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The Truth Behind Godhra Riots
The Truth Behind Godhra Riots
Vir Sanghvi is the Chief Editor of The Hindustan Times. He wrote an article
titled “One way ticket” in The Hindustan Times dated 28 February 2002, i.e. he
must have written it on February 27 itself, the day of the massacre in Godhra.
This is the full text of his article:
Try and take the incident out of the secular construct that
we, in India, have perfected and see how bizarre such an
attitude sounds in other contexts. Did we say that New York
had it coming when the Twin Towers were attacked last
year? Then too, there was enormous resentment among
fundamentalist Muslims about America’s policies, but we
didn’t even consider whether this resentment was justified
or not.
Instead we took the line that all sensible people must take:
any massacre is bad and deserves to be condemned.
Not only does this insult the dead (What about the
children? Did they also have it coming?), but it also
insults the intelligence of the reader. Even moderate Hindus,
of the sort that loathe the VHP, are appalled by the stories
that are now coming out of Gujarat: stories with
uncomfortable reminders of 1947 with details about how the
bogies were first locked from outside and then set on fire
and how the women’s compartment suffered the most
damage.
Nearly all the media rationalized Godhra. Mind the word rationalized
and not justified. Because after rationalizing Godhra, all of them added that
they are by no means ‘justifying’ it. To say that they all justified Godhra will
be a bit too harsh. But there is absolutely no doubt that they all rationalized
Godhra and in parts, partially justified it