Ahmedabad court gives clean chit to Modi; Bulldozers on refugee Camps in Muzaffarnagar
Virag Pachpore
Two major happenings in the last week of the year that just passed once again underlined the need for a fresh debate on secularism in the context of the present Indian political scenario. The verdict of a trial court of Ahmedabad on the closure report of SIT appointed by the Supreme Court of India to probe into the alleged role of Narendra Modi in 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat came on December 26. The Court rejected the petition filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of the then MP Ahasan Jafri who was killed in Gujarat riots.
This decision of the Ahmedabad court came as a great relief for the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who had been hounded by the secularists, leftists and human rights-wallas all these years. It marked the end of the long drawn political vengeance against Modi. The court verdict also marked the end of over a decade-long sustained vilification campaign through the courts by the leftist assisted NGOs against the very person who strived and succeeded in keeping his state riot-free after the unfortunate riots of 2002.
The verdict of the Court on SIT came after the spectacular victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of which Narendra Modi is the Prime Ministerial candidate who shouldered the responsibility of campaigning during the elections. The return of the BJP in MP and Chhattisgarh and landslide victory of the party in Rajasthan plus the best performance in Delhi is rightly and duly credited to charismatic leadership of Modi, who handled the Gujarat situation very deftly and brought Gujarat at par with the most developed states in India. Leading by example Narendra Modi had shown to the country what he meant by development, good governance and equality sans discrimination based on castes or religions. The average Muslim in Gujarat is happy and contended as compared to their counterparts in other states. And this fact is acknowledged by many Muslim leaders—political and religious both included.
The reactions from the Congress and other secular leaders, leftists lobby, Christian missionary organisations and NGOs denigrating the court order were on the expected lines. For them, this must have come as bolt from the blue because they were more than assured that the court would give the verdict in their favour. That did not happen and hence one can understand their anguish and restlessness after losing the last battle. Some of them even went to the extent of raising a question mark on the Court itself!
Another major incident that attracted attention of the country was the post-riot politics in Uttar Pradesh. Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and other adjoining areas of Uttar Pradesh witnessed fierce communal riots in the past couple of months leaving over 60 dead and rendering 50,000 homeless and displaced. These hapless victims of the riots are housed in temporary relief camps in the harsh, biting cold in makeshift relief shelters. The riots started on August 27 following a molestation attempt and subsequent killings of youths belonging to Jats and Muslim communities in Muzaffranagar’s Kaval village. Soon the wild fire spread engulfing the entire Saharanpur division in the wild fire of communal passions.
The riots exposed the inhuman attitude of the Samajwadi Party government, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. The brazen interference of SP Cabinet Minister Azam Khan in working of the security apparatus of the state; the judiciary and the relief and rehabilitation process have exposed the most insensitive and discriminatory attitude of the government. The Principal Secretary (Home) Anil Kumar Gupta rubbed salt into the wounds of the victims by his ‘Siberaia analogy’ in shamelessly defending and justifying deaths of children due to cold.
Mulayam Singh went a step ahead stating that no riot victims were staying in the relief camps and only the activists of rival political parties were staying there. This statement stirred the hornet’s nest inviting widespread criticism from all quarters. The UP Government was all out to cover up their failure in handling the communal tensions and managing relief and rehabilitation of the victims. So when the Gujarat court was pronouncing its verdict on SIT closure report, the UP officials were bulldozing the relief camps in their exercise to deny the very existence of riot victims!
The SP government tried its best to placate Muslims by giving them compensation to the tune of Rs five lakh per family, but deliberately ignored the Hindus who also equally suffered in the riots. The Supreme Court has to step in taking a serious view of the discrimination in distribution of relief and direct the state government to correct the wrongdoings.
In both the cases efforts were being made by the secular parties and NGOs and individuals to sympathise with the Muslims and ignore the Hindus. This has been the policy of the successive governments in independent India. Muslims were considered as mere vote banks and were kept terrified with the ‘Hindufobia’ whenever these parties required their support to continue their power politics. Even Maulana Mehmood Madani, General Secretary of Jamiat-Ul-Ulema-e-Hind had said, “These so-called secular political parties want the votes of the people without following their commitment to them. Instead they create a fear psychosis amongst the Muslims to get their votes”.
The Muslims are now seeing through this game plan of these pseudo-secular parties. They are raising the questions on the motives of these leaders. They also understand that they were being used by these parties as mere vote banks and left to fend themselves afterwards. The recent shift in the Muslim votes towards the Bharatiya Janata Party was an indication of this change visible in the Muslims of India. They realise that after 2002 there was not a single communal riot in Gujarat while in UP under the SP government over 100 ritos took place in a couple of years while in Rajasthan’s Gopalgarh riots displaced the Muslims. Muslims have voted largely in favour of BJP in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh in the recent elections sending shockwaves among these pseudo secular parties. This realisation is forcing them to go all out in further placating and wooing the Muslim votes keeping an eye on the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But they must realise that they can’t fool all people for all times.
