2002 riots: Gujarat assembly 'misinformed' about dereliction of duty, says ex-DGP

By Rajiv Shah
Former Gujarat topcop RB Sreekumar, an IPS officer of the 1971 batch, has alleged that the Gujarat government gave “totally false information” on the floor of the State Assembly regarding the appeal he made to the Gujarat governor for the “initiation of departmental action against those responsible for culpable negligence in maintenance of public order and investigation of genocidal crimes” during the 2002 riots.
While Sreekumar made his appeal to in 2012, the Gujarat governor sent four reminders to the State home department for the initiation of action, if any, between 2013 and 2015. The State government had informed the house that he received no directions from the governor.
Providing documentary evidence on his appeal and the Gujarat governor’s subsequent reminders on action taken report, Sreekumar, in an email alert to Counterview, said, in an answer to a LAQ (Legislative Assembly Question) by two MLAs (Kantibhai Sodha Parmar and Punambhai Parmar), the State home department supplied “totally false information” on the floor of the Assembly, denying that it had received any direction from the Gujarat governor regarding his representation.
Sreekumar, who was restored his promotion as DGP following his litigation in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) and the Gujarat High Court, added, “It is a clear case of breach of privilege in the Assembly. Can we expect some MLA to take up this breach of privilege issue in the Assembly or otherwise?”
The “genocidal crimes” Sreekumar refers to are regarding the information he provided in the nine affidavits he submitted before the Justice Nanavati Commission which was probing into the protracted communal riots in Gujarat State in 2002 -- four of which when he was in service, and five afterwards.
While the Commission submitted its final report in 2014, giving the Gujarat government under Modi clean chit. The report was made public in December 2019.

In his 12-page representation to the Gujarat governor on December 12, 2012, Sreekumar says, his affidavits had “provided in depth information on the culpable role” of the Gujarat State bureaucracy and police, including the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Among those whom Sreekumar blames in his representation for “dereliction of duty” include two Gujarat chief secretaries, three additional chief secretaries, and two Cabinet ministers, IK Jadeja and Ashok Bhatt (click here for details).

In reply to RTI plea on Gujarat governor's directions, Sreekumar was told information sought on 2002 riots is exempted from releasing to public

Sreekumar had alleged they were “culpable” in planning and execution of “anti-minority carnage in 2002, manipulation and subversion of the Criminal Justice System in the State to deny and delay justice delivery to riot victim survivors, and illegal acts and misconduct by State Home Department Officials and government pleader to impede the flow of evidence to the Commission.”
On January 1, 2013, the Gujarat governor’s office acknowledged receipt of Sreekumar’s representation, stating that it has been forwarded to the additional chief secretary (ACS), State home department, for “appropriate action.” The governor’s office added, it had also asked the ACS to “report about action taken or proposed to be taken by the government on the issues involved” in the representation.
This was followed by three more reminders to the ACS (home) on action, if any, taken by the State home department, based on the facts provided in Sreekumar’s representation – on May 8, 2014, January 11, 2015, and May 5, 2015.
On July 21, 2021, Sreekumar, in a fresh letter to Gujarat governor Acharya Devvrat, again requested to inform him if “appropriate action” has been taken, as he has been told in a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) plea that that “the information asked for is exempted from releasing to the public vide Home Department resolution No. SB.I/102001/8203/GOI/62 (part file) dated October 25, 2005.”

Comments

Anonymous said…

the supreme leader and his deputy are well known for their role in gujarat. They are also well known for their role on the floor of the parliament and across India

September 24, 2021

Anonymous said…

Several affidavits have been filed but to what end?

September 26, 2021

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

From protest to proof: Why civil society must rethink environmental resistance

By Shankar Sharma* As concerned environmentalists and informed citizens, many of us share deep unease about the way environmental governance in our country is being managed—or mismanaged. Our complaints range across sectors and regions, and most of them are legitimate. Yet a hard question confronts us: are complaints, by themselves, effective? Experience suggests they are not.

Kolkata event marks 100 years since first Communist conference in India

By Harsh Thakor* A public assembly was held in Kolkata on December 24, 2025, to mark the centenary of the First Communist Conference in India , originally convened in Kanpur from December 26 to 28, 1925. The programme was organised by CPI (ML) New Democracy at Subodh Mallik Square on Lenin Sarani. According to the organisers, around 2,000 people attended the assembly.

Dalit woman student’s death sparks allegations of institutional neglect in Himachal college

By A Representative A Dalit rights organisation has alleged severe caste- and gender-based institutional violence leading to the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman student at Government Degree College, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, and has demanded arrests, resignations, and an independent inquiry into the case.

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

The architect of Congolese liberation: The life and legacy of Patrice Lumumba

By Harsh Thakor* Patrice Émery Lumumba remains a central figure in the history of African decolonization, serving as the first Prime Minister of the independent Republic of the Congo. Born on July 2, 1925, Lumumba emerged as a radical anti-colonial leader who sought to unify a nation fractured by decades of Belgian rule. His tenure, however, lasted less than seven months before his dismissal and subsequent assassination on January 17, 1961.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Search This Blog