With the Muslim counter-attack commencing from March 1 till the riots were quelled altogether, what took place in Gujarat was a full-fledged Hindu-Muslim riot. It was no "genocide", "pogrom" or "state terrorism" against Muslims. No "modern day Nero was looking the other way". The modern day Chief Minister was dealing with the situation as best as was possible with the highly limited forces at his command.
Because of the spontaneous conflagration at scores and scores of locations, it is entirely possible that the police or Fire Brigade may have failed to reach a scene for hours, or, having been spread so thin, the police force that did reach a scene was deterred from intervening by the sheer ferocity of violence at that point in time. But to say that the police was restrained as a measure of Government policy is completely belied by the large number of casualties caused by police firing.
The insane ferocity and brutality with which Ram bhakts, including innocent children and helpless women, were roasted alive at Godhra, set the benchmark for the equally insane ferocity of the Hindu backlash and that was followed by an equally insanely ferocious counter-attack by Muslims. The Delhi-based media made out as though the whole of Gujarat was in flames. It concealed the fact that of 18,600 villages, 240 municipal towns and 25 districts, the number of places affected by the riots was just 60. Not a single man-day was lost in the 200-odd industrial townships in Gujarat because of t
