2002 Gujarat riots
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
In February 2002, 58 train passengers, including Hindus returning from a pilgrimage to Ayodhya, were burnt alive by a mob of fundamentalist Muslims who surrounded the train near Godhra, Gujarat and set it alight after dousing it in petrol.
As news of this gruesome incident spread across the state of Gujarat, scores of people were killed in communal rioting that took place in the days that followed. Gujarat.
The official toll from the riots is pegged at around 800, while India's leftist and Marxist groups claim over 2000 people died, a figure considered extravagant by others. These groups further claim that the incident was a one-sided "pogrom" against Muslims that was unleashed by Hindus.
Although precise statistics of the violence are unavailable and subject to much controversy, it is now known that a significant number of Muslims as well as Hindus were killed in the rioting that followed the carnage at Godhra.
The fire on the Sabarmati Express
February 27 2003:A coach of the Sabarmati Express, including kar sevaks (Hindu social/religious workers) was set on fire by a Muslim mob.
An activist of India's Congress (I) party was arrested and charged with leading the mob.
The initial rumour that circulated on the Internet was that the Kar sevaks had misbehaved with a Muslim tea vendor and forced his daughter inside the S-6 coach of the train, and that an agitated Muslim mob assembled spontaneously with cans of petrol and burnt the coach in retaliation.
This account however appears to have been an urban legend as it was completely denied and dismissed as "rubbish" and "bogus" by the very reporters of a local newspaper who supposedly witnessed the events.
Investigation and role of the media
Leftist and Marxist groups in India appointed retired judge V.R. Krishna Iyer, who also served in a Communist state government, to head a team that would write a report on the violence. The authors claim to have gathered testimony and analysed "2094 oral and written testimonies, both individual and collective, from victim-survivors and also independent human rights groups, women's groups, NGOs and academics". The findings were published in the report "Crime Against Humanity - An Inquiry into the Carnage in Gujarat" [1].
The report accused the Sangh Parivar, in particular the BJP, the VHP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of encouraging and participating in what it called a "pogrom". [2]
However, other observers claim that several events in the report "Crime Against Humanity - An Inquiry into the Carnage in Gujarat" are fictitious and fabricated. The credibility of the report has also been questioned due to the evidently leftist or Marxist political affiliations of its authors.
The role of the Indian as well as international media in reporting the riots also came under severe scrutiny. The Indian media was lauded by some for its high-pitched and emotive reporting of the gruesome rioting that took place.
Others however point to the leftist inclinations of much of India's English-language media while accusing it of politically-prejudiced and inflammatory reporting. Many journalists were severely criticized for writing what was perceived as a rationalisation of the train burning by suggesting the victims somehow deserved it as some of them were Hindu religious workers.
The international media was also criticized for reporting events without prior verification of their authenticity, such as the rumour about a Muslim tea-vendor supposedly having been harassed by train passengers.
Gujarat after the riots
The government of Chief Minister Narendra Modi defied the predictions of most of the Indian media and returned to power with a landslide victory in October 2002.