Whole of Gujarat was burning

Fact: Out of the state’s 18,600 villages, 240 municipal towns, and 25 district headquarters, less than 90 places saw riots. If one includes the two big cities of Ahmedabad and Vadodara, by the wildest stretch of imagination, only 2 % of the state can be assumed to have been burning. Only 40 or maximum 50 out of the state’s 18,600 villages saw riots.  Had the state government been involved in the riots, or wanted to encourage the riots, it could have created riots in 10,000 out of Gujarat’s 18,600 villages. In the past curfew has been placed in 300 villages at the same time time. As compared to that, what happened in 2002 was much lesser.

    That the whole of Gujarat was burning is an incorrect depiction of the riots by a section of the media. The riots did not spread to Saurashtra and Kutch, both of which are border areas. Saurashtra (52) and Kutch (6) accounted for as many as 58 out of the Gujarat assembly’s 182 seats at that time. That is, they are nearly one-third of Gujarat. This shows that the State Government had absolutely no hand in instigating the riots and it by no means wanted to encourage the riots. If the State Government wanted to instigate riots, it could have easily done so in Saurashtra and Kutch. It was reported that a section of the Patels were unhappy with Keshubhai Patel’s replacement as Chief Minister, and that Narendra Modi was a bit unpopular in them. Since Saurashtra was the home turf of Keshubhai Patel, instigating riots there would have polarized the Hindus there and helped the BJP in general and Narendra Modi in particular. But this region was peaceful. Hindus did not retaliate in one-third of the state even for the first three days.

   Northern and southern Gujarat were peaceful after 2nd March 2002 and only some places in central Gujarat saw riots. Basically, after 2nd March 2002, riots were limited only to Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and a few places in Panchmahal district near Godhra-by and large. All TV channels and almost the entire print media admitted at some point or the other that Saurashtra and Kutch remained peaceful throughout the two-and-a-half months of rioting and saw no riots. But this admission was more pronounced not during the time of riots in Gujarat, but many months later, during the coverage of the Gujarat Assembly elections of December 2002.

   Around 6 December 2002, Narendra Modi was invited on Star News/ NDTV’s programme Hotline. In that programme, the anchor Pankaj Pachouri asked Narendra Modi this question. He said, “Your party always gains because of the riots. But no riots took place in Saurashtra and Kutch, so you are all set to lose there. How will you respond to this?” To that Narendra Modi replied:

   “When 2% of Gujarat was burning, you were saying that the whole of Gujarat is burning. Now you are saying that no riots took place in Saurashtra and Kutch. So, first you apologize for lying that the entire state was burning when only 2% of the state was burning.”

   In this regard, some people quote a report of R Sreekumar, a police officer, of August 2002 and claim that 154 Assembly seats, with 151 towns and 993 villages were affected by riots. This does not mean that all these places saw riots. On page 153 of SIT closure report, Ashok Narayan, ACS (Home) is quoted as saying that Sreekumar arrived at this figure by including all places where food grains and other items of relief had been provided in relief camps or other places by the government. Ashok Narayan is quoted as saying that the actual places seeing violence were lesser. Naturally, there is a vast difference in the places where the foodgrain was provided and places which actually saw violence. Besides, there are many issues with Sreekumar, who is a known anti-Narendra Modi man, and his claims have been deemed ‘unreliable’ and ‘motivated’ by the SIT owing to various issues.

   Anti-Sangh Parivar and Leftist magazine, fortnightly Frontline also reported after the December 2002 Gujarat polls: “The Bharatiya Janata Party made its greatest gains in the riot-affected areas — it captured 50 of the 65 riot-affected constituencies…In places untouched by riots, the BJP lost ground. In Kutch, it got only two out of the six seats, compared with the four seats that it had won in the previous election…In Saurashtra, where the water crisis is acute, the BJP slipped from its 48-seat tally in 1998 to just 37 seats this time.”

URL: https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article30214974.ece

   If Frontline itself claimed 65 riot-affected seats out of 182 (this includes places like Ahmedabad district and Vadodara district which had 19 and 13 Assembly seats at that time, and also 2 other cities of Rajkot and Surat), then it shows that it is absolutely impossible for riots to have occurred in 993 villages and the correct number of places of violence must indeed be close to 90, since Ahmedabad and Vadodara districts themselves account for 32 Assembly seats. And Frontline also admitted that Saurashtra and Kutch were untouched by riots.

   On the 1st day of the riots, 26 places needed to be placed under curfew as reported by dailies the next day. On the 2nd day, 34 places needed to be under curfew as reported the next day by dailies (these included the 26 already under curfew). And on the 3rd day 40 places were under curfew. The Hindu reported on 4 March 2002: “Curfew has been lifted in most areas of the 40 towns and cities where clashes were reported (till 3 March 2002)”. This shows that only 40 towns and cities saw violence in the first 3 days.

  Since the riots after the first 3 days were mainly limited to Ahmedabad, Vadodara and some other places, even assuming that 10 more places than those in the first 3 days, saw violence after the first 3 days, the number of total places seeing violence becomes 40 + 50 = 90. We can clearly see that it is absolutely impossible for riots to have occurred in 993 villages, and that the figures of maximum 50 villages and maximum 90 places seeing riots are absolutely true.

To read the full chapter, read the book “Gujarat Riots: The True Story”. 

https://www.amazon.in/Gujarat-Riots-True-Story-Truth/dp/1482841649/

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Muslims were ‘butchered’ in Gujarat

   Fact: Of course, Muslims were killed in one-sided attacks in many places in the state like in Naroda-Patiya, Gulberg Society (both in Ahmedabad city), Naroda Gram, Sadarpura, Pandarwada, Ode and other places but by and large, the riots were not one-sided and as per the words of senior journalist Arvind Lavakare: “Muslims were hardly the cattle hiding from the slaughter house.” As we have seen in a couple of earlier chapters, some Muslims were equally on the offensive, at least after the first three days.

Muslims attacked Hindus brutally in Modasa, Himmatnagar, Bharuch, Ahmedabad’s Danilimda, Sindhi Market and other areas.

Reports of The Hindu on this subject throughout the months of March and April 2002 make it clear that Muslims were on the offensive, called the shots in many areas, drove out Hindus from their houses, started the riots in many cases. India Today’s report on this subject in its issue dated 15 April 2002 also points out this same thing.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190425141050/https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/states/story/20020415-vajpayee-visit-to-riot-torn-gujarat-fails-to-have-a-balming-effect-795482-2002-04-15

See paragraphs 8, 9, 10, 11 and 15 of this story in India Today.

The Hindu reported that as early as 1st March 2002 itself, Muslims started violence in Ahmedabad. (See The Hindu’s report on this subject in its issue dated 2nd March 2002).

https://web.archive.org/web/20030105094858/http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/2002/03/02/stories/2002030203050100.htm

See last line of 9th paragraph from the top.

Around 40,000 Hindus were forced to take shelter in refugee camps. The Dalits suffered heavily in the riots, only at the hands of the Muslims. On 21 March 2002, 50 Hindu shops were burnt in Ahmedabad’s Revdi Bazaar that caused a loss of 15 crore rupees.

See link:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Ahmedabad/Rioters-torch-50-shops-at-Revdi-Bazaar/articleshow/4609603.cms

Reports of The Indian Express and The Times of India show that Muslims drove out Hindus from their houses, and started some riots.

Outlook weekly’s website too carried some news of attacks on Hindus in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

 https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/retaliatory-attacks-on-hindus/215421

 Muslims are on record (as per Police records) starting as many as 157 riots in Gujarat after 3rd March 2002. They pelted the police and even the Army with bullets and stones, when they arrived to conduct search operations in Muslim areas. The residents formed human chains and cut off power at night so that the criminals could flee with weapons from the Army.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190425141050/https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/states/story/20020415-vajpayee-visit-to-riot-torn-gujarat-fails-to-have-a-balming-effect-795482-2002-04-15

(See paragraph 15 from the top)

  To read the full story of “Attacks on Hindus”, read the book.

   Many judgments of different courts in Gujarat have sentenced some Muslims for rioting in Gujarat, post-Godhra. Total 80 Muslims have been convicted for the post-Godhra violence. This will be seen in detail later, in Myth 21. The conviction of Muslims proves that some Muslims were equally on the offensive.

Link for one judgment convicting 4 Muslims:

https://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/post-godhra-riots-dna-test-nails-4-killers/

To read the full chapter, read the book “Gujarat Riots: The True Story”. 

https://www.amazon.in/Gujarat-Riots-True-Story-Truth/dp/1482841649/

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2,000 Muslims were killed in the Gujarat riots

Fact: 2000 is the number of Muslims who roasted to coal 59 Ram sevaks in Godhra, including 25 women and 15 children (including babies and toddlers), on 27 February 2002, not the number of Muslims killed in the subsequent Gujarat riots.

    As per figures given by the then Union Minister of State for Home Shriprakash Jaiswal, who belongs to the Congress Party, in Parliament on 11 May 2005, 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed in the riots, 2548 people were injured and 223 people were missing. This was in a WRITTEN REPLY (meaning the UPA Government was fully aware of what it was doing) to a question asked by a Congress member (that Congress member was Babri Masjid Action Committee lawyer R K Anand) on the religion wise casualties in riots in Gujarat after Godhra. The report placed the number of riot-affected widows at 919 and the number of children orphaned at 606. The UPA government gives these figures, and hence they themselves could be inflated. To read the Rajya Sabha records click:

http://164.100.47.5/EDAILYQUESTIONS/sessionno/204/uq11052005.pdf

http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=46538 or

http://news.indiainfo.com/2005/05/11/1105godhra-rs.html

Even Indian Muslims’ English newspaper Milli Gazette also reported this

http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/2005/01-15June05-Print-Edition/011506200511.htm

BBC too reported the same.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4536199.stm

The editorials of the national English dailies, and the articles published from the freelancers on the newspapers’ editorial pages are nothing but a pack of lies, akin the autobiography of former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, “In the Line of Fire”. Newspapers like The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, etc. continue to publish articles saying, “Win in Assembly elections of December 2002 does not whitewash Narendra Modi’s sins of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 when 2000 innocent Muslims were butchered” or “The Gujarat pogrom of killing thousands of Muslims did not help the BJP in the long term” etc. etc.

But these numbers are nothing but a pack of lies. Let us see the interview given by the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to Aaj Tak’s Prabhu Chawla, excerpts of which were published in the weekly India Today, dated 4 November 2002:

“Q – Your opponents call you ‘Jinnah of the Hindus’.

A- I am hearing this for the first time though I still don’t consider you as an enemy.

Q- You are held responsible for the killing of 1,100 innocent people in the riots.

A- In our last interview, you said 900 people. Now you are saying 1,100. Are you adding all the people killed in other states like Maharashtra and Bengal to Gujarat’s account?(Narendra Modi is talking of the Solapur riots of 10 and 11 October 2002 in Maharashtra and other petty riots which occured long after Godhra and had nothing to do with Godhra and post-Godhra).

Q- So what is the correct toll?

A- There would have no riots in Gujarat if there had been no Godhra…

Q- Do you accept that you failed to provide security to the people of the state?

A- 98% of Gujarat would not have had peace if we had failed to fulfill our duties. We managed to control the riots in 72 hours…

Q- Why don’t you accept that Gujarat is being defamed because of Narendra Modi?

A- If that is true, give the people of Gujarat a chance to pronounce their verdict through elections.”

LINK:  http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/communal-riots-in-gujarat-were-unfortunate-narendra-modi/1/218781.html

As we see, the number of people killed in the riots jumped from 900 to 1100 after Narendra Modi’s previous interview, i.e. within 4 months! Now it has jumped from 900 to 2,000. May be after 10 years, at this rate it will jump to 10,000!Already it is being said that, “thousands of Muslims were killed in Gujarat” and “3,000 innocent Muslims were butchered in Gujarat”. The death of a single innocent person, whether Hindu or Muslim or belonging to any other religion, is highly unfortunate and cannot be justified. That more than 1,000 people were killed is highly unfortunate and reprehensible. But that cannot a justification to exaggerate and inflate the number of people killed to 2,000 or any higher figure.

   That the UPA government, with Congress President and Italian-born and staunchly anti-BJP Sonia Gandhi as the UPA chief, and Communists as outside supporters, gave the figure of 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus killed in the Gujarat riots inside Parliament is something worth pondering about. These figures themselves may well be exaggerated given as they are by a Congressman, who worked under Sonia Gandhi.

  India Today weekly reported in its issue dated 20 May 2002, when the riots had almost stopped that “Total dead- 972” (For details, see page 122). Out of these 972, India Today included 57 people killed in Godhra, so the death toll post-Godhra was 915. If anyone sees the English newspapers of those days, i.e. between 10 to 21 May 2002, no riots took place in Gujarat in those 10 days at all, and the Army left Gujarat on 21 May. A maximum of 20 more deaths might have happened in Gujarat after that. The death toll in Gujarat riots would thus be 935.

   The Tribune reported on 30 April 2002 that the death toll crossed the 900 mark on 29 April. The riots had almost ended by that time and maximum 50 more would have been killed by 10 May 2002.And this was 2 months after the real violence of 28 Feb, 1st and 2nd March had ended, most of the bodies of the killings of these days had been found by 30 April.

  Thus there is no way at all that the toll could be anywhere close to 2,000. The 950-odd toll was exaggerated and inflated to 2000 by the liars some months after the riots. When riots ended, the final toll was 952, by which time most bodies of the earlier riots of February 28, 1 March and 2 March had been found.

  Central India’s English daily The Hitavada also reported that 936 people were killed in the Gujarat riots after the Army left Ahmedabad on 21 May 2002. The official figures before the missing were declared dead were 952.After 7 years, missing were declared dead- the toll was revised to 1180 by The Telegraph, which did not consider the missing people found (either found alive or dead) and simply added 228 to 952 to make it 1180.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090301/jsp/nation/story_10608005.jsp

Let us, for argument’s sake, assume that the figures given by the UPA government are correct. Does that give anyone the reason to believe that more than 790 Muslims were killed in Gujarat? Why should the English dailies and the 24-hour news channels lie through the skin of their teeth that 2000 Muslims were killed in Gujarat?

Actually, the figures given initially said 228 people missing (closely matched by the UPA Government also saying 223 people missing in Parliament on 11 May 2005) and later 101 people were found alive, so the final missing people’s figure is 127 only. The official statistics show that 101 people were found alive and 127 people are still missing and hence assumed dead after the 7-year period is over. Ex-gratia was paid to 1,169 people by the Gujarat Government. The UPA Government also paid extra compensation to Gujarat riot victims in May 2008 in a special package in the final year of its first term. Even this UPA Government said ex-gratia was paid to 1169 people.

   This shows that the death toll is less than or equal to 1169 since it is absolutely impossible that the UPA Government will fail to give ex-gratia to families of people killed in the riots when the riots have been politicized so much, and when it attacked Narendra Modi on this issue so much, and when its leaders spread huge lies on the riots with exaggerations. (And if the UPA, which is a staunch opponent of Narendra Modi claims that any more than 1169 people were killed in the riots, then it itself would be admitting that it did not pay compensation to some killed people’s families!) UPA’s figures in Parliament would amount to 1171 deaths- 790 Muslims, 254 Hindus and 127 missing people (after many missing were found alive), 790+254+127= 1171. This closely matches the ex-gratia figure of 1169, paid by both the Gujarat and the UPA Government.

  Despite this NDTV reported many times during the Lok Sabha elections of April- May 2004 that, “2000 Muslims were killed in Gujarat” exaggerating and as if not a single Hindu was killed and implying that the riots were one-sided.

  2,000 is the number of Muslims who carried out the massacre and gruesome roasting alive of 59 Hindus-including 25 women and 15 children in Godhra. It is not the number of Muslims who were killed in the subsequent riots. There is no justification for violence and of even a single death, be it in Godhra or after Godhra. But why lie? Who gains by these lies? And it is everybody’s duty to correct the figure. The point is, what should be reported is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

   And it is this mentality which is responsible for them exaggerating the number of Muslims killed in the riots to as much as possible. When the total number of people killed in the riots- Hindu as well as Muslim- is 1,169, they lie that 2,000 Muslims were killed in the riots just like former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf did in the United Nations in September 2002. Teesta Setalvad increased this number to 2,500 Muslims (as if not a single Hindu was killed) in one of her articles titled “What ails Gujarat” published in CPI(M) party weekly Peoples Democracy in its issue of 16 July 2006. And Tehelka reported in 2007 after its sting operation that 2,500 Muslims were killed in the first 3 days! This would imply that many more were killed in the next days of riots!!!

A must read article is on the role of the Gujarat Government in controlling violencein the riots.

Some more details are given in the book. To know the details, read the book.

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