By TCN News,
Ahmedabad: In a time when propaganda is being spread that Gujarat is shining both socially and economically and all the communities including Muslims are living there peacefully, some civil groups organized a public hearing on 21st Feb. 2011 to exposed the continued plight of Muslims in Gujarat post 2002 infamous carnage, proving the fact that even today Muslims are deprived of peaceful life there.
This public hearing was organized by Anhad and Centre for Social Justice in collaboration with several other organizations at Mehdi Nawaz Jung Hall, Ahmedabad wherein 55 victims from different parts of the state appeared before the jury and narrated the atrocities they faced from police and extremists in Modi’s Gujarat.
Justice RA Mehta, Annie Raja, Gagan Sethi and Githa Hariharan were members of the jury while Imam Bilgrami, Member, National Commission for Minorities, was present there as special observer.
The depositions and stories of the victims that they stated are enough to break the myth that there is no fear amongst the minority community in Gujarat and that the dark nights of 2002 should be forgotten as a nightmare. Their testimonies showed that a large number of innocent young Muslims have been and are being victimized by the police on the false charges of being involved in various terrorist acts.
Jury members of the public hearing
Community Still Frightened
The predominant finding of the public hearing was that there is an intense sentiment of fear and growing despair among Muslim citizens of Gujarat. Many of those who testified in the hearing expressed that they felt reduced to second class citizenship. They shared their mounting disillusionment with all institutions of governance and more so with the police and legal system as well as with political parties and to some extent the media.
Terror Profiling
On one hand Muslims are profiled as a terrorist and they experience illegal and prolonged detention, denial of bail, torture, unfair and biased investigation and trial, and extra-judicial killings in the state. Even when the victims are acquitted or discharged on being found innocent, they are not compensated for the destruction of their lives and reputations. Even when the case against the victims is found to be totally cooked up, no action is being taken to hold the concerned police officials accountable.
Discrimination Galore
On the other hand the families of victims face day to day discrimination in education, employment, housing and public services, which entrap the community in hopeless conditions of poverty. There were many testimonies about economic boycott, harassment of businessmen, occupying of Kabristans in a systematic manner by the local authorities, denial of loans even when sanctioned, discrimination in hospitals by doctors and prejudice and bias of public as well as government institutions towards Muslims.
The team of jury concluded that the atrocities must be stopped because it is not simply a problem of victimhood or injustice to a particular community but it is a grave challenge to the basic values of the Indian Constitution including democracy, secularism, fraternity and the rule of law.
Audience
They recommended following steps to end the panic situation of Muslims and to protect the secular fabric of the country:
1. There should be a high-powered judicial commission headed by a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court appointed to examine all cases of terror across the country. Those that seem doubtful or fabrications should be handed over to a Special Investigation Team appointed and supervised by the high-powered judicial commission.
2. In those cases in which it is obvious that false cases were framed and evidence fabricated, the police officers should be prosecuted (tampering with evidence in cases which can result in capital punishment is itself a capital crime). Victims who were detained and ultimately found innocent should be paid compensation by the state for the suffering and lost years of their lives.
3. A special police officer for safeguarding the rights of minorities in minority concentrated police stations be put to monitor the cases registered by and against Muslims and oversee their investigation so as to counter a bias.
4. A special central government Ministry of Minority Affairs (MOMA) Watch must be set up to ensure all the schemes where minorities have an entitlement are made available, starting from the PDS system and access to all government schemes.
5. A legal aid and sensitive advice system must be made available at each district level by paying for one part time lawyer to one NGO per taluka to ensure legal entitlement.
6. That MOMA should set up a team of 5 senior officers in Gujarat to directly provide facilitation support in all the cases which came up for public hearing and see that the victims get their entitlement but more so appropriate charges and complaints are filed by this MOMA team on behalf of the victim.
7. Banning of any social organisations which spread hatred, include those who are involved in door to door threats and not allowing the Muslim community to get their entitlements.
8. That people living as “IDP”s need be acknowledged officially as IDPs to get their share of the package and this should be to any individual who can prove that he/she was a victim of 2002 communal violence or any other similar violence after that. All violence post 2002 must be seen as a continuation of that as normalcy was never achieved as cases are still on and witness protection has not been effective.
9. On a long term basis children and youth need an environment where they are dealing with a different religious identity not as the “other” but different and therefore build trust and confidence measures among youth.
10. Any person charged and faces charges in an ongoing trial of grave offence should be barred from contesting election till exonerated.
11. Credit cooperatives and banks must build an affirmative action policy and publish their loan and membership data.
12. Affirmative action in jobs and educational institutions including those run by minority institutions.
13. Accountability for affirmative action & for preventing discrimination.