I am Ashamed and I Apologize

In the name of God, stop it!

Was Gujarat a mere aberration or was it a powderkeg waiting to flare? How does the average

Muslim react? There is a sense of betrayal, anger and above all, insecurity. But amidst

all this there is hope in the Constitution, in the country’s secular tradition. DECCAN

HERALD spoke to a cross-section of the community across the country

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and Merciful,

Say Oh ye that rejects faith

I worship not that which ye worship

Nor will ye worship that which I worship

And I will not worship that which ye have been wont to worship

Nor will ye worship that which I worship

To you be your way, and to me, mine.

- A Sura in Chapter 109 ``Al Kafirun`` of The Holy Book of Quran

‘5000-strong mob burns 65 alive in Ahmedabad’ - screams a headline; ‘Gujarat burns, innocents die’ - announces another. It’s three months now since communal violence started rocking Gujarat, claiming over 300 lives, and yet there is no sign of a let-up. Gujarat today means no more a land of entrepreneurs, of ambitious and pioneering businessmen, and hard-working traders who have for long personified the the spirit of free enterprise. The state today conjures visions of violence, mayhem and demonic hatred that transformed an ordinary human being into a beast on the rampage. Where has this endless communal conflagration left the Muslims of the nation? How do they feel?

Says Navaid Hamid, Secretary, AI Muslim Majlise Mushawarat, Delhi: “Why are you asking this question to a ‘Muslim’ and not to an Indian? This is not a problem for Muslims alone. It is a problem of the entire civil society to deal with the Fascist forces. I have visited the rural areas of Gujarat and I felt that common people for the first time had become hostile to the Muslims. Particularly the youth seem to be more biased in this regard. Even Muslim youth are talking about taking revenge, but they should restrain themselves and should not allow themselves to be instigated.”

The Gujarat issue can no longer be considered an Indian issue because India is a signatory to several UN conventions, he feels.

Such is the agony of an average Indian Muslim in post-Gujarat times that s/he is unable to even express it. A shocked silence has enveloped the Muslims in Hyderabad as they double lock their doors at night, carefully scrutinise every Hindu face they see, and make discreet enquiries or discuss or mull over the alternatives they have.

Unsafe at home

It is sad but true that religion has started dictating terms, inducing a feeling of insecurity among the Muslims, forcing them to think twice before stating their religion. Perhaps Yousuf, a trader in Bangalore, is right when he says, “Till a few days ago I respected my forefathers’ decision of not having left the country during partition. But now, I don’t. The violence against our brethren in Gujarat we hear about almost everyday is sickening. We don’t feel safe anymore. Today it’s Gujarat. Tomorrow it may be Bangalore. Everyday when I leave home for work I say a silent prayer that I should be back home safe in the evening. It is not at all a nice feeling because all the time you’re worrying whether your family is safe.”

As the feeling of insecurity grips Muslims in Bangalore, many of them have even started thinking on the lines of abandoning their home and hearth to emigrate to a foreign land. “I loved everything associated with this country. But, it hurts to realise that we are not wanted here any more. I will give this tension a few more months. If it still continues, then I will pack my bags and leave to a foreign land. Even there I’m sure I will not be accepted but it is any day better to be a foreigner in a foreign land than in your own home,” says a Muslim on conditions of anonymity.

Many in the community seem hurt by the silence of their Hindu friends. Some even feel cheated. When we have made the conscious decision of accepting India as our motherland, why can’t we be accepted by the people wholeheartedly? Why do they treat us like we don’t belong here anymore? Who are they to decide our fate, our future, they cry out.

Mr M A Hakeem who held several important positions in the Central government and has represented India in international bodies admits to ruing the fact that he consciously chose remaining in his motherland rather than emigrate to a foreign country. Not too long ago he tried desperately to convince his son to keep his Indian citizenship and managed to put it off for six months. Now he wonders if his son was right after all. In the aftermath of Babri Masjid demolition, he personally faxed or mailed dozens of copies of articles written against the demolition, those written in support of Muslims, to friends of his abroad as an affirmation of his faith in India. ``We are born out of this soil and will live here and die here... we were prepared for any sacrifice for this land. If anybody told us we had no right to live here we are prepared to take them on,`` he says. So is it different in the post-Gujarat times? His Hindu friends avoid discussing the carnage, they are either embarrassed by it or support it in the deep recesses of their heart. This hurts even more than the Gujarat carnage.

Mazher Hussain of Confederation of Voluntary Agencies, Hyderabad who has been working for communal peace and harmony for several years now is worried at this silence. The Hindu community should speak up and act against the evil that has gripped Gujarat. ``Where is the secular Indian? Why is he taking so long to react? They seem to have been infected by the if-Godhra-did-not-happen-Gujarat-would-not-have burned justification for the massacre of Muslims. This is the time for Hindus to prove their patriotism. They have to decide what kind of India they want : a land of peace or a country bleeding from all its pores.`` This is the time for every right thinking Hindu, the onus being on the middle and upper middle class, to be proactive, to prevent a reaction from the Muslim community, he says.

Ms J Jameel says nobody among Muslims thought the state would turn against them as it did in Gujarat. ``We are all feeling insecure``, she confesses, especially since rumours are rife in the community that the next Gujarat could well be Hyderabad. Dr Tasneem Ahmed a professional doctor decades in Mysore traces back the virus to 1992, ``For the first time in my life I was made aware of being a Muslim... it was an accusation, as if it is a sin to be a Muslim,`` she says.

Shabnam Hashmi, Delhi-based social activist says, ” I do not consider myself to be a Muslim, I am a non-believer. Gujarat could not be a reaction to Godhra as it was pre-planned. People were trained for a long time. Economic blockade of the Muslims started as early as 1992. The fanatics are using Gujarat as a laboratory, it is fascism at its peak. The only solution is united pressure by secular parties. “

Where next?

“I feel outraged and helpless by the happenings in Gujarat. It is unfortunate that the government we elected is doing nothing to put an end to it. Throughout my growing up years in Bombay I believed Bombay was the safest place to be in. But, the bomb blast in 1992 shattered my belief. In fact the Bombay blast must have served as a wake up call to the government, but the government slept through it. Going by this experience how can I be sure that Bangalore won’t be the next target?” questions Dr Zulfia Sheikh, director, Bangalore School of Speech and Drama, who goes on to say, “But, even today I proudly say that India is where I belong. It is my home, my soil and I have as much right over it as anybody else. Come what may, I will not leave the country.” Dr Zulfia further says that she refuses to believe that the country lacks the expertise and the manpower to control the Gujarat carnage. “What the country lacks is the will power to do it,” she declares, even as she admits that the people of her community are gripped by a fear psychosis, not knowing what to expect. “Things have changed, and definitely for the worse,” she rues, relating how they are now forced to think, much against their secular ideas, that they have to be in a Muslim-dominated area just to feel secure.

Syeda Hamid, Social Activist, Muslim Women’s Forum in Delhi is concerned with this “ghettoisation” of the Muslims. “As a common Muslim I would prefer to live in an area where the Muslims are in majority. This feeling of insecurity is spreading among the Muslims in other parts of the country. But why can’t they live in whichever place they like to stay? Why there should be separate Hindu and Muslim localities? Why can’t we live together? “

It is no exaggeration but many Muslim women have now discarded their burqas, not egged on by the women’s lib movements, but simply because they don’t want to be identified as Muslims in a public place. Says a forward-looking Muslim woman who is also a freelance journalist, “Wearing a hijab is a clear indication that you are a Muslim and that is reason enough for a fanatic mob to target me. Where is the Right to Religion as stated in our democracy when you can’t practise it without any fear? ” The young mother, also the wife of a high ranking officer, confesses to feeling insecure even in the cozy comforts of her home. “We chose to stay back in India during partition because this, we felt, was our home. But now we are not sure whether it was a prudent decision. It is all the more exasperating to note that the nation has no trust in us Muslims as we are not given positions of importance in any defence related organisations. How can they doubt our integrity when we are toiling for our homeland?” she wonders.

Not all feel hopeless. Most have hope, in the centuries old Indian tradition of peaceful co-existence of diverse and even opposing schools of thought, religions, cultures and traditions. A refrain of this school of hope is that the carnage of Gujarat was not replicated nor did it trigger off retaliation in other parts of the country. ``We need to keep the faith, in each other, in India`s heritage of secularism, in Indian Constitution,`` said Justice Sardar Ali Khan, former chairman of the Minorities Commission of India. ``Secularism is the lifeblood of India.. I have fundamental faith in this tradition of India..I am sure secularism and democracy will prevail. Gujarat can only be termed as an aberration,`` he says.

Anwar Moazzam, a retired professor of Islamic Studies in Osmania University, believes that religion-based political parties or agenda or even identity will not succeed in India. ``Hindus have already given their verdict against communal politics including the people of Uttar Pradesh, the land of Ayodhya. They will once again speak up for secularism through democratic means.``

It is reassuring to note that there are a few like Mohammad Moienuddin, chairman, Tipu Sultan Research Institute & Museum, Bangalore who strongly feel this dark phase will end soon. Moienuddin however is shocked by the fact that the ruling party in Gujarat is not trying enough to contain the violence. Quoting the Koran Mr Moienuddin says, “God says - ‘I’ve created religions. If I had willed I would’ve created only one. Now I expect you all to live peacefully’. We have to follow God’s dictates and live amicably. Some day things will settle down, because India is famed for its unity in diversity.”

Ahmed-bin-Sayeed (not his real name) a high-ranking officer who retired from the Army has not so far experienced any discrimination, faced hatred or made to feel that he was anything but Indian. ``I cannot fathom it... I only read about it,`` he confesses. ``The virus of hatred has not touched the Armed Forces; their tradition is too strong to be shaken by such things... in any case, we have been living together and in harmony for 1000s of years... why has it become so difficult now?``

Jeelani Bano, a well-known writer in Urdu, whose works have been translated into several Indian languages, says in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual society like India rather than religion, it is caste, language and regional loyalties that are more divisive. The bonds between Hindus and Muslims are natural and have been forged by a shared history, geography, culture and traditions. ``These are far more powerful than those of religion. Neither Muslim invaders nor colonial rulers could break them. Today`s politicians too will fail,`` she predicts.

Blame it on the politicians

A major section of the community are most angry with the politicians. According to Sayyad Noori, general secretary of Raza Academy, Mumbai, what happened in Gujarat was not just violence, but genocide of the Muslim community. Muslims have lost faith in secularism, which has remained only on paper. However, there is no feeling among the Muslims that they did a mistake in staying back in India after partition.

Talking of politicians, asks former union minister Arif Mohammed Khan, “do you think my reaction as a Muslim will be different from that of a Hindu who has seen innocent people being roasted alive? What happened in Godhra is not different from what happened in Gujarat. In both cases innocent people were butchered and thus both deserve equal condemnation.”

A leading Muslim activist and lawyer in Mumbai Yusoof Muchawala talks of a sense of anger and desperation. Secularism has completely failed, he says.

With people beginning to wear religion on their sleeves, some are even scared to express themselves. “Please excuse me just this once. I am too hurt to even think about Gujarat, forget expressing my reactions,” says one otherwise articulate writer who was hitherto well known for his boldness in expressing his ideas on communalism! Perhaps this sums up the outrage and anger experienced by the Muslims of today.

Waiting to happen?

Gujarat or no Gujarat, has India been sitting on a communal powerderkeg ready to flare up any moment? Answer to the question is as varied as ever; but a majority of the people veer round to the overriding fact that despite the ‘Gujarat` and its aftermath, India is still a secular country where the minority communities specially Muslims, can still live safely and peacefully. Even while tending to overwhelmingly term the Gujarat happenings a genocide, the Muslim intelligentsia has not lost sight of a crucial fact - the Indian Constitution and a free Press - which have consistently been working as a major check to mindless killings and mob violence. Only if the self-styled conservators-cum-faithfuls of Hindutva could have realised this, India need not have to hang its head in shame to the international community over the ‘affairs` of this prosperous state.

Says Prof Hossenur Rahman, 68, a former fellow in the India Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla,`` ..now the question is whether we want God and His Kingdom or secular democracy, the world and its goods. The decision must be made radically.``

A majority of the progressive people in the minority community feels that there must have been a deep-rooted conspiracy behind the Godhra incident and the government must be more prompt to unravel the mystery beyond the involvement of the Muslim goons. ``India had seen conflicts in the past and to shift responsibility only to one, is in itself biased and discriminatory. The Godhra killings were no doubt, pre-planned as the manner in which the bogies were selected for torching alive 58 people, mostly women and children, could not happen without prior conspiracy,`` contends Syed Muztafa Siraj; but in the same breath, he rues:`` What followed thereafter, is both shocking and appalling.``

Siraj, 73, a Sahitya Academy award winner, echoes Rehman when he accuses the Sangh Parivar of waging a kind of war for annihilating the Muslims from this great land.

Has the Partition played a role in the current escalation in tensions and contributed to the Hindu-Muslim divide? A substantial section of the minority community feels that it has done more harm than good to India. Says Syed Siraj:``Lord Macaulay had quietly included the seeds of division in the syllabi introduced by him and the intention was to spread the message of mutual hatred and mistrust among the two communities down to the grassroot. Unfortunately, in the subsequent years, no concrete measure was taken to correct that situation.``

Partition or no Partition, Prof Rahman points out, “we never wanted to solve our outstanding social problems; we rather always shelved it` despite being aware that it would cause the wound all th`` What we need today is de-sacrilisation - we looked upon it (communal clashes) as a political problem; but it is absolutely on the contrary. Ethics and not religion, will save us from unprincipled and unregulated conduct. What we need today is a wide, awake social conscience rather than negative religious susceptibility,`` explains Prof. Rehman who has authored several books including ‘Vivekanda,Vedanta & Islam`.

While it is a widely acknowledged fact that as a majority community, Hindus ought to have a moral and legal obligation not to take the law unto their own hands, questions are also being raised about the Muslims and how they practise their religion. ``Islam does not teach violence or intolerance,`` answers Md Hamid, a rich and respectable businessman in Kolkata, for whom offering namaz daily at a fixed time is more than a habit. He is not the least hesitant to disclose his glorious Hindu background as a few hundred years ago, his ancestors belonging to Kshatriya Pandit family, were deeply impressed by high morals and righteous living of a Muslim fakir and got themselves converted to Islam.

But the fact which pains Hamidbhai most (also shared by others in the community) is the tendency by the communal parties like the VHP and RSS to label a large majority of people in the minority community to be actively in league with terrorists or treat them with suspicion. ``It is dangerous; if this continues, consequences will be serious. In the end, there`ll be one terrorist each from every family. Will the Government be able to control the situation then?`` Hamidji seriously asks.

However, both Prof Rehman and Syed Siraj, an eminent literatteur himself, have a slightly different view on this score. The famed Indian tradition of tolerance and secular institutions, they rue, have gone to the winds and instead, sectarian institutions and views have seized power where healthy educational and democratic traits have become defunct and a ‘course` on hawkish fundamentalism is being actively pursued. While condemning orgy of violence and ugly face of the Hindutva activists in Gujarat, Prof Rehman has not spared the people in his community either. Muslims flaunt the fact that they are Muslims and this tendency is equally dangerous for the secular health of the country, he says.

Time for reform

At the same time, this nearly-septuagenarian writer does not hesitate to highlight some of the other dark areas of the Muslim community that require immediate correction. Citing an example, he notes how Muslims tend to be ghettoised and do not avail of the opportunities given to them. Not only that, Madrasas where the Muslim children are sent for basic primary education, again lack healthy educational environment; `` they (madrasas) can`t bring the children at par with the modern educated world,`` he firmly maintains and feels that an attitudinal change has to take place in the community in this regard.

The founding fathers of the Indian Constitution, points out Prof Rehman, have gifted the country a very solid foundation for secularism; ``the Constitution demands you be less and less Hindu and be less and less Muslim, but more and more citizen of the country and this citizen has a citizen`s religion. Why can`t we observe that to achieve peace among all the communities ?``

The consequences of a divisive agenda would be harrowing not just for the Hindus or Muslims but for the nation as a whole, as we all know. ``These divisions will once again be a cause of colonisation.. this time it will be economic colonisation,`` warns Ahmed-bin-Sayeed. ``We owe it to our children and future generations to bequeath them a prosperous and peaceful country, not a hate-filled, divided country.``

Perhaps as the saying goes there is light at the end of the tunnel. For, young Akram, an engineering student at a reputed college in the outskirts of Bangalore city, is all hopes of a better day, a better tomorrow. “Tension has always been there. Every now and then it flares up. But I am sure it will settle down soon and things will be back to normal. We just have to wait,” he says.

Perhaps he’s right. Maybe it’s just a long wait before the dawn of a bright morrow.

R Akhileshwari,

Chethana Dinesh,

Prasanta Paul,

Parag Rabade,

Shruba Mukherjee

Deccan Herald, Bangalore

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jun02/sh1.htm

Divided Indian-Pakistani families suffer on both sides of border under threat of war

Wed Jun 5, 8:06 PM ET

By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - When her Pakistani husband died in December, none of Nargas Begum`s relatives from India could come to his funeral in his hometown Multan.



Her parents consoled her by phone, telling Begum that relations between the two countries would be normal soon and promising to come then. But three months later, as her brother lay dying in India, Begum still was not allowed to travel across the border to see him.

With India and Pakistan trading hostile words and intense shelling across the confrontation line in Kashmir (news - web sites), her family must now contend with the threat of war. ``Things are only getting worse and worse,`` said the 47-year-old New Delhi native.

Separated from family members since New Delhi and Islamabad cut off transportation links at the end of last year, thousands of Indians and Pakistanis are suffering doubly because of their cross-border connections — now even more difficult with war looming.

New Delhi severed all train, bus and air connections with Islamabad at the end of December, following an attack on the Indian parliament that it blamed on Pakistani-based Islamic extremists. Pakistan denied the charges and retaliated by halting the links on its side.

Tensions have spiraled since last month`s attack on an Indian army camp in Kashmir that New Delhi again blamed on Pakistani-backed extremists. On a war footing since December, Pakistan and India have now massed hundreds of thousands of troops along the 2,912-kilometer (1,800-mile) border that separates the countries.

The threat of nuclear conflict has prompted the United States, Britain and other countries to urge their nationals to leave India and Pakistan.

Caught in the middle are thousands of families like Begum`s, who have ties on both sides of the border. Many families ended up with members in both countries after the two were carved out of British India in 1947.

``There was darkness everywhere when my husband died,`` she said. ``I am in Pakistan with only a few relatives. Ninety percent of my family live in India. My heart is still there.``

Then in March, ``my brother wrote that he was on his death bed, but I could not go to see him in the hospital,`` Begum said, remembering how she wept at his letter.

From the southern port city of Karachi, Khurshid Ahmad, 43, worries about his 23-year-old daughter, who married a cousin in Bombay, India, last year. His three sisters and dozens of close relatives also live in India.

``My daughter is pregnant, but I can`t go to India,`` Ahmad said. ``We never thought that the two countries would come so close to war.``

Ahmad said he continues to pray for peace even as he fears a war that could kill countless numbers of people on both sides of the border.

In Lahore, Begum Mujtaba, 48, talked of how she used to travel to India two months out of the year to visit relatives. This year, she had to cancel plans. She also worries over her daughter, who married a cousin in New Delhi five years ago.

``I pray every day that there will be no war,`` she said.

Residents of Bhano Chak village on Lahore province`s eastern frontier with India say they have relatives living just across the border, yet they cannot meet with them.

``My elder sister lives in Indian Punjab province and I am worried about her family because they will be the first to face casualties because they live near the border towns like us,`` said Begum Munshi Khan, 62.

It is in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir where the fear of war seems most intense and the familial ties with India are deepest.

``Eighty percent of our relatives live in Indian-part of Kashmir and we know they will be suffering most of the casualties if war starts,`` said Jamil Mir, 29, who lives in a refugee camp after crossing into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir two years ago with his wife and son. ``We are against war.``



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020606/ap_wo_en_po/pakistan_divided_families_1

``Dey Allah kay naam baba``.

``Bhagawan tere bacchon ka bhala karega. Tu ek paise dega woh dus lakh dega``.

``Uski dua lagaygi tujhe - joh mangega milaga, Malik kay naam kuch to dey de``

``Ek Masjid dey dey baba, arrey ek nahi teen masjid dey dey baba sare desh ki dua lagegi tujhe``

.

.

``Bhench#d masjid deta hai ki nahi.....``

How long before the masks are off Varma sahib?

We need people like you on both sides of the border.

Asfand Siddiqui

Sacramento CA

Ref DRUMZ #: 3

[Im gonna tell my seeds that there was this place called India in which grown azz men told other adults to ``stop burning eachother.`` ]

How about telling them that there is a place called Northern Ireland where people shoot at each other for being Protestants or Catholics?

Or, is that okay because whitey is doing it?

What a complete a$$hole!

The criminals who perpetrated the Gujarat massacres have caused more damage to India in the international arena than any act that Pakistan has perpetrated so far. Hence they should be tried for treason and hanged as a warning to other would be arsonists, rapists and rabble-rousers.

Bringing KPS Gill into the picture is the first step. The Union Govt. should give him more teeth to fight these criminals than just making him advisor.

Self-flagellation is good for some.

We who live in the now and here have the luxury of 20/20 vision and can do a post-mortem on what was ?

Did any Verma write on behalf of Chakmas thrown out of Chittagong, or Hindus slaughtered in Sindh by the nobel Arab savages.

Hemendra, don`t insult the intelligence of your readers with this mawkish sentimental claptrap. The points that you try to make have already been made ad nauseam, and your piece adds nothing new to the debate. Instead of this public act of contrition, how about trying to focus on some of the perceived grievances on both sides? Why are an increasing number of educated liberal members of the local majority community becoming disenchanted with the established order to the extent of condoning what all of us would agree is absolutely unpardonable? This question seems to attract much debate when raised in the context of Kashmir, and only a deafening silence in the matter of Gujarat. Why does the idea that India is guilty of minority appeasement instantly resonate with the student population/liberal intelligensia across the country?

Hemandra,
I was very glad to see this writing here.
As a Pakistani-American Human Being type, I donated money (the sum was not large) to the Gujrat Earthquake relief that the TiE Organization
organized in San Jose. Never in my wildest
dreams did I think that I would be reading of Muslims being attacked in large numbers in what
I had thought was a business oriented and somewhat
Progressive State.
I have to admit that I am deeply hurt by this
sad period in Indian History (not that Pakistan has not have such sad episodes too).

Ras

A VHP-ite trying to fool people with sophistry and `reasonableness`.

Firstly, What the heck is VHP`s locus standi to demand anything from anybody, much less temples? I havenot designated them to do anything on my behalf as a Hindu. I can also set up an organization with the word `Hindu` in it, throw chairs around and go rioting around the country, then demand something be handed over. Would the author advocate my case too, then? Unlikely. Whats so great about VHP? If VHP `wants` temples, let it talk to Hindus first.

Secondly, I don`t get this about Kashi and Mathura. These are functioning flourishing temples, what is there to hand over? I think its the author`s doublespeak, he means hand over the mosques not hand over temples. Again what does VHP want with mosques? Nothing good. They want to realize their organisational goals, pure and simple. Couldn`t do it with violence, now they are trying deceit.

Thirdly, the author`s arguments are just like some arguments being made by one party in a currently burning international issue. Just give us what we `reasonably` want, you will not have any more trouble from us. Thats called HAFTA VASOOLI or highway banditry. The author is hereby exposed as a true blue VHP-ite. chor chor maro maro :).

This is hilarious. This post magifies the collosal idiocy in both religion and nationalism. I am conviced u people are from a different universe.

Im gonna tell my seeds that there was this place called India in which grown azz men told other adults to ``stop burning eachother.``

Kiddies: Why were they burning eachother?

Drumz: They had different religions?

Kiddies: Whats a religion?

Drumz: A way for insecure people to go to hell together?

Kiddies: Why would they go to hell?

Drumz: Because they believe in religion.

Kiddies: What about patriots?

Drumz: Nuked.

Kiddies: Wow, what did u do while this was going down?

Drumz: Ganja my seeds, Ganja.

re: the article

I am bored by such articles. Of course, like the author, i am also ashamed such things happen with monotonous regularity in India. Communal riots have happened during the congress rule also. What is different now in Gujarat is that BJP rules that state and is under a microscope so to speak. The best way to respond to such carnage would be to oust the state govt from power. Muslims no doubt have learnt their lessons. They will be vary of any promises BJP may make in future.

Sridhar

hemendra:

...am afraid despite the best of intentions all this `appealing` and `urging` muslims and hindus may not work this time...

...the concerned citizens should see to it that, unlike the past, this time legal justice is meted out to the perpetrators of both godhra and gujrat...only when peace and sensibility prevails confidence of the constituents will return...otherwise the fabric of the state and society as we know would be further strained...

rgds,

t