The barbaric attack on innocent worshippers and visitors at Akshardham complex in Gujarat's capital Gandhinagar which shook the nation was roundly condemned by all NGOs and citizens. Reports indicating a Muslim connection with the two gun-trotting killers led the Indian Muslims and secular sections to condemn it louder. While no condemnation will ever return the dead to the bereaved, parents to the orphans and the bread earners to the dependants, it is some solace that justice was promptly provided to the victims by killing their killers and the entire nation stood as one in solidarity with them. It is hoped that generous compensation will also be paid to all victims and that those that conspired with the killers will be haunted.

Some 35 KMs from Akshardham is Naroda Patia, a large lower middle income locality in Ahmedabad. Nearly 100 people peacefully sitting in the security of their own homes were brutally murdered by a 5000 strong mob with swords, trishuls and pipes. Dozens of women were reported gang raped, several hundred were injured and hundreds of houses were looted and razed to the ground.

The surviving victims remained in shabby relief camps for months in utter humiliation, ridiculously low compensation was paid to them after much hue and cry, the chief minister never bothered to see them except when months later the new President visited. The main accused amongst the murderers are not only still roaming around free but actually flaunt their identity.

The Naroda victims were as innocent as those at Akshardham. They both were Indians. Then why this stark difference? The former were Muslims. Moreover their killers were misguided Hindus. In Modi's Gujarat and Advani's India this does matters. It did at Chamanpura, Sardarpura, Sanjeli and dozens of other Gujarati localities where nearly 3000 Muslims perished, hundreds of women gang-raped, thousands of children orphaned and lakhs rendered impoverished.

Although the authorities are going out of their way to dispel any local connection, the killers have claimed revenge against the killing of the Muslims as their motive. The NGOs working with riot victims were shaken with sadness at the Akshardham carnage but were not shocked with surprise. They had cautioned against such distinct possibilities for they have seen the rage in the eyes of hundreds of the young who witnessed their sisters brutalized, parents killed and houses burnt. And who today not only see the guilty roam about free but the head of government hailing these killings as a matter of Gaurav. Justice is one thing that these innocent victims, citizens of India, have not seen. Barbarities like the Bombay blasts following prolonged Muslim killings and this ghastly mayhem at Akshardham seek to convert plain and outright terrorists into messiahs for victims whom justice is denied. Who will convince these hapless victims how counter-productive such acts can be.

BJP's smart strategy of converting the victim to the accused often pays. Consider their bogey of Muslim appeasement. According to National Council of Applied Economic Research, the share of Muslims in employment has shrunk to around 3% and that in economy to less than 1% against their estimated population of 15%. Or consider the oft-repeated abuse that Muslims shun the mainstream, while in reality engineered communal riots have pushed even the most nationalist Muslims into ghettos.

The people of Gujarat cannot all be regarded communal. Consider that the provocation at Akshardham was far greater than the burning of Sabarmati Express at Godhra. Yet the people and the priests of Akshardham temple exercised admirable restraint. Which proves the government complicity in post-Godhra riots. Indeed many consider Godhra as VHP handiwork.

The real internal security of the country emanates from fair governance, from effective enforcement of law and order and by ensuring security to all its citizens equally. Advani's rath yatra, Gujarat's carnage and Modi's Gaurav yatra have heightened the insecurity of Muslims manifold. Pervading sense of injustice and humiliation in such a large section of population provides to the external enemies of the nation a fertile land for their nefarious designs.

And there is no way a nation as pluralistic and as large as India can be fully secured against such terrorism unless internal security is first assured to all its citizens, unless they feel belonged. For this justice is required to be done equally at Godhra, Naroda and Akshardham. While Narendra Modi remains in power this is unlikely to happen.

The cost of maintaining security from Kashmir to Kanyakumari is bleeding India diverting precious resources from its teeming poor. The BJP has been a very costly government indeed.

The only way to insulate Gujarat against such barbarous acts is to apprehend all criminals and their accomplices both at Akshardham and elsewhere throughout Gujarat. We must decide clearly once and for all who we are with, the killers or the victims.