“I will fight as long as I am alive”, – Zakia Jafri said in a firm voice, despite the great losses, sorrows and debility her old age has created. She fought a brilliant battle after many people, including her husband Ehsan Jafri, were killed in the attack by Hindutva terrorists. She left this world at the age of 86, maintaining the strength of the fight till the end. Ehsan Jafri, who was burnt to death by terrorists during the 2002 Gujarat riots, was a popular leader and Congress MP. He called many people, including the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, to seek protection from the attackers, but the government did not move. The circumstances and Zakia's own experiences and testimonies all pointed to a planned and state-sponsored genocide. For her, who was convinced that the state had connived at the massacre she witnessed, it was not just a problem of any group of individuals or communities. It was a matter for the entire country, where the rule of law must prevail. In that sense, her fight was not only for justice but for the country and the Constitution. For more than twenty years, the elderly woman sought justice for her murdered husband; it became a signpost for the decline of ethics in modern India.
Zakia Jafri took up the legal battle in 2006 when she saw that the Gulbarg Society massacre was going uninvestigated and unpunished. Her fight to investigate the roles of Narendra Modi and others in it led to the Supreme Court ordering the appointment of a Special Investigation Team. By then, the ‘Concerned Citizens’ Tribunal’ had published a detailed investigation report exposing the government’s shortcomings. However, the court-appointed investigation team submitted a report in 2012 exonerating the the authorities in the top. Zakia challenged this in court; a lower court dismissed her complaint. In 2014, she filed an appeal in the Gujarat High Court, but three years later, the High Court also dismissed her appeal. It is not the concern of an individual to register an FIR against those responsible for the most horrific massacre in the genocide that shook the country; it is the responsibility of the judicial system. Yet, the fact that except for a few police officers and lawyers with a sense of justice, not many people have come forward to support Zakia's fight is a testament to the plight of the country. Moreover, the Supreme Court's remarks against Teesta Setalvad, who provided legal aid to Zakia, which even questioned her constitutional right to seek justice, and the hunt that the authorities carried out on its basis remain a dark spot in the history of our judiciary.
Zakia Jafri's life is also a story of a woman being isolated and defeated by the state apparatus and politicians for demanding justice. Not only the ruling party but also the opposition party let her down in this fight. Ehsan Jafri was a top leader of the Congress. The main demand of the opposition should have been to punish the crime that killed him and many others. But she had only a few individuals like Teesta to rely on. But for playing this role, the court criticised Teesta as if she were taking advantage of the victim's grief. Zakia Jafri departs, leaving the question of why racism and genocide are not the main issue for the country's mainstream. When the government defeated the Constitution and the rule of law, the opposition and the judiciary did not come to its defence. Even then, Zakia, a brave woman who fought alone, will be known as the person who stood up to restore the dignity of Indian citizenship.
