understand the difficulties faced by the Jihadis. They are torn between their religious obligation to kill infidels, no holds barred, women and children not spared; and the law, which forbids them from killing.