February will all the time be a painful month for some significantly the Jafri household: on 28 February 2002, Ehsan Jafri, a former Member of Parliament and an genuine and much-loved citizen of secular India was murdered; on 1 February 2025, his spouse Zakiaben was known as to her everlasting reward
Within the dying of Zakiaben the individuals of India have misplaced a fantastic soul! She was a lady of power and substance. She suffered a lot since that fateful day, when her expensive husband Ehsan Jafri was brutally murdered. Since then, as a victim-survivor, she has fought relentlessly for justice not merely for herself however all ladies and others – who’re victims of an unjust and violent system
The Gujarat Carnage 2002 can simply price as one of many bloodiest chapters in post-independent India. The burning of the S-6 compartment of the Sabarmati Specific (from Faizabad to Ahmedabad), far away from the Godhra railway station on 27 February (ensuing within the deaths of 59 harmless individuals), was (and is) strongly condemned. A number of individuals had been convicted for this act, although there was (and is)nonetheless a raging debate on what induced the fireplace. The unhappy truth is that any dying – significantly the tragic ones – is sure to depart a fantastic void within the lives and the hearts of the family members whom they’ve left behind.
What adopted this was, nonetheless, a carnage past comprehension and completely unjustifiable. Apparently (and this from eye witness accounts), the then Chief Minister of the State convened a gathering of some excessive stage BJP and Authorities functionaries very late night of 27 February. What transpired at this assembly has two completely different variations – however the actions that resulted had been blatantly apparent: Muslims throughout Gujarat had been brutalized, raped, dispossessed of their lands and homes and murdered. The depth of violence for days on was a criminal offense in opposition to humanity. 1000’s had been affected throughout Gujarat! Numbers, pale into insignificance, when one recollects the brutality of what befell. For weeks after which months, rampaging mobs indulged in among the most despicable acts. In addition to, the regulation and order mechanism had not merely abdicated its accountability however had been additionally seen actively concerned on this carnage.
Zakia’s life turned intrinsically linked to the seek for justice after the tragic occasions of 28 February 2002, when a mob attacked the Gulbarg Society, killing 69 individuals, together with her husband. The bloodbath at Gulbarg Society stays probably the most horrific episodes of the 2002 post-Godhra carnage.A mob of over 15,000 individuals descended upon the Muslim-majority space, looting houses, setting them ablaze, and killing no less than 69 individuals, together with Ehsan Jafri. Regardless of Ehsan determined makes an attempt to hunt police assist, no help arrived, regardless of the proximity of police stations.
On 21 November2002, the Involved Residents’ Tribunal consisting of a number of eminent residents and headed by Justice V. Krishna Iyer (a former Decide of the Supreme Court docket of India), made public a report entitled ‘Crime Towards Humanity’, on the Gujarat Carnage. This report was written on the premise of greater than 2000 oral and written testimonies, each people and collective, from victim-survivors and in addition from impartial Human Rights Teams, Ladies’s Teams, NGOs, lecturers and others. The Tribunal, in its findings and proposals, clearly indicts the Authorities of Gujarat and holds them liable for the unfettered violence, homicide, arson and looting that befell in Gujarat that 12 months.
The findings of the Residents’ Tribunal additionally corroborate with the findings of a number of different fact-findings of impartial and neutral teams. These embrace:
· what befell in Gujarat was not merely communal violence or riots; it was a genocide, a carnage, an ethnic cleaning, designed to wipe out, to marginalise a whole group.
· it was well-planned and well-executed. It was not a “spontaneous response” as some individuals make it out to be. The preparations will need to have taken a number of months. Someday earlier, a extensively circulated Gujarati day by day listed a number of lodges run by the Chilya group which had non-Islamic names. Throughout the carnage, most of their lodges had been razed to the bottom. A meticulous census was carried out on the Muslims and Christians of Gujarat in 1999. The information helped marauding mobs know precisely whom to assault and the place.
· it was meant to interrupt the spine of an economic system generated/owned by Muslims; it succeeded to a fantastic extent.
· the middle-class (together with a number of well-to-do and educated ladies) had been blatantly concerned within the violence; there have been only a few individuals who had been prepared to return out and take a stand to forestall what was taking place.
· in some areas, adivasis and dalits had been used very successfully within the arson and looting of Muslim houses and institutions.
· it was clearly a State-sponsored genocide. The Residents’ Tribunal has indicted along with the Chief Minister and politicians, a number of high-ranking bureaucrats and police officers. The SanghParivar was given a free hand to do what they needed. The police had been apparently given clear directions to not take any motion. There may be additionally proof to point out that some had been inspired to affix within the violence – which they did, with ruthless finesse. State Ministers and leaders of ‘the Parivar’ had been seen main the mobs. (a few them even had been within the Police Management room on the time of the violence). (The ‘Tehelka’ sting operation which was made public in October 2007 offers ample proof to substantiate these details).
In December 2003, the then Chief Justice of India V.N. Khare presiding over a Divisional Bench of the Supreme Court docket criticized the Authorities of Gujarat saying, “I’ve no religion left within the prosecution and the Gujarat Authorities. I’m not saying Article 356. It’s important to shield individuals and punish the responsible. What else is raj dharma? You give up for those who can not prosecute the responsible.” In a landmark ruling on 8 February 2012, the Performing Chief Justice of Gujarat Bhaskar Bhattacharya, very emphatically said, “Gujaratgovernment’s insufficient response and inaction (to include the riots) resulted in an anarchic state of affairs which continued unabated for days on…the state can not shirk from its duties”.
Within the context of the numerous instances and the truth that a number of fingers had been pointing to the connivance of the Modi Authorities, the Supreme Court docket of India appointed a Particular Investigation Group (SIT) to look into sure instances, very specifically a criticism made by Zakia Jafri with regard to the homicide of her husband, the previous Member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri and a number of other others. It’s common information that the position even performed by the SIT was extremely questionable. There have been speculations and loads of ‘leakages’, of the ultimate SIT Report. No matter it says and doesn’t say; lapses and manipulations therein; the complicity and the culpability of the highly effective and of vested pursuits, is past doubt.
The professional-Authorities responses of others are on anticipated traces: “2002 was simply an aberration in truth a distraction”; “take a look at the way in which, we’ve got progressed since; the roads, the purchasing malls, the riverfront, the flyovers…in truth all of the industrialists wish to come solely to Gujarat”; “didn’t they deserve it, in spite of everything, they’re however terrorists”; “why is identical significance not being given to the bloodbath of the Sikhs in 1984 and for that matter, to the Hindu pundits in Kashmir?”; “We Muslims want to maneuver on…” The rationalisations are typical. They arrive from the educated elite and in addition from those that are afraid to cope with the previous. Statements like these are sometimes gripped by worry. Concern appears to rule the roost… the reality is, a sizeable part of the inhabitants is very afraid of the plain fact. In addition to, many undergo from selective amnesia!
One one who fought relentlessly these previous a few years was Zakia Jafri. She was the voice of most of the victim-survivors . Nonetheless, on 24 June 2022,the Supreme Court docket dismissed her plea. Zakiaben had moved a Particular Go away Petition (SLP) earlier than the Supreme Court docket of India demanding an intensive probe into the bigger conspiracy behind the violence. The SLP, the place CJP secretary Teesta Setalvad was the second petitioner, showcased investigative lapses in addition to complicity of individuals in energy on the time in permitting the violence to proceed unabated. The judgement dismissing her plea rocked the conscience of the nation.
The court docket noticed that, “As a matter of truth, all these concerned in such abuse of course of, should be within the dock and proceeded with in accordance with regulation.”Not surprisingly subsequently the above extract was additionally quoted in a criticism filed on behalf of the State by one Darshansinh B Barad, Police Inspector, Detection of Crime Department, Ahmedabad Metropolis, only a day after the judgment was delivered. Within the criticism dated June 25, 2022, Barad asks for an FIR to be registered in opposition to Setalvad, former Gujarat Director Normal of Police (DGP) R.B Sreekumar and former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt . Teesta and Sreekumar had been arrested . after spending a substantial of time in jail had been granted bail. Bhatt was already in jail at the moment, on one other cost. He nonetheless continues to be in jail, these previous a few years. The case on all three remains to be not closed.
When Zakia died on 1 February she was together with her daughter Nishrin (aka Nargis) and son-in-law Najid. Each Nishrin and Najid are residents in america however have been coming all the way down to India to spend a while with Zakia . Nargis has vivid and highly effective recollections of her mom. In a voice choked with emotion she says, “that morning my mom was not too nicely – however we actually didn’t suppose that it was going to be her final moments; she known as out to me ‘Nargis, Nargis’ after which breathed her final” Nargis has fond recollections of her mom saying, “my mom was the daughter of a farmer, who married on the age of 21 and made Ahmedabad her dwelling. She tailored very fantastically to her new environment- even selecting to put on a sari fortunately and proudly as her most popular costume. After 2002, she was satisfied that she needed to battle for justice; she did so with loads of private ache. Nonetheless she was additionally capable of transcend the killings and violence of 2002, and had no bitterness in the direction of anybody”. Nargis provides for good measure, “my mom got here from Rustampur, a village within the Khandwa district of MP. She used to take nice pleasure in saying that her home was reverse Ashok and Kishore Kumar’s home, ‘ghantaghar ki samnay’!”
Najid remembers the nice and cozy and loving therapy he all the time acquired from his mother-in-law- from guaranteeing that non-spicy meals was ready for him to having a fan specifically put in for him. “Her love was for all. She didn’t communicate sick of anybody. In each sense of the phrase she was a fantastic and fantastic mom.” The identical sentiments are shared by Tanveer, her elder son who lives in Surat and Zuber her youngest who lives in america.
Zara Chowdhary, creator of The Fortunate Ones: A Memoir, in a current interview, places it poignantly saying, “Zakia Jafri was greater than a widow looking for justice. She was a mom, a grandmother, a group member. She carried others together with her. That jogs my memory of a narrative my buddy Zehra Mehdi shares in regards to the Shia custom of demanding justice. Hazrat Zainab, daughter of Hazrat Ali and granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad, survived the bloodbath of her household. She stood earlier than the tyrant who had slaughtered them and demanded justice—not only for her private loss, however for her whole group. That distinction is essential.”
Zara provides, “In marginalised communities, we by no means carry our burdens alone. Dalit liberation actions embody this as nicely—you stroll along with your whole group. Out of a whole lot of Gujarat instances, Zakia Jafri’s was the one which insisted: this wasn’t only a private tragedy; it was an assault on a whole individuals. That distinction—seeing oneself as half of a bigger battle—is what fuels me. I’m not writing alone. I’m not strolling alone. Even the lifeless are with me. And no matter comes, it comes for all of us”.
Zakia was actually a lady of power and substance. Her resilience and her calm manner within the face of all odds – simply bear testimony to a lady who will be known as ‘Mom India’. While relentlessly pursuing the reason for justice for all, she held no bitterness, no rancour, epitomising one of the best of womanhood and motherhood. Right now as we bear in mind the Gujarat Carnage of 2002 – we salute Zakia Jafri – one among India’s biggest ladies!
Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ is a human rights, reconciliation and peace activist/author. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com.
