MORE than 500 people died as communal riots continued to rage across the western Indian province of Gujarat for the second day running. A dozen places of Islamic worship have been razed and more than 70 people burnt alive, including women and children. Among those put to fire was a former Congress Member of Parliament and his family of six.

The riots follow in the wake of the unfortunate incident at the Godhra railway station in east Gujarat on Feb 27 when miscreants set fire to a train compartment that carried activists of the Viswa Hindu Parishad who were regrouping before descending on Ayyodhya in north India to organise the building of a Ram temple. The ensuing fire killed at least 37 people. The VHP wants the Ram temple to be built on the very spot where the Hindu fundamentalists had pulled down a historical mosque the back in December 1992.

The first incident took place when a train packed with jubilant and abusive Hindu fundamentalists started to jeer at Muslims passengers in the train as it pulled into the Godhra station. The Muslims raised a voice of protest and were promptly attacked with knives and staves. 17 people died and 50 more were injured.

As the train pulled out of the Godhra station, a mob clambered abroad the compartment that was carrying most of the armed VHP activists. The emergency chain was pulled, and as the train rolled to a stop, burning rags dipped in petrol were thrown inside the compartment, its doors pulled shut, and locked from outside. More than 70 VHP activists died and many more were left with grievous injuries in the conflagration that followed.

The national media, both print and audio-visual, in the most irresponsible and callous manner imaginable, chose to depict photos and clips of charred bodies being pulled out of the train. The Hindu fundamentalists reacted in a furious manner. Already frustrated over the BJP’s very poor show in the recently held elections to the assemblies of Uttar Pradesh, the Punjab, Uttaranchal, and Manipur, the Hindu outfits, the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, the Vajrang Dal, and the Viswa Hindu Parishad decided to take full advantage of the incident to whip up anti-Muslim feelings.

Right from the early morning of March 1, Hindu fundamentalists indulged in terrible violence in large parts of the Gujarat province. In the mob frenzy, Muslims were dragged out from houses and set to fire as the fundamentalists chanted "Maaro, maaro!" (Kill! Kill!) More than 110 people have died in the state capital Ahmedabad.

A large number of residents of the Pandarvada village a few kilometers away from the Godhra railway station were driven out to a nearby cabbage patch, bound together, and then set on fire. At least 119 people perished in the most painful manner imaginable. Similar tales are coming out of Rajkot, Vadodhara, Mehsana, Ahmedabad, and Surat, cities and towns where the bulk of the population comprises poor and middle class Muslims of various sects.

In a predictable response to the wanton attacks, the Muslims are being organised by such outfits as the Harkat-ul Jehadi Islami and provided with arms to lead counter attacks against Hindus in some areas of southern and western Gujarat. As we file this report, the riots have spread across the Indian provinces of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharastra, and Madhya Pradesh.

There is talk of complicity of the Gujarat police in the murderous assaults being launched against Muslims. The police apparently would not shoot down the rioters even after receiving "shoot-on-sight" orders from the provincial police chief. There are disturbing reports trickling in that in very many instances, the police were found actively aiding and abetting the rioters as they went about their murderous business.

The very late deployment of the army, too, has come under flak. Apparently, Home Minister, and BJP supremo, L K Advani would merely have the army put on the stand-by even as opposition parties urged upon him to despatch army units to Gujarat as soon as possible. As it happened, when the army brigades did at last arrive in Gujarat, a full 12 hours after the rioting had started, their role was restricted to organising route marches and little else besides.

There are dark hints dropped by sources inside the Federal government that the delay was nothing less than a deliberate ploy to allow the rioters to have a field day for 12 hours. Counter-measures were to be organised only after the Hindu fundamentalists had managed to "settle scores" and "avenged the killing at Godhra."

Even more disquieting is the supposition that the Godhra railway station incident itself was the handiwork of agents provocateurs who had been given the brief of sparking off communal riots by leading an attack on the VHP volunteers.

The fact that the communal riots have momentarily taken the eyes of the nation away from not merely the electoral debacle of the BJP but also from the crassly anti-people budget it has come up with, certainly lends credence to the suspicion that the communal carnage was provoked by those who stood to gain politically from it.