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State Of Wilful Amnesia

There’s a pattern to the way the BJP buries facts injurious to itself. A stinging report on the Dangs is but the latest instance.

Outlook News Desk

Updated on:

The war of attrition between the National Minorities Commission (NMC) and the BJP-led central government shows no signs of abating. The NMC report for ‘99, compiled last April in the wake of communal trouble in the Dangs, is a withering indictment of the Gujarat government’s handling of the crisis. This, perhaps, explains why this catalogue of the Keshubhai regime’s sins of omission is yet to be tabled in Parliament.

Predictably, the Vajpayee government has not been kindly disposed to the NMC’s approach. The first rub came in the immediate aftermath of the Dangs violence in December ‘98. The NMC urged the Centre to invoke Article 256 and 355-both of which express a lack of confidence in the state government and oblige the Centre to intervene during crises. Of course, the suggestion never made it to Parliament.

Sources in the NMC fear the ‘99 report-the result of two fact-finding missions-too will meet this fate. Especially given its unambiguous tone, as in: "Events (in Gujarat) have seriously wounded minority sentiments and created a feeling of fear, dismay and disillusionment with the national secular, egalitarian tradition".

Outlook has gained access to the report. Some of its findings are:

  • The state home ministry is biased and didn’t issue proper guidelines to the district officials on how to handle a communal crisis.
  • Some district police officials have close contacts with local goons and criminals infamous for triggering riots.
  • The state government has allowed the majority community to organise protest rallies on minority festival days.
  • Police and district officials took a partisan stand and, in cases, even tortured minority community members. Fear of the police made the minorities apprehensive of even lodging firs.

    While coming down heavily on the government, the Commission also issued a set of 30 recommendations. The key ones are:

  • By a policy statement, the state government should (a) publicly disapprove of recent unconstitutional, unlawful and penal incidents that have offended religious sentiments, and (b) affirm its commitment to protect the human rights, civil liberties and fundamental freedom of all citizens.
  • Effective and time-bound investigation by high-level state agencies should be promptly ordered into each incident. Pending the investigation, police and administrative officers of disturbed areas should be transferred to avoid possible allegations of having influenced its impartiality.
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  • After investigations are over, all individuals who may have committed a punishable offence-regardless of their community or group-as also those guilty of dereliction of official duties or negligence should be given exemplary punishment as per the law.
  • After an in-depth investigation into violence against the minorities, the state government should reprimand offenders and shouldn’t spare officials who failed to control it.
  • The DG of Gujarat police should be directed to call periodical meetings of all SPs and other officers to brief them about civil rights and liberties of all citizens, including those of the minorities and to guide them properly for effective protection of those rights.
  • In order to create and maintain a congenial atmosphere and cordial inter-community ties, deterrent measures should be undertaken by the state government to curb the tirade against a particular community and their religious practices carried on through pamphlets, leaflets, periodicals and false or exaggerated media reports.
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  • Regular state-level meetings of non-political representatives of all religious communities should be convened by the state government to evolve ways and means to create, promote and preserve communal harmony in the state and to make all citizens of the state fully aware of national obligations and responsibilities towards each other.
  • The government should closely scrutinise the activities of Swami Achitanand, who is noted to have been camping in the tribal areas of Gujarat and is stated to be the main factor behind the prevailing tension in the area. Action should be taken against him if the content of his speeches is found to be communal.
  • The state government should initiate an inquiry on why the state home department failed to tackle the situation on a number of occasions and did not issue proper directives to the concerned officials in the district administration.
  • Adequate compensation as per the legal and judicial norms should be paid as early as possible if property and institutions of a religious nature were damaged in the violence (specially referring to the churches which were burnt).
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  • The conversions record should be properly kept to counter false propaganda.
  • The state government should formulate and announce all possible measures for protecting the honour, rights and civil liberties of the minority communities living in the state.
  • The decision to elevate the Gujarat minorities board to a corporation (with a larger ambit of powers and functions rather than just being a quasi-judicial watchdog), reversed by the present state government, should be restored and the board made more powerful and effective for promoting the socio-economic development of the minorities.
  • On the pattern of the minorities welfare departments set up by the Andhra Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal governments, the Gujarat government should also set up a special department to effectively deal with all matters and problems relating to the minorities. Of the 30 recommendations, the Gujarat government claims it’s accepted 24. But, according to Tahir Mahmood, former NMC chairman who put together the report, this isn’t true. "The Keshubhai government’s ‘action taken report’ became an eyewash. You need political will to implement those recommendations. All you need is to go to Ahmedabad and see the wall writings to be convinced that all isn’t well," he says. In fact, it took many letters from the NMC before the state government even acknowledged receipt of the report. Then, some recommendations were rejected outright. The list includes setting up of a minorities commission and minority welfare schemes.

    But the Commission’s main worry is that though the Gujarat government has agreed to implement 24 recommendations, there’s likely to be a gap between what’s promised by Keshubhai Patel and what he actually does. Points out Mahmood, "Politicians as a rule don’t take the Commission seriously. They don’t follow our recommendations and don’t heed our findings." In fact, the BJP-Sena government even issued a warrant last year against Commission members who’d gone to Maharashtra to study the targeting of minority educational institutions. Says a member of the Commission, "Whenever an incident happens, state governments are quick to say they’ll investigate it. But they don’t really mean it. And when we go to find the truth behind a riot, politicians are the first to block us. They are also quick to badmouth us."

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    Giving scant importance to NMC’s findings is understandable given the BJP’s view. The party’s ‘98 election manifesto clearly stated their intention of winding up the Commission-this wasn’t done to keep NDA allies happy. But the Centre didn’t think it obligatory to table NMC’s report in Parliament, nor was the Gujarat government pressurised to implement recommendations. This saffron agenda, at least, is overtly articulated.

     

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