The harrowing tales of the victims of the Gujarat genocide and their futile quest for justice, recounted recently at a convention in New Delhi (organised by Citizens for Justice and Peace, Mumbai, Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, New Delhi and Human Rights Law Network, New Delhi, on 16th April 2005, at Constitution Club, Rafi Marg), once again highlight the fact that as long as Narendra Modi is at the helm of affairs in Gujarat, the perpetrators of that genocide have little chance of being brought to book. If justice is to prevail, a necessary condition for this must be created through the dismissal of the Modi government under Article 356 of the Constitution.

There is a certain apprehension among many about the use of this Article, lest it may set a precedent for the Centre to get rid of government in Opposition-ruled states. But the Gujarat case is an exceptional one in so far as the state government itself has been implicated, by the NHRC and even by the Supreme Court,
in what is perhaps the most inhuman, horrendous and un-Constitutional act in the history of post-Independence India. The imposition of Article 356 in Gujarat is warranted not only on grounds of humanity and Constitutional propriety, but for the very maintenance of the country’s unity, integrity and secular fabric.

We the undersigned social and political activists, artists and members of the legal and academic professions, demand that the Modi government be dismissed forthwith under Article 356.

            Press Coverage People's Democracy

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