People Refused to Translate Book on Gujarat Riots: Ex-DGP Sreekumar

Ahmedabad: Former IPS officer R B Sreekumar, who had strongly criticised the way the post-Godhra riots were handled by the then Narendra Modi-led government in Gujarat, said Thursday that he found it difficult to find a Gujarati translator for his book on the riots.

Former chief minister Suresh Mehta on Thursday launched a Gujarati translation of Sreekumar's book, "Gujarat: Behind the Curtain," at a function at Veer Narmad Library here.

The original English version had come out in January 2016.

"As many as 14 translators declined to translate the book into Gujarati. One translator even said that working on it was like keeping a snake. Some returned the book two days after reading it, saying they cannot do this," Sreekumar said.

"I was keen to get it published in Gujarati because the content of the book concerned the people of Gujarat, but bringing it in Gujarati was most difficult," the former state director general of police said at the function.

Finally, noted Dalit writer and poet Raman Vaghela agreed to render the book into Gujarati, said Sreekumar.

Finding the publisher too was difficult, he said. Delhi-based Pharos Media has published the book, which has also been translated into Malayalam, Hindi and Urdu.

The book talks about the 2002 Gujarat riots which were triggered by the death of 59 'kar-sevaks' in the Godhra train burning incident and the alleged subversion of criminal justice system that followed.

Communal riots cannot go on unless "the authorities avoid implementation of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to control and contain mass violence", the book says.

"The Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Supreme Court had practically transformed into a team of defence lawyers for those behind the violence," he said at the launch.

Sreekumar had filed an affidavit criticising the state government's role before the Nanavati Commission which probed the riots.