1984 & 2002: narratives of official collusion (Book Review)
- The current record of public violence in India places Trilokpuri (Delhi, 1984) and Naroda Patiya (Ahmedabad, 2002) as most brutal in India’s record of protecting minorities.
- The official death toll of 2,733 in the 1984 Delhi carnage where Sikhs were killed in and around Block 32 [Trilokpuri] was close to the death toll in Ahmedabad during 2002 riots, which was pegged at 442.
- Congress was considered as “opportunistically” communal & BJP “ideologically” communal.
- The authorities were hand-in-glove during the firing episode in Naroda Patiya just like Trilokpuri violence of 1984.
- Modi has passed off the Godhra killings as a ‘chain of actions & reactions’, akin to Rajiv Gandhi’s tree metaphor in 1984 (Indira Gandhi’s death).
- SIT’s clean chit to Modi has political implications. It served as a green signal for Modi’s transition to the national stage.
- The reports by Nanavati Commission on the Godhra train Killings in 2008 is still yet to see the light of the day. It never cross examined Modi, much like the Mishra Commission, which during 1984 riots never questioned Rajiv or his Congress associates.
- In contrast, the Srikrishna Commission questioned 3 Chief Ministers in Maharashtra which probed the Bombay riots of 1992-93.
Exams Perspective:
- Communalism
- Nanavati Commission
- Srikrishna Commission
- Godhra riots
- Anti-Sikh riots of 1984