New Delhi: The 2002 Gujarat riots victims gathered at Naroda Patiya and sent an open letter to Narendra Modi seeking justice.
Here's the full text of the letter:
Dear Narendrabhai
Why do you have to undertake this “Sadbhavna Mission” by observing three days “upvaas”?? No other Chief Minister of the 26 States in India has to do such a “prayaschit” to earn sadbhavna! Have you finally realized after about a decade that all the so called “developmental” publicity cannot earn you the faith, respect and love of the people?
You are quite good at story telling. Do you remember the story of king Midas? Whatever he touched turned into gold. Your supporters say you have the Midas touch of turning Gujarat into Swarnim Gujarat. But do you remember that despite all his power, Midas thirsted for just a glass of water, like you are thirsting for the love and respect of the victims of the 2002 riots? No amount of power or arrogance gave Midas his glass of water nor will you get your sadbhavana with all your developmental publicity!
You say all your critics are liars! Is it a lie that in the months of February and March 2002, over a thousand helpless men, women and children were butchered all over Gujarat with your police watching the mobs looting and killing?? Is it a lie that you were the Chief Minister of Gujarat at that time? If you were so great a Chief Minister as you claim today, why couldn’t you protect these innocent, helpless Muslims?? In fact, why did you fail to protect the innocent 58 passengers of Sabarmati Express who also died in the terrible fire on 27th February, 2002??
You say that you are not guilty of the mass murders of those days! If you are not guilty then tell us who are guilty? Tell us why your police failed to prosecute them because of which Supreme Court had to appoint SIT? Tell us why even after SIT was appointed, all those who were arrested including Mayaben Kodnani and Jaydeep Patel are roaming freely in this State? Tell us why POTA was applied to only Muslim accused? Tell us why the muslim accused were not granted bail and most of them have been convicted and even sentenced to death! Tell us why the accused of the Naroda Patiya or Gulberg massacre have not been convicted till today??
Tell us why the blame of the Haren Pandya murder was falsely put on the muslim boys who had to suffer 8 years in jail till they were acquitted by the high court?
Tell us why Sameer Khan Pathan, Sadiq Jamal, Ishrat Jahan, Sohrabuddin, Kausar, Tulsi Prajapati and several others were murdered in fake encounters and in every FIR it was alleged that they were intending to kill you? Did you ever investigate why every FIR made such an allegation regarding you? If such an allegation was false, did you take any action against the police officers who killed them? Or did you give them promotions??
Are you celebrating the pain of the victims or are you trying to confuse the people by organizing the five-star programme to give an impression that the cases against you have been closed?
Narendrabhai, you may turn Gujarat into a heaven for a handful of rich and powerful. But have you ever peeped into the hell through which we the victims and community as a whole is going through? No, you have not and we know, you have no desire or intention to give us Justice. We therefore dismiss your “Sadbhavana Mission” as just another publicity stunt.
On our part, we declare that we have no ill feeling towards our Hindu brothers and sisters despite our terrible loss and sufferings. We are both the victims of powerful political forces whose strength lies in our division. We alone can create “Sadbhavana” by uniting and defeating the forces of fraud and deception for vote politics. You may be doing all this for your great ambition to become PM of the country, but we have only one small demand- WE WANT JUSTICE.
Your riot victim citizens.
Jan Sangharsh Manch
September 18, 2011
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