• Free and Unfair Elections in the Wild West

    Even as the attacks on the minorities continue relentlessly, the BJP government’s priority in Gujarat appears to be holding Assembly elections rather than providing relief and rehabilitation.

    DIONNE BUNSHA
    in Panchmahal and Vadodara

    Around 1.5 lakh refugees are stranded in Gujarat’s relief camps. Several people die in violence here everyday adding to the 800-odd killed so far. Chief minister Narendra Modi sat back while VHP, Bajrang Dal and BJP workers orchestrated targeted attacks across the state, killing and hounding Muslims out of their villages and ghettos. The attacks continue relentlessly in Ahmedabad and other parts of north and central Gujarat. Police barge into Muslim houses and harass them as part of ‘combing operations’. Villagers whose homes have been destroyed are living in the open fields. There is no way out for the homeless refugees in relief camps. They cannot return to their homes or start work again.
    Read more

  • Give violence a chance

    The government shows no desire to put out the fires. In fact, it even appears that it wants to keep the flames burning.

    DIONNE BUNSHA
    in Gujarat

    As Noorjehan Ghachi and her family took their afternoon nap, oblivious to the world around them, their house was set on fire and they were burned alive. Five of them died and six others sustained serious burns. This brutal massacre in Abasana village in Ahmedabad district is part of the relentless pogrom against Muslims in Gujarat, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindutva experiment, the only state in which the fascist party rules with a majority.
    Read more

  • Clean out the camps

    With the PM visiting, government officials have suddenly appeared in relief camps. They want to clean them up…and clear them out.

    DIONNE BUNSHA
    in Vadodara and Ahmedabad

    Gujarat’s chief minister Narendra Modi wants people in the relief camps to go back to their houses. It would prove his claim that things are back to normal in Gujarat. Almost 1.5 lakh people who have been hounded out of their homes and live in miserable conditions in the state’s 104 relief camps would like nothing better than to return home. Except for a small hitch – they have no homes to go to. And, their lives are still in danger if they leave the camps.
    Read more

  • The apostles of violence

    The violence continues in Gujarat abetted by the state. The mobs rule.

    DIONNE BUNSHA
    in Ahmedabad and Vadodara

    After being confined within a relief camp for 15 days, Munnabhai Pathan finally gathered enough courage to return to his home at Avdoot nagar in Makarpura, Baroda city’s industrial area. He had fled after his neighbourhood was attacked by a mob. Too scared to live there again, all he wanted to do was pick up whatever was left of his belongings and leave. The fact that the police was willing to escort him alleviated his fear.
    Read more

  • If you want to stay alive, run to the graveyard

    Overnight, thousands were made homeless during the Gujarat massacres. Their only refuge were dargahs, schools, and even graveyards.

    DIONNE BUNSHA

    When Fatima (name changed) went to celebrate Eid at her mother’s house in Randhikpur village, Patan district, she never imagined she would finally land up being a refugee in a relief camp in Godhra, her family and her life totally destroyed. After their houses were burned by a mob in the village, Fatima fled with a group of 35 people. “We didn’t know where to go. For three days, we walked from village to village asking for protection. We stayed one night in a masjid, another in adivasi houses. By then, our number had dwindled to nine women,” says Fatima.
    Read more

  • Blood in the fields

    They were chased from their homes. Hacked in the fields. Thrown into wells. Rural Gujarat had never seen such widespread brutality—and all planned in cold blood..

    DIONNE BUNSHA
    in rural Gujarat

    “Cleanse the village of cow-eaters. Remove all Muslims. Chase them and kill them,” blared over a loudspeaker around three weeks back in Pandharvada village in Panchmahal. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) was holding a public meeting. Local police guards and a district official were present. They sat on the sidelines, drinking tea, laughing and soaking in the atmosphere. Pandharvada’s Muslims stayed out of harm’s way, fearing the worst. Three weeks later, the VHP’s supporters carried out their threat. Around 21 people were killed when the Muslim bastis were burned. The survivors fled. The VHP had achieved its end.
    Read more