JUSTICE REACHES MODI’S HOME
Ahmedabad court convicts former minister in Modi’s government, establishing for the first time a direct link between the Sangh Parivar and the 2002 Gujarat riots
The 2002 Gujarat riots have returned to haunt Chief Minister Narendra Modi. On August 29, a special court in Ahmedabad convicted 32 people, including BJP MLA and former women and child development minister Mayaben Kodnani, and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, in the gruesome Naroda Patiya riot case in the city, in which 97 people were killed and 33 injured. Kodnani became the first prominent Sangh Parivar member to be convicted in the riots, underlining what prosecution lawyer Mukul Sinha said was proof that “there was direct role of the Parivar and government elements in instigating the riots”. Thirty others were also convicted, while 29 were acquitted. The massacre took place on February 28, when a 15,00020,000- strong Hindu mob attacked Karnataki Muslims in Ahmedabad’s eastern suburb, a day after 59 Hindus were killed in Godhra.
Kodnani, a doctor by profession, and her husband, broke down in court as judge Jyotsna Yagnik read out the judgment. The verdict can create strategic problems for Modi in the run- up to the Assembly polls. Sentences are yet to be pronounced, but the verdict has added to the worries of the embattled Modi government.
It comes at a time of silent Congress propaganda that Hindu rioters were instigated by Modi’s government and the Parivar for their political objectives. A vast section of the state VHP, too, would like to suggest that Modi has betrayed the cause of Hindus. This is part of a larger Sangh Parivar internal dissension, in which the Gujarat VHP is seen as part of the anti- Modi faction.
Expectedly, Kodnani’s lawyer and BJP leader Yatin Oza questioned the verdict: “Even a junior lawyer will say she has been convicted on tutored evidence created by motivated activists. What’s unusual is that the more- than50- per- cent- conviction in this case is
SURVIVORS OF THE 2002 RIOTS IN AHMEDABAD’S NARODA PATIYA SUBURB BELIEVE THAT MORE PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE BEEN CONVICTED.
the highest ever in any case of mob violence in India. So, while in Gujarat there’s a hurry to deliver justice, the 1984 anti- Sikh riot and the 1992- 93 Mumbai riot victims are left waiting.”
There was jubilation among Modi’s opponents, led by activist Teesta Setalvad, who hailed it as a triumph of truth “against attempts to derail it”. In response to the Congress call for Modi to resign, his government said it had no reason to quit. Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas said: “As a government, we seldom comment on court judgments, but when the riots happened, Kodnani was not a minister.” He then made the startling comparison: “And if that is going to be the norm, then Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot government should have resigned after its senior minister was arrested in the Bhanwri Devi case.”
Among the victims of the Naroda Patiya riots, the reaction was mixed. While most were satisfied that they had ultimately got justice, some, like Salim Shaikh, were not. Observed Shaikh, who lost four relatives in the riots, “More of the 29 acquitted should have been convicted on the basis of the evidence.”
So far, five judgments have been delivered in the 2002 riots cases, in which a Supreme Court ( SC)- appointed Special Investigation Team ( SIT) reopened the probe. It was set up after activists pleaded before SC that the Gujarat Police probe, conducted earlier, had been shoddy, and that an SIT was needed to deliver justice.
Available facts now throw interesting light on the allegations by the social activists. Figures show a majority of those convicted in the four cases were already arrested by Gujarat Police, before the SIT intervened in 2008. In the Naroda Patiya case, only 11 of the 32 convicted were arrested by SIT, the others having been arrested earlier. In the Sardarpura case, only two of the 21 arrested by SIT were convicted. In other words, of the 31 convicted in this case, only two were arrested by SIT.