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Godhra train attack : Nanavati Commission gives Narendra Modi clean chit, Cong, allies express doub

	September 29, 2008

The Justice G.T. Nanavati-Akshay Mehta Commission probing the Godhra incident and the riots which followed has said in the first part of its report that the Godhra train fire was a “pre-planned conspiracy”, and there was nothing accidental about it.



The Commission - appointed by Narendra Modi - exonerates the Gujarat Chief Minister of any role in the February 2002 carnage which, it says, was “meant to spread terror”.



It says the conspiracy was hatched by a cleric, Maulana Umarji, who had procured 140 litres of petrol the previous night to burn the coach. The doors of coaches S6 and S7 were forcibly opened and one Hassan Lala threw burning rags inside, the commis¬sion concluded.



The 168-page report, the first part of which was tabled in the Gujarat Assembly on Sept. 25, says: “There is absolutely no evidence to show that either the Chief Minister or any other minister in his council of ministers or police had played any role in the Godhra incident or that there was any lapse on their part in the matter of providing protection, relief and rehabili¬tation to the victims of communal riots.”



At least 58 kar sevaks of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad return¬ing from Ayodhya were charred to death in a blaze that swept through coach S6 of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, 150km from Ahmedabad, on February 27, 2002.



The VHP-Bajrang Dal cited the carnage to justify the post-Godhra pogrom that left some 1,500 people dead. An investigation into the riots constitutes the second part of the report, which will be submitted before December 31.



The findings contradict those of the U.C. Banerjee Committee - later upgraded to a commission of inquiry - set up by Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in 2004. It said the train fire was accidental and there was no mob at the station that could have carried out such an attack. The report debunked the State Gover¬nment’s claim that the coach was set on fire by a Muslim mob.



The committee was formed to look into the “causes and tech¬nical aspects of the fire”. Its report was to have been tabled in Parliament, but the Gujarat High Court stayed it after a Godhra survivor filed a petition citing that the Nanavati Commission was already looking into the matter. The apex court upheld the stay.



The Nanavati findings were dismissed as an “eyewash” by the Opposition and riot victims. Saeed Umarji, the son of Maulana Umarji, described the report as “biased”.



“The police arrested my father one year after the incident. They declared my father a mastermind on the basis of the state¬ment given by one criminal,” he said.



Advocate Mukul Sinha, who represents riot victims and cross-examined witnesses before the commission for six years, rejected the findings as an “absurd conclusion which is not supported by independent evidence”.



The Nanavati Commission relied heavily on the report tabled in the trial court by investigating officer Noel Parmar, which was rejected by the Supreme Court.



The apex court later set up a special investigation team to probe the major 2002 riot cases, including Godhra, which is yet to give its report.



The POTA review committee, which visited Gujarat two years ago, had said the terror law could not be applied to the Godhra accused. The train carnage accused - over 70 are in the Sabarmati Central Jail - were booked under POTA.



The Congress walked out of the Assembly in protest. “We have always maintained that the Nanavati Commission was set up to mislead people. Our apprehension has come true,” said legislature party leader Shaktisinh Gohil.





Political row over the report



The Congress-led UPA and the Left have dismissed the Nanava¬ti Commission report as “biased, manufactured and eye-wash.” But the BJP and the Sangh Parivar hailed it as the “vindication of truth.”



Rubbishing the Nanavati report, the Congress said it is not at all surprised by the findings of such a panel. AICC spokes¬person Abhishek Singhvi said: “It is a commission created by the virtual principal accused Narendra Modi to investigate into the system of state over which he presides.”



Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said: “People will not believe that Modi is innocent. He is a communal virus centre and has been disallowed to travel to the United States. Had he been punished for his crime, no youth would have turned a terrorist today.”



Lok Janashakti Party chief Ramvilas Paswan dismissed the Nanavati report as an eye-wash. The CPI rejected it as “parti¬san and unacceptable.” The CPI(M) said that the splitting of the report into two parts, with the first going into the Godhra train fire is politically motivated and has raised many questions.



On the other hand, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi demanded an apology from detractors of the state. He said: “All those who have criticised Gujarat for the past six years should apologise.”



BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley accused the UPA of following double standards on Godhra.





Supreme Court refuses to stay publication of report



On Friday, Sept. 26, the Supreme Court refused to stay the publication and circulation of the Nanavati Commission report. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, however issued notice to the Gujarat Government on a petition filed by an NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace, contending that the publication of the report could disturb communal harmony. The matter has been posted for hearing on Oct. 13.





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Modi clean chit far from the truth : former NHRC chief



The chairman of the National Human Rights Commission at the time of the 2002 massacre in Gujarat after the Godhra train fire, Justice J.S. Verma has reacted with shock to the Nanavati Commis¬sion conclusion absolving the Modi Government and the police of any wrong doing in the riots. Speaking to a newspaper, Justice Verma said : “It is not correct and, in fact, far from the truth that the Gujarat state government adhered to NHRC reports and recommendations. Even a bare perusal of the numerous recommenda¬tions the Commission made at the time makes that clear.”



Justice Verma was reacting specifically to the first part of the Nanavati Report tabled in the Gujarat Assembly which claims there is ‘absolutely no evidence” of “any lapse in providing protection, relief and rehabilitation to victims of the communal riots and in the matter of not complying with the recommendations and directions given by the NHRC.”



Justice Verma said: “What makes the observations made by the Nanavati Commission appear more surprising is that it took six and a half years of laboured and intensive effort by the Commis¬sion to arrive at this conclusion. Only someone very naive could have arrived at the conclusion that the State Government complied with the recommendations made by the NHRC.”



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In any other country, Modi would have been hanged : Cong



The Congress has said that if there had been an internation¬al court to go into the post-Godhra riots, Narendra Modi would have been hanged for his alleged crimes. Congress media depart¬ment chief Veerappa Moily said in New Delhi on Sept. 26: “Modi cannot get rid of charges of genocide. In any other country, international court would have hanged him. He is fortunate, there is too much democracy in our country.”



Moily wondered how the Commission could exonerate Modi and his administration of all the charges in the communal carnage without even dealing with the post-Godhra riots so far. He alleged that the second member of the Nanavati Commission, re¬tired Judge Akshay Mehta was already “tainted” since “his name figured in the Tehelka sting expose on Gujarat carnage as to how he let off at the behest of Narendra Modi a perpetrator Bajrangi by the latter’s own admission.”



Moily said there are over 12 Gujarat riot cases against the Modi Government in the Supreme Court at various stages. The apex court has already appointed a high level panel to probe into the Gujarat genocide allegedly orchestrated by the Modi Government.