A past that will not pass

February 11, 2012 12:29 am | Updated December 04, 2021 11:07 pm IST

Consider this for the volatility of present times in Gujarat. On Wednesday, the Gujarat High Court lit into the Narendra Modi government, accusing it of “inaction and negligence” resulting in the destruction of over 500 Muslim places of worship during the 2002 post-Godhra pogrom. Rejecting the State government's portrayal of the violence as a “general reaction” to the February 27, 2002 Sabarmati Express carnage, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J.B. Pardiwala ordered compensation to be paid for the defilement and destruction, noting that in the absence of police intelligence and “appropriate” preventive action, “anarchy” had reigned “unabated” in Gujarat. Twenty-four hours after the sledgehammer indictment came news of a different kind: Mr. Modi had been cleared of the charge of abetting the 2002 violence in a final report filed to the magisterial court by the Special Investigation Team probing Zakia Jafri's omnibus complaint against the Chief Minister and 61 others. Of course, with the SIT's report locked in the secret vaults of the magisterial court and amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran taking a contrarian view in the same case, it is clear that the last word on the question of criminality will not be said for some time.

Yet none of this could stop sections of the BJP from exulting over Mr. Modi's “victory” or his imminent promotion to Prime Minister of India. Mr. Modi himself tweeted: “The history of the world is the history of a few men who had faith in themselves…” Similar misplaced celebrations had marked the Supreme Court's September 12, 2011 order, directing the trial court to hear Ms Jafri's complaint. Mr. Modi had then tweeted, “God is great”, blithely obfuscating the truth that the apex court had in fact fast-tracked proceedings in the case. The Chief Minister's camp followers will do well to show some restraint, not least because his administration has come in for repeated censure by courts in the past year. The SIT's conclusions and reasoning will be publicly known and debated, including in these columns, once the magistrate concerned makes all relevant documents available to the petitioners. The court's own decision on the matter — whether to accept or reject the closure report – will doubtless be litigated by one side or the other. But whatever the final view taken by the courts on his individual legal culpability for the tragedy of Gujarat, Mr. Modi should know this much. The fact that he remained — at best — a mute spectator to the killing of hundreds of innocent citizens and did nothing to ensure justice for the victims afterwards is a moral and political badge of dishonour that will ensure the higher office his supporters seek for him remains out of reach.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.