Delhi 1984 will help me probe Gujarat 2002, says new judge

Charges of organised violence, allegations of Government complicity and police inaction. And the fact that most of those killed were minorit...

Charges of organised violence, allegations of Government complicity and police inaction. And the fact that most of those killed were minorities. These are the ‘‘peculiar similarities’’ between Ahmedabad 2002 and New Delhi 1984, says Justice G. T. Nanavati as he takes charge of the probe into the Gujarat massacre.

In his first interview after he was appointed earlier this week as chairman of the commission inquiring into Godhra and the riots, Nanavati told The Indian Express: ‘‘My experience with the Delhi carnage inquiry has sensitised me, it’s bound to be useful in my new assignment.’’

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Nanavati, however, declined to comment on the controversy raging over the earlier chairman of the Commission, former high court judge K.G. Shah, for his alleged bias against Muslims. Shah will continue to be in the Commission, though now only as a member.

What if they don’t agree? ‘‘First of all, I don’t expect us to have differences,’’ says Nanavati. ‘‘But if we do so, each of us will write a separate report. That doesn’t matter because we will only find facts and make recommendations, which may or may not be accepted by the Government. We are not a court which will refer the matter to a larger bench to break such a deadlock.’’

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By agreeing to take charge of the inquiry into the Gujarat carnage, Nanavati has set a record of sorts. This is the fourth commission he has been assigned since he retired about two years ago.

The first related to a lathicharge on lawyers on Parliament Street in the Capital when they were agitating against legal reforms. Nanavati submitted the first Commission’s report in March 2001. But he is still very much engaged in the second Commission probing the 1984 massacre at this stage because the earlier inquiry held by Justice Ranganath Misra was dismissed as a ‘‘whitewash.’’ The third Commission he heads deals with illegal colonies in Delhi.