New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW),in its report released two days ago,has alleged that the authorities in Gujarat are subverting justice,protecting perpetrators and intimidating those promoting accountability 10 years after the anti-Muslim riots that killed nearly 2,000 people. The report also claims of there being a strong evidence linking the Narendra Modi government to the carefully orchestrated anti-Muslim attacks. Titled as India: A decade on,Gujarat Justice Incomplete,Victims of Anti-Muslim Violence Cite State Government Delays,Intimidation,alleges that the Modi government has resisted the Supreme Court orders to prosecute those responsible for the carnage and has failed to provide most survivors with compensation. The 2002 violence against Muslims in Gujarat persists as a dark blot on Indias reputation for religious equality, said Meenakshi Ganguly,South Asia director at Human Rights Watch,in her report. Instead of prosecuting senior state and police officials implicated in the atrocities,the Gujarat authorities have engaged in denial and obstruction of justice, the report says. The report accuses Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP government of obstructing justice. It also accuses the government prosecutors acting like defence counsels in the riot cases. It says while the probe in Godhra train attack progressed very fast,probe into cases related to attacks on Muslims were slow or was not pursued at all. State police failed to investigate senior BJP leaders despite telephone records proving their presence at the scene of the riots in Naroda Patia and Naroda Gam,and witness testimony that these senior leaders provided the mob with lethal weapons and instigated attacks on Muslims, the report alleges. It was only after the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team(SIT) took over the inquiry in March 2009 that two leaders,Mayaben Kodnani,a minister in the state cabinet,and Jaideep Patel,a leader of the Hindu militant group Vishwa Hindu Parishad,were arrested for aiding and abetting a mob that killed 105 people,injured several others,destroyed property,and sexually assaulted women, the report goes on. Both are still on trial. Modi has acted against whistleblowers in the riot cases while making no effort to prosecute those responsible for the anti-Muslim violence, says Ganguly in the report,saying how IPS officers Rahul Sharma and Sanjiv Bhatt are being humiliated for not toeing the government line in riot cases. Ten years on,India owes it to the victims of the Gujarat riots to end the culture of impunity and prosecute those responsible for this open wound on the countrys reputation, the report says.
