What matters instead is that all Indian citizens regardless of religion, region, age or gender need the same protection under law that the Constitution affords them. It is the duty of the State to use its legal powers and its monopoly of force to ensure that right. It is this universality which allows the State to treat a terrorist as a criminal regardless of his religion and also regardless of whatever injustices he may think his community has suffered. The Gujarat riots do not allow Muslims to take the law in their hands any more than a suspicion of forced conversion allows a Hindu mob to attack Christians. The fact that a crime can be rationalised is no defence in law.

I was reminded of this strongly when watching Nandita Das’ new film Firaaq, which was shown at the London Film Festival. She has managed to capture the fear and the intimidation that were in the air in the interlude between days of rioting. There is no actual violence shown. There are no black and white characters. There are bad Muslims and good Hindus and vice versa. But the aggressive behaviour of some Gujarati Hindus and the police shows that they think of themselves as normal and in the right as they break the law. The Muslim characters in the film, who conspire in an almost tragicomic fashion to get a revolver, are also fuelled by righteous feeling, which should not justify what they are up to. The normality of violent illegal behaviour portrayed is chilling and only a handful of characters, especially that of Arti played by Dipti Naval, show any moral fibre.

... contd.