THE recent verdict by the Gujarat court on the case of Naroda Patia is, to say the least, revolutionary, in its content. This verdict has brought a new confidence in the minds of victims and activists about judiciary in secular India. The Judge Jyotsna Yagnik has enhanced the prestige of judiciary, especially through her observation that communal riots are like poison in secular India. One rarely hears such a remark in written judgements these days.
It must be admitted that it is after a long time, and almost for the first time in independent India, such severe punishments have been meted out to the perpetrators of the communal violence. Both, Dr. Kodnani who subsequently went on to become minister of women and child development, ironically after killing 35 women and 30 children brutally, and Babu Bajrangi, were confident that they would be fully protected by their bosses. Babu Bajrangi had boasted of this in a sting operation carried out by Tehelka on the eve of last Assembly elections. Continue reading “Gujarat verdict and the Communal Violence Bill”