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Former CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana, who investigated the 2002 Godhra train burning, on Saturday recalled the intense media pressure and attempts to shape a predefined narrative during the initial course of the investigation.
Speaking to ANI, Asthana recounted a meeting with a prominent journalist, who visited him during the investigation. He detailed that the journalist arrived at his room with his cameraman uninvited. The former CBI Special Director had stated that he was not going to give a formal interview but was ready for an informal discussion. The cameraman was sent outside, and Ashtana spoke with the journalist for a few minutes. "I started the investigation on 10-11th April. In May, at some time, a very big journalist came to Godhra. When I came to my guest house for lunch in Vishramgore, they entered my room with a cameraman. I said, I haven't called you, so please take the cameraman out. If you want to talk to me, then informally you eat with me. And I am not going to give any interview. So they talked for 2-4 minutes," he said. Asthana further recollected that the brief exchange involved a pressing question regarding any conspiracy surrounding the Godhra train burning case. Asthana noted that having joined the investigation barely 10 days prior, it was premature to conclude. He said that the journalist, however, reported that, 'DIG, CID crime, Rakesh Asthana says there is no conspiracy in Godhra case'. "They asked me one question. What do you think, is there a conspiracy or not? What is the media pressure? I said, look, sir, I haven't even joined for 10 days. It will be too early for me to comment on this. He left and ran it on TV that DIG, CID crime, Rakesh Asthana says that there is no conspiracy in Godhra case," he said. Highlighting the political stakes involved at the time, Asthana explained that framing the incident as an accident was central to a broader political narrative. He said that if Godhra became a conspiracy, then riots could not be a conspiracy. "A lot of controversy was generated then. They were feeding into a particular political party narrative. This is what the narrative had to set. If Godhra becomes a conspiracy, then riots cannot be a conspiracy. I was an impediment in that. Because I was a professional, I could see that this is a part of a conspiracy," he said. Asthana explained the technicalities of the tragic incident, saying that the entire coach caught fire within 10 minutes despite inflammable material being used to make the seats, floor, and roof of the coach. He said, "In that bogie, there was an accidental fire. It would have taken hours to catch fire if the material was not inflammable. The entire bogie was on fire within 10 minutes. We had proved that the material was inflammable," he said. He said that the fire should have been easily extinguished within a matter of seconds, but it kept on burning for at least 10 minutes, burning the entire coach because petrol was added. "The material used in the bogie on the seats, on the floor or on the roof, if the fire accidentally erupts, it will be extinguished in 6 or 8 seconds. But the bogie was in full flame in 10 minutes. Because petrol was added," he said. Asthana further said that establishing the incident as a pre-planned criminal conspiracy dismantled counter-narratives that sought to decouple the train burning from the subsequent widespread violence in Gujarat. "They wanted to prove that it was an accidental fire. So the game was that if it was an accident, then riots were a conspiracy. If it was a conspiracy, then they wouldn't get a chance to say that riots were a conspiracy. This was the basic funda," he said. The Nanavati Commission, which conducted the inquiry into the Godhra train burning, also concluded that it was pre-planned.(ANI)
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