NEW DELHI, 23 May 2008 — Six years after the Gujarat massacre and four years after coming to power, the Congress party-led federal government yesterday announced compensation for the victims of the 2002 riots.

“The victims, whose residential property had been damaged, would get an additional compensation 10 times the amount given by the state government minus the amount already paid by the state government,” according to an official announcement. The Cabinet also gave its approval for grant of additional compensation for damage to uninsured commercial or industrial property, sources said.

“The decision for payment of additional compensation to the victims of the communal riots in Gujarat of 2002 for damage to residential property and uninsured commercial/industrial property will keep them at par with the measures taken in respect of victims of anti-Sikh riots of 1984,” according to the official press release.

“A compensation of 350,000 rupees will be given to the family members of the 1,169 people who died in the riots. The total amount for this comes to 401 million rupees,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram later told reporters. A sum of 296 million rupees has been earmarked for the 2,548 people injured in the violence, with each person getting 125,000 rupees, he said. An amount of 2.62 billion rupees had been sanctioned for those who suffered financial losses due to damage to property.

“Data on uninsured commercial properties are being collected and it may not be possible to give the quantum of funds required. But the intention is to give some compensation to the uninsured commercial properties which were damaged,” he said.

When questioned on the list of victims, Chidambaram replied: “These are the agreed figures. The list is in respect of which compensation has been paid by the state government.”

On the completion of four years in office, senior Congress leaders held a meeting yesterday discussing how to make the people aware of their achievements ahead of parliamentary elections next year. The leaders discussed the strategy of such publicity campaign in coordination with state units.

“The meeting congratulated the government on its achievements. Every year, the government comes out with a report card of its performance. Of course, we have not seen it so far, but it will be taken to party workers,” Congress General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi told reporters.

“Publicity material, including publications in regional languages, will be prepared to take achievements of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government to the people,” a Congress leader said.

“Strategies will have to be worked out differently for different states. The issues that will be highlighted will also differ from state to state,” he said.

“The state units of the party will be consulted. Central ministers will be called to states to hold seminars and participate in other publicity campaigns,” he said.

The UPA also held its fourth anniversary dinner at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence. While Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Communist Party of India (CPI), external allies of the Congress-led coalition attended the dinner, the smaller left allies — the Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) — stayed away.

Surprisingly, the controversial celebratory dinner was attended by Samajwadi Party. Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party declined to attend.