Was the violence in Godhra pre-planned? Were the riots that followed pre-planned? Was there police and government complicity in the carnage that followed Godhra? To what extent are groups like the VHP and Bajrang Dal involved? The Narendra Modi Government has ensured that the judicial commission it appointed on March 6 answers only the first question. The terms of reference of the Justice K G Shah Commission require the panel to find out pointedly ‘‘whether the incident at Godhra was pre-planned’’ and whether there was information that could have been used to ‘‘prevent the incident.’’ There’s no such reference to the possibility that the subsequent incidents could have been pre-planned. As a result, the Commission, in keeping with its restricted scope of inquiry, is not required to find out what kind of intelligence or prior information the police had on the retaliatory attacks on Muslims. Neither can it, without provoking jurisdictional objections, probe the allegation that the VHP and its allies conspired to avenge the Godhra outrage. The Commission may also find it hard to delve into the alleged complicity of the police and other members of the state machinery in the communal violence. It cannot, for instance, probe the allegation that the police purposely disregarded the SOS calls made over some hours by former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was finally killed. According to the terms of reference, all that the police will have to establish is that whatever they did was the best they could have done in the circumstances. The Commission’s charter is limited to inquiring into ‘‘the inadequacy of administrative measures taken to prevent and deal with the disturbances in Godhra and subsequent disturbances in the State.’’ Another major omission in the Modi Government’s mandate to the Shah Commission relates to the alleged role of the VHP and its allies in the retaliatory killings of hundreds of Muslims.
