A contradictory judgment

It was the early morning of February 27, 2002 when the Sabarmati Express was moving towards Ahmedabad with dozens of karsevaks returning from Ayodhya after participating in Ram Yajna on board. The train stopped at Godhra station. Passengers alighted from the train. Soon there was commotion on the platform. Two groups started fighting with each other. Now, there are two versions about the scuffle that took place at the Godhra station on that fateful day. 

 

The official and the police version of this incident is that the karsevaks were attacked by a group of Muslims without any provocation. The Muslims on the other hand claim that the karsevaks had been behaving atrociously with Muslims all along the journey. When they alighted at Godhra, they misbehaved with Muslim women in veil there and also looted a tea vendor’s shop on the platform. This, according to Muslims, led to a clash initially on the Godhra station premises. 

 

The train then moved on and soon it halted near Singal Falia, a Muslim-dominated area in Godhra. A fire engulfed Coach 6 of the Sabarmati Express in which more than 50 karsevaks were burnt alive. The VHP and other Hindutva groups and the local police blamed Godhra’s Muslims for hatching a “conspiracy” to put the coach carrying karsevaks on fire. This incident provoked Hindu ire leading to the massacre of Muslims in many parts of Gujarat which Narendra Modi infamously described as ‘action-reaction theory’. Muslims across the country, however, reject this view and claim that the Modi government, along with the local police, hatched the conspiracy to surcharge the communal atmosphere in Gujarat for political reasons. 

 

So, the Godhra tragedy turned into two competing conspiracy theories. One version was the police version which was endorsed by the BJP and its affiliates. The other narration was put forth by the Muslims and secular civil society activists who did not approve of the police version. Now, the local Godhra court has upheld the police theory that it was a “planned conspiracy” by a group of local Muslims to harm the karsevaks. The police version had claimed that the lynchpin of the “conspiracy” was Maulvi Hussain Umarji who was a local municipal level leader in Godhra. He, according to the police chargesheet, had mobilised people to put coach 6 of the Sabarmati Express on fire. 

 

Ironically, the Godhra court has rejected the police charge accusing Maulvi Umar for masterminding the conspiracy and has acquitted him. Yet the court has upheld the police ‘conspiracy’ theory. Here lies the major contradiction in the judgment that many legal eagles are pointing out. How come the court verifies the police theory while absolving the principal conspirator? The court has not just released Maulvi Umar but it has also let off 63 others charged in this case. The court has blamed the police for presenting “conflicting versions of investigation” in this case. It is clearly evident that the court agrees with the defendants’ version that the police was biased in this case. Yet the court finally put its seal on the police version. 

 

Well, the judgment has in many ways created more doubts rather than clearing the confusion persisting in the Godhra tragedy. Besides, it has failed to put to rest the competing conspiracy theories doing the rounds. The BJP celebrated the judgment as an endorsement of its own version about the Gujarat riots. On the other hand, Muslims have questioned the judgment claiming as to how come the court released the mastermind in the conspiracy yet upheld the police version. Nine years after the Godhra tragedy, the judgment has failed to bridge the rift between the two major communities of the country.

 

It is more tragic in the long run for the country in my view. India is on the threshold of emerging as a global power. It can hardly afford to waste its energies on communal problems of medieval mindsets. It has to move on to a truly modern state in the 21st century. And, lingering doubts between the two major communities do not auger well for a modern global India. Thus, for clearing the doubts in the Godhra case, it is now essential to move to higher judiciary. So that a more harmonious India moves on in the 21st century with its head held high.