FREEZE DATE – 6TH MARCH, 2002

Letter from the Executive Board

Dear Delegates,

You have been chosen for this commission to inquire into the mishappenings that occured in Gujarat in 2002. The nature of this committee is one that is extremely sensitive, especially at this time in our country's socio-political milleu; one of widespread unrest, protests, and violence. The committee will put to test your abilty to research, analyse and especially to persuade other delegates using well-framed arguements.

As the Executive Board of the committee, we strive to make MUNing as enjoyable an experience as possible for you. We hope that you take back not only good memories but also some valuable skills from the conference. This background guide serves only as a start to your research. In no way should this limit your research, and be sure to research as much as you can!

We trust that through the course of these two days, as part of a carefully chosen group of individuals, you all will arrive at a cohesive, politically correct, and morally sound answer regarding the discussed violence, and its perpetrators.

We wish you luck in your endeavours!

Best Regards,The Executive Board

Parth Jhunjhunwala - Justice G. T. Nanavati - Chairperson

Devika Bisht - Justice Akshay H. Mehta - Vice-Chairperson

Feel free to contact us in case you have any doubts!

Parth Jhunjhunwalaparthjjw@gmail.com

Devika Bisht 9971121685devikaa2182@gmail.comInstagram-@devika_1618

NOTE: Though the Freeze Date of this simulation of the commission is 6th March, 2002, the date of appointment of the commission, this background guide may contain information regarding events that have occurred in the future. This information has been added to help you build a better understanding of the unfortunate incidents that occurred in the state of Gujarat in the year 2002. In this commission, we expect you bring forth evidence which can lead the commission to a conclusive opinion about the mishappenings that occurred throughout Gujarat, and their perpetrators.

Being an unconventional committee, the Rules of Procedure of the committee would differ from that in a conventional one. There would not be strict Rules of Procedure to be followed. DO NOTE THAT THE COMMITTEE IS BILINGUAL (HINDI AND ENGLISH).

ALL PARTICIPANTS ARE EXPECTED TO GIVE AN OPENING STATEMENT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CONFERENCE.

The Nanavati-Mehta Commission

The Nanavati-Mehta Commission was the commission of inquiry appointed by the government of Gujarat to probe the Godhra train burning incident of 27 February 2002. Its mandate was later enlarged to include the investigation of the 2002 Gujarat riots. A commission of Inquiry is a Union or State government ordered public inquiry either by executive notice or by making ad hoc legislation.

It was appointed on 6 March, 2002 under section 3 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 to investigate into the Godhra train burning incident, the subsequent riots and the adequacy or lack thereof of the administrative measures taken to prevent and deal with the disturbances that followed, both in Godhra and subsequently across the state.

Terms of Reference for the Commission This commission will work to:

(1) inquire into- (a) the facts, circumstances, and course of events of the incidents that lead to setting on fire some coaches of the Sabarmati Express on 27/02/2002 near Godhra railway station

(b) the fact circumstances in cost of events of the subsequent incidents of violence in the State in the aftermath of the Godhra incident.

(c) the adequacy of administrative measures taken to prevent and deal with the disturbances in Godhra and subsequent disturbances in the state

(2) to ascertain as to whether the incident at Godhra was pre-planned and whether information was present with the agencies which could have been used to prevent the incident

(3) to recommend suitable measures to prevent recurrences of such incidents in future.

The Government also made applicable to the Commission all the provisions of the sub-sections (2) to (5) of section 5 of the Act.

The Godhra Train Burning Incident

The Godhra Train Burning was an incident that occurred on the morning of 27 February 2002, in which 59 people died in a fire inside the Sabarmati Express train near the Godhra railway station in the Indian state of Gujarat. The victims were Hindu pilgrims who were returning from the city of Ayodhya after a religious ceremony (kar seva) at the disputed Babri Masjid site.

In February 2002, thousands of devotees of Rama (known as "Ramsevaks" or "Kar Sevaks") had gone from Gujarat to Ayodhya at the behest of the Vishva Hindu Parishad to take part in a ceremony called the Purnahuti Maha Yagna. On 25 February, 1,700 people, a mix of pilgrims and karsevaks boarded the Sabarmati Express which was bound for Ahmedabad. On 27 February 2002, the train made its scheduled stop at Godhra about four hours late, at 7:43 am. As the train started leaving the platform, someone pulled the emergency brake and the train stopped near the signal point. The driver of the train later stated that the chain had been pulled multiple times, judging by the instruments in his cabin.

The train was attacked by a mob of around 2,000 people. After some stone-pelting, four coaches of the train were set alight, trapping many people inside. 59 people including 27 women and 10 children were burnt to death, and 48 others were injured. According to J Mahapatra, additional director general of the Gujarat police, "miscreants had kept the petrol-soaked rags ready for use much before the train had arrived at Godhra". Martha Nussbaum has challenged this narrative, stating that several inquiries have found that the conflagration was an accident rather than a planned conspiracy. Madhu Kishwar has blamed the "amazing distortions introduced by Congress and its leftist allies" as the reason why the facts are not widely known and accepted.

The Gujarat Riots of 2002 That Followed

The Godhra train burning incident marked the beginning of one of the worst incidences of hindu-muslim violence since india’s independence, exceptional for its scale and brutality. Throughout Gujarat, large mobs pillaged, looted,raped and killed for over three months, resulting in a great loss of lives and property. According to official figures 790 muslims and 254 hindus died, and 2500 people were injured as a result of extremely brutal acts of torture, burning, raping and maiming. Human rights organisations estimate that at least 2000 people perished. Factories, shops, bore-wells, textile looms, rickshaws, warehouses, etc. were burned in what seemed deliberate attempts to damage the livelihoods of the

victims. More than 2,00,000 people were displaced. The Chief Minister of Gujarat at that time, Narendra Modi, was accused of initiating and condoning the violence, as were police and government officials who allegedly directed the rioters and gave lists of Muslim-owned properties to them.

Though officially classified as a communalist riot, the events of 2002 have been described as a pogrom by many scholars. Other observers have stated that these events had met the "legal definition of genocide,” or referred to them as ethnic cleansing. Instances of mass violence include the Naroda Patiya massacre that took place directly adjacent to a police training camp; the Gulbarg Society massacre where Ehsan Jafri, a former parliamentarian, was among those killed; and several incidents in Vadodara city.

It is estimated that 230 mosques and 274 dargahs were destroyed during the violence. For the first time in the history of communal riots Hindu women took part, looting Muslim shops. It is estimated that up to 150,000 people were displaced during the violence. It is estimated that 200 police officers died while trying to control the violence, and Human Rights Watch reported that acts of exceptional heroism were committed by Hindus, Dalits and tribals who tried to protect Muslims from the violence.

Violence against Muslims

In the aftermath of the violence, it became clear that many attacks were focused not only on Muslim populations, but also on Muslim women and children. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch criticised the Indian government and the Gujarat state administration for failure to address the resulting humanitarian condition of victims who fled their homes for relief camps during the violence, the

"overwhelming majority of them Muslim.” An international fact-finding committee formed of all women international experts from US, UK, France, Germany and Sri Lanka reported, "sexual violence was being used as a strategy for terrorizing women belonging to minority community in the state."

It is estimated that at least two-hundred and fifty girls and women were gang raped and then burned to death. In the Naroda Patiya mass grave of ninety-six bodies, forty-six were women. Rioters also flooded homes and electrocuted entire families inside. There was widespread violence against women. According to Kalpana Kannabiran the rapes were part of a well-organized, deliberate and pre-planned strategy, and which facts place the violence into the categories of political pogrom and genocide.

Children were killed by being burnt alive and those who dug the mass graves described the bodies interred within them as "burned and butchered beyond

recognition." The Concerned Citizens' Tribunal, characterised the use of rape "as an instrument for the subjugation and humiliation of a community."

Naroda-Patiya Massacre-The Naroda-Patiya massacre was the most gruesome of all post-Godhra violent incidents, claiming the highest number of casualties. On February 28, 2002, when the Vishwa Hindu Parishad called a State-wide bandh to condemn the Godhra train carnage which took place the previous day, a 5,000-strong mob attacked the members of the Muslim community, burning many of them alive and throwing their bodies into a dry well. Many women were allegedly molested and raped before being killed, and their bodies hurled into the fire. Over 30 others were injured. The police recovered 94 bodies and three others were reported missing, but were declared dead later.

Best Bakery Case-The Best Bakery, a small outlet in the Hanuman Tekri area of Vadodara, was allegedly attacked by a mob, which burned down the bakery, killing 14 people on March 1, 2002. The mob targeted the Muslims inside, including the Sheikh family which ran the bakery. All the fourteen people, who were killed, had taken refuge in the Best Bakery during the riots. Three Hindu workers employed at the bakery were also killed.

Gulbarg Society Massacre-At 9 am on 28 February 2002, a day after the 2002 Gujarat riots had begun, a mob shouting slogans gathered outside the Gulbarg Society in the Hindu-dominated Chamanpura area of Ahmedabad. The Society comprised 29 bungalows and 10 apartment buildings, housing mostly Muslim upper-middle-class business families. Many of the residents reacted to the presence of the mob by taking refuge in the home of a former Congress MP, Ehsan Jafri. It was claimed that Jafri unsuccessfully made repeated attempts to contact the police by telephone. By noon, the mob had turned violent, breached the boundary wall and started to set fire to houses and attack residents. 69 people died during the following six hours and at least a further 85 were injured. Among the dead was Ehsan Jafri, who was hacked to death and later burnt, while at least another 35 people were either hacked to death or burned alive.

Violence against Hindus

Hindus have also suffered greatly from the violence in Gujarat. In addition to the fifty-eight people killed during the torching of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra on February 27, 2002, over ten thousand Hindus have also been made homeless as a result of post-Godhra violence. According to police records, 157 riots after the Godhra incident were started by Muslims. Many also feared retaliatory attacks by

Muslims communities—promoted in some areas by false reports in the local language media —or fear of being mistaken for Muslim by Hindu mobs.

An India Today article contained the followings accounts of retaliatory violence against Hindu communities, though the list is far from complete:

“In Ahmedabad, violence broke out on March 17 when Dalits in the Danilimda area were attacked by Muslims. On March 19, it was Modasa, a town in Sabarkantha district. A police officer’s son was stabbed and two communities went berserk.... The stories only got more macabre. In Himmatnagar, a young man who went to a Muslim-dominated area to do business was found dead, with his eyes gouged out. In Bharuch, the murder of a Muslim youth led to mass violence. Next the Sindhi Market and Bhanderi Pole areas of Ahmedabad, hitherto calm, were attacked by mobs. This phase, really, was one of Muslim mobs attacking Hindus. By the time [Prime Minister] Vajpayee arrived [on April 4] the Hindu throngs were looking for blood again. The cycle seemed unending, at least for the immediate future.”

Mahajan No Vando, a fortified Hindu residential area situated within the Muslim dominated area of Jamalpur, was the site of a retaliatory attack by Muslims on March 1. According to residents, approximately twenty-five people were injured in the attacks and at least five homes were completely destroyed. Residents closer to the periphery of the fortified compound and its entrance also suffered extensive property damage. Muslim residents attacked the compound from the higher Muslim-owned buildings that surrounded it using light bulbs filled with acid, petrol and crude bombs, and bottles filled with kerosene and set some Hindu-owned houses on fire.

A resident named Harki Bhen said:“Kerosene bottles were thrown in through the roof. They threw it through the windows and the openings in the walls. We called the police thousands of times but they told us, “Sir is out”. In the morning the mosques began announcing that Islam was in danger, that there was poison in the milk. This is their code word. We are the only Hindus here, poison here means us. The rioting lasted between 2:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. First they destroyed the police stall outside. At 11:00 p.m. two police people to came to us. We had to give them security.”

Allegations of state complicity

Many scholars and commentators have accused the state government of being complicit in the attacks, either in failing to exert any effort to quell the violence or for actively planning and executing the attacks themselves. The United States Department of State ultimately banned Narendra Modi from travelling to the United States due to his alleged role in the attacks. The media has described the attacks

as state terrorism rather than "communal riots" due to the lack of state intervention.

Human Rights Watch reported:

“In almost all of the incidents documented by Human Rights Watch the police were directly implicated in the attacks. At best they were passive observers, and at worse they acted in concert with murderous mobs and participated directly in the burning and looting of Muslim shops and homes and the killing and mutilation of Muslims. In many cases, under the guise of offering assistance, the police led the victims directly into the hands of their killers. Many of the attacks on Muslim homes and places of business also took place in close proximity to police posts. Panicked phone calls made to the police, fire brigades, and even ambulance services generally proved futile. Many witnesses testified that their calls either went unanswered or that they were met with responses such as: "We don't have any orders to save you"; "We cannot help you, we have orders from above"; "If you wish to live in Hindustan, learn to protect yourself"; "How come you are alive? You should have died too"; "Whose house is on fire? Hindus' or Muslims'?" In some cases phone lines were eventually cut to make it impossible to call for help.”

Links for Further Researchhttp://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/A1952-60.pdf

https://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/india/gujarat.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/06/world/asia/modi-gujarat-riots-timeline.html#/#time287_8514

https://www.academia.edu/15480600/Godhra_Sifting_Fact_from_Fiction