In 1989, over 1000 Muslims were killed in Bhagalpur in Bihar and cabbage grown over their mass grave in order to hide it. The three member Commission of Inquiry that was formed by the then Bihar government to investigate the Bhagalpur riots indicted the then SP of Bhagalpur, K.S. Dwivedi. This official Commission didn’t mince any words and its conclusion was unambiguous. “We would hold Dwivedi, the then superintendent of police, Bhagalpur, wholly responsible for whatever happened before 24 October 1989, on 24th itself and [after the] 24th. His communal bias was fully demonstrated not only by his manner of arresting the Muslims and by not extending them adequate help to protect them,” the report submitted by the Commission of Inquiry said. Yet, Dwivedi has faced no punishment for his actions and remains above the law. Not only has he been recently promoted to the rank of Additional Director General of Police in Bihar but also received the President’s medal for distinguished services in August 2012. What sense of justice would the survivors of communal riots perceive? And more importantly, the impunity enjoyed by Dwivedi comes as a dangerous message to his younger colleagues in the law enforcement agencies.
In fact, this lack of accountability for previous episodes of communal massacres has contributed greatly to repeated instances of severe communal violence. Unless persons and public officials responsible for rioting and killing are punished, it is naïve to assume that there will ever be peace or reconciliation between these communities. Peace is based on the concept of justice, and for most part in India, persons responsible for communal violence are never brought to justice. Also, the issue of institutional reform of the police, which again has been suggested by successive Commissions of Inquiry has not received any attention, and these forces remain unreformed and often communal.
These theories are neither new nor groundbreaking but there is simply no political will to confront the issue of communal violence. More recently, Assam typifies this impunity that fuels cycles of ethnic and communal violence. This is not the first time that districts of Assam have witnessed such serious communal violence. In Nellie, more than 3000 Muslims were massacred in communal violence in 1983. At the time, when all attempts of the then Assam government to cover up the massacre had failed, they were forced to form the Tewary Commission in July 1983 to investigate the communal "riots". Though Tewary Commission submitted its report, it was never tabled before the Assembly or made officially public. Rather than implementing the recommendations of this Commission, successive governments in Guwahati didn’t even place the findings in public domain for a debate. Although the Assam Accord did not pardon heinous crimes, the district courts and administrative machinery interpreted it as a blanket amnesty for all crimes committed during the Assam Agitation, and consequently individuals responsible for the gruesome Nellie massacre were also released. If the perpetrators of the Nellie massacre of 1983 had not received the defacto amnesty, in the garb of the Assam Accord in 1985, and instead were punished for their crimes, it would definitely have been a deterrent for any future violence.
Likewise, the difficult struggle to bring the perpetrators of 2002 communal carnage in Gujarat to justice is still underway and unless the perpetrators, including those at the highest levels, are tried, justice will be elusive for the survivors. The alleged role and responsibility of the Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been documented in various reports and affidavits submitted but until now he has escaped any legal liability for his actions.
Why is it that despite irrefutable evidence that these communal riots continue to tear apart the fabric of the Indian society, measures are not taken to contain these situations of violence and punish perpetrators of this violence? Why hasn’t a Communal Violence Bill that would prevent acts of communal violence, as well as hold to account public officials and others who failed to stop these massacres, been yet legislated? The Communal Violence Bill, it is hoped, would provide a framework for preventing and prosecuting mass crimes when they happen. What investigations have shown is that if the perpetrators are influential political leaders then the natural tendency has been to subvert any process of justice. Unless we provide justice and reparations for communal violence in India, it would continue unabated, as we saw in Assam last year.