‘Did Christian groups finance your relief for riot victims?’

• For two and half months following the riots, I was actively associated in relief and rehabilitation measures for riot victims. I never came across an incident when they (the members of the Catholic seminary) were instigating riot victims against the Government.

These may sound like snatches of a VHP inquisition on the role of an NGO providing help to Gujarat riot victims. They are in fact responses to questions put by the Congress party’s candidate in South Delhi, R K Anand, in the context of the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in the Capital.

Questions that Anand, as counsel for the Congress Delhi Administration, asked academic and social activist Smitu Kothari before the Justice Ranganath Misra Commission on March 7, 1986.

His goal: to discredit a widely acclaimed citizens’ initiative, Nagrik Ekta Manch, which came into existence during the 1984 carnage to provide humanitarian help to victims.

The issue Anand picked to run down the Manch was, ironically, its alleged dependence on the Delhi-based seminary, Vidya Jyoti.

Since the Manch represented all faiths and ideologies, Kothari readily conceded during his deposition that some of the members of Vidya Jyoti ‘‘occasionally participated’’ in the meetings of the Manch.

On the basis of that admission, Anand questioned him closely to show that the Manch was ‘‘financed’’ and ‘‘managed’’ by Vidya Jyoti which ‘‘instigated riot victims against the Government or Delhi Administration.’’

Anand, when contacted by The Indian Express, first denied that he was the counsel for the Delhi Administration. But when confronted with evidence in black and white, he switched gears and now denied that he had himself cross-examined Kothari. ‘‘Some junior of mine might have put those questions,’’ he said, pointing out that the record only says ‘‘cross-examination by Delhi Administration.’’

But Kothari, who is currently a visiting faculty at Princeton University in US, confirmed over the telephone that Anand himself had cross-examined him before the Misra Commission.

Deploring Anand’s attempt to ‘‘portray a plural initiative as a Christian conspiracy,’’ Kothari said: ‘‘The Congress party with its vast machinery did not step forward to help the victims and instead denigrated those who were trying to help.’’ Kothari said if the Congress wanted to have credibility as a ‘‘secular alternative,’’ the least it could do is to desist from fielding candidates who ‘‘covered up its culpability in mass crimes.’’

Father Gispert-Sauch of Vidya Jyoti said that his organisation could do relief work among victims ‘‘mainly because of the fortuitous presence of Mother Teresa in Delhi during the riots. Since she had easy access to the Government, Mother helped us reach out to victims.’’