annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
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INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Gujarat<br />
directed the State government to pay<br />
compensation of Rs 1 lakh <strong>for</strong> custodial<br />
death of Haji Mohd Nabuji Tentwala in<br />
1995. The NHRC registered 32 custodial<br />
deaths in 1999-2000, 38 in 2000-2001, 52<br />
in 2001-2002 and 51 in 2002-2003 in<br />
Gujarat. 3<br />
However, major human rights<br />
violations continued to revolve around the<br />
Gujarat riots of February-March 2002 and<br />
Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The<br />
Supreme Court held the modern day Neros<br />
responsible <strong>for</strong> the Gujarat riots while<br />
transferring the trial of the Best Bakery<br />
case from Gujarat to Maharashtra. While<br />
the Supreme Court transferred a few cases<br />
<strong>for</strong> trial outside of Gujarat, around half of<br />
the communal violence cases i.e. 2,032 out<br />
of 4,252 were closed down by Gujarat<br />
Police after classifying them as “true but<br />
undetected”. 4<br />
The alleged encounter death of Ishrat<br />
Jehan Shaikh, Javed, Jishan Johar, and<br />
Amjadali Akbarali Rana alias Salim was<br />
termed by Peoples Union <strong>for</strong> Civil<br />
Liberties and other NGOs as “One more<br />
encounter <strong>for</strong> Modi’s sake?” 5<br />
Undertrials involved in the Godhra<br />
carnage case alleged of harassment by jail<br />
authorities during namaz and poor<br />
medication inside the Sabarmati jail. Of<br />
the 305 persons booked under Prevention<br />
of Terrorism Act, 2002 <strong>for</strong> alleged<br />
involvement in Gujarat riots and<br />
subsequent crimes, only seven are<br />
Hindus. 6 As the Congress-led United<br />
Progressive Alliance reaffirmed to repeal<br />
POTA, the Gujarat assembly adopted the<br />
64<br />
Gujarat Control of Organised Crime<br />
(GUJCOC) Act and referred to President<br />
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. 7<br />
<strong>Human</strong> rights defenders whether<br />
noted dancer Mallika Sarabhai, Teesta<br />
Setalvad, Fr. Cedric Prakash or Shabnam<br />
Hashmi faced harassment, intimidation<br />
and physical attacks <strong>for</strong> either attempting<br />
to provide justice to the victims of Gujarat<br />
riots or <strong>for</strong> exposing the truth about the<br />
riots. 8<br />
Oppression of the Dalits continued<br />
unabated in Gujarat. Stigmatization and<br />
social boycott of the Dalit are common<br />
irrespective of what positions they hold in<br />
the government. 9<br />
Despite failure to rehabilitate all the<br />
dam oustees, mainly the indigenous/tribal<br />
peoples, in Maharashtra and Madhya<br />
Pradesh on 13 March 2004, the State<br />
government of Gujarat cleared an<br />
additional 10 metres <strong>for</strong> the Sardar Sarovar<br />
dam in clear violation of the Supreme<br />
Court order of 2000. 10 Although the<br />
Narmada Control Authority’s website<br />
shows ‘zero families’ <strong>for</strong> rehabilitation,<br />
according to Narmada Bachao Andolan,<br />
11,000 families remained to be resettled at<br />
the current height of the dam at 110<br />
metres. 11<br />
II. Gujarat riots: An eye view on<br />
mutilated justice<br />
The modern-day ‘Neros’ were looking<br />
elsewhere when Best Bakery and innocent<br />
children and helpless women were<br />
burning, and were probably deliberating<br />
how the perpetrators of the crime can be