Acknowledgement, remorse, justice and
reconciliation are the accepted steps required
for collective healing when wounds of an
indescribable nature have been inflicted on a
whole population.

In Gujarat, five years after independent India’s
worst genocide, there has been little or no
acknowledgement of the crimes and no question
therefore of any expression of remorse by
perpetrators and masterminds. Justice, except in
a few isolated cases, dodges Gujarat’s survivors.
It must, therefore, be a while before we talk of
reconciliation.

In the midst of the struggle for reparation and
justice, this year brings an electoral battle to
the battered state.

In the past few months, Chief Minister Narendra
Modi has utilised most of his energies and much
of the taxpayer’s money to sell the “normalcy”
jingle and the “vibrant Gujarat” pipe-dream. But,
the aura around Modi appears a trifle less
bright, a little less shining.

Electoral predictions apart, what are the issues
that will be brought before the electorate, an
autocratic chief minister and his failed
electoral promises on the development front or
the fallout of post independent India’s worst
genocidal violence?

Will and can the issues of mass murder,
mutilation and gender violence be issues that
resonate in mainstream politics? Will issues of
impunity to mass crime figure not just in party
manifestos but action plans for governance?

Will the rule of law and good governance be the
stuff that the Gujarat 2007 state election
campaign is made of?

This could well be a pipe-dream. Switch to nearby
Maharashtra, where in 1992-1993, after the Babri
Masjid demolition, a communal pogrom led by the
Shiv Sena ripped Mumbai of its essence, its
cosmopolitan fabric.

Two years later, the perpetrators, the Shiv
Sena-BJP romped home to a calculated electoral
victory, riding high on hatred and division among
the people. Two governments have since come to
power, in 1999 and 2004, both “secular,” and a
combination of the Congress and the NCP who
promised punishment of the guilty but failed to
deliver.

In February 1998, when the SS-BJP government was
in power that Justice B N Srikrishna submitted
his historic report on the Bombay violence,
making detailed recommendations for punitive
actions and remedial measures.

It was expected that the perpetrators, the SS-BJP
would junk the report but what of the “secular”
parties who promised its implementation?
Perpetrators have not been punished and memories
of the pogrom lie buried.

In stark contrast, the system has meted out harsh
punishment if not speedy justice to those
convicted of “involvement” in various degrees in
the serial blasts of 1993. 64-year-old Zehbunissa
Qazi given five years for keeping a “bag”
unknowingly. Eleven accused have been given death
penalties normally a sentence meted out in the
“rarest of the rare cases.”

The soul of Mumbai was forever scarred with the
brute mob violence that held us to ransom from
December 8 to January 20, 1993. Mobs stalked
streets that were likened to Nazi Germany. The
Mumbai police connived with mobsters in mass
arson, murder and even rape. Worse still, our
political leaders watched as Mumbai burned.

Justice Srikrishna, who conducted an official
probe into the violence, had this to say, "One
common link between the riots and bomb blasts... of
12^th March 1993 appears to be that the former
appear to have been a causative factor for the
latter...

The serial bomb blasts were a reaction to the
totality of events at Ayodhya and Mumbai in
December 1992 and January 1993... The resentment
against the government and the police among a
large body of Muslim youth was exploited by
Pakistan-aided anti-national elements... The
common link between the riots and the blasts was
that of cause and effect."

Justice Srikrishna, had recommended stringent
action against the criminals, in and out of
uniform. Despite assurances in public and
statements in court, the state of Maharashtra has
failed to deliver. Using the Right to Information
Act, the author of this article, accessed
detailed information from the state home
department and the police on case by case details.

They reveal a shocking state of affairs. Of the
31 policemen recommended for prosecution by the
judge, one was dismissed, the rest escaped
lightly, many being promoted. Political bigwigs
from the Sena named as leading the mobs to
killing and arson have been allowed by a
convenient political arrangement, to go scot free.

The convictions, many extremely harsh, to the
accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case are seen
as a form of redress for the 200 families who
lost dear ones in the serial blasts - a message
that the Indian system delivers justice if
delayed to some for crimes of brutality. The
uncomfortable reality of discriminatory justice
has, however, raised its ugly head. Each of those
accused of the Mumbai 1992-1993 pogrom roamed
free, escaping arrest or getting uncontested bail.

The bomb terror of March 12, 1993 must be
recalled with the same horror as the mob terror
of December 6, 1992 in Ayodhya that unleashed
premeditated violence in Mumbai and many other
parts of the country, resulting in the loss of
hundreds of lives all over the country. The cause
as much as the effect must be rehauled and firmly
located in public memory.