NEW DELHI – Numerous witnesses, activists, journalists within India, andobservers from other countries, have repeatedly stated that the 2002Gujarat violence was not a spontaneous clash between two communities, itwas a revenge riot presided upon by an indulgent state.

Coming in the aftermath of the Godhra train burning, in which kar sevaksreturning from Ayodhya were burnt alive, the riots saw Hindu mobs kill,rape and displace thousands of Muslims.

A 2012 reportlink>in *The Guardian* states: “The killers may have been in touch with policeand politicians. According to the 2011 Amicus report, two cabinet ministerseven sat in police control rooms.

A senior police officer and minister, murdered in 2003, claimed that Modiexplicitly instructed civil servants and police not to stand in thekillers’ way. Of course, Modi has always denied involvement and condemnedthe riots.”

The nature of the riots, thus, was very specific, and one of the bloodiestexpressions of the ideology that the BJP believes in – India belongs toHindus, and no attack on the community is to be tolerated.