No wonder, the media totally failed to gauge the intensity of the emotions on 28 February It had also failed to carefully assess whether it was physically possible for Narendra Modi government or for that matter any other government to control the kind of mass frenzy that had exploded in Gujarat.
Millions of people had spontaneously taken part with elemental passion in the mass violence. Leaders of all political parties had ceased to be of any significance or importance or relevance at that moment. The common man in Gujarat had overtaken them all. This fact was later realised when a newspaper report on 9 August, 2003 stated: ‘Most Congress corporators and some Congress leaders of Gujarat had actively participated in the last year riots’.
A few Congressmen who did not participate wrote letters to Congress president Sonia Gandhi giving a list of Congress leaders involved in the riot and asking her to take stringent action against them. But it was of no avail.
The real truth of the matter is that the agitated crowds were willing to face the bullets of the law-enforcing authorities in a fiercely fearless manner. Many housewives belonging to the middle classes were seen coaxing their sons and husbands to go out into the open public arena and join the frenzied crowds in their heroic fight to give self-respect, equity and natural justice to themselves as outraged human beings.
In his explosive book
GODHRA: The Missing Rage S K Modi has given the following lurid description of what happened in Gujarat on 28 February 2002, the day after the Godhra massacre “The whole of Gujarat was in flames. Those who indulged in some sort of violence on that gory day could be counted only in millions. Did the VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders, who were allegedly responsible for having incited and led the crowds, have some magical hypnotic powers?
If that was indeed the case, the ruling BJP would have had 400 seats in the nation’s Parliament, instead of the 182 seats it currently has (In January 2004). And if the people of Gujarat were particularly prone to the ‘hypnotic’ powers of the Hindu nationalists, why did he take the BJP such a long time to come to power in Gujarat?... The reality is that there has been no pattern to the BJP’s rise in Gujarat.
To call Gujarat the Hindutva laboratory of the BJP is a fallacy created by the so called analysts and commentators. Hindutva came out of the laboratory stage over 5000 years ago. The very fact that it has survived so many attacks, so many onslaughts, says that it does not need any laboratory. It is a way of living. It has decayed and been refined several times over. The process is unending. Hinduism is eternal.”
The most important and fundamental fact that was ignored completely by the mass media in general and the English media in particular was that the widespread violence was perpetrated by the masses and not political workers and/or criminal elements alone.
To prove this point S K Modi cites the example of Gulbarg society, where the former M P Ahsan Jafri (that is how his name is spelt in the directory of the Indian Parliament) was burnt alive. The truth is 10,000- plus crowd was willing to lose a few lives, if need be and if necessary, in the process yes and yet at the same time they were determined to ‘teach a lesson’ to the former MP, if not the Muslim community at large.
The Washington-based Human Rights Watch went to the extent of alleging that six or seven females (two married women and four or five girls) were raped during that gory Gulbarg incident. This allegation was based upon an interview with an unnamed eye witness. What is most atrociously amusing is the fact that since that day of ‘alleged rape’, several cases have been filed before the law enforcement authorities in Gujarat but none by those affected by the Gulbarg society incident.
The Islamic terrorism-embracing pseudo-secular mafia of mass media had hoped against hope that Narendra Modi would give them the splendid opportunity of writing about the spraying of bullets on crowds of thousands in Gujarat.
Unfortunately for them, Narendra Modi outwitted their known ways of prejudice, malice and wickedness by observing: ‘One fault that I can justifiably be accused of is that I did not bomb the crowds’. This observation was made on one of those rare occasions when his soul was tormented and tortured by the most reprehensible and irresponsible media coverage of the post-Godhra backlash.
Narendra Modi felt sorry that the hopelessly impossible nature of the situation was not properly appreciated and understood in its proper perspective by the English language mass media which thought that the Gujarat government had watched the violence in a neutral and passive manner.
I cannot put the final outcome of this hopelessly poor media-understanding of the explosive situation in Gujarat better than in the sizzling and seizing words of S K Modi: ‘The result was that the media trained its guns on two targets - the people of Gujarat who had indulged in such brutal violence and the government of Gujarat, which had failed to control it. The media had failed to understand the reasons for both—the fury of the masses, as well as the government’s failure to control it. Ignorance of the English language media was so as complete as was its indifference towards mass sentiments the previous day (i.e. 27 February 2002).’
The English language media’s complete lakh of concern the previous day (27 February, 2002) made way for a colossal sense of rage on the evening of 28 February, 2002. That further compounded the problems of the people of Gujarat. As the Gujarat Chief Minister put it a few days later, the media started ‘rubbing salt’ on the wounds of the people. Whether the wounds, or the salt, or both, were perceived or real, can always be questioned and debated by the English language media. But a point is that the people of Gujarat felt that way.
For all its wonted smug sense of self-importance and infallibility, the English language media was proud of its ignorance of ground realities. This ignorance had its origin in inefficiency. With the full advertisement support of the Hindu-hating and Islam-loving UPA government and its allies, ignorance and inefficiency in English media reporting went on feeding each other for several months.
Even today Himalayan ignorance and Herculean inefficiency continued to be the two massive pillars of the English language media in India.
On 1 March, 2002, when the cataclysmic violence was at its peak in Gujarat, the National Human Rights Commission jumped into the fray with terrific pseudo- secular political enthusiasm. Having not taken notice of several human rights violations for a long time, this congenitally impotent organisation did not want to miss a golden opportunity for justifying its official existence and attaining instant stardom by issuing a notification as follows:
‘The National Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of the escalating communal violence in Gujarat and has issued the following notice today: This matter is registered for suo motu action on the basis of media reports, both print and electronic. In addition, a request on e-mail has also been received requesting this commission to intervene.
This matter relates to the existing serious situation in the State of Gujarat. The news items report a communal flare-up in the State of Gujarat and what is more disturbing, they suggest inaction by the police force and the highest functionaries in the State to deal with this situation.
In view of the urgency of the matter, it would not be inappropriate for the commission to stay its hand till the veracity of these reports has been established; and it is necessary to proceed immediately assuming them to be prima facie correct. The situation, therefore, demands that this commission take note of these facts and steps in to prevent any negligence in the protection of human rights of the people in Gujarat irrespective of their religion.’
When the whole of Gujarat was on fire, the National Human Rights Commission (a sinecure body of unemployed if not unemployables!) issued notice by fax to Chief Secretary and Director General of Police, Gujarat, for their reply within three days indicating the measures they have taken to tackle the situation! This notice was signed by Justice J S Varma, chairperson, Justice K Ramaswamy, Justice Sujata V Manohar and Sri Virendra Dayal, all members.This commission did not direct its own representative in Ahmedabad even to send a report to them!
The English language media simply wanted Narendra Modi to declare the events on 27 February and 28 February 2002 as an example of Hindu barbarism against peace-loving, ever compassionate and helpless Muslims.
If only Narendra Modi had done that, he would have been recommended for ‘Nobel Prize for Peace’ by the English media in India with the full benediction of Sonia Gandhi and her Pan-Islamic Party.
(To be continued)
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