Thread by @SaffronDiaries

THE MYSTERY OF #GodhraMassacre

21 years ago in 2002, the #Godhra incident took place on this very day. On this day, the Sabarmati Express train was set on fire at Godhra. A crazed mob set fire to a coach of #SabarmatiExpress departing from #Godhra railway station in #Gujarat.

In this incident, 59 returnees from #Ayodhya were killed and riots broke out across Gujarat.
Hindu pilgrims were returning from Ayodhya in the #SabarmatiExpress. On 27 February 2002, the train reached Godhra station in #panchmahal district of Gujarat.

As the train was about to depart, someone pulled the chain and stopped the train, and then threw stones and set fire to the coach. 59 people lost their lives in the S-6 coach fire. FIR registered against 1500 people in #GodhraMassacre.

After this incident, communal violence broke out across #Gujarat and caused huge loss of life and property. The situation got so bad that the then PM Vajpayee to the public for peace. According to official figures, 1200 people died in the riots.

@sanjivbhatt was a Senior Police Officer in the Gujarat Intelligence Bureau during the 2002 riots. In a sworn statement to the Supreme Court, he said that his position allowed him to come across large amounts of information and intelligence both before...

..and during the violence, including the actions of senior administrative officials. He also alleges that, in a meeting in the night before the riots Modi told officials that Muslim community needed to be taught a lesson following an attack on a train carrying #Hindu pilgrims.

Had that tragic event not taken place, the Bharatiya Janata Party could easily have lost the assembly election that was originally scheduled for April 2003 but brought ahead to December 2002 at Modi’s urging to capitalize on the religious polarization the violence had caused.

The lengths to which the Modi-led state government went to reinforce and sustain a falsehood in the face of the anomalies that it could not explain, was not accidental. On the contrary, it was sanctioned and sustained by #Modi himself, with the express purpose of....

creating a wave of Islamophobia that would sweep the #BJP back to power in Gujarat.
The Vishva Hindu #Parishad (VHP) which is an offshoot of #RSS and works for protection of Hindus had been organizing groups of agitated travelers to #Ayodhya.

The extremists were armed with tridents (trishul), the sharp tip of a three-pronged lance and symbol of deity Shiva.
Aided by Bajrang Dal, its militant youth wing, the VHP planned a shila puja, a worship ritual (also called a mahayagna, grand sacrifice), in which

bricks for temple construction in #Ayodhya were consecrated. On the railway platform of #Godhra station where train had stopped,
Muslim vendors had set up their shops. Young Hindu men who had purchased items from the vendors refused to pay for what they consumed.

According to some eyewitnesses, a #Muslim woman was molested and there was the attempt to drag her into one of the bogies.
The ‘karsevaks’ then chanted slogans and taunted the vendors by pulling on their beards and forcing them to say “Jay Shri Ram” (“Hail Lord Ram”).

Such scuffles had been reported for several days wherever karsevaks (activists for temple construction) passed through. Few minutes later, after leaving the station, the train halted to let passengers who had been left behind board.

Then again, just moments later, the train mysteriously stopped a second time, a kilometer away from the station. After being heavily stoned by residents of the nearby slum of Signal Falia, home to the #Ghanchi community situated along the tracks...,

...59 passengers of coach S6 were killed when two bogies (railway wagons) of the train ignited in a raging, ghastly fire, trapping its victims. After the incident, the Nanavati commission of inquiry (NCI) instated soon after the #Gujarat pogrom declared that ...

...the fire in the train bogies was a premeditated act by #Muslim conspirators. But the Banerjee commission instated in 2004 called the incident an accident. Soon after the #Godhra incident, the Gujarat govt led by @narendramodi released a VCD in India.

Today in which it announced to avenge the killings through a ‘Trial by Fire’. This is how the state sponsored #genocide began in which more than 2000 #Muslims lost their lives. Looking back at the events of February 27, 2002, it is difficult not to conclude that it was the day

when India’s voyage to modern nationhood began to fail. For #Godhra brought #Modi to power in #Gujarat and started him on the road to becoming the PM of India. #Modi consolidated his party’s power in Gujarat by sowing fear and suspicion between communities.