chapter 2 Intervention and culture of impunity

Chapter 2 Intervention and culture of impunity PM Vajpayee’s letter to CM Modi on June 1, 2002 was intervention. But as it turned out to be strategy to prevent the matter of Godhra going to parliament. Vajpayee had asserted at 4 pm on February 27, 2002 that there was no conspiracy behind the fire. But more facts emerged and Modi had allowed Hindus taking revenge to grow into pogroms of Muslims etc to such an extent that the international community was disturbed. The PM visited Gujarat two months later and exhorted that Modi do his dharm, or moral duty to rule. Another month passed and he noticed that Modi had simply done nothing to either protect Muslims or improve the conditions in the refugee camps. It was then he wrote to Modi in detail what he ought to do but had defiantly failed to do. It was at this time that the culture of impunity had its origin. It should be he rather than parliament as intervener. Interveners or petitioners are supposed to be people of sanity and are expected to do their yeomanry service to ameliorate a situation. What more did the tragic situation in Gujarat demand at that time when pogroms were still going on? As Teesta Setalvad remarks that interventions are not taken as seriously as the mighty state. Modi did not care either. “Interventions are subtly relegated into a hierarchy. Procedural fair play is subverted and substantive shifts take place in jurisprudence.” “…status quo tolerates intervention up to a point, but appears to fall short of delivering radical, real and substantive justice. The system engages with the survivors and defenders in the early years, but a shake up of status quo demands an exceptional judicial mind. ” Vajpayee wrote to Modi informing him that “there was gross under assesement of damages.” “It is possible that, for various reasons, the teams involved in work have assessed the damages on the lower side. In the interest of justice and fair play, it will be expedient to conduct test checks in selected areas. If the test chckes do confirm under-assessment, the state government will reassess the damages in areas with large-scale complaints. I have also been informed that in a large number of cases, the relatives of the dead are yet to be paid the ex gratia because bodies are yet to be identified and also, applications regarding missing persons are yet to be disposed of. The inordinate delay in the disbursement of ex-gratia payments is a matter of concern.” The PM considered DNA checks as hurdle in the payment “leading to further unacceptable delay.” “It is natural that the residents of the worst affected areas may be reluctant to return to their original places of residence and demand relocation in safer areas. Ideally, at atmosphere should be created whereby thse people gain enough confidence to resettle at the original place of residence.” He cautioned the CM that “particularly in the worst affected areas like Nardoa Patiya in Ahmadabad and Lunawada in Panchamahal, active goernment support during their relocation only protect themf rom unscrupulous elements.” “Needless to say that undue influence by such elements will only exacerbate the already complicated situation.”[1] There is hardly any doubt that the PM was chiding Modi for not doing his moral duty which he should have done long back. The three months delay must have multiplied the sufferings manifold. That Modi was intransigent ran deep into the lines Vajpayee wrote. Two months ago had pat replied that he was doing his rajdharm. That must have outraged the PM because it was a surly CM whose audacity to imprudently pat reply that moral duty he had already been doing and there was no need for the PM to mouth it in open! This is the stuff of impunity moulded in the smithy of Gujarat. From this there has mushroomed the rich culture of impunity all over India now that likes of Modi are in UP at the helms of affair of state. That is why New Yoak Time editorial was wraning on March 23, 2017 of what would come of Mr Modi’s perilous embrace of Hindu extremists.[2] However, there is a ray of hope that amendment of section 24(8)(2) of the Code ofCriminal Procedure in 2009 has given the victim complainants the statutory right to intervene in criminal trials to assist the prosecution. What even PM Vajpayee could not achieve is available for the citizens of this wonderful country to try. We still have the same Constitution. Let us respect and carry it out in our daily life to make the country what it stood for, a truly secular constitutional democracy. [1]Footsoldiers of the Constitution, pp. 148-149, 209. [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/opinion/mr-modis-perilous-embrace-of-hindu-extremists.html?_r=0