Lieutenant General Zameer Uddin Shah retired as Deputy Chief of Army Staff in 2008. His autobiography, The Sarkari Mussalman , stands out particularly for the frank account of his role as commanding officer of the troops that quelled the Gujarat riots in 2002 and his ruminations about his tenure as vice chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
General Shah squarely lays the blame for the Gujarat killings on the State government. The civilian authorities did not act in time to stop the massacres. In fact, by permitting the open display of the bodies of kar sevaks killed in the Godhra train fire, the State government became complicit in inciting the rioters. General Shah asserts that on multiple occasions he witnessed the police standing idle as mobs attacked Muslims and set fire to their property. On some occasions the police fired into Muslim houses instead of on the mobs, he says, on the pretext that they were trying to separate the rioters belonging to the two communities.
His indictment of the civilian authorities is borne out by the fact that although the forces under his command numbering 3,000 reached Ahmedabad airport on March 1 morning, the Gujarat government failed to provide them with transport and the logistical support necessary for deployment to the riot-affected areas. General Shah drove to the Chief Minister’s residence at 2 a.m. that day to ask for assistance but nothing was done for a whole day. The troops could not be deployed until the next day and consequently, innumerable lives that could have been saved were lost. General Shah praises the impartial and professional way the forces under his command acted to bring the killings to an end. He affirms that without their deployment the riots would not have been brought under control as the police and the politicians did not seem interested in ending the mayhem.
General Shah’s account of his time as the vice chancellor of AMU sounds quite depressing even though it has some bright spots such as the university being ranked the best in the country by Times Higher Education during his tenure. The malaise from which AMU suffers is not unique. Almost all universities in the country face the same problems, especially political interference and the consequent erosion of institutional autonomy. Aligarh’s travails hit the headlines more often because the term “Muslim” is included in its appellation. This also seems to be the reason why the former Human Resource Development Minister in the National Democratic Alliance government treated General Shah with unwarranted disrespect as he recounts with anguish.
General Shah deserves to be commended for not pulling his punches. This distinguishes his memoir from others of this genre.
The writer is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of International Relations, Michigan State University
