by Farah Naqvi
Columnist Farah Naqvi says to accepts Gujarat 2002 as something ‘in the past’ would threaten the meaning of our present and will endanger our future. She describes various incidents and notes down many talks she had with the affected people. She stresses upon the mentality of the small children who would have now grown up and were unable to understand what carnage and rape is. They have been witness to the happenings which they did not even understand. She writes, “They know words no child should have to learn.
Balatkar (Rape) they know this word. Mein bataoon didi? (Shall I tell you?), volunteers a nine year old. Balatkar ka matlab jab aurat ko nanga karte hain aur phir use jala dete hain” (Rape is when a woman is stripped naked and then burnt). And then she looks fixedly at the floor. Only a child can tell it like it is. For this is what happened again and again in Naroda Patiya women were stripped, raped and burnt. (The Survivors Speak, fact-finding by a women's panel, April 16, 2002. P. 13)”
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