The Truth: Gujarat 2002 (also called Operation Kalank) was an investigative report on the 2002 Gujarat riots published by India's Tehelka news magazine in its 7 November 2007 issue. The video footage was screened by the news channel Aaj Tak. The report, based on a six-month-long investigation and involving video sting operations, stated that the violence was made possible by the support of the state police and the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi for the perpetrators. The report and the reactions to it were widely covered in Indian and international media. The recordings were authenticated by India's Central Bureau of Investigation on 10 May 2009.
Contents
A November 2007 report by the investigative news magazine Tehelka used a video sting operation to record a number of Sangh Parivar activists describing the riots from their perspective. Taking over six months, the reporter pretended to be an author interested in writing a book with a Hindutva point of view and interviewed the key accused. The report's table of content reads:
"First-hand accounts from the men who plotted and executed the genocide in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Sabarkantha. Mayhem was meticulously planned and carried out by Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal cadres across Muslim localities." "The VHP and the Bajrang Dal manufactured and distributed lethal weapons across the state, often with the connivance of the police." "Shocking accounts of how the guardians of the law colluded with the outlaws to make Gujarat’s horror even worse." "Key Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, VHP and Bajrang Dal activists speak openly of how Narendra Modi blessed the anti-Muslim pogrom." "How public prosecutors ran with the hare and hunted with the hound, keeping their sympathies strictly for the accused. Government Counsel Arvind Pandya on how he hopes to subvert justice by manipulating the Nanavati-Shah Commission, set up to ascertain the truth." "The truth behind Naroda Patiya, the grisliest massacre of 2002. Ahmedabad police’s collusion in the pogrom and its cover-up. Gory details of how former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was hacked limb by limb at Gulbarg Society, in the words of those who did it." "How spontaneous mob fury was shown as a premeditated conspiracy by the police who produced fake witnesses by bribing, coercion and torture."
There was substantial media interest in the report's description of Narendra Modi's role in the riots, based, for example, on video footage of a senior Bajrang Dal leader saying that at a public meeting on the day of the fire, "he had given us three days to do whatever we could. He said he would not give us time after that, he said this openly."
Key people accused
The recordings show 14 main characters, with seven being accused in the main riot cases.
Babu Bajrangi, Bajrang Dal leader
Haresh Bhatt, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and Bajrang Dal vice-president
Suresh Richard (Naroda Patiya) Mangilal Jain (Gulbarg Society massacre) Prahlad Raju (Gulbarg Society massacre) Madan Chawal (Gulbarg Society massacre) Rajendra Vyas (Ahmedabad) Anil Patel (Sabarkantha) Dhawal Jayanti Patel
Authenticity
Journalist B G Verghese described the report as "nothing short of a bombshell ... too well-documented to have been faked, as alleged. The effect was numbing."
There were two contradictions between the report and official records. Bajrangi and Richard both claimed that Modi visited Naroda Patiya a day after the violence to thank them. Official records showed that Modi did not make any such visit. India Today called their claims as "boastful lies". Also in the report, one VHP activist said a police superintendent promised to kill five Muslims and fulfilled it during the violence in the Dariapur area. Official records showed that the superintendent was not posted in the given location.
On 5 March 2008, the National Human Rights Commission of India directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to authenticate the video evidence uncovered by the Tehelka report. The CBI investigated the raw video footage and the equipment used to create it, and interviewed 14 of 18 "persons belonging to different Hindu outfits like VHP, Bajrang Dal, RSS and Gujarat Police [who] have been shown making revelations."