COVER STORY

Boast and bluff

WHEN the lights went out, spine-chilling screams echoed in the by-lanes where the refugees lived in hiding. Gujarat was hit by a major power blackout on July 30. Mass hysteria gripped Vadodara and Ahmedabad. Children, traumatised by the recent violence, cried throughout the night. Rumours about renewed attacks spread quickly. In some parts of Ahmedabad, there were skirmishes and incidents of stone-throwing.

Not what you would call 'normal'? Is it?

It does not take much to disturb the fragile calm in Gujarat. Most of the estimated 1.5 lakh displaced people have yet to come to terms with the horror of what they experienced. They have not yet been able to get back to their homes or their jobs. Although the Bharatiya Janata Party government has shut down the relief camps, they still live around the camps or with relatives.

The government is not bothered about rehabilitating the displaced. There is only one point on its agenda - the Assembly elections. After supporting the violence, it is now in a hurry to count votes over the dead bodies.

Luckily, there has been a voice of sanity. After visiting Gujarat from August 9 to 11, Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh and Election Commissioners B.B. Tandon and T.S. Krishnamurthy refused to allow the State government to go ahead with the polls in early October. They said that the State government was "not in a position to conduct free and fair elections". In its report released on August 16, the Election Commission (E.C.) explained: "Victims would be extremely wary of going to the polling stations to cast their votes fearing risk to their life and property. Many others would obviously be physically prevented from going to the polling stations." The E.C. said that it would consider framing an election schedule only in December, after the electoral rolls were revised.

The E.C. report said that the electoral rolls, as revised during late 2001 and in early 2002, do not reflect the situation on the ground. "Elections cannot be held on the basis of the existing electoral rolls, which are defective to a considerable extent. Any election held on the basis of these defective rolls would deprive a substantially large number of electors who have been displaced from their homes. These electoral rolls may also give an opportunity to unscrupulous elements to resort to bogus voting in the name of electors who are either dead or are no longer resident in the polling areas/constituencies concerned," it says.

The report shatters the BJP government's claims that the violence was restricted to a few parts of the State. While warning Lyngdoh not to 'exceed his brief', BJP national general secretary Arun Jaitley had insisted that 98 per cent of the State was "unaffected by violence". However, the E.C. report pointed out that the Gujarat government had itself declared 20 of the 25 districts as "riot-affected". Free rations are being supplied in these districts to people with "below poverty line" ration cards. Of the 182 Assembly constituencies, 154 were affected by violence.

A day after the E.C. report was released, 10 persons were injured in a riot in Dhoraji town in Rajkot. The riot started with an argument when two rickshaws collided. A curfew was imposed in the town. This riot highlighted the uneasy calm that prevails in most of Gujarat. Nerves are still highly strung. Even a simple incident can suddenly take a violent turn.

In August, Gujarat played host to two VIP visits - President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's and the Election Commissioners'. But the two visits could not have been more different. The President was given a government-guided tour. The E.C. made extensive, independent assessments of the camps and the riot-hit areas. The Election Commissioners were among the few visitors who did a thorough field study. What they saw shocked them.

Lyngdoh created a furore in Gujarat. He castigated several government officers for misguiding him. "Are you a joker?" he asked Vadodara District Collector Bhagyesh Jha during a visit to the Noor Complex in Tarsali. "You say only sporadic incidents took place here when 185 houses were burned." When Jha gave Lyngdoh wrong information about the burning of Best Bakery, he asked him, "Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" At a meeting with top bureaucrats, he lost his cool when Chief Secretary G. Subba Rao told him that the situation in the State was 'normal'. "You call this normal? You have the temerity to say so. Have you been to the relief camps? I suggest that you go to the relief camps and stay there for two days," he said. With a fascist party in power, Lyngdoh is the lone constitutional functionary who has dared to speak the truth, rather than engineer a cover-up.

The next day the government staged a guided tour for the Abdul Kalam. Just before his visit a road was built, leading to the widows' home at Juhapura and the goverment hurriedly distributed long-overdue compensation cheques. As the President was taken through the motions, dissenters were kept away. Sharif Khan, an organiser of the Shah Alam camp, had been arrested a day before the visit. The police were afraid he would "cause trouble" by "inciting refugees" to tell the President something the government did not want him to hear.

Fr. Cedric Prakash, a human rights activist, was given a police pass and was invited to speak with Kalam at Naroda Patiya, where one of the most brutal crimes occurred. Just before the President appeared, Prakash was whisked away by the police. Ahmedabad Collector K. Srinivasan wanted to avoid any embarrassment that Fr. Prakash might cause the administration. Many others who wanted to talk to the President were also kept away.

During his visits to the Haj House relief camp, the Juhapura widows' home and Naroda Patiya in Ahmedabad, officials made Kalam hurry up, before people had a chance to vent their grievances. Whenever people spoke to him, Kalam listened silently. He did not make any promises. He only asked officials to ensure that the children could return to schools. Chief Minister Narendra Modi accompanied Kalam. It was the first time Modi was visiting these places. His team tried to steer the President clear of the horrific realities in Gujarat.

MODI has arrogantly persisted with the Hindutva hardline. With an eye on the elections he prematurely dissolved the Assembly on July 19. Now, he will start an election campaign on September 3 with the BJP's 'Gujarat gaurav yatra'. The yatra was scheduled for July but had to be postponed after the National Human Rights Commission objected to it. The NHRC feared that such a parade could reignite communal violence.

The Gujarat government's boasts have been exposed by the E.C. But the BJP persists with its pride parade.