Godhra case: Do not hang convicts, say victims

Bharat Panchal, 47, lost his wife Jyoti in 2002. She was one of the passengers burnt alive when coach S6 of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire in the infamous incident in Godhra. Twenty days later, 33-year-old Bela lost her 40-year-old husband Ashwin in the post-Godhra communal riots in Ahmedabad. He was stabbed by a mob outside his house while returning from an errand in the city.

Five years later, in 2007, it was on a train to Delhi that Bharat Panchal realised that his search for a new life-partner had ended, and he decided to marry Bela. He had known her for 20 years, as his former wife’s friend and neighbour. This long acquaintance finally culminated in happy matrimony.

Mr and Mrs Panchal have lived since then in their new home ‘Jyoti Chhaya’, named after Bharat’s first wife.

Time’s healing touch
For 20 years, Bharat and Bela have lived in the Jantanagar locality in the Ramol area of Ahmedabad, very close to a Muslim-majority ghetto. Despite their personal tragedies, they do not want to move out of the locality. Bharat, a rickshaw driver, ferries children of all faiths from school to home everyday.

Time has been their biggest healer. With its passage, anger for the mobs that killed their respective spouses has given way to empathy. One expects outrage from Bharat at the knowledge that the 63 accused in the Godhra carnage have been acquitted. But Bharat doesn’t believe in hate. The notion that their emotional scars are going to heal overnight with the hanging of the accused is ridiculous to him. “I strongly believe that the 11 who have been given the death penalty should be let go. They also have families like we do. Their children too would be waiting to see their fathers again. I see the happiness on the children’s face when I drop them home from school. Their faces light up even though they’ve been apart from their parents for just a few hours. The children of the accused haven’t seen their parents for 9 years now. They must be aching for their fathers to return home,”  he explains.

Bharat firmly believes that giving the incident a political twist is not going to serve any purpose. “No politicians came to our house to check the conditions we were living in, or to see if our kids needed help after the riots broke out. They all have vested interest in the tragedy. I would not support any political party who want to move the Supreme Court to indict any of the 63 accused,” he adds.

For Bharat and Bela, amidst the politics of hatred, an unusual love blossomed. It was the longing for companionship in their old age that finally brought them together. 

Train to matrimony
The train is an indelible motif in Bharat’s life. Bharat lost his first wife train in a train incident and curiously, it was on a train journey again, that he decided to repair that loss by marrying Bela.
Bela Rawal was left with the sole responsibility of her daughter Khushboo after her husband Ashwin was killed in the communal riots that followed Godhra. And when Bharat proposed to her, she found a mate to share her life with.

“Bela used to come to our home frequently with her husband. But even after Jyoti’s and Ashwin’s death, the idea of marrying her never crossed my mind. I liked Bela’s composed nature, she was always very mature. It was while we were traveling to Delhi for a court-hearing of the Godhra case that I realised Bela was the right person with whom I can start my life afresh,” says Bharat.

Bharat recalls that it was during their walk through Delhi’s famous Chandni Chowk that he finally gathered the courage to ask Bela about her future plans. “I asked her what she would do once her daughter, Khushboo, got married. She replied that she would move into an old-age-home. I then asked her to marry me. I took responsibility for Khushbo’s wedding and in 2007, we registered our marriage in court,” he says, with a smile.

–With inputs from Nikunj Soni, Satish Jha, Paras K Jha &  Jumana Shah in Ahmedabad