Author: Editorial
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: September 30, 2002
URL: http://www.samachar.com/features/300902-editorial.html
Poor Narendra Modi! He is abused,
if he governs. And also abused, if he does not govern. The secularists
in the media and the polity have now risen in unison to cite the complete
calm that prevailed during the two days of bandh in Gujarat following the
Akshardham Temple atrocity as proof of his willful complicity in the riots
that took place in the wake of the Godhra train carnage.
If Modi, goes this peculiar line
of reasoning, could control the situation this time, why couldn't he have
done so in February last in the immediate aftermath of the torching of
the train carrying Ram bhaktas from Ayodhya? Notably, the VHP bandh on
September 26 passed off peacefully without any untoward incident.
So congratulations were rightly
due to the Chief Minister. He ensured that the grave provocation of an
attack on the revered temple by Pakistani terrorists did not lead to an
outbreak of communal violence.
As it is, the communal situation
in the State was far from normal with the scars of the post-Godhra rioting
and violence yet to heal fully. But merely because he was able to control
the situation this time, post-Akshardham, it does not follow that he was
guilty of complicity in the widespread rioting that had broken out immediately
after the news of Ram Bhaktas being roasted alive in a train compartment
spread like wild fire among the people of Gujarat last February. The shock
and intensity of the two atrocities were vastly different.
For one, whereas the Godhra provocation
was widely believed to be the handiwork of members of the local Muslim
community, howsoever misguided they might have been, the Akshardham atrocity
was the work of Pakistani terrorists. To the extent they were foreign terrorists
sent by the neighbouring enemy nation, the anger of the ordinary Gujaratis
was tempered by that realization.
In the case of Godhra, they had
found in the local Muslims an easy target since they were quick to pin
the blame for the torching of the compartment of Ram bhaktas on their co-religionists.
Again, there had been a long-standing cycle of communal riots in the State
centering around local causes and provocations. The post-Godhra riots were
but the latest in a series of such riots that had marred peace in the State
periodically since Partition. On the other hand, the Akshardham terrorist
attack reflected a larger national-level failure.
The culprits in this case were beyond
the reach of ordinary Gujaratis. And they could not deign to administer
immediate justice to those culprits as they had set out to do immediately
after the Godhra carnage.
That the Government of India had
failed to teach a lesson to Pakistan even after the gravest of grave provocations
insofar as the sanctum sanctorum of Indian democracy, the Parliament House,
was defiled by guntoting Paki thugs last December, must have acted as a
moderating influence on everyone outraged by the attack on the Swamynarayan
temple in Gandhinagar. The point is that there was no specific target against
which angry Gujaratis could vent their anger for the attack on the Akshardham
temple.
In the case of Godhra train carnage,
unfortunately, they were quick to identify the attackers with their co-religionists
in the rest of the State.
More importantly, unlike Godhra,
almost all leaders and political parties were quick to condemn in no uncertain
terms the terrorist attack on the Askhardham temple. In the case of Godhra,
barring the RSS and BJP parivar, others hedged their critical words and
sought to equate the victims of the attack with their attackers. Indeed,
there were some in the media and the make-believe secularist world who
virtually suggested that the victims of the Godhra carnage deserved what
they got. And there were other sick people who suggested that the victims
had themselves set their compartment on fire in order to extract political
mileage for their party and parivar.
Mercifully, both on myriad TV channels
and the print media such idiotic justification of the terrorist attack
this time round was missing. Right from the moment it became known that
the landmark temple in Gandhinagar had been attacked, the media and everyone
else in authority was certain that it was the handiwork of Pakistan.
Now, individuals cannot deign to
take into their own hands the task of teaching enemy nations a lesson for
their undercover acts while in their anger they can quite erroneously make
bold to teach fellow citizens a lesson for what they perceive to be a grave
offence to their collective pride and honour as was the case in the post-
Godhra riots.
Of course, most Indians would like
Pakistan to be taught a lesson for its continuing mischief in Kashmir and
elsewhere in the country, but they realize that it is something that only
the government in New Delhi can undertake.
Lest the above should be taken as
a justification for the terrible events that followed Godhra, let us state
it categorically that we condemn both the Godhra train attack and what
had followed inits wake in the strongest of terms. Our objective in comparing
the Godhra and Gandhinagar incidents here was only to put them in the right
perspective. Meanwhile, ordinary Gujaratis and the Modi Government, in
that order, deserve congratulations for having ensured peace and normalcy
following the Akshardham atrocity against `all' Indians.
