I rushed to my colleague, a well-known writer and specialist in Northeast affairs, who was staying in another room, to convey the news. Soon, we left for Guwahati. On the way, I tried in vain to get more details about the killings from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the All India Radio (AIR). I realised it was difficult to tune into a Short Wave station from a moving vehicle. That was the first time we heard about a railway station called Godhra. At that time I did not remember that I had passed through the small Gujarat town every time I went to Mumbai from Delhi by train.
Godhra is a non-descript wayside railway station. On the Delhi-Mumbai route, it is the first station in Gujarat after the train leaves Madhya Pradesh. The burning of the S-6 coach of the train resulted in an anti-Muslim pogrom that took the lives of nearly 1200 people. It polarised the people on religious lines and helped the BJP, which had been losing a string of by-elections, to return to power. The benefit of religious polarisation continues to help Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who was the first to claim that Godhra was the result of a “conspiracy” and, therefore, a premeditated attack.
Read full article … Verdict on Godhra; Farcical conspiracy