Justice delayed need not be justice denied in every case. Not certainly when it comes to the victims of communal riots in India. This is not the only reason why Friday's verdict by a special fast track court in Ahmedabad in Gujarat sentencing all 31 accused in the Naroda-Patiya massacre case to life imprisonment for varying periods should be considered historic. There are several others. If the 2002 Gujarat riots were the worst anti-Muslim pogrom in India, Naroda-Patiya was the setting for some of the most gruesome acts of carnage in that horror play. An estimated 97 Muslims, many of them hapless women and children, were hacked to death in Naroda. Among those found guilty are Mayaben Kodnani, a member of the state legislature (28 years in jail) and Babu Bajrangi, the former head of the state unit of the pro-Hindu Bajrang Dal, who has been ordered to spend the remaining part of his life in prison. Seven others have been sentenced to 31 years. According to India's Outlook magazine, there have been some 13,000 communal incidents in the country since independence, with Muslims forming 80 percent of the victims. But this is the first time anyone has been punished for inciting or taking part in anti-minority violence. The fact that Kodnani led the Naroda killings was common knowledge, but Chief Minister Narendra Modi of pro-Hindu BJP party, made her a minister in 2007, even putting her, ironically, in charge of women and child development. No wonder, Judge Jyotsna Yagnik in her ruling made a pointed reference to the murder in Naroda “of an infant who was 20 days old,” describing Kodnani as “a kingpin of riots.” A gynecologist by training, Kodnani was a close associate of Modi. So her conviction should unnerve the chief minister who faces the charge that he, by his acts of commission and omission, allowed the riots to continue for weeks. Modi claims that the voters of Gujarat, by re-electing him frequently ever since, had absolved him of any role in the carnage. By convicting Kodnani who had won election to the state assembly from Naroda thrice, the court has rejected the concept of “popularity-as-justice.” To the discomfort of Modi, the court has also asserted there was conspiracy behind the riots. This is a victory for the Special Investigation Team that was brought into the picture by India's apex court following the failure of the state police to properly prosecute the cases relating to the riots. Senior advocate-activist Mukul Sinha is now planning to move the high court asking for a former cabinet minister, several police officers and the officials in the chief minister's office (CMO) to be arraigned as accused. The list of accused should not end there. Human rights activists have always called for Modi to be prosecuted for deliberately enabling the massacres by turning a blind eye to them. Maybe Kodnani is a weak link in a chain of command that should reach as far as Modi. It is inconceivable that she should have actively participated in the killing without the knowledge of some one higher-up. That is why Indian activists have doggedly pursued Modi through the courts and in the media. The Friday judgment should embolden them just as it should boost the people's confidence in the impartiality of the Indian judiciary.
