‘A madness sans method’

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">mahesh bhatt</span> has been touring the riot-torn areas of gujarat and working to restore sanity. he sends this communiqué on e-mail exclusively to lt on the need to damn fundmentalism: "i believe for evil to triumph it is necessary for good men to do nothing. that is why someone once said. the essence of tragedy is not the doing of evil by evil men — but the doing of evil by good men who out of weakness, indecision, fear and apathy fail to act in accordance with what they know to be right. when i visited ahemdabad last weekend i saw for myself that the constitutional machinery has broken down in gujarat. lawyers belonging to the minority community in ahmedabad are unable to even go to the courts to plead on behalf of the victims of the enduring violence. "unsafe pockets" put the lower courts and high court out of their reachleaving only sessions courts accessible. this is an awfully serious situation. how can you expect the system to function if lawyers cannot even move the courts ?" however, there is an increasing awareness in gujarat of the need to condemn violence against minorities, no matter where in the country it occurred while addressing a meeting of minorities in ahmedabad, i appealed to the audience to condemn the violence perpetrated against the pandits in kashmir. my suggestion was endorsed by a prominent religious leader maulana athar ali who appealed to condemn the violence against the pandits of kashmir. so deep are the seeds of hatred that the ahmedabad police commissioner pc pandey expressed his helplessness saying, "the communal venom had sunk so deep in people’s mind. it would be unfair to single out the police for criticism. but despite the odds, one courageous lawyer from the majority community has managed to file an fir against a police officer who allegedly provided diesel from his vehicle to burn down shops belonging to members of the minority community. it’s indeed moving to see that despite the breakdown there is a group still showing exemplary courage in fighting injustice in the state. let us weep for all those who died in the communal violence in gujarat. those deprived of their constitutional right to be protected. for whom their own motherland became an execution chamber. we too are accomplices to the genocide in gujarat by our silence. </div> </div>