Yesterday marked the tenth year (can we not call it an anniversary!) since the Godhra train burning and the riots that followed. Ten years. Yet we see Narendra Modi prance around town as a probable candidate for the Prime Minister’s post. Osama Bin Laden has been hunted down in the last ten years and he was in hiding; Modi is in Ahemdabad! All the talk about him being a genuine candidate for the chair in the South Block is like appointing Hitler as the EU commissioner. You did so well with your region; why not take over the whole damn place!
In the last ten tears we have seen Modi use every dirty trick in the book and then some to escape a meaningful investigation. With his Nazi like focus on industrialization he has successfully managed to shift the focus from his evil deeds to the success of his policies. To say it is a slap on our democracy and judicial process is an understatement. Cops have been transferred; witnesses vanished, police records missing or fudged, numerous encounters, systematic social ostracism of the Muslim community and many other such tactics. The fact that he has continued to inflict so much damage after the riots should be a matter of great shame to the entire nation.
What is amazing in this entire episode is the absolute lack of interest from anyone in the government to see that justice is done. The government at the centre is bound by its general ineptness to get anything accomplished and the state government is entirely in the hands of the mastermind of the many crimes committed; that it is supposed to investigate. Society at large, as it is its wont continues to ignore difficult questions and accept the legitimacy bestowed on guilty-but-not-proven-as such powerful people. When people like Amitabh Bachhan and Ratan Tata share the dais and more with people like Modi for their own personal gains, it adds to the acceptability of such criminals. Not that it is the responsibility of these select people to take a stand against something or anything for that matter. But when people of stature; with much to lose; are not afraid to associate with the perpetrator of appalling crimes there isn’t much hope in bringing real, tangible justice.
And it is not even important whether Modi becomes the PM in the near or distant future. It is imperative however, that he be brought to justice for his misdeeds. It is absolutely important, for this nation, for the millions of Gujaratis, for the Hindus, for the industrialists, for the NRIs, for the police, for the judiciary to acknowledge that they are human beings, first. Else, there is no difference between them and animals roaming the jungles.
