The links on that search deal with the dereliction of duty by the Gujarat administration in the post-Godhra riots and not with the Godhra incident itself. It has been more than 4 years since that coach caught fire, and no one is any closer to knowing what actually happened that morning. Even if we dismiss the Justice Bannerjee report, the mystery is no closer to being solved. The Forensic Science Laboratory report, the depositions before the Nanavati-Shah Commission [appointed by Modi], the police chargesheet – they all give different accounts. Evidence was not collected properly, and the political compulsions seem to have been considered more important than the investigative procedure.

You can take a look here and here to see just messily the whole situation was handled.

I did not mean you, I meant many others. As you are sure about your reaction, I am also sure about the media reaction in the immediate aftermath of Godhra (and before riots) and it was overwhelming denial. All sorts of conspiracy theories (the most popular and sick one was that karsevaks had abducted a Muslims girl and she was in the train)

I have said that Narendra Modi is an unethical demogogue and I stand by it, however it is a two way street.

Further Justice Banerjee report is a hogwash. Trust me it is not very easy to accidently burn the train. The official commission is Nanavati commission, let us wait for its result.

From Wikipidia

” ….Two years after the incident Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav appointed Justice Banerjee to investigate the cause of fire. On the eve of election in Railway Minister’s Native State Bihar, Justice Banerjee submitted an interim report concluding that the fire and attack are two separate events. It claimed, very controversially, that the fire was likely started from within the train, and not by a mob gathered outside the train [1]. This interim report and Bin Laden Clones were used in Bihar Election to attract Muslim votes. [2] [3]. The Interim Report’s credibilty is in serious doubt due to timing of it’s release and subsequent use in election campaigning [4] [5]….”

Further the casuality as quoted by “secular” UPA government for post Godhara Riots was

“… According to an Indian Central Government report released in 2005, 254 Hindus and 790 Muslims were killed with an estimated 223 deemed missing… “

So Hindus were also killed however no one ever bothers to mention it.

Lastly Hindu Muslim tension in India is too complicated an issue to be made into ideological football match and yet that’s what happens.

Regards

I just re-read all of our posts (it’s been a few days), and yes, I can see that your invocation of spontaneous combustion was coated with a heavy dose of sarcasm and was not intended as humor.

however:

No one is brushing off Godhra. What happened that day was indeed horrendous, and you cannot know the reaction that I, as a human being, had upon opening the newspaper that day.

As a Hindu, you can do what you will. But the Banerjee Commission findings suggest that those 59 people did not die that day because they were Hindu. There is no doubt that in the following weeks and months, thousands of people died because they were Muslim.

And people in positions of power in Gujarat – from the police to the state government – HAVE brushed off those thousands of deaths.

My invocation of spontaneous combustion was not a jokeit was heavy duty sarcasm.

I have seen this disconcenrting tendency by people with certain ideological bent to brush off Godhra. As a Hindu I will be damnded if I am going to let it be brushed off.

Regards

Though, personally, I’d have thought that the dismissal of the Godhra incident as a case of spontaneous combustion of Hindus would seem more offensive…

Your point is well taken, and I did consider this. The reason I jumped on your comments was that I wasn’t expecting something like that from you, given the stuff you normally write and had written in this thread until that point. Sorry, should have been consistent.

Go to England. Maybe it’s not the same (I honesty don’t know), but it’s a lot worse in the UK than in the U.S.

Oh my! My words became real people and burnt themselves alive?!?!

Seriously though, finding a joke tasteless is not the same as assuming people are taking myths literally. Since your objections have come down to the former, I’ll drop it here. I do not subscribe to this kind of excessive political correctness but have no problems with others doing so. Though, personally, I’d have thought that the dismissal of the Godhra incident as a case of spontaneous combustion of Hindus would seem more offensive…