Vajpayee gets the probe into the '92-'93 Bombay riots reopened A few hours before Atal Behari Vajpayee resigned as Prime Minister after a 13-day—the shortest-ever—stint in power, Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi held out a letter written to him by the BJP leader. Vajpayee had taken the extraordinary step of asking Joshi to revive a judicial inquiry that was unceremoniously scrapped by the Shiv Sena-BJP government five months ago.
In the midst of all the power play in Delhi, Vajpayee had taken some time off to argue for the reinstatement of the probe into the Bombay riots of 1992 and 1993 by the commission headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna. It was a surprising move, and was seen by some as a desperate last-minute attempt to project a secular image before the confidence vote in Parliament.
But the BJP had taken this step only after it was certain that it would not be able to garner the support to rule at the Centre. In some political circles, it was believed that the letter only pre-empted any possible action on the state government, either directly from the next government or the courts. Admitted a Maharashtra minister: "Call it timely action. Before the next government or a court directive could act against us we revived the Commission."
At the Cabinet briefing where he read out Vajpayee's letter and reinstated the probe, Joshi explained the move as a response to the Prime Minister's request. "He asked and we accepted it," Joshi said, describing as "purely hypothetical" suggestions that the action was taken to pre-empt any move by the next government to oust the state government on this ground. Said Joshi: "We have a clear mandate from the people of Maharashtra and there is no question of my government being dismissed."
Initially, it seemed easy enough for a state government to dismiss an inquiry that many thought would go against the Shiv Sena and the BJP. There were protests at the winding-up of the probe, but none of them strong enough to bother the ruling alliance. After all, when it comes to roadside action, the Shiv Sena has always scored. But there was a simmering discontent. For one, the parties which had laboriously argued the case for three years, were angry and unwilling to give it up easily. They moved the court and were confident of a sympathetic hearing from the judiciary.
The judiciary itself would not have been happy at the unceremonious scrapping of a probe that assiduously recorded thousands of pages of evidence. Justice Srikrishna, assisted by a team of four counsels and a staff of 21, spent as many as 1,860 hours in court sessions spread over 372 days. It was a time during which 2,119 affidavits were filed and 402 witnesses, including 160 policemen, deposed. After the government expanded the scope of the inquiry to include the March 1993 blasts , another six affidavits were filed. Almost 80 per cent of the work was completed when the Commission was suddenly scrapped.
If all that was taken in stride then, now new political compulsions came into play, particularly after the BJP's "majestic isolation" in the Lok Sabha. Says Sajid Rashid Urdu Times editor: "This in no way enhances their image. People have seen what they have done. This was done only because of their fear of the United Front Government and the courts."
Also compounding matters was the perception that the Sena had acted merely to protect itself because it was widely blamed for the riots. When the Commission was dismissed it was being privately argued in the corridors of power that the government had no option but to scrap the Commission, because the chief minister would find it difficult to continue in office if the report went against him. That logic still holds, but will come into play six to eight months later when the report is likely to be ready.
The chief minister did not meet the chief justice before the Cabinet revived the probe, and it was not immediately clear if Justice Srikrishna would agree to take up the job again. According to Majeed Memon, the principal defence lawyer for the blast accused: "The gap has dampened the spirit with which the probe was going ahead, and the enthusiasm with which the judge was working. There could also be a delay if the chief justice decides that another judge should head the probe."
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