Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-05-16-Speech-4-176"
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"en.20020516.9.4-176"2
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"Mr President, first of all, I do not think this emergency resolution is the best way to help solve the still worrying situation in Gujarat, mainly because the violence seen in this state during recent months is a manifestation of an extremely complex phenomenon affecting the whole region and not just India. It involves social factors such as poverty, urban ‘ghettoisation’, some interference by organised crime with unknown links abroad, a certain inability of the political elite to mobilise people’s energies around political ideals and the drift towards the religious sphere, especially through fundamentalist extremism.
It is, however, quite right that the European Parliament should feel concern for a case that has already cost the lives of a about thousand people – or even more, as estimates vary according to the source. This is not the time to analyse the episodes that gave rise to this violence, but it is worth pointing out that everything began with the fire in two train carriages on 27 February last, in which 58 people died, half of them women and children. Nothing can justify this kind of action, and the retaliations and revenge that followed cannot be justified at all, either. Godhra, it should be remembered, is a peripheral urban area with a high population density and a level of latent social conflict, where the forces of law and order generally find it difficult to act, apart from the possible involvement of members of the local police in one or other religious faction, according to the results of inquiries so far.
What is certain is that at first the forces of law and order did not succeed in putting an end to the violence. The matter was, however, taken up immediately by the democratic institutions of the Indian Union, namely the government, the opposition parties and parliament. I did in fact visit the Indian Parliament on the very days when this subject was discussed. Urgent measures were adopted not only on the government’s own initiative but also because of strong pressure from the opposition and the Indian media. I must point out that stands adopted outside the Indian democratic system itself, however well intentioned they may be, sometimes end up being counterproductive in that they bolster nationalist and fundamentalist positions of various origins, Islamic or Hindu. In any case, on behalf of my group, I recommend adoption of this resolution without any changes, as we consider it well balanced."@en1
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