Unapologetic Gujarat

WHEN Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his Independence Day speech last month that state governments should ensure quick action in cases of atrocities against women, he was obviously alluding to the recent rape-murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata. It is unlikely that the PM had on his mind the Bilkis Bano case, in which a pregnant woman was raped and seven of her family members murdered during the 2002 communal riots that broke out when he was the Gujarat CM. Incidentally, it was on another Independence Day — in 2022, when India was celebrating 75 years of freedom — that the Gujarat Government released the 11 convicts who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in this case. As they walked out of the Godhra sub-jail, they were welcomed with garlands, as if they were heroes and not perpetrators of unpardonable crimes.

The shocking decision to free the convicts was quashed by the Supreme Court in January this year, but the state government continues to defend the indefensible. Its petition seeking a review of the verdict has now been dismissed by the SC. This proves beyond doubt that the state authorities misled another Bench of the court by suppressing facts to prepare the grounds for remission two years ago. It was the government of Maharashtra, where the trial and sentencing took place, that was empowered to pass the remission order. However, the BJP dispensation in Gujarat brazenly usurped this power, while an obliging Centre put its stamp of approval on the premature release of the lifers.

Left with egg on its face yet again, the Gujarat Government would be well advised to introspect. It must not forget in a hurry the PM’s words that ‘we need to instil a sense of fear amongst those abusing women’. Conniving with rapists and murderers will only dent the State’s credibility and embolden criminals.