Hi,
Since I have lived in the area of Mumbai which is predominantly occupied by Gujaratis, for the better part of my life, though being a non-gujarati I learnt Gujarati with ease. We had this neighbour (Mr. Shah) who was a Gujarati, who used to subscribe to Gujarat Samachar other than The Times of India.
Mr.Shah used to tell me about the analysis and the research done by the reporters of Gujarat Samachar before printing any article. This made me more and more curious about this newspaper, and then being the script not very different from Hindi and Marathi, I started reading Gujarat Samachar although with great difficulty, when I was 15 years old. By now I can read Gujarati with reasonable ease.
True to Mr. Shah’s claims this newspaper is very good. You guys may be thinking why am I writing about this now, though I have been reading this paper for quite sometime. I remember the day February 27, 2002 & the news I read in Gujarat Samachar. What is so special about February 27, 2002.............the GODHRA incident in which the Kar Sevaks of VHP were burnt alive in a train (Sabarmati Express) compartment at Godhra in Gujarat, in which 58 people died, 43 people injured and 1 bogie completely gutted down.
This is the article publised in the Gujarat Samachar some days afterwards about what actually happended? Based on experience about this newspaper, I would believe what was reported by Mr. Anil Soni and Ms. Neelam Soni (reporters of this newspaper) is true, whether you guys believe or not is upto to you. The media reported that since the Kar Sevaks were returning from Ayodhya, the muslims attacked the train to stop VHP from constructing a temple on the disputed land in Ayodhya.
But Gujarat Samachar had reported this after some days of the incident after digging into the facts:
The tragic incident of Sabarmati Express that occurred at about 1 km away from Godhra railway station has thrown a question mark to those people who claim to be secular or liberal. Many aspects & facts have been ignored. Compartment no S-6 two other compartment of the Sabarmati Express was carrying the kar sevaks of the V.H.P. And it was due to these kar sevaks from Compartment no S-6 that the incident occurred.
The actual story didn?t start from Godhra as being told everywhere but it started from a place from Daahod 75 km before Godhra railway station. At about 5:30 to 6:00 am the train reached Daahod railway station. These kar sevaks, after having tea & snacks at the railway stall, broke down the stall after having some argument with the stall owner and they processed back to the departing train. The stall owner then filed an N C against kar sevaks at the local police station about the above incident. Then about 7:00 to 7:15 am the train reached Godhra railway station. All the kar sevaks came out from their reserved compartments and started to have tea and snacks, at the small tea stall on the platform, which was being run by an old bearded man from the minority community. There was a servant helping this old man in the stall.
The kar sevaks on purpose argued with this old man and then beat him up & pulled his beard. This was all planned to humiliate the old man since he was from the minority community. These kar sevaks kept repeating the slogan, ?Mandir ka nirmaan karo, Babar ki aulad ko bahar karo?. (Start building the Mandir and throw the sons of Babar i.e. the Muslims out of the country.) Hearing the chaos, the daughter (16) of the old man who was also present at the station came forward and tried to save her father from kar kevaks. She kept pleading and begging to them to stop beating her father and leave him alone. But instead of listening to her woes, the kar kevaks lifted the young girl and took her inside their compartment (S-6) and closed the compartment door shut. The train started to move out of the platform of Godhra railway station. The old man kept banging on the compartment doors and pleaded to leave his daughter.
Just before the train could move out completely from the platform, two stall vendors jumped into the last bogey that comes after the guard cabin. And with the intention of saving the girl they pulled the chain and stopped the train. By the time the train halted completely, it was 1 km away from the railway station.
These two men then came to the bogey in which the girl was and started to bang at the door and requested the kar sevaks to leave the girl alone.
Hearing all these chaos, people in the vicinity near to the tracks started to gather towards the train. The boys and the mob (that also included women) that had now gathered near the compartment requested the kar sevaks to return the girl back. But instead of returning the girl, they started closing their windows. This infuriated the mob and they retaliated by pelting stones at the compartment. The compartment-adjoining compartment S-6 on both sides contained kar sevaks of the V.H.P. these kar sevaks were carrying banners that had long bamboo stick attached to them. These kar sevaks got down and started attacking with bamboo sticks on the bob gathered to save the girl. This was like adding insult to injury for the crowd gathered and their anger was now uncontrollable. The crowd started to bring diesel and petrol from trucks and rickshaws standing at the garages Signal Fadia (a place in Godhra) and burnt down the compartment. They didn?t bring the fuel from any petrol pump as being reported everywhere nor was this act of burning pre-planned as being mentioned by many people but it happened all of a sudden out of sheer frustration and anger.
Due to no proper substantial and circumstantial evidence and the late arrival of the Police at the scene of crime frustrated the Police. Which resulted in harassment and arrests of innocent local people living in Godhra.
Furthermore the police started blaming the Mayor of Godhra, Mr. Ahmed Hussain Kalota for this incident. Mr. Kalota who is the member of the Indian National Congress is also a lawyer.
Let me have your comments on this!!!!!!!!
Regards
-Vijay