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India – Gujarat – Political Overview – Elections – Muslims – Religious Violence – Caste Violence

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India – Gujarat – Political Overview – Elections – Muslims – Religious Violence – Caste Violence Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: IND32812 Country: India Date: 7 February 2008 Keywords: India – Gujarat – Political overview – Elections – Muslims – Religious violence – Caste violence This response was prepared by the Research & Information Services Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. This research response may not, under any circumstance, be cited in a decision or any other document. Anyone wishing to use this information may only cite the primary source material contained herein. Questions 1. What is the political scene in Gujarat? 2. What is the state of religious conflict (if any) in Gujarat? 3. Please outline the caste conflicts (if any) in Gujarat. RESPONSE 1. What is the political scene in Gujarat? The state of Gujarat has re-elected Narendra Modi [of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party - BJP] Chief Minister for a third term: Mr Modi's BJP won 117 of 182 seats in the state assembly. Its main rival, the Congress party, won 59 seats. The chief minister is set to begin a third term after Sunday's win. ... It is the fourth consecutive BJP election victory in Gujarat. The Congress party acknowledged its defeat in the state, but reminded voters of religious riots in 2002. (‘BJP to announce fresh Modi term’ 2007, BBC News, 24 December – Accessed 29 January 2008 – Attachment 1) Narendra Modi is also blamed for colluding in the anti-Muslim riots of 2002: As a cheerleader for the emerging India, a giant democracy with—at last—an economy to match, Narendra Modi is a disgrace. His six-year leadership of Gujarat, a booming western state, is widely cited as a paragon of economic management. But double-digit growth is not all that Mr Modi—who is seeking re-election in a poll due to begin on December 11th—is alleged to have orchestrated. There is also the small matter of 2,000 murdered Muslims, victims of a 2002 pogrom carried out by his Hindu-nationalist followers with the collusion of Gujarat's bureaucracy and police. This week the widow of a Muslim politician called Ahsan Jafri, whose limbs and genitals were hacked off and the rest of him burned alive, was due to file a petition in the Supreme Court, accusing Mr Modi of mass murder. There is little justice for Muslims in Gujarat. Only eight people have been convicted over the pogrom, mostly in neighbouring states. In Gujarat, some 2,000 cases remain pending. A small matter, however, is just how the pogrom is viewed in Gujarat, the birth-place of Mahatma Gandhi, and a bastion of prohibition, vegetarianism and gnat-respecting Jains. Its last election, later in 2002, gave Mr Modi a thumping majority, biggest in those districts where the bloodshed was worst. Mr Modi's campaign that year exploited anti-Muslim sentiment. He foamed and raved against Pakistan's leader, Pervez Musharraf—meaning, his audiences knew, scheming Muslims in their midst. Many considered—and consider—the pogrom to be a legitimate act of revenge against a poor minority making up 9% of Gujarat's population. It was organised by supporters of Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after 58 Hindu activists were killed in a fire on a train for which, on scant evidence, Muslims were blamed. ... Leaders of two powerful castes, the Patels and Kolis, which usually vote BJP, have rebelled against Mr Modi. ... After all, last month, in a brave investigation into the pogrom, an Indian magazine, Tehelka, published transcripts of Gujarati Hindu-nationalists confessing to hideous murders and rapes. One alleged that Mr Modi had granted them three days to do this work unimpeded by the police—which is in fact what happened. No action has been taken against them. (‘Don’t mention the massacre’2007, The Economist, 6 December http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10251282 – Accessed 29 January 2007 – Attachment 2) 2. What is the state of religious conflict (if any) in Gujarat? A 2006 Research Response provides background information on the riots in Gujarat and notes: The Indian state of Gujarat is well known for communal violence between Hindus and Muslims. According to Christophe Jaffrelot, between 1970 and 2002, Gujarat experienced 443 Hindu – Muslim riots. “The riot in Ahmedabad in 1969, which left 630 dead, remained the most serious riot” (Jaffrelot, J. 2003, ‘Communal Riots in Gujarat: The State at Risk?’, Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics, Working paper No. 17, July http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/volltexte/2003/4127/pdf/hpsacp17.pdf – Accessed 8 November 2006 – Attachment 1) (Research Country Research 2006, Research Response IND30931, 16 November. Attachment 3) The latest US State Department Report reports extensively on past and current year problems and violence in Gujarat: Hundreds of court cases remained in connection with the 2002 Gujarat violence. … Section II. Status of Religious Freedom Legal/Policy Framework The Ministry for Minority Affairs, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) are governmental bodies created to investigate allegations of discrimination and make recommendations for redress to the relevant local or national government authorities. Although NHRC recommendations do not have the force of law, central and local authorities generally follow them. The NCM and NHRC intervened in several high profile cases, including the 2002 anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat and other instances of communal tension, the enactment of anti-conversion legislation in several states, and incidents of harassment and violence against minorities. … Restrictions on Religious Freedom In February 2007 cinema owners and distributors in Gujarat refused to screen the film "Parzania," depicting the sufferings of a Parsi family during the 2002 violence, out of fear of rekindling communal tensions and retaliation by the Hindu right, especially Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi of Ahmedabad. Hindutva groups in Gujarat, where the 2002 violence took place, had threatened to attack theaters that showed the film. The Indian Censor Board had already approved the film for countrywide distribution and the film was shown elsewhere in the country. … Abuses of Religious Freedom In August 2006 in Radhanpur, Gujarat, police firing killed three people (two Muslims and one Hindu) during protests by Muslims of the local administration's action to breach the wall of a Muslim cemetery to let flooding waters subside. … According to religious media, on September 21, 2006, a day after the Gujarat State Assembly passed an amendment to the 2003 "anti-conversion law," a group of extremists attacked eight Christians belonging to the Indian Missionary Society. The Christians filed a complaint against nine attackers and the police sub-inspector for physical abuse. Subsequently, authorities arrested the attacked on charges of engaging in forced conversions and carrying weapons. … In May 2006 despite Muslim community protests, the Vadodara City Government demolished a 300-year-old shrine in Gujarat. While dispersing a mob of Muslim protestors, the Gujarat police killed two Muslims. The mob set four shops on fire in retaliation. Three Hindus were also stabbed to death in the mob violence and a group of Hindus set one Muslim man on fire. The Home Ministry deployed paramilitary forces and the army to assist local security personnel. The media reported that 6 persons were killed and 42 injured, 16 as a result of police fire. The NCM urged the State Government to ascertain if police firing was unavoidable and if the decision to destroy the shrine was justified. During the reporting period, the Gujarat Government did not take any steps to restore the shrine. … There was continued concern about the failure of the Gujarat Government to arrest and convict those responsible for the widespread communal violence in 2002. Home Ministry figures released in May 2005 indicated that 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed, and 2,500 others injured. Some NGOs maintained the number of Muslims killed was higher, with figures ranging anywhere from 1,000 to 2,500. There were also reports of rape, gang rape, and molestation of Muslim women. According to an October 2005 survey by the NHRC monitoring committee, approximately 4,300 Muslim families (between 25,000 - 30,000 individuals) were still internally displaced and living in makeshift camps with inadequate infrastructure facilities. People told the committee that they feared retaliation by their Hindu neighbors if they returned to their native villages. They also feared that Hindu neighbors would pressure them to withdraw their complaints filed in connection with the 2002 violence. In March 2006 the government-established commission headed by Justice Banerjee issued a report stating that the train fire was an accident and ruled out a Muslim conspiracy. The commission also accused the then-railway-Minister and the Railway Safety Commission of failing to adequately investigate the accident. The Gujarat High Court initially prevented the release of the report to Parliament; however, Indian Railways petitioned the Indian Supreme Court for its release, an appeal that was ongoing at the end of the reporting period. During the reporting period, the Nanavati-Shah commission, established in April 2002, continued its hearings into the Gujarat 2002 violence. It has received six month extensions on a regular basis and its current term is scheduled to end December 2007. In its February 2006 response to the Supreme Court, the Gujarat police said that it would reexamine 1,600 of the 2,108 cases that were closed after the riots. However, during the reporting period, the Gujarat police had closed as many as 1,600 cases, citing the unavailability of witnesses.
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