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Gujarat : Supreme Court snub to Modi Government |
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The ghost of Gujarat riots continues to cast its shadow on the BJP chief minister Narendra Modi. The Supreme Court’s direction to his Government in Gujarat to set up a high-level police team headed by the Director-General of Police (DGP) to examine the 2,000 or so post-Godhra riot cases, closed earlier is being considered as another indictment of the Modi Government over its handling of the Gujarat riot cases.
Earlier judgments of the Court regarding the post-Godhra riots were also severe and trend setting but they dealt with individual cases such as the Best Bakery and Bilkis Bano cases.
A three-Judge Bench gave the direction last week after the amicus curiae, Harish Salve, submitted that of the 4,252 riot cases registered, over 2000 were closed by the police summarily, expressing their inability to trace the accused. The Bench directed that the committee, which would include two Additional DGPs and seven Inspectors-General of Police (IGP) of different ranges, would go into each of the cases to find out whether they were “defective, deficient or faulty” and order fresh investigation wherever necessary.
Observers feel that this is indeed bad news for Narendra Modi who has been under pressure by various forces both in his home state and outside. In Gujarat, his own party colleagues are upset over his “autocratic style of functioning” and are keen on removing him from the post of chief minister. The moderate section of his own party disapproves his hardcore Hindutva (Hindu activism) stand and his mishandling of the riots that rocked the state in early 2002. Observers believe that this was one of the main reasons of the BJP’s electoral debacle in April-May 2004.
A few months ago, former Prime Minister Vajpayee raised his voice against Modi in public by holding him responsible for BJP’s poor performance in the last Lok Sabha election. However, the hardcore Hindu organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other fundamentalist elements in the Sangh Parivar (RSS family) backed Modi, and attempts to remove Modi from the Chief Ministership failed.
Though it was widely believed that the state government encouraged the riots and human rights activists have been trying to prove this, this is for the first time the Supreme Court has taken a serious step. Thus when counsel for the accused, K.T.S. Tulsi, opposed the order in the Court, the Bench told him that “what had happened in the State was an unprecedented and abnormal situation because of the State’s response to the riot cases.”
Counsel for Gujarat, Mukul Rohatgi, said: “This is a matter of perception. Our State does not agree with this perception.” He, however, said the Inspector Generals of Police were already examining the closed cases and the State would have no objection setting up a committee for the purpose.
That the rule of law has been compromised repeatedly is borne out by the fact that the Supreme Court has taken the initiative to set guidelines for transparency in the review of all such cases. Thus if, after reinvestigation, it was decided to close the case, the reasons should be given and the same be put on the Internet for the information of those interested in them, especially the non-government organisations associated with the Gujarat riots cases. The Judges directed the DGP to inform the court every three months about the progress.
The Bench permitted the NGOs to approach the Police if they had relevant material about a case or cases and he/she would look into them before forming a final opinion about any case.
The BJP has said that the Supreme Court direction was “not a comment on the state government but an indictment against its own judicial arm”. The party has demanded that there should be a “common yardstick” for all riot cases. “Let the 1984 anti-Sikh riot cases be transferred to Chandigarh,” BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj said.
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