Rakesh Sharma’s documentary film “Final Solution”,
based on 2002 Gujarat riots in India is one of the most stimulating pieces of
information I have come across in some time. Though the movie takes a stance
critical of the BJP government; it sheds light on a lot of parameters that
determine the game of power.
A decade later, watching documentaries
and reading cases make us feel very intelligent and more sensitive to human
rights, more sensible and aware of political gimmick. I cannot speak for people
or times a decade ago but I can definitely put forward a question in the face
of millions of people who exercise their voting rights (those who don’t, they
do not exist for me). How can you possibly justify electing someone as your
leader when he or she has a criminal record, or for a fact you know that the
person has been accused of it and is capable of it, when the person makes open
speeches about violence and takes pride in it. Those speeches are good on a
battlefield but not in a communally agitated zone. It beats me, whom are you
trying to agitate, and why?
Then there are some places where people keep
electing and re-electing thugs and crooks infamous for fraud, corruption,
murder, and with a shameless record of rape and violence tagged to all male
members of the family (I did not say I was referring to Jharkhand). People
staying in the neighborhood are scared most of their days, on the others they
are just grieving their condition.
If you see “Final Solution” and listen to those
speeches made by the leaders, you will notice how gullible people are, how
easily they can be manipulated. The best fire to be fed is hatred, it just
keeps roaring higher. 58 passengers were burnt alive in Sabarmati Express and
in reply, thousands of Muslims were murdered. Statistics say some 1100 were
murdered and lakhs displaced, but that is government statistics. Noteworthy
scholars have even termed it as genocide. So, congratulations, we are on par with the western world, at least in violence. At least it saved us the
cost of making gas chambers and fire pits (or whatever those places they used
to burn people alive). More modernized and immune to trivial feelings like
humanness, we used kerosene to light human torches.
Listening to the speeches made by Mr. Modi himself,
you feel like laughing at him. He was glorifying Gujarat for being a place
perfectly safe (when thousands were murdered, chased away, killed, displaced),
he used Pakistan and Gen. Musharraf as causes for internal insurgencies in India,
and worse, there were people clapping for whatever ridiculous thoughts he put
into words. I would like him to come to a sensible college now and give a speech
to youngsters who care a damn about who the leader is, as far as they stay out
of our way and do not enforce laws that prevent us from doing what we want. He would
probably hang himself with shame (with the response he gets) or we would be
learning about another terrorist attack in that college campus.
People are saying he is a very strong candidate for
PM’s seat. I do not know him personally; I do not understand his politics. He
may be a very dynamic person driven by the motive of growth of this nation; but
I sure do understand and believe that more that dynamic economic growth, I need
safety, I need assurance that if in any case I have to depend on the
authorities to protect my life, they will not disappoint me, that if and when I
call them to save me from a mob of madmen throwing kerosene at me and my family
and burning us, they will not laugh at my face and say “You number is up.”
The supreme court appointed Special Investigation
Team failed to find evidences against the 62 accused in the killing of a Muslim
congress leader (62 : 1, that alone speaks a lot!). Including Modi, all others
stand innocent until proven guilty. I do not know who murdered these people,
someone did, and that too after the Godhara train incident. And it is not a
coincidence that these people of Naroda, Patiya, Gulbarg society and other
regions were all Muslims.
Well, they say youngsters are reckless and
hormone-driven; they need to listen to their elders. I like that option at
times. I take to the Rule Book of Elders when nothing else works. My elders
have always told me, those who get away with wrong now, they will have God to
answer to (though that is a desperate statement, it helps during helplessness, and
I am helpless in this case). And as I see it from here concerning Godhara, a
lot of people will have a lot of answering to do.
