““We must remember that fundamentalism of the majority, by sheer virtue of the numbers involved, is much more dangerous than the fundamentalism of the minority. It therefore needs to be singled out and targeted first because it is through this fundamentalism of the majority that the politics of hate gets exacerbated. What were the two major incidents of bomb blasts at Bombay and Coimbatore but a terrorist response. And what is terrorism but violent actions, in retaliation, that target innocents? Terrorism doesn’t pick and choose its targets. It’s a man-eating tiger, that’s why it is so dangerous. Terrorism is the response of those who cannot really fight . This was the message from Bombay and Coimbatore: ‘We cannot fight you so there’…..It is about time that the state sat up and took notice.

The experience of the minority during riots , which is to a great extent based on real-life, true experiences has resulted in a complete loss of faith in the law and order machinery. Unless the police shows through attitude and action that they are impartial, this faith cannot be restored.

Satish Sahney
Former commissioner of police, Bombay

“Muslims must really experience that they have a stake in this system that wants them here and is there to protect them. Or else, we will be creating more disgruntled youngsters like the young Jalees Ansari . Ansari , in his affidavit before the Justice Srikrishna Commission enquiring into the Bombay riots and the bomb blasts, has shown how a youngster, if he feels that he is denied rights of free and fair existence, drifts towards fundamentalist outfits. The biography of this youngster also reveals how from making crude explosives, his training grew into making more and more sophisticated explosives.

We are all aware that Pakistan’s ISI does have a one-point programme of causing eruptions here since it believes that this is an effective proxy war to conduct against its neighbour. But what was the spark that ignited the young Ansari into doing what he did? The feeling that as a Muslim, he and his religion are not safe and free from attack, so he had to learn to protect himself. This is a potentially very dangerous situation.

It is vital from the point of view of both justice and national security that we begin to take cognisance of this dangerous reality.”

Vibhuti N.Rai
Inspector General Border Security Force

“ “In Bombay during the post-Babri Masjid demolition riots (December 1992 and January 1993 ), it was quite evident that state failed to provide security to the minorities. Many hundred Muslims were killed, the whole community was left at the mercy of Hindu communal goondas.

In Coimbatore, also, after the assassination of a traffic constable, Selvaraj, about two dozen Muslims were killed in a manner which puts into very serious question the neutrality and professionalism of the Tamil Nadu police. The failure of the state in providing protection to the minorities will always lead disgruntled elements to become instruments in the hands of agencies such as ISI who will be only too happy to utilise them in blasts like Bombay and Coimbatore.

We should not forget that the failure of the state in the anti-Sikh riots after the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi provided thousands of volunteers to the separatist movement launched by Sikh militants. The sooner we learn lessons from the Coimbatore blasts the better.”

We have now been witnessing not riots but tendencies towards ‘ethnic cleansing’

Shankar Sen
Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, former IPS officer

“The manner in which members of the minority community are branded ‘anti-national’ is wrong and incorrect. The other regrettable fact is that in very few cases are the perpetrators of crimes during communal riots ever punished. Scores of cases are withdrawn under the guise of ‘preserving communal amity’.

The broadening of the composition of the police force is a must. This need not be through reservations but in a situation where there is an abysmally low representation of minorities in the police force, through affirmative action. We must urgently strive to have a more mixed and representative police force in the country. We have now been witnessing not riots but events that are marked in their tendencies towards an “ethnic cleansing.” Such a situation reflects not only a gross failure of the state’s law and order machinery but lays the country and sections of our populace vulnerable to take recourse to unlawful acts in retaliation.”

The question of alienation (in mino-rities) must be addressed’

Padma Rosha
Former Director General of Police

“In Bombay during the post-Babri Masjid demolition riots (December 1992 and January 1993 ), it was quite evident that state failed to provide security to the minorities. Many hundred Muslims were killed, the whole community was left at the mercy of Hindu communal goondas.

In Coimbatore, also, after the assassination of a traffic constable, Selvaraj, about two dozen Muslims were killed in a manner which puts into very serious question the neutrality and professionalism of the Tamil Nadu police. The failure of the state in providing protection to the minorities will always lead disgruntled elements to become instruments in the hands of agencies such as ISI who will be only too happy to utilise them in blasts like Bombay and Coimbatore.

We should not forget that the failure of the state in the anti-Sikh riots after the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi provided thousands of volunteers to the separatist movement launched by Sikh militants. The sooner we learn lessons from the Coimbatore blasts the better.”

Archived from Communalism Combat, March  1998, Year 5  No. 41, Cover Story,

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“Now, after nearly two years of the SIT saying that these records, as per the government of Gujarat’s version, are destroyed, you mentioned when I (Teesta Setalvad) brought this to your attention to be recorded in my 161 statement, that then commissioner of police PC Pande has, after the hon’ble court directed the SIT to go into the report filed by the amicus curiae, thereafter produced the entire documentary record that he had scanned and kept aside before they were ‘destroyed’! You also mentioned that there was 3,500 pages of such evidence which the SIT is now, after nearly two years of the inquiry, examining.

We wish to express, as co-petitioners and co-complainants, our distress and consternation at what we believe is a belated attempt by Shri Pande to save his skin or those of his political bosses, as all this while – including in the report submitted by yourself and Shri Raghavan to the hon’ble Supreme Court – you have maintained that these records have been destroyed. Shri Pande has, we have been given to understand, twice before been examined by the SIT in the Zakiya matter, between May 2009 and May 2010. Surely in the 12-month period he ought to have produced this record that he had so carefully scanned and preserved?

It may be assumed that if the inquiry had not reached this stage i.e. if the hon’ble Supreme Court had not impelled or compelled the SIT to go further, Shri Pande’s sudden and generous manoeuvre would have never happened, that is, the “destroyed” records would have remained buried!

Sir, We were particularly disturbed by your interpretation of the actions of Shri Pande, which seemed to be interpreted as his astute generosity (Shri Pande’s) in actually scanning and producing these records at this belated stage. The following questions arise that we wish to place specifically before you:

1. The timing of the “destroyed” records “reappearing” in the action of Shri PC Pande suddenly handing over the scanned CD of all destroyed documents to you post-March 15, 2011 i.e. the last directions of the hon’ble Supreme Court.
2. Since Shri Pande’s role of collusion in the conspiracy has been specifically alleged, we at least cannot see this either as a stray or innocent act and would therefore urge that a hard, objective inquiry into the previous evasion and suppression of evidence, and thereafter the sudden disclosure, takes place and offences against Shri PC Pande are also registered for the earlier suppression and subsequent disclosure.
3. When a senior officer like Shri Pande states that records are destroyed, in the preliminary inquiry, and thereafter turns up with the vanished documents, what are we to make of this? Similarly, we believe that videos will turn up.
4. Shri Pande’s role in the overall conspiracy and his subsequently being rewarded for his silence and suppression make him liable to be inquired into. His personal assets and accounts and those of his family members as also the assets and accounts of other IPS and IAS officials who have been favoured by the government of Gujarat need to be part of the inquiry.
5. We thought it imperative that this matter be placed on record…

I would like to end by stating that the fresh revelations by Shri Pande amount to an effort by a highly placed officer of not merely attempting a cover-up of his suppression of crucial records for nine-plus years but subverting the inquiries into various cases by not making available these records in the individual trials and thereby committing grave contempt of the judicial process. We would like to state that though partial records in the Gulberg cases (police control room and fire brigade, etc) were made available, this happened only after applications under 173(8) were filed by witnesses and did not logically form part of the charge sheet as they should have done from the very beginning. Why were Shri Pande and other senior officials suppressing these records? Allegations of high-level involvement and complicity have been made by victim survivors since immediately after the incidents. Was this suppression related to protection of the mighty and powerful?”

The SIT in 2010

“The Gujarat government has reportedly destroyed the police wireless communication of the period pertaining to the riots… No records, documentations or minutes of the crucial law and order meetings held by the government during the riots had been kept” (p. 13 of the Preliminary Inquiry Report).

The SIT makes this observation but recommends no action for this criminal act.
 

 
Archived from Communalism Combat, April-May 2012. Year 18, No.165 – Introduction, Gujarat 2002

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