Modi-fying democracy

Good point, sir, but that8217;s not the whole story. Democracy is not about the mere casting of votes, otherwise there would be little to differentiate it from despotism, as political philosophers have reminded us.

The latest UNDP Human Development Report deals with effective governance for human development and makes the important point that real governance requires fair and accountable institutions that protect rights and freedoms. Would Modi then like to clarify whether all of Gujarat8217;s 8216;8216;five crore8217;8217; people enjoy their rights and freedoms presently?

Modi and his powerful supporters claim there is complete normalcy in Gujarat. Jaitley, the other day, reeled out in Parliament a list of statistics to prove how 8216;8216;normal8217;8217; Gujarat is: 90 per cent of people have gone back to their homes, only 12,000 people were in camps interestingly, the Minister of State for Home I.D. Swami had quoted a figure of 13,000 just the day before on television but, as we are aware, in Modi8217;s Gujarat people have been known to disappear without a trace. Compensation has been paid in the case of 771 deaths and to 2012 injured. Cash has been given to 41,694 people, compensation to 32,000 people, and 13,300 people have been asked to expedite insurance claims.

If we were to examine these claims more carefully we would realise how inadequate, how decorative, this 8216;8216;relief and rehabilitation8217;8217; really is. Almost as soon as these camps were set up, there was tremendous pressure to shut them down 8212; with state ministers like Bharat Barot openly campaigning to have them removed because, as he put it, 8216;8216;so many Muslims8217;8217; made 8216;8216;my Hindu voters8217;8217; feel insecure.

Over the last several weeks the state government has been systematically de-listing camps and cutting down on supplies to them. Many have been literally forced out of their last refuge, after having lost their homes, their source of livelihoods, their very place in the web of life, with former neighbours threatening to boycott them socially and economically.

Yet, ironically, the fact that there are only 12,000 people in these camps is being cited as evidence of normalcy.

As for the compensation paid to those affected, the less said the better. Tot up Jaitley8217;s figures of those who are said to have received 8216;compensation8217; and pit it against the official figure of 1.34 lakh who were once driven to living in these camps, and you will realise how many have been cheated out of any settlements.

Then look at the pittance doled out as compensation 8212; sometimes Rs 2,000 for assets built over a lifetime 8212; and the perfidy of citing these figures to claim normalcy becomes clear.

Normalcy would also presuppose that the criminal justice system is functioning at optimum levels. Here, too, is an enormous can of worms. The great majority of those who systematically burnt, looted, raped, murdered during that period of terror, has got away through a combination of factors, including police failure to record FIRs, the shabby drafting of FIRs and chargesheets, the arbitrary omission or addition of names, and blatant political protection.

Incidentally, the first case to do with these riots, which concerned the burning of shops in Lunawada, reportedly collapsed in the face of insufficient evidence with the accused being let off. It could well be a precursor to the cases that follow.

This means that those who composed the innumerable mobs 8212; that sometimes numbered a thousand 8212; trained in the art of exploding gas canisters and butchering men, women and babies, are at present going about their daily lives at peace with themselves.

There is the argument that the riots were confined to a few regions in the state and therefore should not be considered sufficient grounds to postpone elections in the whole of the state. Saurashtra and Kutch were peaceful in relative terms.

South Gujarat, too, escaped largely unscathed with only Surat witnessing a few incidents. As for the tribal regions, it was largely the northeastern Bhil belt that was disturbed.

While this may be true 8212; and we can only be grateful that the whole state did not burn 8212; to imagine that the tragically divisive effects of the riots would have somehow remained confined to the geographical boundaries of the regions that experienced them would be wrong. The toxins thrown up of those events have entered the bloodstream of the state.

What Gujarat needs before it goes in for elections is a period of pause to help it work these toxins out of its system. This is not an argument to keep assembly elections at bay indefinitely, because political initiatives are also needed to bring the state back on an even keel.

This is an argument that a measure of time, arrived at through due deliberation, be given to the state so that its citizens 8212; especially those who bore the brunt of the recent bloodletting 8212; find their bearings.

As Ashutosh Varshney has argued in his recent work, Ethnic Conflict and Civil Life: Hindus and Muslims in India, 8216;8216;working on and building, integrated civic networks8217;8217; is a crucial factor in ensuring communal peace. Gujarat would need to begin this process.

It is the exceptional situation prevailing in this state that has forced many public-spirited individuals 8212; and not just political parties of the opposition who are in the business of deriving electoral capital out of the situation 8212; to state with all the firmness at their command that early elections in Gujarat would be a travesty of constitutional principles and universal values and would only divide people further. Modi8217;s malevolent juggernaut must be halted at all costs.