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Journalism of Courage
When Union Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav set up a new inquiry committee to probe what really happened in coach S-6 of Sabarmati Express that day in Godhra 2002, this paper expressed its scepticism. Of course, it was necessary to exhume the truth from the politics, separate fact from innuendo. True, also, that the state police and the state-appointed commission did not inspire optimism on that score. But was this the answer: a probe set up by a politician with an eye on an upcoming election? Another committee that was bound to seek and receive more extensions than it deserved? A few months later, when the Banerjee Commission held a hurried press conference to reveal its interim findings, just weeks before its final report was due, that initial pessimism was roundly confirmed. The fire in Coach S-6 was an accident, the panel was loud and certain — bang on the eve of the Bihar polls. Now, the Gujarat High Court’s terming of the Banerjee Commission “illegal, unconstitutional’’ doesn’t come as a surprise.
It is deeply troubling, though. The events of Gujarat 2002 are still with us. And this is not only because of the terrible scale of the murder and mayhem, or its long trail of political and social polarisation. It is also because on Gujarat, justice and closure have proved tortuously hard to get. Narendra Modi’s government must own up to the overwhelming share of the responsibility for this and it is a matter of continuing shame for our constitutional democracy that there have been few penalties yet for its failure to do so. But as the discredited committee set up by Lalu Prasad Yadav illustrates, Modi’s agenda has received no small help from his political detractors.
The high court’s sharp reprimand is not just a lesson to Yadav. It should also serve as a reminder to all self-styled upholders of the secular cause that they must court credibility above all. Their political partisanship will only come back to haunt them. It will also further set back the moment when India can move on from Gujarat 2002.
