Blaming the postman for post-Godhra!

AHMEDABAD: On the evening of February 27, 2002, some 5,000 people gathered at the lawns of Ahmedabad's elite Karnavati Club to listen to a three-hour ghazal concert by Jagjit Singh. This was just 12 hours after a mob attack on Sabarmati Express at Godhra, just 120 kms away, had killed 59 Ram sevaks returning from Ayodhya.
Obviously, the crowd wasn't incensed by the morning massacre.They were taken in by the mellifluous music of the maestro. But trouble was brewing just five kms down the highway on which the club is located. A huge crowd started gathering at the Sola Civil Hospital at midnight as the completely charred bodies of Godhra victims started streaming in early morning. The gory condition of the bodies infuriated the crowd which started baying for blood.
The bloody reprisal for Godhra wasn't entirely spontaneous. It was only the next day that Ahmedabad erupted and the fire then spread to other cities, towns and villages of central and north Gujarat. This is what, perhaps, is at the back of the mind of Justice Nanavati, who, in Part-1 of his report on Godhra, has tried to de-link the Godhra incident with the Gujarat riots.
But, if not Godhra, what did spark off the reprisals in which 1,000 persons, mainly Muslims, were killed? The answer to this question, which will be made clear in Part-II of the report which will be submitted in December, could be ominous for the media.
This could be a classical case of shooting the messenger for the message. The commission's report on the Godhra carnage lists out seven television channels, including Doordarshan, and their representatives as witnesses. The commission has collected footage of the Godhra incident and riots that followed as evidence before it and has also annexed copies of print media reports on the S-6 coach burning of February 27, 2002.
Besides, it has stacks of evidence in the testimonies and affidavits of top police officers and bureaucrats blaming the media for provoking the riots. While then director general of police K Chakravarthi and additional chief secretary (home) Ashok Narayan, put part of the blame of the riots on the media coverage of the Godhra carnage, the affidavit filed by then Ahmedabad police commissioner and now DGP PC Pande, is all about how media was provocative in its reportage.
If the commission chooses to go after the media, it, in fact, can even bank on the report of the Editors Guild of India, which sent a three-member team to probe the media coverage of the 2002 incidents and found a section of the media provocative in its coverage.