More Bad News from Gujarat

It now seems that perhaps the Gujarat government had planned the violence there in efforts to purge the Muslims from Hindu areas. If this is true, then it will give merit to the attempts by expatriate Indians to get Gujarat Chief Minister Modi held for Genocide or Crimes against humanity in the International Court of Justice. According to the BBC, this internal report suggests "the violence, far from being spontaneous, was planned, possibly months in advance, carried out by an extremist Hindu organisation with the support of the state government. If true, this is quite damning not only to Modi's Gujarat government, but to that of A.B. Vajpayee as well, since he has allowed Modi to stay in power.

What is alarming to me is that the Central government has still taken no action against the VHP (World Hindu Council) or any other organization belonging to the Sangh Parivar. Nothing says more about the groups secular credentials that actually being able to enforce laws against your own sister organizations. My understanding of the 2001 Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance is that any group that undermined the integrity of India so as to act as a destabilizing force is indeed a terrorist. Well nothing has been more devastating, or distraughtful to India, then the violence that has occurred in Gujarat since the end of February. Groups like the VHP are indeed to blame, and should not be held in a higher regard than other terrorist organizations like the Jaish-e-Mohammed or Lashkar-e-Toiba, as all three, in my eyes, are terrorist organizations.

posted by sajit @ 9:08 PM