On February 27, 2002, a group of Hindus travelling from Ayodhya in Sabarmati Express were burnt alive inside the train by a riotous Muslim mob. The meticulously planned attacks by the Islamists of Godhra led to the killing of 59 people, including innocent women and children.
The raging mob had killed the innocent Hindus for the simple reason that they had visited the Ayodhya to perform karseva for the Ram Mandir. What followed the Godhra killings were intense communal riots in Gujarat that left more than 1,000 people dead.
For the last two decades, the portrayal of Gujarat riots has been skewed and one-sided, with left-liberal and Islamist harping on the narrative of Muslims being the victims of the carnage while carefully ignoring the Godhra massacre simply because it was the Hindus who had lost their lives. The left-liberal media establishment, joining hands with the “secular” political parties, successfully tried to whitewash the burning alive of 59 Hindus at Godhra, the incident that acted as the spark for the subsequent communal riots in the state.
The media, which should ideally have been reporting the truth on how a Muslim mob burnt Hindus to death, was far more bothered about being politically correct than standing with the unvarnished truth of how Hindus had been massacred.
Twenty years down the line, the left-liberals continue to push the same propaganda to either ignore the deaths of innocent Hindus at Godhra or sometimes even go to the extent of showing the Hindus as aggressors while whitewashing the crimes of Muslim mobs that burnt down the S6 coach of Sabarmati express that led to the death of nearly 59 innocent Hindus.
On Sunday, February 27, 2022, exactly two decades after the horrific incident, the left-liberals are still attempting to brush off the Godhra carnage as an ‘accident’. As the nation mourns the victims on the twentieth anniversary of the Godhra killings, the usual ‘secular-liberal’ establishment took to Twitter to claim that the Godhra incident was just an ‘accident’, unknowingly committed by the Muslim mob.
Teesta Setalvad, who built her career over the dead bodies of Hindus of Gujarat, took to Twitter to claim the killing of 59 Hindus travelling in the S5 and S6 coaches of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, was nothing but an “arson”.
Nowhere in the tweet did she condemn the Muslim mob for killing the 59 Hindus returning from Ayodhya. Instead, she subtly blames Hindu society for their reaction and the tragedy that unfolded following the Godhra killings.
Rajdeep Sardesai, another left-liberal intellectual who used Gujarat riots for his career progression in the media ecosystem, tweeted, saying this day changed the lives of so many people.
In his tweet, Rajdeep wrote, “Godhra train burning and terrible communal riots that followed. Tragic loss of so many innocent lives. Closure may come only when all guilty are punished. Thoughts with grieving families.”
Well, he failed to explain to his followers how exactly the Godhra train burnt. The seasoned ‘journalist’, who over the years has learnt to absolve crimes committed by the Muslims, shied away yet again to mention who orchestrated the killings at Godhra on February 27, 2002.
Instead, he put out a carefully worded tweet to depict Hindus as the initial aggressor during the Gujarat riots. Although almost twenty years have passed since the disdainful act took place, still, the left-liberals have not shown any signs of remorse; instead, they continue to peddle the same propaganda against Hindus.
It is not just the Congress ecosystem that insists that Godhra killings were ‘unfortunate killings’. The neo-secular entrants such as Derek O’Brien of the TMC also joined the bandwagon on Sunday to put out his view on the twentieth anniversary of the Godhra killings.
Though no one expects Derek to put out tweets based on objectivity and facts, one still thought he would pay respects to the victims of Godhra carnage, who were mercilessly burnt exactly twenty years ago.
However, unsurprisingly, he neither showed any sympathy to the dead nor issued any condemnation against the perpetrators of the vile crime. Instead, he took the opportunity to indirectly blame the government for indulging in ‘PR’ exercise.
Similarly, Mohan Guruswamy, another celebrated left-liberal-secular intellectual, wrote a piece in Deccan Chronicle ranting against the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In his write-up, Guruswamy wrote that the Godhra killings were no less than the Reichstag fire that propelled Hitler to absolute power in Germany. Guruswamy insinuated that the Godhra Hindu killings were orchestrated by the BJP regime just as Hitler, who was responsible for the Reichstag incident.
He does not stop there. According to Guruswamy, the Godhra incident, ahead of the 2002 Gujarat polls, became the springboard to a meteoric political rise of the BJP and Narendra Modi. He also cited a report submitted by Ahmedabad’s Forensic Science Laboratory that claimed that the coach was set on fire by someone insider and not the outsiders.
Guruswamy gave a clean chit to the Muslim mobs that burnt the travellers on board of Sabarmati express and shockingly went on to blame the insiders for the incident.
It is no surprise to see the left-liberals whitewashing the Godhra carnage. It suits their political narrative, and they continue to do it as long as they exist. For them, it is incredibly convenient to blame Hindus for their own brutal murders as there is no accountability for displaying such intellectual dishonesty.
However, secular India has moved on. Today, it is difficult for the left-liberals to sell their propaganda and portray Hindus as the perpetual aggressors. The liberal-secular agenda of whitewashing the crimes of particular sections of the society and trying to bury the reality of persecution of Hindus by the secular state has no takers anymore.
Even if the likes of Rajdeep Sardesai, Teesta Setalvad can alter the facts pertaining to Godhra killing to please their political bosses, the truth that a Muslim mob mercilessly burned down people at Godhra on February 27, 2002, for the simple reason that they were Hindus and visited Ayodhya to perform karseva will never be forgotten by the Hindus of the country.
