MAY 19, 2007

Dhimant Bhatt: I have two charges… I am chief auditor for the entire university [MSU] as well as chief accounts officer… this is a financial matter… everybody needs funds… this is why it is hectic… I am a staunch Hindu… suppose somebody from the Sangh says we have to promote Hindu fundamentalism, I will be the first to volunteer… I will go and say, brothers, put the Sangh’s lathis aside and pick up AK-56s … pick up AK-56s because if you have to develop Hinduism, it is clear who the enemies are… There are two who are against Hinduism… Muslims, who are open… but the Christians… they are like a bacterial virus … and there’s a third, the Communists, who are developing now… red waale… If you have to fight them, you need power and that power will not come from the lathi… only the bullet will do… we go to RSS shakhas … pick up the lathi and use it… All that is fine but now they should be replaced with AKs and a Hindu
brigade should be formed…

• • •

Bhatt: After Godhra, there was this reaction and a certain climate was created in the Parivar by the top leaders, meaning the RSS, the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, the BJP and the Durga Vahini… and in that we had Narendra Modi’s support… Let people say what they like, [we had] support in the sense that if Hindus are going to be burnt like this… if conspiracies are going to be hatched to burn Hindus… they wanted to burn the whole train [the Sabarmati Express]… and now if we don’t do anything, if we don’t generate an adequate reaction, another train will be set on fire…. This was the idea, the thought that came from him [Modi]… I was
present in the meeting…

TEHELKA: Where, sir…

Bhatt: It was held in Baroda itself…at a secret place…

TEHELKA: After Godhra …

Bhatt: Immediately after. The same day as Godhra… there were two meetings, one at Ahmedabad and one at Baroda… on what action we were to take… everybody was present … the BJP, the RSS, the Parishad… it was decided that we would not take this any longer… if we have the guts, we should react… so everyone felt, unanimously, that since we didn’t want to be on the defensive, we should start that night itself…

TEHELKA:Was this a meeting of the top leadership or of local leaders or of the ground workers?

Bhatt: Actually it was the local leaders… The message came from the top leaders… the local leaders implemented it and the workers spread it…

TEHELKA: So how many people were present at that meeting?

Bhatt: About 65 to 70.

TEHELKA: 65 to 70?

Bhatt: All key persons of Baroda.

TEHELKA: From different saffron organisations?

Bhatt: In Ahmedabad, there were two persons… I won’t tell you the place… that is secret… it is the Parivar’s… In Ahmedabad, the party has a farmhouse… we started… supplying everything… made a plan… If the police makes arrests, then [we were to secure] the release [of those in custody]. That night, we sat up and made a panel of advocates… If Hindus were injured, then how to take them to hospitals… how we were to help… We made the whole plan… to start a Hindu jehad… we were successful in Gujarat… We were thinking what should we do… so we got three-foot long iron rods… iron bars, and if the cadre was from the Bajrang Dal, then trishuls… In other words, we made a plan and supplied the samaan [weapons]… it was very necessary… After we supplied the samaan, the Hindus got very motivated… Until Godhra happened, the upper castes would never come out… Baniyas… Patels… they would never come out… But we mobilised them… told them that we had prepared teams from the police and amongst advocates… that if they went to jail, we would get them released…

TEHELKA: And that strategy worked…

Bhatt: That strategy worked very nicely… in my [housing] society, even the women started coming out… Then we devised a strategy of alerting everyone… There used to be curfew after dark, so I would come out at night and clank some utensils — tan tan tan — I did that at two in the morning and within minutes, 500 people had gathered with their lathis asking, what is it, what is it… this awareness had been created in Baroda… and it was same in Godhra and in Ahmedabad…

TEHELKA: Baroda and Ahmedabad were spearheading this campaign…

Bhatt: Then in my area… have you heard of the name Bandukwala?…

TEHELKA: The professor…

Bhatt: He’s retired… he is a Muslim… He is a Bohra Muslim… a doctor in physics, a man of science… Among Muslims, the educated ones are more fundamentalist… And among Hindus, the educated ones are more liberal…

Bhatt: Bandukwala is now retired from university service… so now he is free… He is running some organisation…

TEHELKA: But during the riots, did he organise some mob?

Bhatt: During the riots… His bungalow was just in front of my society… exactly in front of my society… We burnt his bungalow down completely… just broke it down and burnt it… He ran away and after that we damaged it quite a bit… A lot of Hindus gathered there… There was another government officer called Peerzada… He was also in my area… We burnt his house too… I am telling you very openly… even an FIR was lodged… See, we have done this, so we have done it… We have no regrets, we did it for the Hindus… We started the toofan [the riots] from Baroda, from Shama Road… Panigate… Mandwi… Merani … these are the most sensitive areas… This Peerzada…he was development officer in the panchayat [department] of the government of Gujarat... He was also this type, educated…. He also ran away… Then there was another man in the GSFC… he was also educated, a chemical engineer… We got him to leave too… Because of the Hindu resurgence that has taken place… after Godhra… Hindus have started keeping weapons at home… Their morale has got a boost…

TEHELKA: The Hindus are riding high on confidence …

Bhatt: There is now pride in being a Hindu… Hindus are feeling a sense of pride and the upper castes too have come out now in support of the Parivar…