Public hearing organised by Anhad, Centre for Social Justice do a reality check of Vastanvi’s comments on Gujarat Muslims.
A public hearing, which was held in response to vice-chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband, Maulana Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi's controversial comment that Muslims in Gujarat have progressed during the reign of the incumbent state government, concluded that there was a gross cover-up post 2002 riots and that there prevails an intense sense of fear and despair among Muslims in the state.
Anhad and Centre for Social Justice had jointly organised this hearing. Justice RA Mehta, former acting chief justice of Gujarat high court and former director of Gujarat Judicial Academy; Annie Raja, general secretary of National Federation of Indian Women; Gagan Sethi, a social activist, and Githa Hariharan, author and editor, were jury members. Syeda Bilgrami Imam, member of National Commission for Minorities, was present as the special observer.
"It is important, especially post Vastanvi's statement, for people and the media to realize the unseen lives of these people. We are in 2011 and even after nine years of the carnage, Muslims in Gujarat still face visible and invisible fears, deprivation and injustices", said Shabnam Hashmi, social and political activist and founding and managing trustee of Anhad.
A total of 55 cases were heard by the jury. Out of these cases and depositions, 19 were from Ahmedabad, 13 from Vadodara, five each from Godhra and Surat, and 13 from Dahod, Panchmahal, Sabarkantha, Narmada and Mehsana districts. The cases related to ordinary and eminent people, mostly Muslims. Depositions were from 35 men and 20 women. However, cases from Saurashtra, Kutch and many other districts could not be taken up due to paucity of time.
After the hearing, the jury concluded that the depositions and related stories suggest gross cover up and the spreading of a myth that there is no fear amongst the minority community in Gujarat and that the dark nights of 2002 should be forgotten as a nightmare. There is an intense, almost universal, sentiment of fear and growing despair among Muslims in the state, the jury declared.
Many of those who testified during the hearing went so far as to declare that they felt reduced to second class citizens. They shared their mounting disillusionment with all institutions of governance, and more so with the police and legal system as well as with political parties and to some extent the media.
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