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-Vijayan MJ

(This write-up is strictly not a fact finding mission report. The author visited the areas as a part of the Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy’s attempt to involve more people in the relief work as well as to react politically to attempts at wiping out ethnic minorities. The analysis given below should be seen only an onlooker’s anger)

Everyone seems to have done enough to condemn Godhra incident and the “communal riots”, which ‘followed’. All political parties (including those facilitated violence), many NGOs, individuals and organisations have done enough to save their respective faces in the wake of one of the worst “communal riots” in Gujarat, with the exception of very few committed ones. The media has rushed from Gujarat to Ayodhya to complete the ‘live coverage’, they have been consistently doing and thus has the global attention. What more can you expect from all of us, given the fact that in this part of the globe there is no lack of issues and no end to the constant fire-fighting one is involved with. Given along is the fact that the agencies, which have been keeping us pre-occupied with this fire-fighting, still has all the strings needed to continue the puppet show.

No Communalism this is...

Any attempt at portraying the brutal genocide, which took place in Gujarat as communal riots is nothing but an underestimation of the ‘hardwork’, which has gone behind it. There are different factors and reasons, which make anyone, who witnessed the aftermath, believe this. One is the simple reason that communal riots as defined in the Indian socio-political ‘dictionary’ take place when there are two or more violent communal groups clashing with each other in the streets. From any possible viewpoint, this is not what has happened in Gujarat. Secondly, for the communal, fascist laboratory of Gujarat, communal riots are neither unexpected nor irresistible. Even the members of the minority communities have their own inbuilt system of resisting the communal onslaught by the ‘defenders’ of Hindu Rashtra. But all these kinds of internal mechanisms collapsed this time as a result of the strategic mop-up operation by the VHP led killers and hence the total wipe-out. Thirdly, factors like the methodology and pattern used by the killers (belonging to only one community), for which there is no precedent in the Indian history part which deals with communal riots (discussed in detail below). All these combined make any onlooker realise with horror the extremism used for this magnitude of genocide. Thus many parts of the city of Ahmedabad looks more like war-torn and bombarded Afghanistan or Kosovo than communal riots affected Gujarat. It also becomes evident thus, that the ideology made use this time by the fanatics is much beyond any religious propaganda.

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Ethnic Cleansing: The Gujarat Model

If there is a phrase which can somewhat be aptly used for the Gujarat carnage, it is ‘Ethnic Cleansing’. In history, this phase of extremism comes mostly after the communal phase and then the ‘sons of the soil’ campaign. But in Gujarat, the Sangh seems to have ‘successfully’ attempted a leap forward jumping one round in between, resulting in the genocide, now. The result is the minority Muslim community loosing out to the fascists in economic, social, political and cultural fronts. In most parts of the state the socio-political and economic destruction of this community is so much that it will take a long time for the victims to recover- if at all.

Build-up

POTO comes handy- The politically motivated ban on Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)- first under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and then under Prvention of Terrorism Ordinance- and the subsequent raids worked as the biggest encouraging factor for the government as well as the outfits in Sangh Parivar. These undemocratic raids and picking unarmed even the self defensive mohalla committees of the minority community.

Even after the carnage, more than 80 percent of the people arrested under POTO belong to the minority Muslim community in Gujarat.

Training camps for Dalits and tribals- The most dangerous social aspect of the fascist masterplan has been the use of adivasis (eg. Bhils in Gujarat) and Dalits against Muslims. This is organised by groups like Bajrang Dal, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, RSS and VHP in such a way that these marginalised sections of the society are made to feel that they stand to gain economically and socially by eliminating the religious minorities, who are portrayed also as the exploiters. Above these are the four to five times daily wages and free liquour they get for ‘rioting’.

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