Attacks against Muslims were pre-planned by VHP: UK Govt report on Gujarat riots

New Delhi: The row over the BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots that directly implicates Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his role in letting the Hindu mobs vent their anger after the Godhra train burning continues to create waves in the country.

In pursuit of finding truth since the banning of the BBC documentary in India, the Caravan has released a document of an investigation the UK government is said to have held into the 2002 Gujarat riots – which it called a pogrom with the signs of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim community – alluding to riots that killed more than 2000 people in three days, mostly Muslims, were pre-planned by Vishva Hindu Parishad, a right-wing group and offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The documentary titled India: The Modi Question also mentions the investigation report which cites evidence to corroborate their deduction that the attacks that were unleashed by the Hindu right-wing groups after the Godhra incident targeting the Muslims were pre-planned.

“Police contacts confirmed that rioters used computerised lists to target Muslim homes and businesses. The accuracy and detail of the lists, including businesses with minority Muslim share-holding, suggest that they were prepared in advance,” the UK investigation report suggests.

The UK government investigation report also made the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, accountable for the violence that happened in 2002 February, which the report says would not have been possible without creating an environment of assured impunity by the state government.

The report notes, “The attack on the train at Godhra on 27 February provided the pretext. If it had not occurred, another one would have been found.”

“The VHP and its allies acted with the support of the state Government. They could not have inflicted so much damage without the climate of impunity created by the state Government. Chief Minister Narendra Modi is directly responsible. His actions have not just been guided by a cynical assessment of political advantage. As an architect of the BJP’s Hindu nationalist agenda which it has pursued since it came to power in 1995, he is a believer in the VHP’s ideological motivation,” the report says.

The report also makes observations on the scale of the violence and points to the involvement of police in the rape of Muslim women. “A conservative estimate based on information from reliable human rights contacts puts the number of deaths at 2000 … The killing was accompanied in many areas by widespread and systemic rape of Muslim women, sometimes by police.” The report states, “police contacts accept that implicit state Government pressure inhibited their response.”

Below given the full text of the report