By TCN News,
Bhopal: Welcoming the judgement given by a special sessions court in Ahmadabad in Naroda Patiya massacre, the worst of 2002 post-Godhra riots, the Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), has hailed Ms Teesta Setalvad and her team for their toils to get justice to the victims and survivors of this ghoulish incident wherein 97 Muslims mostly women and children were sent to eternal sleep.
SDPI national president Mr. E. Abubacker in a statement said that this judgement has very good and far reaching impacts on the confidence of the minorities/weaker sections of Indian Society and at the same time this will work as a deterrent in future. India has seen many riots, but for the first time people who committed this act have been punished. This judgement will spread a very good message. Several riots took place in the country but no punishment ever took place. But for the first time, Special Investigation Team, (SIT), set up by the Supreme Court made it happen, he added.
Mr. Abubacker said that the judgment will have a “positive impact on the psyche of the minorities” and congratulated the witness for braving all odds and depose against the powerful accused persons. He acknowledged the raw courage of the victim witnesses, especially women witnesses who deposed fearlessly while still residing in Naroda Patiya. This is a reflection of the confidence generated after the Supreme Court monitoring and the protection from Central Paramilitary forces provided by the Supreme Court. Perhaps this is the first such incident in the country in which the conspirators of communal riots have been punished. Had the perpetrators of the communal riots been punished in this manner in the past, it would have discouraged such unfortunate happenings and communal riots would not have continued to take place in the manner they did,” he moaned.
He said that the sentencing of sitting BJP MLA Dr. (Mrs.) Maya Kodnani, Babubhai Bajrangi and 30 others to life imprisonment, must be seen as a step in the right direction. The conviction and sentencing of these 32 persons must now come as a severe warning to several more high profile politicians and others, who still stand accused in the Courts of Law on various charges committed during those bloody days of 2002, in Gujarat. He demanded that the government should appeal in the higher court against the acquittal of the 29 others.
Mr. Abubacker said the efforts of Ms Setalvad and her team are commendable. She and her team have been totally dedicated to a cause and have taken it to it’s logical end. To fight for justice is no easy task, and Ms Setalvad and her team have proved that they possess the moral courage to stand and fight injustice no matter how difficult the terrain and powerful the adversary. It is her conviction, commitment and leadership to help Gujarat riot’s victims to provide justice paid off. Hats off to Ms Setalvad and her team and may their tribe increase, he prayed.
The SDPI chief also eulogised the presiding judge in the case Ms Jyotsnanbehn Yagnik for calling spade a spade to state bluntly in her judgement. She observed: “This was a pre-planned conspiracy and it cannot be mitigated by just saying that it was a reaction to the Godhra train burning incident. Nobody can be allowed to take the law into their own hands because India is a country that upholds the rule of law.”
The court said Dr. Kodnani was the “kingpin of entire riots in the Naroda-Patiya area. “She led the mob and incited them to violence. She abetted and supported the violent mob,” the court observed. Describing the communal violence as “cancer in society,” Ms. Yagnik said exemplary punishments needed to be inflicted on the perpetrators of such crimes so that they would never be repeated in future. Rejecting defence theory that the communal violence at Naroda-Patiya was a reaction to the Godhra train carnage, Ms. Yagnik said the 2002 communal riots were a “black spot on the democratic structure of India.”
This exemplary punishment is what will reduce communalism over a period of time and cool down BJP, VHP, RSS combine, Mr. Abubacker opined.