THE attacks on the Muslim community in Gujarat and the passive role the State and Central governments played have evoked protest not only among political parties but among various sections of society. The nature of the violence was such that it drew outraged citizens to the streets.
The outpouring of protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules both at the Centre and in Gujarat, drew attention yet again to the growth of right-wing fanaticism and the need to fight it politically. Large sections of the Muslim community, who had stood with the government in the aftermath of December 13, were angered by the virtually state-sponsored carnage in Gujarat. Students, teachers, journalists and even the working class joined hands in protest and stated in unequivocal terms that the violence in Gujarat was not acceptable even if it was triggered by the horrifying incident at Godhra on February 27. That both incidents were deplored in equal terms was clear from slogans such as "Godhra ho ya Ahmedabad, sampradayakta ho barbad" (condemn communalism in both Godhra and Ahmedabad).
It was appalling to see the State and Central governments looking for excuses to defend the post-Godhra violence. Mediapersons who brought out the horror were accused of behaving irresponsibly by none other than Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, while he gave Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi a clean chit. It appeared as if the media were acceptable as long as it fought the government's patriotic war, but not when it seemingly transgressed government-set boundaries to expose a pogrom in a BJP-ruled State. This further prompted mediapersons from prominent newspaper organisations to come out in solidarity against the carnage.
The murderous retaliation had just begun in Gujarat when seven national women's organisations and several bodies of teachers and students organised a dharna outside Gujarat Bhavan in New Delhi on March 2. The previous day a candlelight vigil was held at Rajghat by several groups, including women's organisations, the All India Federation of Trade Unions, and the Coalition For Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, where the Godhra episode and the revenge killings were condemned.
In spite of a drizzle, the dharna went on for two hours. Speaker after speaker stressed the need to stand up to the atrocities perpetrated by organised gangs with state patronage. Led by the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), the National Federation of Indian Women, the Centre for Women's Development Studies, the Joint Women's Programme, the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), the All India Women's Conference, the Muslim Women's Forum, Nirantar, Saheli, Sama, Jagori, the women's unit of the Indian Social Institute, and others, the meeting demanded the deployment of the Army in the State. Pointing out that women and children were the worst sufferers, they demanded the setting up of an independent panel to expose the real perpetrators of the carnage. Significantly, even women not associated with any organisation joined the protest. A two-minute silence was observed to mourn the death of innocents.
On March 4, hundreds of journalists, academicians and students took out a march in the national capital, condemning the carnage, the negligence of the State government and the attacks on the media. Prominent among them were authors Khushwant Singh and Arundhati Roy, columnist B G Verghese, Frontline Editor N. Ram, The Times of India Executive Managing Editor Dileep Padgaonkar, veteran Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande, The Asian Age bureau chief Seema Mustafa, senior journalist Amit Sen Gupta of The Hindustan Times, Nai Duniya Editor Shahid Siddiqui and Mainstream Editor Sumit Chakravarty. The meeting was supported by the Delhi Union of Journalists, Janwadi Lekhakh Sangh and the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union. The speakers condemned the Narendra Modi government for its abdication of responsibility during the carnage and took strong exception to its attempt to blame the media for "inciting violence".
While Padgaonkar said that the march was an expression of solidarity among the media and that the media had come out in flying colours for its coverage of the carnage, N. Ram demanded the resignation of the Modi government and pointed out that though the situation could have easily been brought under control by the State government, it had chosen to allow violence to continue unabated for two days. Slogans were raised denouncing the carnage and demanding a ban on the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
The same day, hundreds of teachers, students and karamcharis of Delhi University organised a march calling for a ban on the VHP, the resignation of the Gujarat government and action against members of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) students who spread terror in the university during the VHP-sponsored bandh on March 1. Students had walked the corridors of the Arts department, wielding lathis, swords and tridents, shouting communal slogans and trying to disrupt classes. The VHP's bandh call proved to be a damp squib.
The Left parties gave a call to observe March 6 as National Unity Day. Thousands of people in various parts of the country came out on the streets to hold meetings, protests and demonstrations. The same day, teachers from across the country, under the banner of the All India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisations and the Federation of Central Universities Teachers' Associations, marched to the Parliament House protesting against the government policies on higher education as well as against the Gujarat carnage.
There were violent reactions to some protests. In Ahmedabad, a hundred-strong mob forced students and faculty from three city-based institutions - the National Institute of Design, the Indian Institute of Management and the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology - to call off their protest. They had undertaken a token fast but it had to be called off as some of them were threatened. Their placards were burnt and some of them beaten by VHP activists.
On March 9, at a meeting on the role of the state and the media and ensuing violence in Gujarat prominent journalists condemned the killings and reiterated that the media had not behaved irresponsibly but had highlighted the horrors taking place while the government remained inert and impassive. The horror of the killings as reported in the media has succeeded in evoking a strong public reaction against Hindu right-wing forces.
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