Genocide in Gujarat 02-03-18

Genocide Masquerading as Riot in Gujrat, India

Mirza A. Beg
Written on March 18, 2002

Birmingham News, Sunday June 23rd, 2002


While Israel–Palestine conflict sucks away the oxygen of world attention; another genocide is going on in Gujrat, India. Indian government euphemistically calls it a riot.

Riot occurs when a group of people in anger violates the law and injures another group. In India, it happens with greater frequency than a government should tolerate. The government should arrest the miscreants and bring them to justice. What happened at the Godhra railroad station was a riot. Some Muslims in anger at the abduction of a minor girl by Hindu zealots, burnt the rail road car in which they were travelling. The government of the Gujrat State instead of investigating and bringing the rioters to justice helped the revenge seekers statewide, in burning and killing of innocent Muslims. This is genocide.

What is alarming to those who love India, its secularist tradition, culture, and constitution, is the complicity of the Gujrat government in facilitating, and at times spearheading the killings and burning of the Muslim neighborhoods, which are increasingly becoming ghettoes. The power of the government and the police force was used to kill and burn at least 2,000 people and property with great care and deliberation to hit only the intended Muslim minority. More than 150, 000 people have fled their homes and are in camps.

Solace, if possible is, that some courageous Hindu officials have quit plum government jobs in disgust, and a few police officials in spite of threats from the government did not participate in government sponsored killings. For the defiance of the terrorist government’s illegal orders they have been punished, yet have remained steadfast.

Almost all the Indian newspapers and magazines of national stature have strongly chastised the Gujrat and the central governments. National and international human rights and secular groups have issued reports detailing the governments complicity.

Hundreds of reporters have taken thousands of photographs showing hooligans throwing incendiary objects from behind the police cordons at the confined victims. Many of the photographs are available on the Internet. Indians can be genuinely proud of the excellent reporting by many Hindu journalists who value truth and are a credit to their profession.

Mr. Vajpayee, the Indian Prime Minister, shed some opportune tears at the carnage, but instead of firing Mr. Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujrat, he has thrown his full support behind him. India is a parliamentary democracy; there are many precedents of firing the state governments by the central government, especially when they belong to the same party.

All the secular parties and national newspapers have urged that Mr. Modi’s government in Gujrat should be removed from office immediately and a judicial inquiry instituted. A fascist government such as his can not be trusted to investigate itself.

The bane of the past judicial inquires have been that the judges overcoming impediments placed by the government do a meticulous job of investigation and assigning guilt. Usually the guilty are powerful people in the government, as happened in the1984 killings of Sikhs or many riots against Muslims and atrocities against Christians.

The inquiry takes a few years to complete. In the intervening time passions cool and the national memories fade. The government ignores the recommendations of the judicial inquiry and thus it becomes an exercise in futility. The guilty not only go free but also find encouragement to become even more brazen and bold in their evil deeds.

International pressure, particularly pressure from the Unites States would be very helpful in checking the terrorism perpetrated by the government. The State Department and the U.S. Congress should take special notice of the fascistic organizations in India such as World Hindu Organization, (Hindi acronym VHP) and National Self Service Corps (Hindi acronym RSS). These are the kingpins of the terror throughout India. RSS was banned in 1950s for masterminding the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

The justice department should investigate the activities of these organizations in this country. These organizations collect enormous amounts of donation from the successful Indians in the United States to subsidize killing and mayhem in India. These fascist-terrorist organizations will not be banned in India at this time because they are the backbone of the electoral base for the present government, which does not have a plurality and is dependent on coalition partners. It may be recalled that Nazis came to power as a minority government with coalition partners and would not have banned their thuggish militia called the “Brown Shirts”.

It is heartening to note that the Supreme Court of India has accepted a public interest petition to examine and rule on the complaint against the state government of Gujrat. It is hoped, the court will rule expeditiously on the complaint as the killings are still going on and the government is spreading misinformation to whip up passions to polarize the electorate to create a larger voter base for itself just as Nazis did 70 yeas ago.

One can not be appreciative enough of the many Hindus, particularly the intelligentsia who have voiced their abhorrence in hundreds of newspaper articles to the calumnious deeds done in their name. Some of the most revered religious leaders such as the “Shankaracharyas” have decried the rape, mayhem and pillage being done by the political opportunists in the name of Hindu creed. All who love India and humanity need to speak out to defeat the present fascistic hijacking of Hindu ethos so that India may find its destiny as a great nation.

Mirza A. Beg can be contacted at mab64@yahoo.com