Speaking of sending the convicted 11 back to jail, the resilient survivor of murderous attempts and gang rapes in the 2002 Gujarat violence, Bilkis Bano has said she felt it was new year and she could breathe again. The supreme court has allowed many to reaffirm their faith in the law of the land and the rule of law. “I thank the honourable Supreme Court of India for giving me, my children and women everywhere, this vindication and hope in the promise of equal justice for all”, she said.But what other political significance does this landmark order have?Reminder of where this government stands on 2002 It immediately brought back the memories of the other heinous crimes committed in the name of avenging the burning of the train carrying karsevaks from Ayodhya in the Sabarmati Express in Godhra, 22 years ago in February. The chief minister was then Narendra Modi, having recently taken charge. The deaths, mayhem and destruction under his government’s watch put the state’s politics on a polarised and charged path. On April 1, 2002, Justice (retired) J S Verma, then chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) noted that investigations in these cases were being “influenced by extraneous considerations” or players and recommended CBI probe into five cases, the Godhra carnage, killings at Gulberg Society, Naroda Patiya, Best Bakery in Vadodara and Sardarpura in Mehsana. Reinforces why cases were shifted out of Gujarat and what has changedThe Supreme Court spoke of fraudulent measures adopted by the state government to secure the May 2022 order. The Supreme Court bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said that the state of Gujarat “acted in complicity with the convicts”. The court said that the Gujarat government “acted in tandem” with convict, breached rule of law, usurped power”, reports LiveLaw, Two cases, Best Bakery and Bilkis Bano — were moved out from Gujarat to Maharashtra.The Times of India reported in 2010, how then chief minister Modi in a “rabble-rousing speech” that transfer of the case outside Gujarat “would be an insult to the state as well as its judiciary.” Turns out that the supreme court has noted in 2024, that “it was this very apprehension [of acting in tandem with convicts] which led this Court to transfer the trial out of the State” to Maharashtra. In matters of the when cases were shifted out of Gujarat, it was the Supreme Court which, through hearings and orders over the years, called for “fair and impartial investigation” into the cases of violence in 2002.Supreme Court verdict comment on BJP and Union government tooThe apex court also noted that if the convicts can “circumvent the consequences of their conviction, peace and tranquillity in the society will be reduced to a chimaera.” Gujarat has the same chief minister in office, Bhupendra Patel in May 2022, as it does now. The political dispensation, in effect, is the same. The Union home ministry had on August 15 last year, cleared the remission. The union government okayed whatever “complicity” with convicts, the supreme court has noted in its order. PM Modi, who spoke of crimes against women in Congress-run Rajasthan last year, the Minister for Women and Child Welfare, the BJP Mahila wing, senior women ministers and Home Minister, Amit Shah, also an MP from Ahmedabad are absolutely quiet on this important matter.As The Leaflet revealed last year, the Home Ministry okayed the remission of sentence to the guilty, issuing a letter to that effect on July 11, 2022. Here’s the letter of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs granting its approval to the premature release of 11 gang rape convicts in the #BilkisBano case. pic.twitter.com/scYY8fxBza— The Leaflet (@TheLeaflet_in) October 17, 2022‘Nari vandan’ under a dark cloudThis is in stark contrast to what PM Modi spoke about women in his Independence Day speech last year. He spoke of respecting women, women figured 21 times in his speech. The women’s reservation bill, though promising reservation in an indefinite future, involved talk of naari vandan (respecting/praying to women). Modi said, while introducing the bill, “Today, God has given me the opportunity to take this forward…Our Government is bringing a new Bill today on Women’s participation in both Houses.” ‘Sanskari Brahmin’ logic gets a reality checkThe 11 convicted for the rape of Bilkis Bano and released by the Gujarat government are “Brahmins” and have “good sanskaar”, said the BJP MLA from Godhra, CK Raulji at the time. They were feted with sweets and garlands after their release. C.K. Raulji was also “one of the two BJP leaders who were part of the Gujarat government panel that unanimously decided to release the rapists. The decision was taken after one of the convicts approached the Supreme Court seeking remission and the matter was passed onto the state government.”Took four gutsy women to push for justice, not the stateThe government at the state level and in the centre was one with the convicts on this, arguing for them, never speaking up for the survivor. It took women petitioners, expelled TMC MP, Mahua Moitra, ex-CPI(M) MP, Subhasini Ali, social worker, Revati Laul and Rooprekha Verma to petition the supreme court and move on Bilkis Bano’s behalf. The fact that it took independent women to fill in for the state, and stand up for the cause of justice for a 21-year old Bilkis Bano in 2002, then five months pregnant, who survived gang rapes, the murder of her three-year old child and eight others in her family, as well as her unborn child, speaks volumes about the state of justice and women’s rights in India today.