NGOs boycott Godhra hearing

The Justice Nanavati and Shah Commission of Inquiry probing the post-Godhra violence was boycotted by three NGOs — People’s Union ...

The Justice Nanavati and Shah Commission of Inquiry probing the post-Godhra violence was boycotted by three NGOs — People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), Vadodara Shanti Abhiyan and Medio Friends Circle (MFC) — during the first day of its Vadodara leg.

Agitating members said the commission had lost its credibility after the statement of Justice Nanavati in which, based on preliminary evidence, he had allegedly acquitted the administrative machinery of any negligence and denied large-scale involvement of the VHP and Bajrang Dal in the post-Godhra violence.

PUCL’s J.S. Bandukwala, carrying a ‘Go Back Nanavati’ placard, said they believed Nanavati was biased and wanted a perfect whitewash on the involvement of the Modi government and Sangh Parivar affiliates.

Story continues below this ad

The organisations filed an affidavit with the commission saying the situation was not yet normal and that a lot of intimidation was involved in the hearings and so they would not be part of it.

Apart from this hiccup, submissions made by affected persons before the two-member commission were a set of encomiums to the gallant behaviour of district police in safeguarding the interests of the minority community. Interestingly, almost all were from villages that had not reported any major communal violence.

Of the 21 persons who came to depose, all but one praised the police’s timely action in controlling mobs in rural areas of the district.

‘‘If the state police gets officers like PSI Vaghela, then communal violence will become a thing of the past,’’ said Akbar Fakirbaksh, trustee of a mosque in Sankheda where not a single incident of violence was reported. Asked why he had come to depose, he replied: ‘‘Just so I can be on good terms with villagers.’’