RIYADH/DAMMAM/JEDDAH, 3 March — Indian expats Kingdomwide, enraged by the ongoing communal carnage in the western Indian state of Gujarat, have called on federal President K.R. Narayanan to dismiss the right-wing Hindu governments in the center and the state for their “apathy and failure” to stop the mayhem.
The graphic depiction in the electronic and print media of the systematic killing of Muslims in various cities and towns raises many questions about the continuance of the two governments, they contend. There have been widespread killings of Muslims all over the state in the past three days, following an attack on a train in Godhra in which 58 Hindu activists were killed.
A cross-section of Indians across the Kingdom condemned the perpetrators of the violence in the state that has left at least 400 dead, a majority of them Muslim. They said that though the root cause of the trouble was still not clear due to the conflicting reports that are coming in, the backlash has been horrendous.
“Gujarat is burning, Muslims are being butchered and the state government is not doing anything,” was the general tone. “It seems Hindu fanatics have been given a license to kill. The apathy of the state government substantiates this,” said Aleem Akhtar, an artist working in a factory in Jeddah Industrial City.
Abdul Majeed Khan, manager of a travel agency in the Eastern Province, remarked with disgust: “Police remained a silent spectator as Muslims were burned alive.”
“The attack on the train is condemnable in the strongest possible terms. The governments at the center and the state should have anticipated a violent reaction from the fundamentalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, or the World Hindu Council, which is campaigning for constructing a temple on the ruins of the Babri Mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya). They not only failed to take preemptive steps but have shown total apathy once the mayhem started. The president should dismiss both the governments,” said Muhammad Ali, a senior aviation industry executive in Jeddah.
“If the government fails to bring order to the present insanity then it will be catastrophic for the country. Fundamentalism has already created a mistrust among various sections of Indian society, and politicians have added fuel to this mistrust for electoral gains,” said Satish Saxena, a native of New Delhi.
“The prime minister must come down heavily on the VHP, if it wants to establish its credibility before the international community,” he added.
“Whatever might have sparked the trouble, the VHP cannot escape the blame for its provocative attempt at building a temple at the site of the razed mosque. What have we gained from its actions except the loss of innocent lives, destruction of property and pushing back Gujarat’s economic development by at least a decade?” asked an irate Muslim in Riyadh who wished to identify himself only as Ali.
“Communal violence should be reined in immediately since there were also quite a few Arab and African Muslim students living with Indian Muslim families in Gujarat and Maharashtra, aside from Hyderabad, where communal violence has been spreading,” he added.
“It’s a shame that the scale of violence has not been curbed. It has had an adverse impact on the life and movement of the people. Aside from the deliberate targeting of property belonging to the minorities, it has led to the closure of schools and offices. When will India learn to look beyond the masjid-mandir issue even as the rest of the world is moving toward high technology,” asked Ravindran, a Riyadh sales executive.
Expats in Jeddah said the visuals of Star News TV channel clearly establish the apathy of the administration in containing the raging violence.
“In the wake of the Godhra incident, the central and state governments ought to have taken precautionary measures to prevent or counter the expected backlash, but they failed miserably. The situation is volatile and the frenzy may spread to other parts of India, especially in the wake of the VHP move to start construction of the temple in Ayodhya,” said Abdullah Rizvi, a resident of the Eastern Province.
Referring to Gujarat Chief Minister C.M. Modi’s statement that former Congress member of parliament Ehsan Jafrey was killed after he opened fire on a mob, Saeed Akhtar Khan, an executive in a newspaper distribution company in the Eastern Province, said: “What Modi failed to tell the media was that Jafrey called the police and other officials for nearly six hours. He opened fire only after the mob started burning houses.”
Going by the accounts of the widespread killings, one can only say that the “BJP government, which rules the center and the state, is giving an opportunity to the VHP to take revenge for the Godhra train burning,” Rizvi, manager of a roof proofing company, said.
A Jeddah doctor who requested anonymity said, “Gujarat will not be the same any more. The distrust and hate created among Hindus and Muslims will remain etched in their minds and one can expect periodic outbursts of violence even after calm returns to the state.”
— Javid Hassan, Saeed Haider & K.S. Ramkumar
