GUJARAT: PEACEFUL ON THE SURFACE, YET STATE GOVERNMENT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 MUMBAI 001931

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM KIRF PINR CVIS PREL PGOV KISL IN
SUBJECT: GUJARAT: PEACEFUL ON THE SURFACE, YET STATE GOVERNMENT
CONTINUES ITS POLICIES OF COMMUNALIZATION

Summary
--------------


1. (SBU) The riots of 2002 belong to history, and communal
harmony now reigns in Gujarat, business leaders and the state's
Chief Secretary told the Consul General during his September 8-9
visit to Ahmedabad. The Chief Secretary criticized the USG for
continuing to probe into the judicial aftermath of the riots,
and directly admonished the CG for meeting with human rights
NGOs who he said failed to portray an accurate picture of
Gujarat. NGO reps confirmed that the state was peaceful, but
they said the GOG maintained a discrete, yet systematic policy
of isolating and marginalizing the state's Muslim minority.
Interlocutors from across civil society claimed the GOG was
continuing to communalize many aspects of public life.
Communalization of education was an example cited often. In
reaction, Muslims were withdrawing from public schools and
Muslim education was experiencing a "blossoming" in the form of
new and even modern madrassas, the CG was told.


2. (SBU) Christian leaders told the CG that groups close to the
RSS were planning a massive Hindu gathering in a remote tribal
district early next year as part of an effort to bring Christian
converts back into the Hindu fold. The general secretary of
SEWA, a large and well-respected union and self-help
organization for poor women, claimed that the GOG was hoping to
use the group's reach and extensive membership as a conduit to
disseminate communal ideologies. SEWA was resisting fiercely,
the CG was told, and feeling the wrath of the GOG as a result.
The local press expressed some interest in the USG decision to
revoke the visa of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, but the CG's
other interlocutors hardly broached the issue. Modi's troubles
with rebels in his own party was also not a topic on most
people's minds, and those who did mention the issue felt that
Modi's opponents were too weak to topple him. Modi declined a
request to meet with the CG, citing a scheduling conflict. End
Summary.

Human Rights Activists: Most Gujaratis Have Forgotten
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3. (SBU) Kirtee Shah, a well-known human rights activist and
architect in Ahmedabad, wasn't surprised when the Consul General
told him that government and business leaders were claiming that
the 2002 riots now belonged to history. About 8 in 10 Gujaratis
had forgotten about 2002, Shah said. "Who are these people who
say everything has returned to normal?" he asked. "It is
Gujarat's business community, which will always be interested in
normalcy. It is also the state's political establishment, which
will never accept guilt or responsibility." But most
importantly, Shah said, it was the Hindu majority that saw no
need to reflect on 2002, and that felt neither remorse nor
regret. Shah said Ahmedabad, with its long history of communal
flare ups, had a "dual character." When riots break out, things
get very bloody. "But three months later everything is back to
normal." Outsiders found it difficult to understand how people
could forget such bloodshed so quickly. Only a small number of
Gujaratis and some NGOs were truly interested in broader issues
of human rights and justice. Because the vast majority wanted
to forget, NGOs were easily branded as "5 star NGOs" that
survived on foreign funding and were bent on maligning Gujaratis
and the state's "good name" to ensure that donations kept
flowing, Shah said.


4. (SBU) Father Cedric Prakash of the Prashant Center for Human
Rights and Justice said the Hindu majority and the political
leadership not only wanted to forget, but had to as well.
Otherwise, "the consequences would be too terrible. Large parts
of the state's political leadership and too many citizens would
be held accountable" for the atrocities against the Muslim
minority, Prakash said.


5. (SBU) While the majority looked ahead, the riots and the lack
of justice remained on the minds of the state's Muslim minority,
the CG heard repeatedly. Gujarati Muslims had lost all faith in
the ability and readiness of the system to bring justice, said
Dr. Shakeel Ahmad of the Forum for Democracy and Communal Amity.
Shah echoed Ahmad's thoughts. "It took 21 years for the
central government to acknowledge the wrongdoings against Sikhs
in 1984," Shah said in reference to the riots that followed the
assassination of PM Indira Gandhi. "Muslims are asking
themselves how long they'll have to wait for justice in Gujarat,
especially when Chief Minister Modi remains in power." Congress
politician Arjun Modhwadia, opposition leader in the Gujarat
parliament, said only a few of the several thousand cases
pending would ever lead to a conviction. The BJP government was
actively torpedoing the justice system; many witnesses were
abysmally poor people who could be bought off cheaply, he said.


6. (SBU) The CG's NGO interlocutors acknowledged that
anti-Muslim resentments had long existed within the Hindu
majority in Gujarat. However, the current government was unique
for actively using these resentments as part of a communal-based
policy, Hussein Jowher of the NGO Sprat told the CG. Jowher
said anti-Muslim feelings would never have led to the scale of
bloodshed seen in 2002 without the active encouragement of the
state government. The use of communalism continued until the
present, although the state government had become far more
discreet in using it to further its political objectives. On
the surface the state government attempted to project a picture
of communal harmony by sponsoring large-scale, visible events
around some of the state's major holidays, Jowher said.

The GOG View: A State of Communal Harmony...
--------------


7. (SBU) In his meeting with the CG, Gujarat Chief Secretary
Sudhir Mankad painted a picture of an economically vibrant,
peaceful state living in communal harmony. Mankad explained at
length the GOG's plans to support events around certain
holidays, and cited the success of such events as evidence of
good communal relations in the state. (Note: Citing
unavailability, Chief Minister Modi denied a request for a
meeting, as did the leadership of the state's economic promotion
board. End note). After an extended discussion on the economic
situation in Gujarat (septel),the CG asked Mankad what the
state government was doing to address the injustices of 2002.
Mankad said the riots were a closed issue. The culprits were
being tried in "special courts" (the Chief Secretary did not
specify which courts he meant). A significant number had been
prosecuted and received jail sentences. Gujarat had moved on,
Mankad added. The state was now peaceful, and the crime rate
was lower than India's national average or, for that matter,
lower than in the U.S., he claimed.

...But Don't Ask Us About The 2002 Riots
--------------


8. (SBU) When the CG asked for specifics on the number of
convictions, Mankad lost his patience. He asked the CG why the
U.S. was "so obsessed" with the riots. "You always express
concern about the riots, but look what else is happening in the
world," Mankad complained. The GOG was just as concerned about
human rights in Gujarat as anyone else, but it was not a
government's concern, or business, to inquire about the human
rights situation elsewhere. Reps of other diplomatic missions
visited Gujarat to discuss the economy, education or cultural
issues. The U.S. was always different. "When I saw your
schedule I asked myself why you need to talk to all these
groups", he said, referring to the CG's NGO interlocutors. "I
would like to express the concern of my government that you are
meeting with such people." D. Rajagopalan of the state's
department of industries and mines, who joined Mankad in the
meeting, told the CG: "You should get a feeling for the state
of Gujarat before you meet with these extreme people." The CG
underlined the importance the USG attached to human rights, and
said we would continue to follow this issue closely. He asked
Mankad for data on the number of convictions related to the 2002
riots. The Chief Secretary promised to provide the data.
(Comment: At the time of this writing Consulate had yet to
receive anything from the GOG. We honestly don't expect the
Chief Secretary to follow up on his promise since the 2002 riots
are not an issue that the Gujarat establishment enjoys
addressing. End comment.)

Business Leaders: Life is Normal, Business is Good
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9. (SBU) In several meetings with business leaders, everyone
touted the commercial climate in Gujarat but did not mention the
2002 riots until the CG brought up the issue. Gujarat had
returned to normal, the CG heard. Gujaratis were pragmatic,
peace loving people, and the riots were an aberration. Several
interlocutors said most Gujaratis were surprised when the USG
revoked CM Modi's visa. The USG's motivation for doing so was
not immediately clear to most people, Sunil Parekh, an advisor
for the rating agency Crisil told the CG. Gujaratis were
initially angry with the USG, but most people, including Modi
himself, quickly decided that the visa issue would not affect
Gujarat's relations with the U.S., Parekh said.

BJP Rebels, Visa Revocation Both Non-Issues
--------------


10. (SBU) Congress politician Modhwadia also praised the USG for
revoking Modi's visa, but acknowledged that the issue was not on
most people's minds. In state politics, the top issues were
power outages in rural areas, price inflation, crime and
corruption, he said. The CG's interlocutors hardly mentioned CM
Modi's struggles with his inner-party opposition. Modhwadia
told the CG that the rebels were not strong enough to topple
Modi, and would probably not gain enough backing in any case.
Shah echoed Modhwadia's views, adding that the national BJP
leadership was desperate to hold onto Modi because his
leadership in Gujarat was one of the few success stories that
the battered party could demonstrate in India.

HR Groups: GOG Continues to Marginalize, Isolate Muslims
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11. (SBU) Echoing statements we had heard in earlier visits,
spokesmen from human rights NGOs and Muslim groups described
what they said was the state's discreet yet active isolation of
Gujarati Muslims. Hussein Jowher said Ahmedabad's Muslims were
being marginalized into four separate, unconnected pockets of
the city either out of fear for their safety or because buying
or renting a home elsewhere had become virtually impossible. In
one such case, no single public college, post office or other
public building serviced a pocket of 400,000 Muslims in Juhapura
in Ahmedabad, he claimed. Jowher said the GOG closed the
facilities during the mid-eighties after a riot and never
reopened them.

Communalization of Education Continues As Well
-------------- -


12. (SBU) Both Prakash and Ahmad said the state continued to
propagate communalism in the state's schools. Catholic
Archbishop Stanislaus Fernandes also said that Hindutva themes
were making stronger inroads into the official school curricula.
The church faced a dilemma, as it was required to implement
state guidelines in its curricula, he said. When discussing the
growing communalism of education with well-meaning civil
servants in the state's education bureaucracy, Fernandes said,
he was told: "be patient, Father, all of this will pass one
day," implying that things could change if the Modi government
ever lost power. Such assurances were not comforting, Fernandes
said, since communal education was also influencing future
thinking in the state by targeting today's youth. A similar
development was observable in Gujarat's court system, he said,
where communal thinking had also seriously affected how judges
think. Such thinking would not disappear quickly should Modi
leave office, he said.

The Reaction: The "Blossoming" of Madrassas
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13. (SBU) Fernandes said increasing numbers of Muslim families
were sending their children to Christian schools to escape the
communalization of education. NGOs reps also described the
dilemmas facing Muslim parents in Gujarat. Many families had
withdrawn their children from public schools because of
increased communalization of education, Shakeel Ahmed told the
CG. Other families whose children had to traverse non-Muslim
neighborhoods to reach school had also withdrawn their children
out of safety concerns, Jowher added. In addition, many
families could not afford to send their children to school. New
Madrassas were openly rapidly to address the educational needs
of the Muslim population, Shakeel and Jowher said. Ahmad spoke
of a "blossoming" of Muslim education in madrassas. A madrassa
was easy and inexpensive to open. Schools were more expensive,
more red tape was involved, and many Muslim neighborhoods did
not have a critical mass of students to support a school, he
added.


14. (SBU) Jowher cautioned against interpreting the growth of
madrassas as a sign of increased communalism or fundamentalism
on the part of Gujarati Muslims. Most Gujarati Muslims realized
that secularism benefited them. They knew they would always be
losers in a communal India because they were a minority. Muslim
parents wanted religion to be part of their children's
education, but they also wanted schooling that prepared their
children for the demands of modern working life. Madrassas were
adapting to such expectations, with some "modern" madrassas also
teaching contemporary subjects and even computer skills.
Nonetheless, most Muslim parents would prefer that their
children attend normal schools. Children don't learn English in
most madrassas, and a madrassa education will not qualify
children for college, Jowher said.

Freedom of Religion Act Yet To Be Implemented
--------------

15. (SBU) Archbishop Fernandes said the GOG had yet to implement
the so-called Freedom of Religion Act of 2003, which would have
required local state officials to approve any religious
conversion. The GOG was not interfering in his church's
conversion activities. He added, however, that the church was
being cautious to avoid any confrontation with the state.
Fernandes said pentecostal Christian groups were "more vocal" in
their conversion activities and were giving his church a "bad
name." Father Prakesh said local officials were invoking the
act to intimidate people in tribal areas who wanted to convert.
Some officials had warned potential converts to Christianity
that they might not be able to register conversions because of
the ambiguities surrounding the implementation of the law,
Prakash claimed.


16. (SBU) Both Fernandes and Prakesh told the CG that
organizations affiliated with the RSS were planning a massive
Hindu gathering in February 2006 to the Dangs district, a remote
tribal area in southeastern Gujarat. (Note: In 1998 attacks on
Christian churches and missionary schools in the Dangs attracted
international attention. End note) Prakash said the RSS groups
aimed to "Hindu-ize" the tribal populations in the district,
many of whom were Christians. Prakash said the planned action
was part of a sustained campaign called "ghar wapsi" that aimed
to bring tribals in central India back to the Hindu fold.
Subsequent to the CG's meeting with the Christian clerics, the
media has reported that the GOG was supporting the RSS groups'
plans for the gathering over the objections of the local tribal
residents.

GOG Targeting Well-Respected Women's Group?
--------------


17. (SBU) The CG visited the Self Employed Women's Association
(SEWA),a highly respected trade union and self-help
organization with over 500,000 members throughout Gujarat.
Reemaben Nanawati, SEWA General Secretary, told the CG that any
communal harmony projected by political leaders was only
superficial. The GOG was trying to project normality, but
politically the government was using communal animosities to
"divide and rule" the state's many communal, caste and tribal
groups. The state government was obstructing the activities of
SEWA in the remote area of Kutchch in northwestern Gujarat,
Nanawati said. The GOG was withholding grants for state
projects being implemented by SEWA in the region, she said,
ostensibly over financial irregularities. In reality, the GOG
was interested in using SEWA's reach and vast membership as a
conduit for its communal ideologies, Nanawati claimed. SEWA was
resisting fiercely, since communal harmony among its members was
an important factor for its success, she said. The resistance
was making the GOG more vindictive and causing it to step up its
pressure on the organization, she added. Due to lack of funds
over 12,000 extremely poor SEWA members have not received wages
for over five months, Nanawati claimed.

Comment
--------------


18. (SBU) "Dual character" aptly describes the mood in Gujarat.
Most of our interlocutors from the Hindu majority appear to be
sincere in their views that the 2002 riots belong to history.
They have moved on with their lives, and normally do not mention
2002 until we bring up the subject. One interlocutor's comment
that most Gujaratis did not immediately understand the USG
motivation for revoking CM Modi's visa shows how far removed the
events of 2002 are from many people's daily concerns. At the
same time, the bloodshed of 2002 appears to be very much alive
in the back of people's minds, otherwise it would be hard to
explain why the GOG goes to such length to promote festivals
that are aimed at documenting communal harmony in the state.
The Chief Secretary's emotional reaction to the CG's inquiries
on the subject also shows just how raw nerves can be whenever
2002 is mentioned. And however much the majority wants to
forget, the remaining bitterness among the sizable Muslim
minority and outspoken human rights NGOs will ensure that the
riots will continue to play a role in the political life of
Gujarat.


19. (SBU) As alive as emotions may be under the surface, none of
the CG's interlocutors expected communal tensions in Gujarat to
flare up any time soon. CG Modi may have actively fanned
communal tensions in 2002, but today he no doubt shares the view
that any repeat of the 2002 bloodshed would be detrimental to
his political fortunes, both within Gujarat and outside the
state as well. In fact, contacts in Gujarat have long told us
that the police have strict instructions from the political
leadership to nip any communal violence in the bud. In the
longer term, however, the state government's clearly visible
attempts to marginalize the Muslim minority and its discreet
attempts to further communalize public life can only increase
the risk of heightened tensions and renewed bloodshed in a state
with a history of communal rioting. End comment.

OWEN