By Bhanupratap Shukla
THE Godhra carnage will be probed again. The aim of the departmental probe is not to collect facts but to present the so-called facts after distorting and contorting them.
The probe will be according at the wishes of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav whose faith rests on Sonia Gandhi and so-called secularism. The aim of his probe is not to identify the real culprits, but is to please a certain section of a community under the pretext of the probe. Lalu Yadav has no desire to redress the grievances of anybody through a fresh probe; he wants to malign the standing of his political opponents. By ordering a fresh probe he has already announced the outcome of the probe. He has been repeatedly stressing on the point that the fire in the burnt compartments of the Sabarmati Express was not ignited from outside but occurred from within the bogey itself. He wants to hold the victims who died of burns inside the two compartments responsible for the fire and declare the rioters, who lighted the compartments, as innocent. It seems justified for him to do so for the sake of Sonia Gandhi and secularism.
The question that arises is what impact will this act of Lalu have on the human psyche? It is a fact that Sabarmati Express was engulfed in flames on February 26, 2002. This too is a fact that the passengers seated inside the two compartments?S5 and S6?of the train lost their lives in the raging flames. Neither can anyone deny the controversy that arose between the Karsevaks and some Muslim youth at the Godhra railway station when the train was forced to halt some two kilometres away. Nor can one deny that within half an hour hundreds of Muslims mobbed the train and began to stone the Karsevaks. This too is completely true that both the compartments were burnt down.
Despite so many facts and so many truths attached to this fearsome tragedy, this new UPA government has felt the need to search for new facts. Obviously this government wants to give credence to some myths and rumours so that it can display its secularism; please some anti-Hindu and anti-national forces; drag some personalities into the political morass instead of revealing the true situation and thereby divert the public attention to other issues.
The Railway Ministry will conduct the departmental probe into the Godhra carnage. This only confirms the fear that this government is interested in settling scores due to its personal enmity and desire for revenge and not under the programme of the new alliance. The government is not engaged in constructive activities but in conducting an eyewash only. If the UPA government had really been interested in a fresh enquiry into the Godhra carnage and Gujarat riots, it would have adopted different measures. A commission would have been set up, the CBI and others would have been roped in. Either Sonia Gandhi or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are not feeling the need for this possibly due to their lack of faith in the Commission of Enquiry set up by the Vajpayee government or else lack the strength to adopt a new viewpoint on Gujarat or Godhra. If, despite this, the green signal has been given to Lalu by the UPA government, it only means that it wishes to shoot its target by placing the gun on Lalu´s shoulders.
It is nothing new for Lalu to adopt such immature tactics since clownism and flattery have been the hallmarks of Lalu´s style of politics so far. Actually he considers this a ballgame and is thoroughly enjoying it. The media considers such politics as Lalu´s exclusive patent.
In reality the cause for a fresh probe into the Godhra carnage lies elsewhere. For Lalu, Gujarat is far from his mind; with a fresh probe into Godhra carnage he wants to establish his importance on Bihar. He wants to gain political mileage in Bihar by blaming the Karsevaks and the Gujarat government. He is targetting Narendra Modi with the aim of settling scores with his predecessor in the Railway Ministry, Nitish Kumar. With his findings through the enquiry he would wish to hold not Modi alone, even Nitish Kumar responsible for the Gujarat riots. Laloo is not concerned about the facts. Political gain is supreme for him. It makes no difference to him that with this move of his, communal tension will rise. Neither is he bothered that this way politics will get murkier still. He is concerned only with his personal motives. He knows that by stressing on equality of religions, not only would he get the votes of the minorities but also win the licence to rule over Bihar for another five years more. Lalu knows that all by himself he cannot overcome the Muslim leaders like the tainted goons, Tasslimuddin and Shahabuddin. If the innocent Muslims do not get befooled, then his rule in absentia in Bihar will slip from his hands. Hence on the pretext of Godhra, he wants to win over Patna.
What will the Railway Ministry probe into?that how did the fire break out in the train; that for inciting trouble at the platform, was it the Muslim shopkeepers who were responsible or the Karsevaks; that the train stopped of its own accord or was forced to come to a halt; that kerosene or petrol was outside the compartment or inside; the cause of the fire was inflammable material or short circuit; what more can be within the jurisdiction of the railway authorities for the purpose of the probe? But information on all these questions is already available.
Is Lalu not familiar with Godhra´s history and the doubts expressed on earlier occasions? Is he not aware that Godhra is considered an extremely soft spot for communal disturbances? Due to the minority community, this is not the first time that such a violent riot broke out; on the contrary, 1980 and 1992 also witnessed riots. The minority living on the other side of Godhra railway track has already declared their part of the land as Pakistan. Intelligence reports reveal that plans had been chalked out well before February 27, 2002 to attack the Karsevaks. Since then, whenever any train carrying the Karsevaks passed through Godhra, police officers and constables were always put on duty for security purpose.
Among the minority group in Godhra, there are some who are not so innocent?they are agents of external agencies, who keep attacking on and off. That the attack was launched by these forces can be verified by Lalu from J.K. Bhatt, former chief of Gujarat Railway Police. At that time only eight constables of Gujarat Railway Police were present and thus were unable to control such a large crowd of atttackers. Though the police resorted to firing, they failed to control the mob from igniting the train.
This government will try to draw the conclusion that the attack on the train was not preplanned. As the least Lalu will say that the mob was provoked by the Karsevaks to attack or he can even go to the extent of proving that explosives were kept inside the train. However, all these points seem minor in front of the fact that the attack on Sabarmati Express was launched by the Godhra Muslims. The train caught fire only after the attack. Even if the UPA government places the blame on the Karsevaks and the Gujarat government, the nation cannot forget those innocents who were killed. Politics may have its compulsions, but a democracy cannot be run under pressures or compulsions.
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