STORY OF GODHRA RIOTS AND ATAL BIHARI
VAJPAYEE GOVERNMENT
This chapter is
dealing with the happening that leads to Godhra riots in Gujurat. It was March
2002 in the parliament house when Atal Bihari Vajpayee has already made up his
mind to resign from the post of prime minister.
But his subordinates and party members Pramod Mahajan and Yashwant Singh
was trying to stop Atal Bihari Vajpayee from his resignation. But question
often comes into the minds, that why prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was
giving resignation? To understand the reason behind why Atal Bihari Vajpayee
was ready to give his resignation, there is a need to know about the 2004
election campaign, where Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave the slogan and it was Indian
Shining. Before that BJP won the state elections of Madhya Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan as well. so the momentum was in favour of Atal
Bihari Vajpayee. BJP was expecting to win the battel of general election of
2004 basing on Kargil war win, Sarba Sikhya Aviyan, Pokhran Test and PMSY in
campaigning process. And above all the popularity of Atal Bihari Vajpayee was
also another positive side for BJP to win the general election of 2004. But
most of the presumption of many of experts became false and BJP couldn’t manage
to win the majority in the 2004 election. Accoridng to Atal Bihari Vajpayee on
of the most active and senior leader of BJP admits that due to Godhra riots BJP
lost the election of 2004. What has happened in Gujurat and which made Atal
Bihari Vajpayee to make a statement like that? It was 27th February
2002, when one compartment of Sabarmati express was fired and that took 59
lives of common individuals, out of which most of the travellers were coming
from Ajodhya. On this case the lower court gave the verdict in 2011 and the
verdict was death sentence to 11 people and lifetime imprisonment to 20 people.
But just after one day of Godhra train incident which changed not only the
politics of Gujarat only but also the politics of country for time to come. on
the day of 27th February after the train incident a meeting was help
in the chief minister house and Narendra Modi was the chief minister during
that time of Gujarat. An IPS officer named by Sanjeev Bhatt claimed that
Narendra Modi said during the meeting that if Hindus are reacting they it’s
okey, but this statement was found to be false in the proceedings of supreme
court. A special Investigation Team was formed to investigate the whole
incident. In that meeting on 27th February 2002 it was made final
that the dead bodies will transfer to Ahmedabad, and the people and the police
were against of this decision of Gujarat government. most of the minister of
Modi government of Gujurat were supporting the decision because they were
thinking that that decision will bring some political interest for their party
in the upcoming election. All the dead bodies were brought to Ahmedabad on 28th
February 2002 through open trucks. All the dead bodies were submitted to the
leaders of Viswa Hindu Parishad, while it was supposed to submitted to their
relatives. During that there was no imposition of curfew but after few times
riots scattered throughout the city. VHP called up bandh throughout the state.
On that bandh date VHP people were targeting the shops of Muslims and their
houses and colonies but the strange thing was the police was missing during
that time. In total 97 Muslims were killed brutally by the rioters. The most
affected area from that riots was Naroda Patia of Ahmedabad. In the area almost
two thousand Muslims were living together, who were originally from Maharashtra
and Karnataka and they were captured by more than five thousand Hindu rioters.
On this case court gave the verdict and court has already gave verdict aginst
32 people and local MLA Maya Kodnani and VHP leader Babu Bajrangi was also
included. Court called Maya Kodnani as the Kingpin of violence and sentenced
her to be imprisoned for 28 years and court also sentenced Babu Bajrangi to
live in the jail till death. All categories of Muslims were targeted in that
riot and Gulberg society of Ahmedabad was also targeted. In this society ex-MP
of congress government Ehsaan Jafree was also living with his family. According
to his wife Jakia Jafree claims that his husband was calling the chief minister
office many time but no one came to help him. Even the local SP also left the
office by four in the afternoon. When
the rioters got that news that Ehsaan Jafree is living here that they burnt him
alive, his wife claims that all the thing was pre-planned. Ahmedabad was centre
of the riots but more cities in Gujurat were also affected due to the riots.
Best Bakery case of Baroda was also quite known because the whole Bakery was
fired from all side and 14 people were burnt alive and out of which 12 were
happens to be Muslims. In total 16 people were found guilty in that case and
out of which four accused were sentenced life imprisonment as well. according
to the government of Gujarat totally 1267 people lost their lives and out of
which 70% were happens to be to Muslims. People were reading and watching the
telecast of the riots in Gujarat through newspapers and television. It can
assumed from the reports of National Human Rights Commission of India. Retd.
Chief justice of supreme court Justice JS Verma was the chairman of NHRC of that
time. He had visited the affected places due to riots in Gujarat. Then he wrote
a letter to prime minister that the state government of Gujarat had not been
able to take strict action against the rioters and failed to consolidate the
affected people due to riots. Question often comes into the minds that while
all these things were taking place in Gujarat, what Atal Bihari Vajpayee was
doing during that time? According to Atal Bihari Vajpayee Godhra riot incident
was a black spot on the image of India at the international arena. But next day
Atal Bihari Vajpayee changed his voice in a meeting with other member and
media. In that meeting he showed concern over the deaths due to riots but he
claimed that media exaggerated the whole issue which media shouldn’t do. The
riots of Gujarat got international attention and for which president of India
of that time KR Narayanan wrote a letter to prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
and showed his concern over the riots of Gujarat. After one month of the riots
prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited riots affected places in Gujrat.
When it was asked to the prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the Godhra
train incident, he suddenly claimed that it was a pre-planned incident. But
while he asked about the aftermath situation of Godhra incident, he replied to
wait for the commission’s report. After the full day visit then a press
conference was organised, where prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and
Narendra Modi was addressing the media and in that press conference prime
minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee used a term Raj Dharma, which was one of most
talkative word of that time. The
government of Atal Bihari Vajpyee was coalition government. after that riot of
Gujarat Ram Vilas Paswan of Lok Janshakti Party resigned from the ministry of
Atal Bihari Vaajpayee. No other minister didn’t give resignation and even few
also praised Narendra Modi for his developmental approach in Gujrat as well.
but Chadrababu Naidu of Telugu Desam Party demanded Narendra Modi’s resignation
for the situation in Gujarat. The supporters of Atal Bihari Vajpayee claims
that Atal Bihari Vajpayee was ready to take action against Narendra Modi but
due to party members and the party’s future he was stopped from taking action.
For which he thought to give resignation from his post of prime minister. But
due the counselling of his friend and finance minister of that time Yashwant
Singh, he finally didn’t resign from his post. While Atal Bihari Vajpayee was
willing to take action against Narendra Modi, but LK Advani was not in favour
of that because he tought that will lead to the differences in the party. After
one and half to the riot in Gujrat BJP’S party working committee meeting
supposed to be held in Goa, where pressure was mpunting on Atal Bihari Vajpayee
to expelled Narendra Modi. But without consulting LK Advani it was almost
impossible on Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s part to expel Narendra Modi from party. On
that situation on 12th of April 2002 the working committee meeting
took place in Goa and where all most all the senior leaders of BJP were present
and Narendra Modi gave a long speech and he discussed about riot thoroughly and
he also talked about his resignation but most of the voices in the meeting hall
said absolutely no to Narendra Modi. But in that same day while addressing the
common masses in Goa in a rally, Atal Bihari Vajpayee not only saved Narendra
Modi but also put question mark before the Muslim community. After three months
to the riots, prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee wrote a letter in the name of
Narendra Modi, where showed his concerned over the compensation to the riot
affected people. On the other side the state government of Gujarat was trying
to take away the camps soon because the government was thinking that due to
these camp systems it is harming the reputation of Gujarat. More than one and
half lakh people were staying in those camps.
And in December 2002 state election happened in Gujurat, in which
Narendra Modi got 127 seat out of 182 seat and Narendra Modi’s oath taking ceremony
was organised in Sardar Patel stadium Ahmedabad. In 2003 also BJP could win
three state election as well, so the party declared early election as it was
predicting it’s win over the general election of 2004. As during that period
India’s growth rate was touching 8percent and that year the monsoon was good
also, so BJP got the slogan India Shining. But the plebiscite didn’t go in
favour of BJP, it was the loss for BJP. After the defeat in the election Atal
Bihari Vajpayee went to Manali and where he gave a speech and he denoted that
Godhra riot as the main reason for BJP’s defeat in 2004 election. But RSS was
not admitting that due to Modi or Hindutva BJP lost the battle of 2004
election. After six days from Manali Atal Bihari Vajpayee came to Delhi and by
that time his voice was slowed down. When questions on Modi were asked to him,
he replied that it has become an old issue now, no importance in discussing
that. On 22nd June the working committee meeting was held in Mumbai
and where it was made clear that the era of Atal Bihari Vajpayee came to an
end. Just two months before BJP was fighting the election on the face value of
Atal Bihari Vajpayee but now he has been cornered. So with that Atal Bihari
Vajpayee also aware of that fact that now he doesn’t have that importance in
the party, so he took himself bit far from active politics. But whenever any
position was given to Narendra Modi, Narendra Modi most often went to Atal
Bihari Vajpayee’s house to meet him and to take his blessings.
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