‘This is why terrorists are made’

When riot-hit Muslims say there is no justice for them in India, they are called anti-national. But for many, that is the truth in a country with one of the worst records in punishing religious violence. Nagendar Sharma reports. Special Coverage

Not too far from where a Gujarat government-appointed panel cleared the same government over the 2002 Godhra train burning, the elderly dentist leaned back in his clinic off the busy Ahmedabad street and paused for a moment of restless silence. He had told his life’s story. He now announced the verdict.

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“This is why people take to terrorism, because there is no justice for Muslims here,” said Dr Yunus Mohammed Usman Bhavnagri. He is being prosecuted for firing in self-defence at the mob that shot and wounded his son — but went unpunished — a day after the Godhra train burning.

Bhavnagri was the first Muslim to depose before the Nanavati Commission, whose report into the train burning — which set off one of India’s worst-ever cycles of religious rioting — was made public on Thursday.

The doctor’s view, which resonates through parts of the Muslim community, could be seen by some as a cruel rationalisation of killings of innocent civilians.

But the cynicism that riot-hit Muslims overwhelmingly have for the justice process is rooted in truth.

The Supreme Court ordered the re-opening of 2,000 Gujarat riot cases in 2004. Of these merely 184 cases are currently in courts and only two major cases have been decided so far — the Best Bakery massacre, in which 14 people were burnt alive in Baroda, and the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case in Dahod.

On Thursday, the 58-year-old dentist laughed as he heard Nanavati report’s contents, taking a break from a patient.
“This is no surprise — we knew all along what the report was going to say,” he said.