Bangalore: Equating the recent communal carnage in Gujarat as nothing short of a war in terms of sufferings and miseries undergone by the affected, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman, J S Verma, on August 4 asked the Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to translate his "rhetoric" on religious intolerance into "action".

Verma said that those affected by Gujarat incidents cannot go back to their place for "whatever reasons", and they had lost their kith and kin in large numbers. "How is it different from war?" he asked.

He said that the people of Gujarat have undergone the same sufferings and miseries that one experiences during war. "Effect remains the same," Verma said.

"How can this (communal riots on a large-scale) happen in this country. I never hope to witness this in my life," Verma said inaugurating a National Roundtable Conference on Communalism and Human Rights, organised by NHRC and National Law School of India University.

Indicating that the situation has not returned to normalcy in Gujarat as yet, he said, "Gujarat continues to be troubling us even now. I only hope the agony does not go on much longer."

He said that he was happy to read that the Prime Minister had expressed anguish over religious intolerance (on July 31) in the country without referring to Gujarat and on an earlier occasion he (Vajpayee) had said that it was Vivekananda's Hinduism (tolerant to other religions and acceptance with open arms) that he believed in and that if it (Hinduism) had taken a different shape God forbid, he would remain miles away from it.

"Once again, there is a need to translate rhetoric into action," Verma said.

Verma said that a silent majority of people in India believed in secularism and virtually asked them to wake up.

"We are becoming more and more self-centred. We don't bother about anything until we are directly involved. If a house is on fire, how much time it takes it spread it to yours?" he said.

Describing the recent communal violence in Gujarat as a "national shame", Verma, former chief justice of Supreme Court, expressing his own feelings, said as an Indian, he felt demeaned by the incidents and as a Hindu felt it even more demeaned.

The carnage cannot be the handiwork of religious people since no religion preaches violence and hatred. It was inflicted upon by criminals and vandals, he said.

Gujarat people were barely coming out of the ravages of natural calamity (earthquake) when the man-made calamity (communal riots) struck them, he said.

PTI