HOW HAS THE GUJARAT MASSACRE AFFECTED MINORITY WOMEN
The Survivors Speak

Fact-finding
by
a Women's Panel
Syeda Hameed, Muslim Women?s Forum, Delhi
Ruth Manorama, National Alliance of Women, Bangalore
Malini Ghose, Nirantar, Delhi
Sheba George, Sahrwaru, Ahmedabad
Farah Naqvi, Independent Journalist, Delhi
Mari Thekaekara, Accord, Tamil Nadu

Sponsored by
Citizen?s Initiative, Ahmedabad [India]

April 16, 2002  


WOMEN'S EXPERIENCES OF THE STATE
 
     A. POLITICAL COMPLICITY
 
     "Arre ye Narendra Modi ne hi sab kuch kiya. Hamara zindagi barbaad kiya." (That
     Narendra Modi, he did all this. He is the one who has ruined our lives) This is how the
     Muslim women of Gujarat see their Chief Minister - as the man who has ruined their
     lives forever. "Sarkar" (Government)? "What sarkar, they ask?" In the words of
     countless women who have been devastated by the continuing violence, the State of
     Gujarat had simply disappeared when they needed it most. The State - including
     elected representatives, the political executive, the administration, and the police -
     abdicated its responsibility to protect all its citizens. Far worse, it actively connived in
     the maiming, raping, and butchering of hundreds of women and children of Gujarat.
     More than five weeks after the post-Godhra carnage began, no effort is being made to
     ensure punishment of the guilty. FIRs are not being lodged, compensation not given.
     The relief camps are running only through the efforts of the Muslim community, with
     occasional help from the government. Narendra Modi visited the Shah-e-Alam relief
     camp (among the largest, housing over 10,000 refugees) for the first time when he
     accompanied the PM on April 4th, 2002.
 

     MAYA KODNANI, BJP MLA
 

     The fact-finding team met Maya Kodnani, the BJP MLA from Naroda Patia, one of
     the worst affected areas in Ahmedabad. She has also been named in an FIR as having
     participated in the Naroda Patia carnage on February 28th, 2002.
 

     Ø She showed no remorse at the State abdicating responsibility. There was nothing the
     State could do, she says. "There was a natural ghrina (hatred) and aakrosh (anger) in
     the heart of every Hindu and we could not control it."
 

     Ø Maya Kodnani?s estimates of the size of the mobs that attacked Naroda Patia
     (50,000 to 1 lakh) far exceed the largest estimates given by eyewitnesses to the mob
     violence. Her claim, therefore, that the Police were "utterly helpless" in the face of this
     flood of anger, appeared untenable.
 

     Ø Maya Kodnani found time to visit Ahmedabad Station to receive bodies of the
     Godhra victims, who are not her constituents. But not once in over a month has she
     found time to visit the Muslim relief camps, where thousands of her constituents are
     strewn around like human debris.
 

     Ø Ms. Kodnani denies even knowing where all her Muslim constituents have fled.
 

     Ø She also denies any knowledge about the large number of rapes having occurred at
     Naroda Patia during the mayhem.
 

     Ø She admitted that only 16 people were arrested in the Naroda Patia incidents, out of
     which only 5 or 6 remain in jail, while the rest have been released on bail.
 

     Ø Maya Kodnani claims that this kind of communal violence is part of Gujarat ki
     prakruti and Gujarat ki taasir. It is a natural part of life, and should be accepted as
     such.
 

     Ø She dismissed the FIR lodged against her as being false merely because it was filed
     18 days after the violence. She claimed that Doordarshan had footage proving that she
     was elsewhere at the time.
 

     (A detailed account of the conversation with Maya Kodnani is attached in Annexure
     2.1)
 

     NATHIBEHN: MAHILA SARPANCH
 

     Another case of State participation in the violence was provided by Laxmipura Village
     in Khed Brahma Taluka of Sabarkantha District. The fact-finding team visited this
     village because it had a Mahila Sarpanch, Nathibehn, whose husband and son have
     been identified as leading the mobs who torched Muslim homes on the evening of
     February 27th, 2002. .
 

     Ø Nathibehn was clearly only a puppet Sarpanch. The de-facto Sarpanch was her
     husband Jitu Bhai Patel.
 

     Ø Jitu Bhai Patel and his son Ramesh Patel (both members of the local VHP unit)
     justified the torching of Muslim homes, saying Godhra was the beginning and that
     Muslims always start everything, never the Hindus. They also claimed that Muslims
     from almost every village in Gujarat had gone to participate in the Godhra ?murders?.
 

     Ø The entire family - Nathibehn, Jitu Bhai, and Ramesh expressed a great deal of
     hatred for Muslims, and said that Muslims could only live in the village if they followed
     village tradition i.e. shaved their beards, stopped wearing caps etc.
 

     Ø Sarpanch Nathibehn denied knowing the whereabouts of the Muslims who have
     been forced to flee Laxmipura.
 

     (A detailed account of the discussions in Laxmipura is attached as Annexure 2.2)
 

     KESHUBHAI PATEL, SARPANCH
 

     While there are examples of elected representatives actively participating or condoning
     violence against Muslims, blaming it on an "unstoppable flood of Hindu anger", the
     fact-finding team also found evidence that where State actors chose to protect
     Muslims, they managed to do so successfully. Chithroda Village in Khed Brahma
     Taluka provides an example. Here the Sarpanch Keshubhai Patel claims that he got
     anonymous phone calls from mob leaders trying to assess the level of support inside the
     village for their entry. He refused to allow the mobs to enter his village, or harm the 40
     odd Muslim families in any way.
 

     (A detailed account of the discussion with Sarpanch Keshubhai Patel is attached as
     Annexure 2.3).
 

     The fact-finding team was convinced that mob violence was unleashed only in those
     areas where the mobs were sure of getting full support from local leaders and the state
     machinery.