Godhra violence was waiting to happen

3 Mar 2002
Rajesh Ramachandran
The Times of India

New Delhi: The gruesome tragedy at Godhra railway station, was ‘‘waiting to happen.’’ Yet, this important station with a Railway Protection Force post of around 50 armed policemen could do little to stop the mob from torching the Sabarmati Express on February 27 — and thereby the entire state.

The posse from the state government’s Government Railway Police (GRP) too failed to protect passengers. For the past three weeks, the three Sabarmati Expresses have been carrying karsevaks to and from Ayodhya, halting daily at Godhra.

According to a railway official, the area surrounding the Godhra railway station is predominantly Muslim and most of the vendors at the station are Muslim: ‘‘It was a regular feature to see Vishwa Hindu Parishad cadre getting down at Godhra station and shouting provocative slogans.’’

Despite the atmosphere getting vitiated and the possibility of daily provocation, the railways and the state government did not seem to have put its policemen on alert. The protection of railway property is the concern of the RPF, but it failed to guard the train that was torched at the outer signal of the station. Passenger safety comes under the jurisdiction of the state government’s GRP.

At the Railway Board here, officials allege that most of the RPF and GRP men on duty were not available when the mobs attacked the train. But Railway minister Nitish Kumar said that he checked out the facts and was sure that the rpf tried its best to tackle the situation. ‘‘Outside vital installations, the RPF is not empowered to open fire. We are seeking an amendment to the Railway Act and RPF act to get it empowered so that it would be responsible to tackle such situations. What can the people at the station do? Maintaining peace and law and order is the responsibility of the state government. How can railway personnel anticipate trouble?’’ asked Nitish Kumar, who has cancelled his scheduled Patna trip to monitor the situation.

Rail Bhawan has not officially commented on the sequence of events that led to the death of 58 people. So far, the ministry has not explained how many RPF and GRP men were on duty and why there was no intelligence input from the local administration and precautionary action against the worsening mood on the godhra railway station. Also officials have not explained how a 2000-strong mob — if that indeed was the figure — could collect on the railway track and how the armed RPF and the GRP failed to disperse them.

The suspicion that godhra incident was ‘‘premeditated’’ brings the Railway and state police’s inaction into sharper focus. Another cause for concern is the bulk booking of tickets by politicians for the karsevaks. Kumar pointed out that, ‘‘Rules permit bulk booking of tickets and anybody can do it. But now we have stopped it for obvious reasons.’’