Propaganda v/s Facts: Gujarat riots were totally one-sided, and entire Gujarat burnt?

Published: Friday, Apr 13,2012, 00:22 IST
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Fact: While Muslims were killed in one-sided attacks in many places in the state- like in Naroda Patiya, Gulbarg Society, Naroda Gram, Sadarpar and other places- by and large- the riots were not entirely one-sided. Muslims were equally on the offensive, at least after the first three days. Hindus were killed brutally in Himmatnagar, Danilimda, and Sindhi Market and other areas of Ahmedabad-as reported by weekly India Today. (See paragraphs 8,9,10,11 and 15)

The Hindu reported that as early as 1st March 2002 itself, minorities started violence in Ahmedabad. “But unlike Thursday when one community was entirely at the receiving end, the minority backlash caused further worsening of the situation.”

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Reports of The Hindu on this subject throughout the months of March and April 2002 make it clear that minorities were on the offensive, called the shots in many areas, drove out Hindus from their houses, started the riots in many cases. India Today’s report on this subject in its issue dated 15 April 2002 also points out this same thing.

Around 40,000 Hindus were forced to take shelter in refugee camps. On 23 March 2002, 50 Hindu shops were burnt in Ahmedabad’s Revdi Bazaar that caused a loss of 15 crore rupees. See link

The minorities attacked the Hindus on 1st and 2nd March 2002 as well. They started as many as 157 riots in Gujarat after 3rd March 2002. They did not allow the police and the Army to search for criminals in their areas. They pelted the police and even the Army with bullets and stones, when they arrived to conduct search operations in Muslim areas. The Muslim women formed human chains and cut off power at night (See para 15) so that the criminals could flee with weapons from the Army.

Different judgments of different courts in Gujarat have over the years sentenced several rioters belonging to the minority community for rioting in Ahmedabad and Vadodara, post Godhra.

Also, it is a myth that whole of the Gujarat was burning in the riots. Out of the state’s 18,600 villages, 240 municipal towns, and 25 district headquarters, only 60 places saw riots. If one includes the two big cities of Ahmedabad and Vadodara, by the wildest stretch of imagination, only 2 % of the state can be assumed to have been burning. Only 40 out of the state’s 18,600 villages saw riots. Had the state government been involved in the riots-or wanted to encourage the riots-it could have created riots in 10,000 out of Gujarat’s 18,600 villages. In the past riots, Gujarat had seen curfew in 300 villages at the same time. As compared to that - 2002 riots saw only 40 villages affected.

After the first three days riots took place only in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and some places near Godhra in Panchmahal district. That is to say-after 2nd March 2002 riots had stopped in almost the whole of Gujarat. The real riots happened only in the first 3 days-and the violence progressively reduced in these 3 days. After the first three days-riots were limited to cities only-by and large.

In Saurashtra and Kutch-no riots took place even in the first three days-even in cities. And villages of Saurashtra and Kutch were completely untouched by the riots. Even outside Saurashtra and Kutch, riots stopped completely in North and South Gujarat after 3 days-with not even a single killing in either of the two parts. Only in some parts of Central Gujarat did the riots occur after 3 days-and only in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and some parts near Godhra.

But the media lied at that time and has also lied ever since that the whole of Gujarat was burning. Around 6 December 2002, when NDTV anchor Pankaj Pachouri asked Narendra Modi that his party would lose elections in Saurashtra and Kutch because BJP can only gain where riots took place, and so it’ll lose there, Narendra Modi replied, “When 2 % of Gujarat was burning, you were saying that the whole of Gujarat is burning. Now you are saying that no riots took place in Saurashtra and Kutch. So first you apologize for lying that the entire state was burning when only 2 % of the state was burning.”

These malicious lies of the media were exposed twice. Once during the time of the riots in Gujarat in March-April 2002. And second, during the Gujarat Assembly elections of December 2002. After the BJP’s huge victory in Gujarat in December 2002, the media again ignored these facts and lied that the whole of Gujarat was burning. The BJP has also been too passive to remind the media of its lies. It has never bothered to expose the truth of Gujarat, and attack the media for lying that the whole of Gujarat, was burning.

Continued at Propaganda v/s Facts: Gujarat police turned a blind eye to the riots?

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