Was Godhra a Pakistan-initiated Conspiracy?

Was Godhra a Pakistan-initiated Conspiracy?

The Result of a Study conducted by an investigative team for the Council for International Affairs and Human Rights concludes:
The Godhra train carnage in Gujarat on February 27 was an "act of terrorism planned at the behest of Pakistan to foment communal riots all over the country". (As reported by the Press Trust of India, and several national dailies, including Sify News, on April 26)
The study was conducted by a five-member team led by Justice D S Tewatia, Former Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, which also included Prof. Kuthiala, who is the Dean, Faculty of Media Studies at G J University, Hissar, Dr J C Batra, Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court, academician Dr Krishan Singh and journalist Jawaharlal Kaul.
After interacting with more than 500 officials, NGOs and citizens of the region, the team released their report, describing the Godhra incident as an act of international terrorism planned and executed in connivance with the jehadi forces to set off a conflagration of Hindu-Muslim riots in the country.
"The Sabarmati train incident was pre-planned and we have ample evidence to prove that it was not spontaneous. The vacuum pipe was also cut in the train, which can be used by the driver to pull it through in case he senses any danger. Besides, inflammable solvents, firebombs and acid bulbs were used to burn the train..." said Prof. B K Kuthiala.
"The incident was carried out at the behest of Pakistan to incite communal riots all over the country so that the army troops deployed in the border areas could be diverted to these riot-affected areas. Pakistan's aim was to weaken Indian positions on the border and make the area more porous so as to allow jehadi infiltrators and smugglers of drugs and arms into the country," added Prof. Kuthiala. The team observed that the train carnage was an "international attempt" to slow down India's growth and development by diverting its attention and resources for violent conflict management.
The team's report also blamed the media, especially the electronic media, for its "biased, non-objective and distorted coverage" which worsened the relations between the two communities.
Reports about the investigation in the Hindustan Times and the Times of India pointed out that the study team had specifically indicted two Congress members of the Godhra Municipal Corporation, Abdul Rehman Dhatia and Haji Bilal, for their alleged role in the ghastly incident. Other media reports published earlier suggested that five of those arrested on charges of participating in the Godhra crime were members of the Congress Party, and two had links with the banned communal organization SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India)
The report also observed that just prior to the Godhra mass murders, a large number of foreigners were present at Istemas (religious gatherings) in Godhra in spite of the fact that Godhra is neither a pilgrimage city nor a city of tourist importance, (but a nondescript railway junction that has rarely been in the national news). The team observed that these Istemas were meant to ignite communal passions and acted as a "catalyst" to prepare the ground for the deadly train arson that was being planned. (Media reports filed soon after the events in Godhra had earlier pointed to the presence of Jehadis from Kashmir, and other members of SIMI in Godhra that morning.)
The Times of India report quoted Justice D S Tewatia as saying: "Given the dismal economic profile of Godhra Muslims, it was intriguing to find a large number of Muslim youth mostly unemployed, with mobile phones" while speaking on the subject of foreign funds involved in the communal carnage. The team also noted that there was a very high traffic of telephone calls from Godhra to Karachi before February 27 pointing to the Pakistani connection.
The study team, which visited the affected villages, relief camps and colonies during their seven-day trip from April 1, concluded that the post-Godhra violence was partly planned and partly spontaneous. The fact-finding team noted that the backlash to Godhra did not spread to the entire state of Gujarat but remained largely confined to those areas where the charred bodies of the Godhra victims went.
These dramatic revelations confirm what some investigative journalists had concluded very early on - that based on an overwhelming body of circumstantial evidence, the incident could not have been just a spontaneous response, although several English-language dailies kept publishing unsubstantiated and politically-motivated statements by various politicians and railway "officials" that the incident was indeed spontaneous. Many of the reports cited highly disingenuous and patently absurd claims as to how the tragedy could have occurred spontaneously. The Internet became a particularly easy tool for rumor-mongering, with one of the most insidious pieces of journalism concerning the Godhra massacre coming from the Washington Post.
This report should hopefully set to rest all the wild speculation and second-guessing that has been going on regarding who was ultimately culpable. And although politically motivated media spin-doctors might try to dismiss the conclusions of this report, there is no doubt that this will come as an embarrassment for Congress Leader Ms Sonia Gandhi, who on several occasions brushed off suggestions that Godhra was premeditated, or that it may have been part of a larger conspiracy. Although she had no basis for preemptively rejecting such claims - she did so repeatedly, almost as if she feared that the truth might link up with the Congress, which it now has.
The haste with which numerous self-styled "secular" groups rejected such a possibility, and stridently attacked those whose intuition pointed them into exactly such a conclusion suggests that sections of India's supposedly secular intelligentsia continues to hold a highly blinkered view of Pakistan and its machinations against India. There is also the tendency to romanticize India's Muslim communities as though none amongst them are capable of falling prey to such communal conspiracies.
While it is very important that Indians do not get carried away by the propaganda of those who wish to demonize or stigmatize the entire Muslim community in India - (the majority of whom wish no harm to the unity of the Indian nation), well-meaning secular activists need to develop a greater degree of realism in their world-view and adopt an approach that is more cautious and balanced when assigning blame for communal outbreaks.
The left parties - especially the CPI, the CPM, factions of the CPI(ML), and armed outfits such as the PWG (who have made common cause with Kashmiri Jehadis) need to particularly engage in some soul-searching. For over a decade, both the CPI and the CPI(M) have been covering up for Kashmiri communalism, and have frequently entered into unprincipled and opportunistic alliances with the Congress in the name of fighting "communalism". The Samajwadi Party has been especially vocal in defending the SIMI, refusing to accept that it is closely affiliated with the ISI. While there is no doubt that groups such as the VHP and the Bajrang Dal stand condemned for their role in the vicious retaliation against innocent Muslims in Gujarat, political parties that unabashedly pander to extremist elements amongst India's Muslims cannot escape blame.
In this regard, the Left Front's decision to dramatically increase funding for Madrasa education to 115 crores in Bengal should be viewed with alarm by those serious and sincere about maintaining communal amity in the nation. In an April 20, 2002 commentary in the Economic and Political Weekly, D Bandyopadhyay observes in his introduction:
"The Indian nation cannot march forward with a major segment of its largest minority group remaining backward, illiterate, unenlightened and weak. It is the duty of every section of Indian society to help in the mainstreaming of this section. But the issue of modernization of madrasa education brings up the vested interests of fundamentalist elements trying to protect their turf and the political system which strives to utilize the backward for electoral gain. Strangely, the interests of the non-secular religious groups and those of the so-called ‘secular and progressive’ politicians merge, reinforcing one another."
D Bandyopadhyay also noted that Bengal's Chief Minister, Buddhadev Bhattacharyya had made a few statements in January of this year concerning an alarming increase in the number of madrasas in the border areas of the state, largely financed by petro-dollars. He suggested that these unregistered and therefore unauthorized madrasas ought to be investigated, both with regard to their sources of finance and the types of activities they carried on. Even though Buddhadev Bhattacharya has an impeccable secular record, and no one should have doubted that he could have made such statements only after being thoroughly convinced of the dangers, there was a firestorm of protest from members of the Left Front in Bengal.
Many secular Muslims have argued strenuously that no state governments should consider madrasas as alternatives to proper government schools that can provide an all-round secular education that includes a study of the natural and physical sciences and the humanities. For the Left Front to ignore such concerns and to succumb to the shrill pressure of Islamic fundamentalists and their misguided champions in the Left Front is to literally play with fire. The mushrooming of madrasas should be viewed with grave concern by all Indians, regardless of such unwise hostility from constituents of the Left Front
As it is, the Central Government has had a hard time monitoring and controlling the activities of the ISI. With the mushrooming of madrasas in critical border areas, the task of preventing another Godhra will become that much more difficult. And no one can guarantee that the next conflagration will be any easier to contain. The Left Front needs to seriously reconsider such political myopia. In the meanwhile, all progressive activists need to exert as much pressure as possible on the leadership of the Left Parties so that they may awaken to the folly of such reckless pandering to Islamic sectarianism.
Those who continue to cover up for potential Jehadi terrorists cannot expect to build any credibility beyond their loyal camp-followers when they appeal for secular unity in India. Not only does such unprincipled duplicity harm the cause of Indian secularism, it jeopardizes the support for the entire progressive agenda.
It is therefore imperative that India's secular mainstream (which is the majority of the Indian people) isolate those who compromise with communal instigators from either side of the political spectrum. Given the record of the current crop of political leadership, it is clear that few can face the public with a clear conscience on this issue at the present time. It may be a long and arduous battle, but the Indian people will have to find a way to not only marginalize political parties that appeal to religion-based chauvinism and hatred, but also to replace the sanctimonious and opportunistic hacks that currently dominate the political agenda of supposedly secular parties and organizations in India.