1992 Mumbai riots made me realise I am Muslim, says journalist Rana Ayyub

Rachna Khaira
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, November 1

“It was the 1992 Mumbai riots that made me realise for the first time that I was a Muslim,” said Rana Ayyub, journalist and author of the explosive investigative book ‘Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up’.

Ayyub, who was Jalandhar to attend the ‘Mela Ghadari Babeyan da’, said a Sikh neighbour kept both Ayub and her sister hidden from rioters for three months as Mumbai burned. 

“A long circle of politically and socially motivated injustice currently prevails in the country. Several commissions and SITs were formed to investigate the 1984 Sikh genocide, 1992 Mumbai riots, and 2002 Gujarat riots, but none succeeded in bringing justice,” Ayyub said, adding that justice in the Sikh genocide of ’84 could have preempted the 1992 Mumbai riots.

Her book — the ‘Gujarat Files’ — has been accused of having given a warped account of the Gujarat riots, but Ayyub remains defiant.

“By dragging me to the court, or putting me behind bars, the accusers know they would be liable to be questioned in court. That may be why I’m still roaming free,” she said.

She condemned the recent killings of Hindu leaders in the state as a “dangerous” trend that could lead to potential unless investigated impartially.

Ayyub’s book ‘Gujarat Files’ details an 18-months undercover investigation that Ayyub undertook in 2010 involving top officials posted in Gujarat during the 2002 riots that killed more than that, according to official estimates, 1000 people, while hundreds went missing.

The book contained transcripts that the Tehelka, a magazine where Ayyub was working in then, had withheld from publication.