Gujarat Riots: The True Story
Myth 1: 2,000 Muslims were killed in the Gujarat riots
Fact: As per figures given by the Union Minister of State for Home Shriprakash Jaiswal, who belongs to the Congress Party, in Parliament on 11 May 2005, 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed in the riots, 2548 people were injured and 223 people were missing. The report placed the number of riot-affected widows at 919 and the number of children orphaned at 606. The UPA government gives these figures, and hence they themselves may be inflated.
See link: http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=46538 or
http://news.indiainfo.com/2005/05/11/1105godhra-rs.html
Even the Indian Muslims’ English newspaper Milli Gazette also reported this.
The editorials of the national English dailies, and the articles published from the freelancers on the newspapers’ editorial pages are nothing but a pack of lies, akin the autobiography of Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, “In the Line of Fire”. Newspapers like The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, etc. continue to publish articles saying, “Win in Assembly elections of December 2002 does not whitewash Narendra Modi’s sins of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 when 2000 innocent Muslims were butchered” or “The Gujarat pogrom of killing thousands of Muslims did not help the BJP in the long term” etc. etc.
All these numbers again came into the picture when Narendra Modi was denied a US diplomatic visa in March 2005 by the USA and his earlier tourist visa, issued in 1998 was revoked just one day before his scheduled visit to the USA. Why the USA took as many as three years after the Gujarat riots to revoke Modi’s earlier visa is not known.
But these numbers are nothing but a pack of lies. The number of Muslims killed in the post-Godhra riots is inflated and exaggerated to unimaginable levels. Let us see the interview given by the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to Aaj Tak’s Prabhu Chawla, excerpts of which were published in the weekly India Today, dated 4 November 2002:
“Q- Your opponents call you ‘Jinnah of the Hindus’.
A- I am hearing this for the first time though I still don’t consider you as an enemy.
Q- You are held responsible for the killing of 1,100 innocent people in the riots.
A- In our previous interview, you said 900 people. Now you are saying 1,100. Are you adding all the people killed in other states like Maharashtra and Bengal to Gujarat’s account?
Q- So what is the correct toll?
A- There would have been no riots in Gujarat if there had been no Godhra.
…
Q-Do you accept that you failed to provide security to the people of the state?
A-98% of Gujarat would not have peace if we had failed to fulfill our duties. We managed to control the riots within 72 hours.
…
Q-Why don’t you accept that Gujarat is being defamed because of Narendra Modi?
A- If that is true, give the people of Gujarat a chance to pronounce their verdict through elections.”
As we see, the number of people killed in the riots jumped from 900 to 1100 after Narendra Modi’s previous interview, i.e. within 4 months! Now it has jumped from 9,00 to 2,000. May be after 10 years, at this rate it will jump to 10,000! Already it is being said that, “thousands of Muslims were killed in Gujarat” and “3,000 innocent Muslims were butchered in Gujarat”.
What these lies have done to well-meaning people
It is generally believed, even in the Sangh Parivar, that the post-Godhra riots were one-sided. Anil Nair, Organiser correspondent in Mumbai reported in the weekly, dated 20 February 2005 thus:
“On February 10, Pakistan finally gathered the gumption to tell us that it was both-in Ahmedabad over 2,000 Muslims were killed in riots. Such polemics are useless; Pakistan is working on the presumption that the Congress government will find it hard to choose between national honour and secularism, and by all measure it will choose the latter at the cost of the former.”
Smriti Irani, BJP member and TV actress (mind the word actress and not actor), also said that she would sit on a fast until death unless Narendra Modi resigned by 25 December to help the BJP get a secular image once and for all in December 2004.
Most leaders of BJP are also blatantly ignorant of the truth of the Gujarat riots. Whenever Congress leaders or anti-BJP journalists raise the issue of the Gujarat riots on TV, the BJP leaders like Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Nitin Gadkari, Gopinath Munde, Prakash Javdekar, Sheshadri Chari, Shahnawaz Hussain, Harsh Vardhan etc hopelessly fail to give befitting reply. They falter in speech. They merely try to point out that the Gujarati electorate gave a huge mandate to the BJP and to Narendra Modi in the December 2002 Gujarat Assembly polls, and mention the Godhra incident as a cause of the riots. None of them ever points out any instance of Muslim aggression, sufferings of the Hindus in the riots, police firing deaths, or the fact that only 60 places out of 18,600 saw riots. This is because of ignorance and blind belief on media lies.
After every terrorist attack, the national English media rationalizes this deed on grounds of the ‘Gujarat riots’. The Gujarat riots were the result of the Godhra massacre. That the English media justified Godhra (as a response to the Ramjanmabhoomi movement in Ayodhya), did not justify or even rationalize the post-Godhra riots (which were the direct result of Godhra) where Muslims were killed and ignored the killings of the Hindus, and it tried to and tries to de-link post-Godhra and Godhra. And it rationalizes and/ or justifies the (so-called) ‘reaction’ to the post-Godhra riots.
The very fact that some terrorists claim that they “plan to avenge the Gujarat riots” clearly shows the devastating consequences of the media lies. The media lies today about Gujarat riots being a ‘pogrom’ and instigates innocent Muslims to terrorism.
In March 2005, the Pakistan cricket team was on a tour to India. It refused to play a Test match in Ahmedabad on ‘political’ grounds, i.e. for ‘the killings of Muslims’ in that city. All this is clearly the result of stark lies concocted by the biased media, which it itself may have started to believe by now. All these lies and myths need to be thoroughly exposed.
That the UPA government, with Congress President and Italian-born and staunchly anti-BJP Sonia Gandhi as the UPA chief, and Communists as outside supporters, gave the figure of 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus killed in the Gujarat riots inside Parliament is something worth pondering about. These figures themselves may well be exaggerated given as they are by a Congressman, who works under Sonia Gandhi.
India Today weekly reported in its issue dated 20 May 2002, when the riots had almost stopped that “Total dead- 972″ (For details, see page no 70).
Out of these 972, India Today included 57 people killed in Godhra. If anyone sees the English newspapers of those days, i.e. between 10 to 21 May 2002, no riots took place in Gujarat in those 10 days at all, and the Army left Gujarat on 21 May. A maximum of 20 more deaths might have happened in Gujarat after that. The death toll in Gujarat riots would thus be 935.
I myself recall reading in Nagpur-based English daily The Hitavada that 936 people were killed in the Gujarat riots after the Army left Ahmedabad on 21 May 2002.
Adding the UPA’s figures of 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus, we have a total of 1044 people killed in the Gujarat riots, a 100 more. Hence, the true figures may well be 682 Muslims and 254 Hindus, a total of 936 people killed.
But let us, for argument’s sake, assume that the figures given by the UPA government are correct. Does that give anyone the reason to believe that more than 790 Muslims were killed in Gujarat? Why should the English dailies and the 24-hour news channels lie through the skin of their teeth that 2000 Muslims were killed in Gujarat? A total of 223 people are said to be missing. Out of them, how many are Hindus is also not told. The maximum number of people thus killed in Gujarat, assuming that all the missing are dead would thus amount to 1267. There is no scope for anyone in the world, including the human-rights organisations and the US-based religious freedom groups and the TV channels like NDTV and company to report that one more than 1267 people were killed in the Gujarat riots.
Despite this, Prafull Bidwai, a self-proclaimed secularist wrote in Nagpur-based English daily, The Hitavada’s Sunday magazine, Insight in July 2006, soon after the Mumbai blasts that killed 187 people in the city, that, “VHP, Bajrang Dal and the BJP butchered 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat”. And he was not the only one. NDTV, mouthpiece of a political party, and that too the CPI (M), a Leftist party, reported a thousand times during the Lok Sabha elections of April- May 2004 that, “2000 Muslims were killed in Gujarat”.
2,000 is the number of Muslims who carried out the massacre and gruesome roasting alive of 59 Hindus-including 25 women and 15 children in Godhra. It is not the number of Muslims who were killed in the subsequent riots. There is no justification for violence-and of even a single death-be it in Godhra or after Godhra. But why lie throught the skin of your teeth that 2000 Muslims were killed when only 790 were killed? Who gains by these lies? And it is everybody’s duty to correct the figure. The point is- what should be reported is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Myth 2: Muslims were ‘butchered’ in Gujarat
Fact: Undoubtedly, Muslims were killed in one-sided attacks in many places in the state- like in Naroda Patiya, Gulmarg Society, Naroda Gram, Sadarpar and other places- but by and large- the riots were not one-sided- and Muslims were hardly the cattle hiding from the slaughter house. As we have seen in a couple of earlier chapters, Muslims were equally on the offensive, at least after the first three days. Muslims killed Hindus brutally in Himmatnagar, Danilimda, and Sindhi Market and other areas of Ahmedabad-as reported by weekly India Today.
To read the full story of India Today-
http://archives.digitaltoday.in/indiatoday/20020415/states.html
See paragraphs 8,9,10,11 and 15 of this story in India Today
The Hindu reported that as early as 1st March 2002 itself, Muslims started violence in Ahmedabad. (See The Hindu’s report on this subject in its issue dated 2nd March 2002).
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2002/03/02/stories/2002030203050100.htm
See last line of 9th paragraph from the top.
Reports of The Hindu on this subject throughout the months of March and April 2002 make it clear that Muslims were on the offensive, called the shots in many areas, drove out Hindus from their houses, started the riots in many cases. India Today’s report on this subject in its issue dated 15 April 2002 also points out this same thing.
Around 40,000 Hindus were forced to take shelter in refugee camps. The Dalits suffered almost as much as the Muslims in the riots, only at the hands of the Muslims. On 23 March 2002, 50 Hindu shops were burnt in Ahmedabad’s Revdi Bazaar that caused a loss of 15 crore rupees.
See link:
The Muslims attacked the Hindus on 1st and 2nd March 2002 as well. They are on record starting as many as 157 riots in Gujarat after 3rd March 2002. They did not allow the police and the Army to search for criminals in their areas. They pelted the police and even the Army with bullets and stones, when they arrived to conduct search operations in Muslim areas. The Muslim women formed human chains and cut off power at night so that the criminals could flee with weapons from the Army.
Link: http://www.indiatoday.com/itoday/20020415/states.shtml – Paragraph 15 from top
Three judgments of different courts in Gujarat have sentenced some Muslims for rioting in Ahmedabad and Vadodara, post Godhra. On one occasion, 7 Muslims and on another occasion, 9 Muslims were convicted and punished for rioting and killing after Godhra. This will be seen in detail later.
The conviction of Muslims proves that Muslims were equally on the offensive-and not the cattle hiding from the slaughter house that the media makes them out to be.
To see a link for the conviction of 9 Muslims in Ahmedabad- on 28 March 2006- click here
http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=65065
7 Muslims were convicted on 18 March 2006-
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=174094
4 Muslims convicted on 18 May 2006-
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/postgodhra-riots-dna-test-nails-4-killers/4719/
Myth 3: Whole of Gujarat was burning
Fact: Out of the state’s 18,600 villages, 240 municipal towns, and 25 district headquarters, only 60 places saw riots. If one includes the two big cities of Ahmedabad and Vadodara, by the wildest stretch of imagination, only 2 % of the state can be assumed to have been burning. Only 40 out of the state’s 18,600 villages saw riots. Had the state government been involved in the riots-or wanted to encourage the riots-it could have created riots in 10,000 out of Gujarat’s 18,600 villages. In the past curfew has been placed in 300 villages at the same time. As compared to that-absolutely nothing happened in 2002.
Saurashtra and Kutch account for one-third of Gujarat. Riots did not even touch these parts, either in cities or in villages even in the first three days. These places account for 58 out of Gujarat’s 182 Assembly seats. After the first three days riots took place only in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and some places near Godhra in Panchmahal district. That is to say-after 2nd March 2002 riots had stopped in almost the whole of Gujarat. The real riots happened only in the first 3 days-and the violence progressively reduced in these 3 days. After the first three days-riots were limited to cities only-by and large. But in Saurashtra and Kutch-no riots took place even in the first three days-even in cities. And villages of Saurashtra and Kutch were completely untouched by the riots.
Even outside Saurashtra and Kutch, riots stopped completely in North and South Gujarat after 3 days-with not even a single killing in either of the two parts. Only in some parts of Central Gujarat did the riots occur after 3 days-and only in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and some parts near Godhra.
But the media lied at that time and has also lied ever since that the whole of Gujarat was burning. Around 6 December 2002, Narendra Modi was invited on Star News- NDTV’s programme ‘Hotline’. In that programme, the anchor Pankaj Pachouri asked Narendra Modi this question. He said, “Your party always gains because of the riots. But no riots took place in Saurashtra and Kutch, so you are all set to lose there. How will you respond to this?” To that question, Narendra Modi replied,
“When 2 % of Gujarat was burning, you were saying that the whole of Gujarat is burning. Now you are saying that no riots took place in Saurashtra and Kutch. So first you apologize for lying that the entire state was burning when only 2 % of the state was burning.”
These malicious lies of the media were exposed twice. Once during the time of the riots in Gujarat in March-April 2002. And second, during the Gujarat Assembly elections of December 2002. After the BJP’s huge victory in Gujarat in December 2002, the media again ignored these facts and lied that the whole of Gujarat was burning. The BJP is too passive to ever remind the media of its own lies and its own true reporting. It has never bothered to expose the truth of Gujarat, and attack the media for lying that the whole of Gujarat, including Saurashtra and Kutch were also burning.
Myth 4: The Gujarat police turned a blind eye to the rioting
Fact: Even though the situation was terrible, the police performed its work extremely efficiently. The police force was woefully insufficient. Uday Mahurkar reports for India Today (18 March 2002):
“Ahmedabad has a police force of 6,000, including 1,500 armed personnel. In addition, the entire state has just four companies (530 jawans) of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) of which only one company could be spared for Ahmedabad. Considering that the mobs that simultaneously surfaced at nearly half a dozen places numbered from 2,000 to 10,000, the forces proved woefully inadequate. At one point on February 28 there were at least 25,000 people targeting the Muslim localities in Ahmedabad alone.”
See link: http://www.indiatoday.com/itoday/20020318/cover.shtml
Despite this, the police fired more than 4,000 rounds in the first three days alone. As many as 98 people were shot dead by the police, majority of whom are Hindus. For the complete period of rioting, despite the presence of the Army, the police fired as many 15,000 tear gas shells, and a total of 10,500 rounds. Out of the total people killed in the riots, about 20 % have been shot dead by the police.
Infact- the encyclopaedia wikipedia reports-based on sound sources-that as many as 200 policemen laid their lives trying to quell the violence during the riots.
Out of the 25,486 accused, the Gujarat police arrested as many as 25,204 people. This clearly shows the efficiency of the Gujarat police. On March 1st and 2nd and afterwards, Muslims too rioted and they too were killed in police firing.
The Gujarat police saved as many as 2,500 Muslims in Sanjeli, a town in North Gujarat, 5,000 Muslims in Bodeli, in Vadodara and about 10,000 Muslims in Viramgam. A total of about 24,000 Muslims were saved in the first three days alone. Police officials themselves suffered injuries in trying to save the Muslims, as reported by the weekly India Today.
See link: http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20020422/states.shtml
On February 28, the police shot dead 10 Hindus in Ahmedabad alone. The leading most English daily from South India, and an extremely anti-Hindu newspaper, ‘The Hindu’ reported this on 1st March 2002. On 1st March, the police shot dead 17 people in Ahmedabad alone-as reported by The Hindu dated 2nd March 2002.
On 2nd March 2002-police firing resulted in 47 deaths-as reported by The Hindu the next day-i.e. 3rd March 2002.
See link: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2002/03/03/stories/2002030303020100.htm
The Indian Express dated 3rd March reported that 77 people were killed in Police/Army firing on 2nd March 2002.
The steps taken to control the violence were-
1-The Indian Express dated 28th February 2002 reported that the State Government had deployed the Rapid Action Force in Ahmedabad and other sensitive areas and the Centre sent in CRPF personnel-on February 27 itself even before a single riot had taken place. This was also reported by Mid Day dated 28 February- and also The Times of India.
See link: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2002/feb/21232.htm
This is mentioned in 3rd catagory- 7th paragraph
2- The Hindu reported in its issue dated 28th February 2002 that “Shoot-at-sight” orders had been given in Godhra on February 27 itself. And so did ALL the English dailies that day. Also read the sentence-” the state government has appealed to the people to maintain peace.”
Link: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/02/28/stories/2002022803070100.htm
3-The Hindustan Times reported in its issue dated 28 February 2002 that the entire police force of 70,000 was deployed in Gujarat on 27 February itself-after the shocking massacre in Godhra-in view of apprehensions that riots might break out. This was also reported by British daily The Telegraph the same day.
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/1386341/Hindus-massacred-on-blazing-train.html
4-827 preventive arrests were made on the evening of February 27 itself-on Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s orders-on his return to Ahmedabad from Godhra. This was reported by weekly India Today dated 18 March 2002.
5-On February 28 -despite the deployment of the entire police force, the CRPF personnel and the Rapid Action Force-the situation slipped out of control-according to The Hindu dated 1st March 2002.
See link: http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/03/01/stories/2002030103030100.htm
6-Despite the fact that the situation slipped out of control-the mob sizes were unpreceedented-and the police were overwhelmingly outnumbered-the police did its best. The police fired more than 1,000 rounds on the first day of the riots-i.e. February 28.
Link: Same as Number 5’s link- but this doesnt mention 1000 rounds- which were fired that day- including 600 in Ahmedabad
7-The Hindu reported in its issue dated 1st March 2002-that atleast 10 persons were believed to have been killed in police firing in Ahmedabad alone by evening of February 28. ( Same link as number 5, pragraphs 2 and 9 from the top).
5 Hindus were shot dead outside Ehsan Jafri’s house on Feb 28-according to India Today weekly-dated 18 March 2002.
8-Curfew was clapmed in Godhra on 27 February itself-as reported by The Hindu dated 28 February 2002. Also reported by all English dailies- such as Times of India- dated 28 Feb.
Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2256789,prtpage-1.cms or
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020228/main1.htm
9-An indefinite curfew was clamped in 26 cities and towns in the State, including parts of Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda, Rajkot, Nadiad, Anand and Kaira on February 28 in addition to the indefinite curfew in force in Godhra since February 27-according to The Hindu dated 1st March 2002- and every English daily the next day and also weeklies- like India Today- which covered events till Feb 28 in its issue dated 11 March 2002.
Link: http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/03/01/stories/2002030103030100.htm
10- The Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, frantically called the Army units to Ahmedabad on February 28-as reported by the The Hindu dated 1st March 2002.
See link: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2002/03/01/stories/2002030103030100.htm
See 8th paragraph from the top.
11-The Indian Express and The Hindu both reported that Army units started arriving in Ahmedabad on the night of February 28-in their issues the next day-i.e. 1st March 2002. This shows that the Army units reached Ahmedabad so quickly-that the newspapers had the time to report their arrival on February 28 itself itself and publish it on 1st March!
(Same link as number 5- 8th paragraph from the top)
12-The Army staged a flag march in Ahmedabad on 1st March 2002 at 11:30 AM-as reported by weekly India Today in its issue dated 18th March 2002. The Hindu and The Indian Express and all major dailies also reported that the Army staged flag marches in Ahmedabad-and also Vadodara on 1st March 2002.
13-The Army began flag marches in the worst-affected areas of Ahmedabad, Baroda, Rajkot and Godhra cities and the `shoot at sight’ order was extended to all 34 curfew-bound cities and towns in Gujarat on 1st March 2002-as per The Hindu dated 2nd March 2002.
See link: http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/03/02/stories/2002030203050100.htm
14-The Gujarat police fired a total of 4,000 rounds in the first three days alone. This-despite the presence of the Army.
15-The Gujarat police shot dead 98 people in the first three days-majority of whom are Hindus.
16-The Hindu reported in its issue dated 4th March 2002-that only 2 deaths were reported on 3rd March in the entire state-and the violence has ended on 3rd March 2002. Thus-the Gujarat government managed to control the situation in 3 days-even after the shocking massacre in Godhra-while it took previous Congress governemnts 6 months to stop the riots in 1969 and 1985-even without any cause as Godhra.
Myth 5: Gujarat police was anti-Muslim
Fact: Far from it, the police was slow to act on Muslim fanatics for fear of being called ‘anti-Muslim’ by the media. Out of the total killed in police firing in Gujarat, 60 % were Hindus and 40 % were Muslims. Muslims greeted the police, and also the army, with bullets and turned off the power supply and made life hell, and also started riots and accused the police of being biased, when the police came to search for armories in Muslim areas. For fear of being labeled anti-Muslim, the police failed to do their duty.
India Today weekly in its issue dated 20 May 2002, clearly admits that, far from being anti-Muslim, the Gujarat police did not act speedily against Muslim fanatics and rioters, for fear of being called anti-Muslim by the biased and partisan media.
The India Today weekly report dated 20 May 2002 says-”A series of attacks on policemen by Muslims has further added to the lack of faith. Now, strapped with the anti-Muslim label, the police has been slow in acting against Muslim fanatics”.
See the link- http://archives.digitaltoday.in/indiatoday/20020520/states2.html
This will contain the above sentence in the 6th paragraph from the top.
The Gujarat Police saved at least 24,000 Muslims from certain death in the first three days-in places like Sanjeli, Bodeli, and Viramgam in particular. Gujarat police shot dead 98 people in the first 3 days-majority of whom are Hindus. The Police arrested 17,000 Hindus for rioting. Moreover, the prosecution of the police was so efficient that until now, at least 87 people for rioting in Gujarat-out of whom at least 61 are Hindus.
Myth 6: Gujarat riots were the ‘worst ever massacre’ in India
Fact: Gujarat riots of 2002 AD were absolutely nothing as compared to Gujarat’s past riots of 1969 and 1985 AD. They were still nothing as compared to Gujarat’s riots of 1980, 1982, 1990, and 1992. And they were again nothing as compared to pre-independence riots of the 1940’s in Ahmedabad when the Hindu community took a sound beating.
Much worse riots took place in New Delhi in 1984 under the Congress Party’s rule. Officially 3,000 people were killed, and actually close to 10,000. Riots were also not limited to New Delhi then. Killings of more than 40,000 Hindus have happened in Jammu and Kashmir state of India. Hardly 1000 people were killed in Gujarat in 2002 AD, for the sins of 2000 Muslims of Godhra. Out of them, more than 250 are Hindus. Post-Godhra riots were neither ‘pogrom’, nor ‘genocide’, nor ‘massacre’. They were not even ‘massacre’, not to talk of the ‘worst-ever massacre in India.’ Despite this- pseudo-secularists like Teesta Setalvad, Harsh Mander, Amulya Ganguly, Prafull Bidwai and other such stark liers- like Tehelka, Congress Party etc have called the 2002 riots as ‘Gujarat massacre’- and lied that there was “Gujarat massacre of Muslims- with the sanction of Narendra Modi”. These people have demanded action against Modi. Far from any action being taken Modi- action needs to be taken against stark liers like Tehelka- the foreign media- i.e. US and British media- and so-called Human Rights organizations in India and abroad- there was no “Gujarat massacre of Muslims” in the 2002 riots- but plain Hindu-Muslim riots- in which hundreds of Hindus were also killed by Muslims even after the gruesome and horrific roasting of 59 Hindus- including 25 women and 15 children in Godhra.
The worst ever massacre was of the Hindus during the medieval times. Timur massacred some 1 lakh Hindus on a single day in Delhi in 1399. Nadirshah, the invader, massacred many people in 1739 in Delhi. The massacres of Hindus in medieval India would have put Hitler’s Nazi death-chambers of the 1930s to shame. These massacres happened under all the medieval rulers of India. Mahmud of Ghazni also massacred many Hindus in between 1001-1027 AD. Mohammad Ghori also did the same between 1192 to 1206. So did all others. The invaders were like a cloud of locusts destroying and devouring everything on their way.
Looking at the modern, independent India, these riots were still absolutey nothing. The worst ever massacre in independent India was of the Hindus in Kashmir, which continues till date. After that, nothing was worse than the 1984 riots, when the Sikhs were massacred by the ruling Congress Party. In Bhagalpur, Bihar under the Congress rule itself more than 1400 people were killed, most of whom were Muslims, after Muslims threw bombs on Hindu localities, and then suffered in retaliation.
Myth 7: Only Muslims were rendered homeless and suffered economically
Fact: As early as 5 March 2002, out of the 98 relief/ refugee camps set up in the state, 85 were for the Muslims and 13 were for the Hindus. As on 17 March 2002, as per the report of a newspaper as anti-BJP as The Times of India, 10,000 Hindus were rendered homeless in Ahmedabad alone. As on 25 April 2002, out of the 1 lakh 40 thousand refugees, some 1 lakh were Muslims and 40 thousand were Hindus.
The Indian Express devoted two full reports exclusively to Hindu victims of Ahmedabad. Dalits were attacked by Muslims in Ahmedabad and were rendered homeless. The Indian Express dated 7th May 2002 and 10th May 2002 gave two reports on the plight of Hindu victims. These Hindus were not only rendered homeless-they did not even have refugee camps to live in-and hence had to live in temples. Many others were forced to squat on the streets.
The Times of India dated 18 March 2002 also devoted a report exclusively to the Hindu victims of Ahmedabad. The report was titled-”Riots hit all classes, people of all faith” and says-”Contrary to popular belief that only Muslims have been affected in the recent riots, more than 10,000 people belonging to the Hindu community have also become homeless”. This was the case only in Ahmedabad. What happened to Hindus in Muslim dominated villages outside Ahmedabad and in other cities like Vadodara was not reported by The Times of India! This report also indicates that Muslims attacked Hindus unprovoked on February 28 itself in some areas of Ahmedabad. The Hindus who living in minority in Muslim dominated areas of Ahmedabad suffered horribly. The Dalits suffered heavily at the hands of Muslims.
This report can be read on http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4193006.cms
The Hindus also suffered economically. As per the reports of none other than The Times of India, as many as 50 Hindus shops were torched in Revdi Bazaar area of Ahmedabad on 23 March 2002 by Muslims. The financial loss was as much as 15 crore rupees. Many more Hindu shops were looted in the rest of Gujarat too.
To read the report of The Times of India on the burning of 50 shops in Ahmedabad- see this link- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4609603.cms
Myth 8: The Gujarat government was involved in the riots
Fact: Gujarat government of the BJP, headed by Narendra Modi was blind to the mushrooming of madrasas in the state. Not only that, the previous government headed by Keshubhai Patel too was equally blind to the same. From India Today we know that it was because of fear of harming the BJP’s newly discovered ‘secular’ image that the party did nothing to control the madrasas.
The government deployed the entire police force of 70,000 on February 27 itself. (See report of The Hindustan Times dated 28 February 2002). The Gujarat government ordered preventive arrests of as many as 827 people on February 27 itself. Shoot-at-sight orders were given in Godhra on February 27. Such orders were also given at many other places after February 27. The Rapid Action Force was deployed in Gujarat on February 27 itself (See The Indian Express dated 28thFebruary 2002). 98 people were
killed in police firing in the first three days.
After 3rd March 2002, the riots were mostly all instigated and
started by the Muslims.
The riots were brought under control in 72 hours. Far from the BJP being in any way involved in the riots, the Congress Party instigated all the riots in the state after 21stApril 2002 so as to target
Narendra Modi in its Modi-hatao campaign. The Rajya Sabha debated on Gujarat on 6 May 2002. The NDA allies’ votes were also going to count. To get NDA allies to vote against the Modi government, the Congress wanted to keep the riots going on in Gujarat. It also hoped for a collapse of the NDA, with allies quitting coalition because of the riots. We will see this in detail later.
Riots in the first three days were all the result of Godhra. But Godhra itself was the brain of local Muslim Congress leaders. Riots were caused after Godhra by the media and the Congress’ inflammatory response to Godhra. Gujarat Congress chief and former Gujarat Chief Minister (the late) Amarsinh Chaudhary justified Godhra on some sort of provocations, i.e. the karsevaks not paying for tea and snacks at the Godhra railway platform which was a figment of his imagination.
The TV channels reported biased and one-sided on the post-Godhra riots, causing tremendous anguish among the masses, causing more and more violence. Their reporting was inflammatory not only after Godhra, but also after post-Godhra. Far from blaming the BJP or the Gujarat government for the riots, the TV channels and the English media should themselves take responsibility for the riots.
The Gujarat police saved as many as 2,500 Muslims in Sanjeli, a town in North Gujarat, 5,000 Muslims in Bodeli, in Vadodara and about 10,000 Muslims in Viramgam. A total of about 24,000 Muslims were saved in the first three days alone. Police officials themselves suffered injuries in trying to save the Muslims, as reported by the weekly India Today.
To see this story- click on the link-
http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20020422/states.shtml
On February 28, the police shot dead 10 Hindus in Ahmedabad alone. The leading most English daily from South India, and an extremely anti-Hindu newspaper, ‘The Hindu’ reported this on 1st March 2002. On 1st March, the police shot dead 17 people in Ahmedabad alone-and at least 8 outside Ahmedabad-as reported by The Hindu dated 2nd March 2002. On 2nd March 2002-police firing resulted in 47 deaths-as reported by The Hindu the next day-i.e. 3rd March 2002. The Indian Express dated 3rd March reported that 77 people were killed in Police/Army firing on 2nd March 2002.
On February 28, The Hindu reported that shoot-at-sight orders had been given by the state government in Godhra-on February 27 and curfew was clamped. Even before a single riot had occurred-the state government had given shoot-at-sight orders.
See the link-
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2002/02/28/stories/2002022803070100.htm
Thus, in brief, it can be seen that the Gujarat government handled the riots extremely efficiently. The steps taken to control the violence were-
1-The Indian Express dated 28th February 2002 reported that the State Government had deployed the Rapid Action Force in Ahmedabad and other sensitive areas and the Centre sent in CRPF personnel-on February 27 itself even before a single riot had taken place.
2- The Hindu reported in its issue dated 28th February 2002 that “Shoot-at-sight” orders had been given in Godhra on February 27 itself.
3-The Hindustan Times reported in its issue dated 28 February 2002 that the entire police force of 70,000 was deployed in Gujarat on 27 February itself-after the shocking massacre in Godhra-in view of apprehensions that riots might break out.
4-827 preventive arrests were made on the evening of February 27 itself-on Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s orders-on his return to Ahmedabad from Godhra.
5-On February 28 -despite the deployment of the entire police force, the CRPF personnel and the Rapid Action Force-the situation seeped out of control-according to The Hindu dated 1st March 2002.
6-Despite the fact that the situation seeped out of control-the mob sizes were unprecedented-and the police were overwhelmingly outnumbered-the police did its best. The police fired more than 1,000 rounds on the first day of the riots-i.e. February 28.
7-The Hindu reported in its issue dated 1st March 2002-that atleast 10 persons were believed to have been killed in police firing in Ahmedabad alone by evening of February 28. 5 Hindus were shot dead outside Ehsan Jafri’s house on Feb 28-according to India Today weekly-dated 18 March 2002.
8-Curfew was clamped in Godhra on 27 February itself-as reported by The Hindu dated 28 February 2002.
9-An indefinite curfew was clamped in 26 cities and towns in the State, including parts of Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda, Rajkot, Nadiad, Anand and Kaira on February 28 in addition to the indefinite curfew in force in Godhra since February 27-according to The Hindu dated 1st March 2002.
10- The Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, frantically called the Army units to Ahmedabad on February 28-as reported by The Hindu dated 1st March 2002.
11-The Indian Express and The Hindu both reported that Army units started arriving in Ahmedabad on the night of February 28-in their issues the next day-i.e. 1st March 2002. This shows that the Army units reached Ahmedabad so quickly-that the newspapers had the time to report their arrival on February 28 itself and publish it on 1st March!
12-The Army staged a flag march in Ahmedabad on 1st March 2002 at 11:30 AM-as reported by weekly India Today in its issue dated 18th March 2002. The Hindu and The Indian Express and all major dailies also reported that the Army staged flag marches in Ahmedabad-and also Vadodara on 1st March 2002.
13-The Army began flag marches in the worst-affected areas of Ahmedabad, Baroda, Rajkot and Godhra cities and the `shoot at sight’ order was extended to all 34 curfew-bound cities and towns in Gujarat on 1st March 2002-as per The Hindu dated 2nd March 2002.
14-The Gujarat police fired a total of 4,000 rounds in the first three days alone. This-despite the presence of the Army for 2 out of the 3 days.
15-The Gujarat police shot dead 98 people in the first three days-majority of whom are Hindus.
16-The Hindu reported in its issue dated 4th March 2002-that only 2 deaths were reported on 3rd March in the entire state-and the violence has ended on 3rd March 2002. Thus-the Gujarat government managed to control the situation in 3 days-even after the shocking massacre in Godhra-while it took previous Congress governments 6 months to stop the riots in 1969 and 1985-even without any cause as Godhra.
As for the Congress hand in organising riots in Gujarat- it is worth seeing the report of rediff.com on 22nd April 2002:
The website http://www.rediff.com reported on 22nd April 2002-
“Gujarat home minister sees plot to break NDA
Sheela Bhatt in Mumbai
Gujarat Minister of State for Home Gordhan Zadaphia has blamed the Congress for the fresh spurt in violence in the state on Sunday, which cost 21 people their lives, saying the opposition party was trying desperately to break the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.
“Yesterday’s riots in Ahmedabad’s Gomtipur and Rakhiyal area were planned,” Zadaphia told rediff.com “The Congress and the minority community do not want peace. The Congress wants to break the NDA alliance in Delhi by fuelling riots in Gujarat. Political parties in India are in the race for appeasing the minorities. They will not say a word against the Jama Masjid imam’s speech yesterday, where he incited Muslims to break India.”
According to Zadaphia, the Congress plan is “to continue the rioting, raise the issue in Parliament, force the NDA partners to raise their voices and, in turn, force the Modi government to resign”.
Corporators like Badruddin Sheikh and Taufik Pathan and their sons were leading the crowd, he alleged. “The crowd wanted to attack the colonies and kill as many as they can,” he said. “It was a serious attack. The railway tracks were full of people with bombs and weapons in their hands.”
Asked about six Muslims being shot by the police at point-blank range, he retorted, “What do you expect the police to do when Amar Patil, my constable, was stabbed to death just outside the masjid? At another place six SRP [State Reserve Police] men were injured when the minority crowd attacked them? Do you have any idea of the impact on the morale of the police?”
Zadaphia claimed that Pathan and Sheikh were bent upon disrupting the current high school exams. “They are harassing Muslim students,” he said. “In relief camps and Muslim areas they have announced on loudspeakers that Muslim students shall give college exams, but not the 10th and 12th standard exams.”
The minister said the ‘disruptive elements’ were upset because 98 per cent of students have appeared in the exams. “Their supporters are forcing students to get down from buses provided by the government,” he claimed. “They are tearing away the entry receipts of the students. What does this mean?”
Zadaphia promised that he would arrest the people who were inciting communal tensions to disrupt the exams. “We will break the 50-year-old negative psyche of such people,” he said.
Naresh Rawal, leader of the Congress in the assembly, dismissed the minister’s allegations. “The NDA will be dismantled soon for other reasons,” he told rediff.com “These are bogus allegations. Modi is failing to maintain law and order. He is the number one villain in India today. People’s perception is that Modi connived with the rioters. He should go. Let the BJP get a new CM and stop making such baseless allegations.”
Doesn’t this report give an indication of the situation prevailing in Gujarat at that time? Even The Hindu reported that 5 leaders of the Congress were instigating Muslims to boycott the exams- along with the radical Muslim organization- Tableeghi Jamaat.
The link for this is-
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/apr/22bhatt.htm
Myth 9: Gujarat riots were like the 1984 anti-Sikh riots
Fact: There was a contrast of day and night in these two riots. NDTV, the mouthpiece of the CPI (M), and company, and other stark liers like Arundhati Roy, Teesta Setalavad, and others deliberately misled the nation by equating the two riots. In May-June 2005, NDTV deliberately asked a question to its viewers in its programme “Khabron ki Khabar” (anchored by Vinod Dua):
“Which of these issues are you most bothered about?
1- Sachin Tendulkar’s injury
2- A question on films
3- The blot on BJP and the Congress for the Gujarat and 1984 riots
This question’s options, just like any other of NDTV, are typically Marxist. Option 3 belies the reality and equates the 1984 riots with the Gujarat riots, and directly accuses the BJP of orchestrating the riots.
The next chapter will comprehensively point out the differences between the Gujarat riots and the 1984 riots. In 1984, the Sikhs were butchered. In 2002, Muslims attacked Hindus and as many as 254 Hindus were killed in the Gujarat riots. In 1984, riots occurred outside New Delhi, including places like West Bengal, while not a single riot occurred outside Gujarat in 2002.
In 1984, officially 3,000 Sikhs were killed and many more in actual. Not a single Congressman was killed in 1984 riots (except Indira Gandhi) while as many as 313 Hindus were killed in Gujarat in 2002 AD, including 59 karsevaks killed in Godhra.
Not even one person was killed in 1984 in police firing, while nearly 200 people were killed in the Gujarat riots of 2002 AD. 40,000 Hindus were living in refugee camps in Gujarat, while not even a single relief camp was organized for the Sikhs in 1984, not to talk of any Congressman needing to live in refugee camps. Not only was there a huge difference in the nature of the riots- there was also a huge difference in the government handling of the riots.
There are many more details of these contrasts. For full details of these contrasts- see the next chapter. Click on the link:
http://www.gujaratriots.com/category/07-contrasts-between-1984-and-gujarat-2002-riots/
Myth 10: Gujarat became a dangerous place to live in, in 2002
Fact:: The opinion poll by the weekly India Today in its issue dated 25 November 2002 asked a question to its respondents- “Do you feel secure living in Gujarat today?” in which more than 68 % people including more than 56 % Muslims felt secure. While commenting on the entire poll, India Today reported, “Voters have rallied solidly behind the chief minister’s aggressive posturing. They have endorsed his view of the riots being a reaction to Godhra. They approve his fulmination against outsiders who have vilified the state. And they contemptuously dismiss all suggestions that Gujarat has become a dangerous place to live in.”
The newspaper editors lied along with 24-hour TV news channels like NDTV that the whole of Gujarat was burning. Living outside Gujarat and lying about the state, their lies did not go well with the masses. The media lied to such an unimaginable extent that the media itself by now may have started believing its concocted liies.
To see the full India Today report see this link-
http://archives.digitaltoday.in/indiatoday/20021125/cover2.html
Myth 11: In Ehsan Jafri’s case, women were raped
Fact: The following is some part of Arundhati Roy’s article in weekly Outlook dated 6 May 2002 on the Ehsan Jafri case:
“Last night a friend from Baroda called. Weeping. It took her fifteen minutes to tell me what the matter was. It wasn’t very complicated. Only that Sayeeda, a friend of hers, had been caught by a mob. Only that her stomach had been ripped open and stuffed with burning rags. Only that after she died, someone carved ‘OM‘ on her forehead…
…A mob surrounded the house of former Congress MP Iqbal Ehsan Jaffri. His phone calls to the Director-General of Police, the Police Commissioner, the Chief Secretary, the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) were ignored. The mobile police vans around his house did not intervene. The mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters and burned them alive. Then they beheaded Ehsan Jaffri and dismembered him. Of course it’s only a coincidence that Jaffri was a trenchant critic of Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, during his campaign for the Rajkot Assembly by-election in February…”
Outlook had the guts to publish a rebuttal from a senior functionary of the BJP, the then Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Punj. The following was the reply:
“Fiddling With Facts As Gujarat Burns
Introduction: The Roys in the media are harming India with half-truths and worse.
“(Here Balbir Punj quotes some sentences from Roy’s article dated 6th May 2002)…
That was the Goddess of small things, Arundhati Roy, painting the big picture of Gujarat in Democracy: Who’s she when she’s at home? (Outlook, May 6, 2002). Roy sums here neatly almost all the charges against the Sangh Parivar. When a reputed weekly like Outlook publishes a Booker Prize-winner, it is meant to be serious commentary. And concomitantly, Roy has put her brilliant linguistic skills to the service of “truth”. Read her graphic details—”The mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters and burnt them alive”. Roy speaks with the confidence of an eyewitness. Alternatively, she must’ve access to an eyewitness. Anyway, it reads heart-rendingly honest.
Heart-rending, yes, but honest, no. Jaffri was killed in the riots but his daughters were neither “stripped” nor “burnt alive”. T.A. Jafri, his son, in a front-page interview titled Nobody knew my father’s house was the target (Asian Age, May 2, Delhi edition), says, “Among my brothers and sisters, I am the only one living in India. And I am the eldest in the family. My sister and brother live in the US. I am 40 years old and I have been born and brought up in Ahmedabad.”
So, Roy is lying—for surely Jafri is not. But what about the hundreds of media lies that haven’t been exhumed as yet? Her seven-page long (approx: 6,000 words) hate charter against India and the Sangh Parivar is woven around just two specific cases of human tragedy, one of which—by now, we know for sure—is a piece of fiction…
…She terms Gujarat the “petri dish” of the Sangh Parivar. The fact is that Godhra has been used as a crucible by the secular fundamentalists. No wonder, after the roasting of the Ram sevaks, they, while condemning the crime, blamed the victims. Many of them invented events such as a quarrel with hawkers, misbehaviour with women and shouting of provocative slogans to justify the horrendous crime…
…But was what happened in Gujarat a “pogrom” targeted at Muslims? Loss of 900-odd innocent lives (both Hindus and Muslims) is definitely not a “genocide” of any one community. Yet it is one more shameful event in the long and unfortunate chain of communal riots in India, since the 1893 Bombay and Azamgarh riots. Beginning from the 1714 Holi riots in the Mughal period, Ahmedabad itself has witnessed no less than 10 major recorded riots.
The Sangh Parivar was not there in 1714, nor was it a dominant force during the ‘69 and ‘85 riots. So what explains these riots when Gujarat was not a ‘Sangh Parivar petri dish’?
Out of those who perished in the communal frenzy, over one-third are Hindus.
Following Godhra, massive spontaneous violence broke out in various parts of Gujarat against the Muslims. Since the rioters were mainly Hindus, they also accounted for about 75 per cent of those who fell to police bullets in the first three days. In fact, till April 18 Hindus accounted for more deaths in police firing than Muslims.
But for almost three weeks now, the violence has been led by Muslims against Hindus and, naturally, a bulk of the casualties are accounted for by them. The police have booked 34,000 rioters, majority of whom are Hindus. Both communities have suffered heavy loss of business and property in the arson and looting. While rioters are communal in picking their targets, looters are not—and they target at random. One lakh Muslims are struggling in relief camps, but so are 40,000 Hindus. This is a horrible riot, which is sad enough, but why call it a genocide? Whom does it help? Not the riot victims, only our enemies across the border.
The country hasn’t suffered so much loss of face in the world as it has now, though it is like one of the scores of riots India has seen. Why? The obvious culprits are those who set ablaze a compartment full of innocent kar sevaks at Godhra and those who indulged in the senseless violence in the following weeks. But the real villains in tarring India’s image are the Roys in the media and a section of public life, who mix half-truths with fiction to settle their ideological or political scores with the Sangh Parivar.
Roy (a role model for several in the secular pack) opens her hate charter with the case of a woman named Sayeeda “whose stomach was ripped open and stuffed with burning rags”. I heard similar horror stories in Parliament. The most frequently quoted were the cases of women raped (in some cases gang-raped), their stomachs ripped open, foetuses taken out and paraded on swords or trishuls. But no one was able to give me even one specific case with all the particulars. Roy gave one, but it proved to be a piece of fiction…
… Blatant myths and fiction have lacerated the facts on Gujarat. The Times of India (March 3) reported Modi’s much-publicised misquote of Newton’s third law—”Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. In fact, the CM had never said such a thing and no other paper except for Times of India had carried the misquote in its original reportage. But later on, numerous editorials were penned on the basis of this canard. All his denials were thrown in the dustbin…
…The Editor’s Guild came down heavily on the Gujarati press and hailed the role of the English press in coverage of the riots. The former might have been guilty of exaggeration but I am sure it has not concocted stories the way the Roys did in the English media. Surprisingly, the Guild has nothing critical to say on the role of the electronic media and of the Roys, guilty of blackening India’s name, generating more communal hate at a critical time and demonising a section of citizens through half-truths and complete lies. Some rioters may be guilty of rape and should be punished for their heinous crimes, but what about those who have raped the truth and the country in the last two months?”
This really gave the game up. After this, Arundhati Roy wrote “An apology”. The full text of that apology is reproduced here:
“To the Jaffri Family, An Apology
Democracy
In a situation like the one that prevails in Gujarat, when the police are reluctant to register FIRs, when the administration is openly hostile to those trying to gather facts, and when the killings go on unabated—then panic, fear and rumour play a pivotal role. People who have disappeared are presumed dead, people who have been dismembered and burnt cannot be identified, and people who are distraught and traumatised are incoherent.
So even when those of us who write try and use the most reliable sources, mistakes can happen. But in an atmosphere so charged with violence, grief and mistrust, it’s important to correct mistakes that are pointed out.
There is a factual error in my essay Democracy: Where’s she when she’s at home? (May 6). In describing the brutal killing of Ehsan Jaffri, I have said that his daughters had been killed along with their father. It has subsequently been pointed out to me that this is not correct. Eyewitness accounts say that Ehsan Jaffri was killed along with his three brothers and two nephews. His daughters were not among the 10 women who were raped and killed in Chamanpura that day.
I apologise to the Jaffri family for compounding their anguish. I’m truly sorry.
My information (mis-information, as it turned out) was cross-checked from two sources. Time magazine (March 11) in an article by Meenakshi Ganguly and Anthony Spaeth; and “Gujarat Carnage 2002: A Report to the Nation” by an independent fact-finding mission which included K.S. Subrahmanyam, former IGP Tripura, and S.P. Shukla, former finance secretary. I spoke to Mr Subrahmanyam about the error. He said his information at that time came from a senior police official.
This and other genuine errors in recounting the details of the violence in Gujarat in no way alters the substance of what journalists, fact-finding missions, or writers like myself are saying.”
The link is: http://www.outlookindia.com/rants.asp?type=single&id=20020527133759
Years later, Balbir Punj wrote in weekly Organiser dated 9 July 2006:
“Some four years ago I had a clash in print with Arundhati Roy. The occasion was the Gujarat riots that had come as a windfall to ‘secular’ brigade’s publicity campaign. Those ‘secularists’ are no where visible, not even with a telescope, when Hindus are killed in Doda. Roy, in her article Who’s she when she is at home? (The Outlook May 6, 2002) had given a vivid account of a mob attack on house of ex-Congress MP Iqbal Ehshan Jafri, who was unfortunately killed in the riots. Roy gave a graphic detail-“mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters and burnt them alive”.
This event became a media-occasion for Roy to demonise Hindutva. But those who had read The Asian Age (May 2, 2002) would not have been impressed because in it late Ehshan Jaffri’s son T.A. Jaffri said -“Among my brothers and sisters, I am the only one living in India. And I am the eldest in the family. My sister and brother live in the US. I am 40 years old and I have been born and brought up in Ahmedabad”. So Roy was describing the stripping and killing of Ehshan Jafri’s daughter’s in Gujarat riots, who in reality were safe in another part of the globe.
Roy had begun her charter of hate with another damning description: “Last night a friend from Baroda called. Weeping. It took her fifteen minutes to tell me what the matter was. It wasn’t very complicated. Only that Sayeeda, a friend of hers, had been caught by a mob. Only that her stomach had been ripped open and stuffed with burning rags. Only that after she died, someone carved ‘OM’ on her forehead”.
Shocked by this despicable “incident”, I got in touch with the Gujarat government. The police investigations revealed that no such case, involving someone called Sayeeda, had been reported either in urban or rural Baroda. Subsequently, the police sought Roy’s help to identify the victim and seek access to witnesses who could lead them to those guilty of this crime. But the police got no cooperation. Instead, Roy, through her lawyer, replied that the police had no power to issue summons. Thus she hedged behind technical excuses. I took up this incident in my rejoinder published as Dissimulation In Word and Images (The Outlook, July 8, 2002).”
See link:
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=138&page=8
However, here it is worth mentioning a couple of things which even Balbir Punj did not mention. This apology is also false, since Roy claims that 10 women were raped and killed that day. In reality, after reading the then English newspapers in the first week of March 2002, one finds no mention of any rapes at all. These stories of rape starting coming out in the middle of March 2002, after Time magazine concocted lies in its issue of 11 March 2002, copied by Arundhati Roy. Neither Roy nor the Time correspondent can point out any rapes, because they just didn’t happen.
Second incorrect fact- the police did nothing to stop the mob in Jafri’s house. India Today weekly dated 18 March 2002 clearly admits that at least 5 people were shot dead by the police outside Jafri’s house. The police also saved the lives of some 200 Muslims, since only 40 out of the 250 people inside the house died. It was impossible for the police to control the mob of around 10,000 people.
Another incorrect fact- mentioned by Roy was that 150 people were killed in the complex. Actually- the number is around 50. Out of the 250 people in the complex- police saved around 200.
Even the National Commission for Women in its report stated that the media needlessly exaggerated the plight of women victims of the communal carnage. On 22nd
April 2002- Tehelka’s website said–“Nafisa Hussain, a member of the NCW, has gone on record saying that several organisations and the media have needlessly blown out of proportion the violence suffered by minority women in the communal riots of Gujarat.”
Myth 12: The photo of Qutubuddin Ansari is genuine
Fact: This photo is reproduced here in this book on page 92. This photo has been used repeatedly to tarnish the name of BJP, VHP and the Bajrang Dal throughout India. The victim, Qutubuddin Ansari, is seen pleading for mercy to the rioters. Later he is shown in Kolkata, living happily on the help given by the West Bengal government which is of the CPI (M) and Left parties. questions that arise, and which were aptly raised by the RSS chief K S Sudarshan in his speech in Nagpur on 4th
October 2003 are:
1-If Mr Qutubuddin Ansari was seen pleading for mercy to rioters on the first floor of a building, how is it that no rioter is seen in the photo?
2-How and why did the rioters leave him alive and not kill him?
3-How was the photographer allowed to take the photo by the rioters? Why did they not attack him?
4-How, at least, did the rioters not destroy his camera if they would have left both Ansari and the photographer alive?
And I add a couple more:
5-Can the photographer, Mr. Arko Datta of the Reuters, explain any of the above questions?
6- Can Mr Ansari answer any of the above questions and other questions which may be raised on this issue now that he lives happily in Kolkata?
This tale of lies and myths is unending. It can go on and on and on. We will, however, need to conclude this chapter here itself. An enterprising writer would do well to compile an encyclopedia of these media lies on the entire Gujarat scenario. He can start with media lies on Godhra, on concocting imaginary ‘provocations’ for Godhra, the lies concocted on the post-Godhra riots-such as the extent of the riots, the number of people killed, the imaginary tales and stories of unnamed victims, the rapes and murders of innocent people, etc etc. And he can conclude with the media’s malicious reporting during the Gujarat Assembly elections of December 2002 when the media was the Congress’ pillar and tried to defeat the BJP. The BJP, which suffers the maximum damage from these lies, has unwisely allowed the media to escape the courts for one-sided, malicious lies.
Myth 13: Narendra Modi said-“Every action has equal and opposite reaction”
Fact: Balbir Punj writes-“Blatant myths and fiction have lacerated the facts on Gujarat. The Times of India (March 3) reported Modi’s much-publicised misquote of Newton’s third law—”Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. In fact, the CM had never said such a thing and no other paper except for Times of India had carried the misquote in its original reportage. But later on, numerous editorials were penned on the basis of this canard. All his denials were thrown in the dustbin…”
Virendra Kapoor wrote in Cybernoon on 19 March 2002-
“An angry Modi wrote to the English daily, which had first put the quote in his mouth, protesting that he had never met its correspondent nor had he an occasion to say what he had been quoted as having said and that it was only fair that the paper made amends for its wholly ‘inventive reportage.’ The newspaper editors, however, refused to do so and two weeks later were still sitting on Modi’s letter. Left to himself perhaps the paper’s senior-most editor may well have published Modi’s letter but since his writ does not run and the place is teeming with new-fangled journalists who openly talk of blacking out all news about the Sangh Parivar, and the paper’s management is only obsessed with packing nothing other than revenue-earning advertisement in its columns, Modi’s letter has not been published. Modi, therefore, is not entirely wrong in complaining of the bias of the media and the attempt to tar his image. For, the quote in the said paper was immediately recycled and rehashed by the rest of the print and audio visual media.
Inquiries reveal that no one from the paper had met the Gujarat Chief Minister on the day he is supposed to have quoted
Newton’s law to its correspondent to justify the revenge killings of the minority community in Ahmedabad and other places in the state. The paper’s editors too have concluded that the said quote was ‘invented’ by the correspondent to indicate ‘the attitude of the Modi government.’ Indeed, it was all a cooked up job to justify what the paper’s deputy bureau chief in New Delhi said at a gathering of secularist scribes to ‘fight the fascist forces and not to give them any space in ‘our’ papers.’
Time the owners woke up to this little upstart who seeks to usurp the ownership of their paper for his own brand of fascism.
Meanwhile, Modi is contemplating taking his complaint to the Press Council of India.”
See link: http://www.fisiusa.org/fisi_News_items/Godhra/godhra058.htm
When anyone makes an allegation- he has to prove it. No one has ever been able to prove that Modi ever uttered these words. And these people- far from apologizing- have not even published Modi’s denials.
Myth 14: Sangh Parivar organisations like VHP organized the riots
Fact: Out of Gujarat’s 18,600 villages, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had units in 10,000 villages at the time of the riots of 2002. If it had wanted- it could have easily organized retaliatory riots in many of these 10,000 villages. Instead-only 40 out of the state’s 18,600 villages saw riots. VHP General Secretary Dr Praveen Togadia is a Patel and hails from Saurashtra region of Gujarat- just like Keshubhai Patel. And yet- no riots happened in Saurashtra at all!
On the other hand- the scale of the riots on February 28 in Ahmedabad was so large- that no organisation- or group of organisations-like the Sangh Parivar could have done it alone. It was a spontaneous mass reaction to the Godhra killings.
Many people have asked-“On one hand you say- nothing happened-hardly 40 villages saw riots. On the other hand- you say that the riots were so enormous that they could not have been organized by anyone”.
Both these things are simultaneously true. On February 28 in Ahmedabad- there were 17,000 people attacking Muslims in Naroda Patiya area- as per the report of the then Police Inspector of the area- K.K. Mysorewala. India Today weekly also reports in its issue dated 18 March 2002- that the Charas had attacked in Naroda Patiya leading 3 mobs of at least 4 to 5 thousand each. At one point of time-in Ahmedabad there were at least 25,000 people targeting Muslim localities. The police force of 6,000 for Ahmedabad out of which only 1500 were armed- and the Rapid Action Force and the CRPF jawans could not control the violence. The Hindu also reported the next day that the situation seemed to slip out of control. Ahmedabad Police received 3,500 calls instead of the normal 200. It was beyond the means of the Sangh Parivar- or anybody to organise mobs on such a large scale-in Ahmedabad within 24 hours.
However- the VHP could have easily organised riots in many of the 10,000 villages in Gujarat where it had units- either on February 28- or days after that.
On February 27 occurred the Godhra massacre. That same day- the RSS gave a statement saying- “RSS condemns the killings and calls for restraint”. The Hindu also reported in its report on Feb 28 that the “RSS appealed to the people to exercise restraint”.
The then RSS General Secretary Mohan Bhagwat said-“Now is the test of the patience of the Hindu society…These killings are a ploy of the terrorists to create riots…”. This was reported in weekly Organiser- the weekly mouthpiece of the RSS- in its issue dated 10 March 2002- which covered events till 27 February. The weekly India Today in its issue dated 11 March 2002 covered events till 28 February. In the 10 March 2002 issue itself-two RSS leaders- Madan Das Devi and Mohan Bhagwat gave statement’s asking the Hindu society to maintain peace. The Telegraph reported on 28th
February 2002-
“The RSS rallied behind the Prime Minister, pleading for restraint. Joint general secretary Madan Das Devi said: “The tolerance of the Hindu society is a litmus test. Instead of taking the law into their hands, people should cooperate with the state government in dealing with the serious situation.”
See link:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1020228/front_pa.htm#head1
See the statement by Madan Das Devi in the topic- “Nation faces trial by fire” 9th paragraph from the top.
On 2nd March 2002- http://www.rediff.com reported quoting Agencies:
“RSS, VHP appeal for peace in Gujarat
In the wake of mounting violence in Gujarat, the RSS and VHP on Saturday appealed to their volunteers to avoid any action that would disturb peace in the country and expressed hope that ‘good sense will prevail’.
“I appeal to all RSS volunteers, sympathisers and friends who have faith in Hindutva to do their utmost in preventing any activity – like sloganeering and stone-pelting – that would disrupt peace, keeping in view the disturbed situation in the country for it would only strengthen the hands of anti-national terrorist elements,” RSS general secretary Mohan Bhagwat said in a statement in Delhi.
He urged followers of other faiths not to fall prey to the instigation of terrorist elements and ‘to conduct themselves as children of India along with their Hindu brethren’.
Meanwhile, the VHP also made an appeal to put an end to the ongoing violence in Gujarat, saying ‘any kind of violence against anyone’ was a matter of concern.
Talking to reporters in Delhi, VHP spokesman Veereshwar Dwivedi said: “The Godhra incident and the violence that followed was tragic. Any kind of violence against anyone is a matter of concern.”
Calling for an end to the ongoing carnage in Gujarat, he said: “Good sense must prevail soon.”
Dwivedi also condoled the deaths and expressed sympathies for those affected by the violence in the state.
He, however, regretted that opposition parties had decided to send a delegation to Gujarat to assess the situation but did not consider it appropriate to do so after the Godhra killings.
Dwivedi said this was being done taking vote bank politics into consideration.
Agencies”
The URL for this is:
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/mar/02train10.htm
Myth 15: Narendra Modi gave free hand to rioters for 3 days
Fact: This much-repeated nonsensical allegation is baseless. Narendra Modi frantically called the Army units to Ahmedabad on February 28- as per the report of The Hindu the next day. India Today weekly’s report ‘Chronology of a Crisis’ on this topic in its issue dated 18 March 2002 also proves this beyond doubt.
The fact is- that the Army staged a flag march in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Godhra on 1st March- i.e. the 2nd day. So there was no question of giving anyone a free hand. The blatant lie was repeated many times in the media. The TV channel CNN-IBN on its Hindi channel reported on 26 October 2007- by writing on TV screens- “There was given 3 days time to kill in Gujarat”. The fact is- out of the 3 days- the Army was present in 2 days- and the extent of violence was far less as compared to the first day. The Hindu itself reported on 3rd March 2002- that the situation improved in Ahmedabad on 2nd March- i.e. the 3rd day of the riots.
Moreover-there was already a minority backlash on the 2nd day of the riots- i.e. on 1st March the Muslims started a backlash in Ahmedabad- as reported by The Hindu the next day. The question of the next two days does not arise- even on February 28- when the Army was not present- the police shot dead 10 Hindus in Ahmedabad alone- and 26 were injured. The police fired around 1,000 rounds- out of which 600 were fired in Ahmedabad alone-on February 28. Police saved 2500 Muslims from certain death in Sanjeli- a town in North Gujarat on 1st March 2002- i.e. the 2nd day of the riots.
Narendra Modi did not even give 3 minutes- not to talk of 3 days to the rioters. He had ordered 827 preventive arrests on February 27 itself- and given shoot-at-sight at Godhra on February 27 itself at 9:45 AM- only 2 hours after the Godhra carnage. The entire police force was deployed in Gujarat in view of apprehension that riots might break out on February 27 itself. The Rapid Action Force was deployed in Ahmedabad and other sensitive areas and the Centre sent in CRPF personnel-on February 27 itself! All this was reported by various English newspapers-like The Indian Express, The Times of India, The Tribune, The Hindustan Times etc the next day- i.e. 28 February.
To see the report- click on the link- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2256789.cms
The Tribune’s report can be read on- http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020228/main1.htm
Also- Defence Minister George Fernandes was in Ahmedabad on 1st March at 1:00 AM on Narendra Modi’s request. And the next day- he was bravely on Ahmedabad’s streets at a great risk to personal life. If Modi gave a free hand for 3 days- then why did he call George Fernandes?
On Feb 27 itself- http://www.rediff.com reported- “The situation became tense as news of the incident spread to other parts of the state prompting the state government to initiate precautionary security measures. Security has been tightened in Godhra and other parts of Gujarat.”
The Link for this report is:
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/feb/27train.htm
Rediff.com also reported quoting PTI on Feb 28 evening that-“The army has been asked to stand by and the Rapid Action Force and the Central Industrial Security Force have been deployed in Ahmedabad and other places.”
The link for this report is-
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/feb/28train15.htm
Rediff.com reported on Feb 27 itself- after Godhra that- “Two companies of the Rapid Action Force and one company of the State Reserve Police were deployed at Godhra to guard against further outbreak of violence.”
The link for the report: http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/feb/27train4.htm
On Feb 28- curfew was imposed in Baroda at 8 Am in the morning itself- as reported by rediff.com the same day. The report says-
“Indefinite curfew was imposed in the city from 0800 hours following the stabbing incidents, a senior police official said.
Curfew had been imposed in the six police station areas of the walled city (i.e. Ahmedabad) and RAF and CISF companies have been deployed in sensitive areas, Police Commissioner Deen Dayal Tuteja said.
Indefinite curfew has also been imposed in Lunawada town of Panchmahal district after 0200 hours on Wednesday night following incidents of arson and looting, he said.
Meanwhile, indefinite curfew, imposed in Godhra town after the attack on the train on Wednesday, continued on Thursday without any relaxation.
No untoward incident was reported during the curfew so far, police said.
The situation had remained peaceful and under control in other parts of the state during the night, police said.”
The link is- http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/feb/28train1.htm
On the 2nd day of the riots- Shoot-at-sight orders were extended to Ahmedabad as well. The report of rediff.com on 1st March 2002 was-
“Alarmed by the unabated incidents of violence in the city, the Gujarat government on Friday issued shoot-at-sight orders to the police against those indulging in arson and violence.
The announcement was made by Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad, official sources said. Modi has issued directives to the police to deal ’strictly with arsonists and if need be shoot-at-sight any person indulging in rioting’, they added.
Meanwhile, the army staged flag marches in the violence-hit areas of Ahmedabad – Daraipur, Shahpur, Shahibaug and Naroda – to instill confidence among the people as unabated violence has claimed 111 lives in the city alone so far.
The army personnel were out in different areas like Daraipur, Shahpur, Shahibaug and Naroda, police said.”
Link: http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/mar/01train4.htm
In chapter 2 we have already seen the reports of The Hindu and The Indian Express to know the steps taken by the Gujarat government to curb the violence. The Telegraph-published from Kolkata also reported on 1st March 2002-
“ (On Feb 28) The Vajpayee government, alarmed that law and order were spiralling out of control, ordered deployment of the army in the state. The army has already begun pre-deployment drills in violence-scarred areas and will be out latest by tomorrow morning. Defence minister George Fernandes is travelling to Gujarat tomorrow…Curfew was clamped in 26 towns… “There is a fire inside us. Our blood is boiling,” Mangalben, a woman from Dariapur, said. “What is the fault of those children who died? There is a volcano of anger.”
In other words-there was a volcano of anger among the masses- whose blood was boiling after the Muslims brutally roasted 59 kar sewaks including 15 children in Godhra. On the events of 1st March 2002- The Telegraph reported in its issue dated 2nd March-
“A funeral procession cast away its veil of mourning and exploded into a mob of killers, torching houses inside which the pursued were huddled. Official sources said eight people died in the incident, but unofficial estimates put the toll at above 30.
An agency report suggested vengeance for the death of three persons earlier in the day as the motive for the attack at Pandarwada, 70 km from Godhra….
Despite the presence of the army — some 3,500 soldiers have arrived in the state — in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot, the rioting has not stopped.”
And they say that Narendra Modi gave 3 days to the rioters to kill! They demand that the BJP and Narendra Modi should ‘apologize’ for the Gujarat riots. They should realize and so also the BJP spokespersons who come on TV and miserably fail to point out the truth- that it is not Narendra Modi who should apologize- but the entire media- for lying and lying, exaggerating, defaming Narendra Modi. The media can be tried under Section 153-A (Creating enmity between two groups)- because of its one-sided reporting- and Section 500 of IPC- (Defaming)- for needlessly defaming BJP, Sangh Parivar and Narendra Modi- and also tarnishing the image of India.
This tale of lies and myths is unending. It can go on and on and on. We will, however, need to conclude this chapter here itself. An enterprising writer would do well to compile an encyclopedia of these media lies on the entire Gujarat scenario. He can start with media lies on Godhra, on concocting imaginary ‘provocations’ for Godhra, the lies concocted on the post-Godhra riots-such as the extent of the riots, the number of people killed, the imaginary tales and stories of unnamed victims, the rapes and murders of innocent people, etc etc. And he can conclude with the media’s malicious reporting during the Gujarat Assembly elections of December 2002 when the media was the Congress’ pillar and tried to defeat the BJP. The BJP, which suffers the maximum damage from these lies, has unwisely allowed the media to escape the courts for one-sided, malicious lies.
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