MUMBAI, 10 August 2007 — Following pressure from various quarters, including Congress party President Sonia Gandhi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh yesterday ordered his Law and Judiciary Department as well as the Mumbai police commissioner to probe lapses in the implementation of the Srikrishna Commission Report on the 1992-1993 Mumbai riots that left over 1,000 people dead.
The SRC has emerged as a major political issue in Maharashtra with Muslim organizations, NGOs and Deshmukh’s own Cabinet colleagues, Narayan Rane and Anees Ahmed, campaigning for its implementation. Pressure has been mounting following the sentencing last month of those guilty of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case by a Terrorists and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) court.
The report, which was completed in 1998, five years after the riots, indicted several high-rank Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena politicians and senior Mumbai police officers in the murders of people. It has so far remained unimplemented.
Reacting to the probes, Shiv Sena leaders warned the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led Democratic Front government in the state of “dire consequences” and said the demands are only “a ploy to hang the Hindu.” Sanjay Raut, a Shiv Sena MP and editor of Sena’s mouthpiece “Saamna,” said, “Let the Congress-NCP government bring the dirty game and they will be given a befitting reply.”
Mahesh Bhatt, the noted filmmaker, and Naseem Khan, a Congress legislator and former minister, on behalf of the Action Committee for the Implementation of the report, met Desmukh recently to discuss the issue.
“There should be equal justice for Ram and Rahim. We now see a political will to bring the culprits to book. The government’s stance should demonstrate that India, in its 60th year of Independence, is secular not in words but in action and justice should not be denied to anyone,” said Bhatt.
Muslim organizations and NGOs are also holding a rally in Mumbai on Aug. 20 demanding implementation of the report and the initiation of action against Shiv Sena leaders and policemen indicted in the report.
Deshmukh has submitted a status report to Congress General Secretary Margaret Alva.
Meanwhile, a signature petition demanding that those guilty of participating in the riots and implementation of the report was launched yesterday in Mumbai at an event attended by several Bollywood, journalism and literary names, including the filmmaker and writer Vijay Tendulkar, journalists Anil Dharker, Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand, film director Farhan Akhtar and others. The petition, which can be signed at www.petitiononline.com is addressed to the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the president and prime minister of India.
The petition states that the convictions of those found guilty in the Bombay blasts case are intended to be a form of redress for the 250 families who lost dear ones and aims to send a message that the Indian system delivers justice for all crimes. The statement continues that the blasts were only the external symptoms of a cancer that had gnawed away at Mumbai’s vital organs with the failure of the state to protect the city’s Muslim population during the horrendous communal riots of Dec. 1992 and Jan. 1993 following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya by Hindutva fanatics.
“More than three times as many Mumbaiites were killed in the riots that preceded the bomb blasts but the lack of action against the perpetrators of the riots — who are named in the report — is clear evidence of the operation of a double standard of justice,” the statement said.
Stating that those guilty of the riots were being protected, the statement said, “Information obtained under the Right to Information Act makes it clear that successive state governments, no matter what their political persuasion, have decided to shield the guilty.”
The motivations of the BJP and the Shiv Sena in refusing to implement the recommendations of the report are obvious: Individuals named include Sena chief Bal Thackeray, Manohar Joshi, Gopinath Munde and Madhukar Sarpotdar.
The statement added that the report lays bare the biased role played by 31 police officers, including R.D. Tyagi, who as joint commissioner shot dead nine persons at a bakery labeling them “Kashmiri terrorists.” Another senior police officer, N.K. Kapse, was promoted after a departmental inquiry exonerated him of any guilt in shooting down seven persons at a mosque.
