Author: Sandeep B
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 01, 2011
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/321074/Verdict-a-blow-to-bogus-activism.html
For nine years jholawallahs have been running
a malicious campaign of calumny to distort the truth about the carnage in
Godhra and overstating the facts of the violence that followed. The special
court's judgement has exposed the lot
To slightly modify an adage, delayed justice
is better than no justice at all. This rings really true, loud and clear in
light of the February 22, 2011 verdict by the special court on the Godhra
train-burning episode of February 27, 2002. Almost exactly nine years after
those 59 innocent kar sevaks were roasted alive in coach S6 of Sabarmati Express.
It is hard to say whether they have gotten justice not only because they aren't
alive today but because of what has transpired since: The toxic climate of
public discourse has been progressively poisoned by defacing even the memory
of these innocent pilgrims.
It is, therefore, important to recap and trace
the progression of the events of 2002 until now - given how fast we forget
even the worst of horrors - both in the interest of decency and to guard ourselves
against similar perversions recurring in future.
In retrospect, 'defacing' does not adequately
capture the impact of what has occurred post-Godhra. The 59 murdered kar sevaks
have been used as edifices to play out a twisted political game first on the
national and then the international stage. The actors include the usual suspects
of self-proclaimed secularists and their fellow-travellers in the media. At
the time the bogie was burnt, most media houses more or less were faithful
in reporting the tragedy. In its immediate aftermath - the violence that followed
- the media mostly presented an accurate assessment: That they were a spontaneous
reprisal for the unprovoked killing.
But what many missed is the fact that the
discourse was perverted ab initio. The coach-burning was blamed on the dead
kar sevaks because they 'invited' their deaths by chanting "Jai Sri Ram,"
which Muslims found "provocative". It is unsurprising then that
the subsequent pontification, statements of outrage and calls for justice
have been extensions of the same theme, and spawned what has come to be known
as the 'Gujarat Cottage Industry'. It is not entirely incorrect to say that
no other human tragedy in recent times has been scavenged upon on a scale
as the Gujarat violence of 2002. Whether justice has been done or not is a
question that pales before the kind of cynical careerism and wealth that it
has generated for those who chose to exploit it.
This context is important because every instance
of brazen activism by self-styled vigilantes of societal well-being has relied
on two things: Obscuring the Godhra train-burning incident without which the
riots would've never occurred, and concealing the fact that even Hindus died
in the riots that followed. In parallel, these selfsame worthies have carried
reports of violent clashes between the two communities but for some reason,
only one of them has been shown as deserving justice.
Then there was the Banerjee Report, the brainchild
of a desperate-for-electoral-victory Lalu Prasad Yadav was stitched together
in a hurry and provided the perfect arsenal to the proponents of lopsided
justice. They claimed they had "official proof" that the fire was
accidental. This report was cited widely and repeated a la Goebbels even after
the courts struck down the very formation of the Banerjee Committee as unconstitutional
to begin with. Yet, it continues to be peddled as "authentic".
The vigilantes, undeterred in their quest
for justice went on a case-filing spree. They called upon the law to take
its course but did everything in their power to exert pressure on the judicial
process: Either the courts weren't doing enough or were delaying things. Trial
by media became - and remains - the order of the day. These pressure tactics
have ensured that the focus remains on the post-Gujarat violence and keeps
the jholawallahs in clover. As subsequent events have revealed, we know how,
for instance, Teesta Setalvad has consistently tried to manipulate the judicial
proces and now stands accused of forgery and perjury.
It is nobody's claim that the perpetrators
of violence in Gujarat must go unpunished but what has been done by a certain
section of do-gooders in the name of securing justice for the victims of the
post-Godhra violence requires critical and thorough scrutiny. The question
that is rarely asked is what apart from lip service have these do-gooders
done to secure justice for the kar sevaks charred to death in coach S6.
The special court's judgement on February
22 thus deserves credit for convicting the guilty, a rare occurrence in cases
of mob violence. The fact that it upheld the Godhra train carnage as a premeditated
conspiracy also confirms what Mr Narendra Modi and K Jana Krishnamurthy -
the then BJP president - had stated back in 2002 on the basis of intelligence
reports.
The judgement is also the latest blow to the
'Gujarat Cottage Industry', which has suffered yet another setback after the
Zahira Sheikh affair and damaging revelations by Raees Khan, Teesta Setalvad's
former aide. It is also laudable on the part of Mr Modi to let the law take
its course -unlike the proponents of trial-by-media.
