A sting operation by Tehelka has recorded Sangh Parivar activists boasting of the way they unleashed violence on Muslims in Gujarat during riots in February 2002. The findings of the sting operation are not new. They only confirm what is well known – that RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal activists were involved in brutally killing Muslims and that the state machinery in Gujarat facilitated, even participated in the violence. Several Parivar activists, including sitting MLAs have been caught on tape justifying the violence, providing details of how mobs were mobilised and weapons transported across the state. The activists – some of them figure among the accused in the riot cases - describe in chilling detail how they went about killing Muslims and the support they received from the top leadership of the Gujarat government and the police. The findings of the sting operation confirm what many in India have always feared – that the 2002 violence against Muslims in Gujarat was no spontaneous riot but a state-orchestrated pogrom.

The Tehelka expose is a reminder of what was done in Gujarat in 2002. But also, it is a reminder of what is yet to be done – justice – in the five years since. Several cases were quietly closed. Witnesses continue to be intimidated into silence in the cases that are under trial. Riot accused roam free and some are in positions of power. The claims caught on camera might not be evidence enough to legally nail Gujarat’s top leadership but it is evidence to corner the 14 men who admitted on camera to the gruesome killings. It should remind the Supreme Court to reopen cases that were shut, to crack its whip on the courts to prosecute the guilty.

The BJP has closed ranks behind Chief Minister Narendra Modi. It is a shame that the party is yet to summon the moral courage to condemn the pogrom and Modi’s role in it. But equally disgraceful is the Congress’ tepid response to the expose. Its reluctance to take the communal bull in Gujarat by the horns, its reluctance to take an unambiguous, principled position of opposition to the anti-Muslim violence is obviously motivated by fears that this will cost it the vote of Hindus in upcoming elections. By acting as Hindu communalism’s B-team in Gujarat, the Congress is not helping itself or doing a service to the country.