INDIA: Two Years After, Pogrom Victims See Glimmer of Justice

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Apr 16 2004 (IPS) - When India’s Supreme Court ordered that the trial of a controversial murder case be moved outside western Gujarat on Monday, it was the first time since an anti-Muslim pogrom swept the state two years ago that the victims could begin to hope for real justice.

”Ultimately, the Supreme Court had to step in and do what the government failed to do,” Y P Chibbar, human rights activist and leader of the influential rights group People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), told IPS in an interview.

What has come to be known as the Best Bakery murder case – in which 21 people have been placed under trial for the slaying of a dozen people – had become symbolic of the serious miscarriage of justice in Gujarat.

Critics add that the injustice was made worse by the fact that a lower court in Vadodara city acquitted the accused on the grounds of insufficient evidence in June 2003.

Sensing the partisan nature of the justice system in Gujarat, India’s Supreme Court declared in October that it would monitor appeals made in the Gujarat High Court by the main witness, Zahira Sheikh, whose family owned Best Bakery.

Sheikh was among those who managed to save themselves when mobs set Best Bakery ablaze.

She saw her sister, uncle, three cousins and seven others die in one of the numerous attacks carried out by Hindu mobs. The mobs were carrying out revenge for the burning of a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, an incident that left 59 passengers dead near the Godhra railway station on Feb. 27, 2002.

She told the ‘Indian Express’ newspaper that her family was under constant threat and that she was compelled to change her original statements at the Vadodara court.

It was then that the Mumbai-based rights activist and leader of the rights group Citizens for Justice and Peace Teesta Setalvad stepped in to approach the Supreme Court for retrial outside Gujarat state, on Sheikh’s behalf. The trial will now proceed in neighbouring Maharashtra state.

”The Supreme Court order transferring the case outside Gujarat will bring hope to the victims of the riots and send out the right signal to all those who are involved with the trials of other Gujarat riot cases,” said Setalvad, who has been working to get justice for the survivors of the pogrom in which at least 2,000 people perished.

For all the deaths and numerous cases of rapes and arson in Gujarat, which saw India’s worst communal violence in decades, only 12 persons have so far been tried and convicted.

Critics say this is due mainly to intimidation by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or World Hindu Forum, which is closely affiliated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP rules Gujarat and leads the national coalition at the centre.

While ordering retrial in Maharashtra state, the Supreme Court censured the Gujarat High Court for being ”a silent spectator, mute to the manipulations” and being ”indifferent to sacrilege being committed to justice”.

Setalvad, who also edits the well-known monthly ‘Communalism Combat’, said she and her group would be overseeing the progress of some of the more prominent cases related to the Gujarat pogrom, including what are known as the Gulburg Society massacre and the Sardarpura massacre.

”We also have cases pending before the Supreme Court relating to hate speeches made by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi,” she said.

According to Setalvad, the progress of the Best Bakery case in Maharashtra state would serve as an indicator of whether justice would prevail and whether the ”sense of impunity which seemed to pervade different organs of the state” during the Gujarat pogrom can be removed.

The BJP government in the state, led by Modi, has been accused by the PUCL and even the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of doing little to stop the pogrom, which caused 200,000 people to abandon their homes and huddle in makeshift refugee camps for weeks.

Said the ‘Times of India’ newspaper in an editorial on Thursday: ”Best Bakery not only highlights the communalisation of the investigation and prosecution process processes but also underscores the crisis in our judicial system.”

”Never before has the apex court so comprehensively indicted the justice system of one state,” the newspaper said, adding that the verdict was a ”warning to lower courts everywhere against being so criminally casual with the evidence” placed before them.

Since the Supreme Court verdict, there have been calls for Modi’s removal by the Congress Party, which leads the national opposition against the BJP and its allies in parliamentary elections due to begin on Apr. 20. Their plank during the election campaign is to restore ”constitutionally guaranteed secularism”.

The BJP’s top leaders, including Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his deputy Lal Krishna Advani, have expressed regret over the Gujarat violence and called it an ‘aberration’. But neither have had the courage to remove Modi from office, fearing a backlash from party hardliners.

Said the ‘Times of India’ editorial: ”Many politicians have expressed regret and remorse about the happenings in Gujarat. Their sincerity and honesty are on trial.”

In an interview with the television channel NDTV24x7 due to be aired Sunday, Vajpayee said he regretted the Gujarat pogrom but added that it would not have happened but for the Godhra train massacre.

Setalvad pointed out that India, though hailed as the world’s largest democracy, has faltered on the issue of impunity for mass crimes and persisted with a closed-door policy on human rights issues ”because the government cannot stand up to international scrutiny”.

India has refused to ratify the creation of an International Criminal Court on the grounds of sovereignty, saying it has adequate mechanisms to deal with mass crimes.