If Modi is asked to leave what is the guarantee that someone like Pravin Togadia will not take his place?

Arun Jaitley, the brightest of the younger lot in the BJP, and the fact is not lost on him, came to Gujarat with a transparent ploy and he orchestrated it to perfection. Modi would offer to resign at the National Executive meet and it would be rejected with a show of injured innocence. Being the democratic party that they are, they would want to leave everything, including the rule of law, to the people’s court – a phrase made fashionable by communists and also indulged in by prize specimen like Laloo Yadav and the born again ally of the BJP, Jayalalitha.

The fallacy in the reasoning should have been obvious to the Law Minister. The charge that Modi had to answer was organizing and supporting a pogrom of Muslims, implemented with speed and meticulous detail in Gujarat’s polarized polity after the horror in Godhra. The story of a spontaneous outburst of action and reaction being equal and opposite – Modi denies he ever said that – is not substantiated. By the evening of 27th February, a sitting judge of the Gujarat High Court is approached not by Gujarat’s Gestapo but by military intelligence with reports that howling mobs were looking for a Muslim judge living in the area; the judge is escorted by the army to the Circuit House annexe for safety.

A retired Muslim judge’s ground floor flat is attacked; he is advised to leave. The next day he finds the flat looted and burnt, only one room with clothes and some papers saved. Naroda Patiya and other areas were systematically looted and burnt. The modus operandi was for the Gestapo to take away knives even those to cut vegetables and ask questions like whether they have bombs and harbour any Dawood Ibrahim men? An hour later, large mobs with gas cylinders, swords and trishuls herd Muslims into their hutment and burn them alive. Instead of investigating the Godhra incident and bringing culprits to book, there are calls for vengeance. And the camps begin to fill. A reign of terror is let loose, which I did not expect to see in my lifetime – I have just returned after four days in Modi’s Ahmedabad. I will report on it fully later, Godhra is 50 km. from Madhya Pradesh, 150 km. from Ahmedabad. Why was MP not provoked?

To get on with the argument, Gujarat raises questions of disregard of criminal law; elections by contrast are about choosing between policies and programmes of contending political parties. Is Modi seeking approval of a policy of waging war upon minorities? He can do so if he wishes but this cannot be the excuse for evading responsibility for what has already happened under his tutelage.

The BJP National Executive asks Modi to test public opinion in elections. Is public opinion an alternative to the courts? Is that the law the Law Minister studied and practiced? Besides there are two hundred thousand traumatized people now living in camps, half of them in Ahmedabad alone. Ravaged women some stripped of their clothes, frightened children and old men arrive and are huddled there, their eyes expressionless. Sanitation is non-existent, only recently have NGOs installed some mobile toilets but they are woefully inadequate. Is Modi going to ask them for their photo-identity cards? It is well settled that a law and order situation judged satisfactory by the Election Commission is a sine qua non for elections. The Commission must satisfy themselves that conditions exist for a free and fair poll; the record in recent times does not suggest that the Commission are ready and willing to exchange their judgement for the optimism of the Home Ministry for instance.

And finally if Modi is asked to leave what is the guarantee that someone like Pravin Togadia will not take his place? Resignation is not the answer either. I went to Sabarmati Ashram. I have no doubt that if Bapu were alive he would ask Modi to stay, group his storm-troopers into battalion strength, place them under army officers and make them restore the homes they have ravaged, the property they have looted, rehabilitate the victims and help them get over their trauma. Those who have lost their lives cannot be restored. That guilt they would carry to their graves; the brave among them should confess and pay the penalty at law. That is not going to happen because the Mahatma is forgotten in Gujarat. Witness the attack on Medha Patkar and the attempt to obstruct Mallika Sarabhai’s peace effort inside the Ashram. On Modi’s return from Goa, Gujarat television broke into singing – Raghupati raghav raja Ram; patita pavan Sita Ram; Ishwar, Allah tere nam; subko sanmati de Bhagwan, with Modi’s face doing the arati on the screen! Are there no limits to hypocrisy?

As I approached the Ashram on my way to the airport, police were preventing satyagrahis from squatting across the road in a dharna. I got out of the car and had the satisfaction of having the Gestapo make way for me. Perhaps The Statesman identity card round my neck helped. An ordinary press card would have been useless. And thereby hangs a tale!

April 18