SACW | Sept. 27-28, 2008 / Secularism: New Beginning in Nepal / India's Tattered Secularism / Shady Delhi Encounter
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Sat Sep 27 23:21:10 CDT 2008
South Asia Citizens Wire | September 27-28, 2008 | Dispatch No. 2573
- Year 11 running
[1] Nepal: Undefined Secularism - Trouble Starts
"If they can have free meat, I want a Christmas
present." (Prashant Jha)
[2] Sri Lanka: The last battle?
[3] India: Resist Fascism, Defend Humanist Solidarity and Freedom of
Religion (NAPM)
[4] India: The Shady Delhi 'encounter' and selective targeting of
minorities (Prafil Bidwai)
[5] India: Anti Terrorism with Double Standards
(i) Some Bombs Get Defused (Smita Gupta)
(ii) Biased Indian State (Saba Naqvi)
(iii) Traitors without trial & hanging of a community (Sankarshan
Thakur)
(iv) Pay Rs 1.5 lakh or be branded a terrorist, police told him
(Imran Ahmed Siddiqui)
(v) Dressing up suspects in 'Arab' style scarves: Antics of the Anti
terror police
[6] India: Gujarat: Nanavati Commission Report
(i) Specially Commissioned (Edit., The Telegraph)
(ii) Press Statement (CPM)
(iii) Nanavati Commission has forgotten the real story of the
Gujarat Carnage (Rohit Prajapati, Trupti Shah)
[7] India: the bad news continues
- Orissa: Saffron Flags & 'Reconversion' spree in Kandhamal
- Delhi Bomb Targets 'Phoolwalon Ki Sair' + Six Bangladeshis
Picked up
[8] Announcements:
(i) Meeting by group of citizens at Press Club (New Delhi, 28
October 2008)
(ii) Talk on Buddhist Monuments in the Kabul and Begram Areas,
Afghanistan (New Delhi, 29 September 2008)
(iii) Series of Upcoming Events at PeaceNiche (Karachi, 5 to 15
October 2008)
______
[1] NEPAL
[An active political campaign would be needed to help build a clearly
defined institutional and legal framework for the secular project in
Nepal; India with its eroding secular institutions may not be the
best example to follow in Nepal. Its important to put faith out of
bounds from matters of the state and certainly no funding for
religious activities as is daily far in India now]
o o o
Nepali Times
26 Sept 2008 - 02 Oct 2008
Secularism in a diverse state
"IF THEY CAN HAVE FREE MEAT, I WANT A CHRISTMAS PRESENT."
by Prashant Jha
The protests over the weekend against the government slashing funds
for 'cultural activities' irritated many. Some felt the government
was foolish in provoking the local community and insensitive for not
respecting public sentiments. Others argued that the local community
had no business asking the state for funds and should pay up themselves.
The government gave in. Our erudite Marxist finance minister
recognised the potency of culturally-charged politics. This was
particularly true because those enraged could bring the capital to a
halt. No one was happy, but a compromise was reached. The event will
have far-reaching consequences for the future of Nepali secularism.
Nepal became secular without adequate public discussion and debate on
what it meant. Ethnic groups legitimately felt alienated by the Hindu
character of the state. Liberal activists in Kathmandu championed the
cause, and the Maoists made it a powerful political slogan.
Kathmandu's NGOs wanted this clause changed in the constitution.
The decision to declare Nepal secular was correct but it was done in
a flawed manner. People did not know what to make of it and there
were differing expectations. The parties never explained the issue
when they went campaigning even though it was a key point in their
manifestos. There was little public debate in the media.
In the Tarai many felt secularism meant cow slaughter. The leftist
parties felt it would divorce the state from religion. Ethnic
minorities thought it would mean their own interests would be
promoted. And to have the head of state?first Girija Koirala and now
Ram Baran Yadav?replace the king at Kathmandu's religious-cultural
events led to questions about whether formal secularism would mean a
change from past practices.
This week's riots have set a precedent and we will have no choice but
to follow what is broadly the Indian model of secularism. If the
French understand secularism as absolute separation of state and
religion to the extreme extent that no religious symbols are allowed
in educational institutions, the Indian model is more flexible.
The state is not anti-religion but is based on the premise that it
will treat all religions equally. It recognises the public nature of
religion and negotiates with religious communities. So the Indian
government organises and subsidises pilgrimages for Hindus to
Amarnath and Vaishno Devi. It arranges special facilities for Muslims
to travel for the Haj. Minority Christian institutions get grants,
and the social code and religious affairs for Sikhs are guided by
institutions like the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Samiti.
Nepali secularism will now also be about the competitive appeasement
of all religions and communities. If the Newars have got their share
of the pie today, it is inevitable that others will ask for theirs
next. A Christian friend only half-jokingly said: "If they give them
free meat, they should give me a Christmas present." A Madhesi said
the state should buy his bhang for Holi.
Nepal's diverse ethnic groups have multiple customs and there are
bound to be demands on the state for support for culture and
religion. If the government fails to provide this, or favours one
community over another, expect alienation and communal ill-feeling.
In the next two years, these issues must be discussed in the
constituent assembly. Is it right for the president to attend Hindu
events? What if we have a Muslim or a janjati president?will he do
the same? Can the state keep a distance from religion? Or will
secularism only mean that the state will not let religion influence
its decisions, but engage with it at other levels? In a context where
group identities are strong, will the secularism debate focus on
communities or individual rights? Will practitioners have the right
to propagate their religion and seek to convert? What are the
expectations of religious communities from the state and what can the
state accommodate?
Gandhi once said that those who think religion has nothing to do with
politics understand neither religion nor politics. Our left-leaning
government and liberal intelligentsia were reminded of that maxim
this week.
_____
[2]
The Economist
September 25, 2008
SRI LANKA: THE LAST BATTLE?
Colombo and Vavuniya
Civilians in the crossfire
THE police served them toffee and sweet drinks as they queued up to
register at designated centres in Colombo. But for many of the
thousands of Tamil civilians obliged to turn up, this was scant
consolation for a violation of their rights. Guru, a 23-year-old law
student from Jaffna, called the toffee “a trade-off on my dignity”.
The orders to register were given on September 20th by police with
loudhailers moving slowly along the streets of Colombo’s Tamil areas,
which have recently been receiving swarms of civilians fleeing the
intensifying war in the north.
The government labelled the exercise a “census”, to determine whether
there had been a change in the ethnic balance of the Western
province, where the capital is located. It is increasingly edgy about
attacks in the capital by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
For 25 years the Tigers, who have a history of terrorist atrocities,
have been fighting for a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in
the north and east of the island. But Tamil civilians fear the real
objective is to weed out anybody suspected of Tiger links. The
government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa says the war is entering
its final stages. And the president’s brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa,
the defence secretary, maintains that stringent security measures are
an “inconvenience” that the minority Tamil community will have to
endure.
Some 250km (160 miles) to the north, Vavuniya, a government-
controlled town in the Wanni region (see map), is expecting a throng
of civilians fleeing the nearby rebel territory. No toffee here.
Local authorities are struggling to provide the bare essentials to
those displaced by war. The government continues to send food and
medicine into the Wanni—distributed by a few harried government
officials, in danger from the air-force bombing, crossfire and the
Tigers.
Fighting between the army and the Tigers is intense on at least four
fronts: Vavuniya, Welioya, Mannar and Mullaitivu. Both sides have
suffered heavy losses. But the government claims the army has made
inroads into Tiger strongholds as never before. This week an army
spokesman said its soldiers, advancing from Akkarayankulam in the
east, were just 4.5km from the Tigers’ headquarters at Kilinochchi,
and that 201 Tiger cadres had been killed in the preceding week,
compared with 22 government soldiers.
Both sides tend to exaggerate their victories, and such claims are
unverifiable. Journalists are excluded from the region and on
September 15th the UN and foreign aid agencies evacuated rebel-held
territory, after the government said it could not ensure their
safety. Aid agencies estimate that 200,000 civilians are still
trapped by the fighting in the Wanni.
About 160,000 in the region have already been displaced, and people
are sleeping at the roadsides, under trees, or in schools, churches
and empty buildings in Kilinochchi. The Christian Solidarity
Movement, an NGO, says some, displaced several times, are carting
timber and other materials for shelters from place to place.
The government air-dropped leaflets into the Wanni advising civilians
to leave through a “ humanitarian corridor” from Kilinochchi to
Vavuniya through Puthukkudiyiruppu and Oddusuddan. But much of that
area is still controlled by the Tigers, who want civilians to stay,
so response has been tepid. Officials say people are now leaving
Kilinochchi but NGOs give warning that this poses new challenges
because Vavuniya does not have the food, water, sanitation or health
care to cope with an influx. Jeevan Thiagarajah, of the Consortium of
Humanitarian Agencies, says “we haven’t reached a crisis yet.” But,
as a showdown in Kilinochchi looms, there are fears of a humanitarian
disaster.
_____
[3] India:
NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF PEOPLE'S MOVEMENTS
A Wing First Floor, Haji Habi Building, Naigaon Cross Road
Dadar (E), Mumbai-400 014 Ph. No-2415 0529 E-mail: napmindia at ...
Date: 23-09-2008
Resist Fascism, Defend Humanist Solidarity and Freedom of Religion
Condemn gross human rights violations by fanatical forces Govt. of
India and State Governments must address all constitutional rights
violations
Even before one adequately respond to the brutal violence and
violation of all human rights in Khandamal and Mangalore, there have
been shocking reports of four more attacks on Churches in Bangalore.
We are shocked and dismayed to say the least, and are at pains to
know if we are really living in a nation that claims itself to be
secular. The systematic violence unleashed against Christians
in Kandhamal and other Districts of Orissa after the murder of Swami
Lakshmianand Saraswathi and four of his associates on August 13, 2008
is now spreading to Bangalore, Kanpur, Mangalore, Udipi, South Kanara
and even North Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This is in tune with the rise
of communalism and fundamentalism, which has also been built up
systematically over recent months around the Amarnath Yatra in
Kashmir. This unnecessary communalization of the Yatra now threatens
to tear apart the secular political fabric of Jammu and Kashmir
irretrievably, despite the fact that the Yatris have always been
welcomed by the Muslim communities along the yatris route. The same
fanatical trend has also found expression in the bomb blasts in Delhi
markets on 13/09/08, which have caused enormous sufferings due to
casualities, injuries and loss of property. Rising fascism has been
thriving under globalisation's neo-liberal economic policies since
the early nineties. The destruction of livelihoods is driving people
into fierce battles of identity politics. After 9/11, the "war on
terrorism" has successfully deflected attention from the neo-
imperialist shock syndrome.
The murder of Swami Lakshmianand Saraswathi has been
claimed by a Maoist group, and the Orissa police is inclined to
believe and pursue this version. However, the State government has
refused to hand the case over to the CBI, despite vast sections of
civil society demanding such an investigation. What is the State
Government trying to hide by refusing a central investigation?
Instead, the claim of VHP and the Bajrang Dal that the Swami was
killed by Christians for his interventions to counter the massive
"forced conversion" by the Christians in Khandamal District, has
given the green light for unrestrained harassment of Christians. This
has lead to massive loss of life, looting and burning of houses and
places of worship and tremendous sense of insecurity among
Christians, who are mostly Dalits, while the Adivasis have been in
the hands of the Bajrang Dal. We also hear of forced conversion of
Dalits to the VHP's brand of Hinduism, if they want to stay in this
area.
We condemn the murder of Swami Lakshmianand Saraswathi
and his associates and demand a CBI inquiry into the same. At the
same time, the violence against Christians should also be dealt with
as what it is, namely organized crime. The fact that this has not
been done speaks volumes of the collusion between the Orissa State
Government, the police and the communal forces. We demand a thorough
CBI inquiry into the murder of the Swamiji and all the ensuing
violence. We demand a ban on the Bajrang Dal, which violates the
constitution with impunity and earlier incited the murder of
Missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons.
We denounce the hoax of "mass conversions" as a lie.
The number of Christians has gone down in Orissa over recent years.
We uphold article 25 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the
freedom to profess and propagate one's religion and includes the
right of any citizen to change his or her religion. There are no
cases of "forced conversion" among Christians in India. If poor
Dalits or Adivasis acquire a sense of dignity and social justice, the
vested interests in the local power structure interpret this as a
form of incentive and try to use outdated anti-conversion laws, which
are themselves a violation of Article 25 of the Constitution. We
demand the scrapping of anti- conversion laws and strict
implementation of Article 25 freedom of religion and adherence to the
preamble of the constitution of India as a secular, democratic,
socialist republic, in while nobody can be discriminated on grounds
of caste, race, language, sex and religion.
We are deeply shocked by the indifference of the Orissa
State Governement and cynicism which prevails in the BJP ruled
states, who are trying to extend the laboratory of Gujarat to Orissa
and Karnataka. We are outraged at the incompetence of the Central
Government, which first escaped into promises to bring about more
draconian laws to curtail terrorism, and then left it to the States
to do this dirty work. Our experience with POTA and similar laws has
proven that innocent people get framed under them on a large scale,
mostly Dalits and Muslims, while the real culprits often go scot-free.
What 'confidence building measures' the State Government would
initiate, one does not know, the State must first of all stop
acting in a confidence eroding manner. by violating and not
containing the transgression of constitutionally guaranteed and
rights time and gain, with impunity.
These series of incidents also bring to the fore, the legislative
lackadaisicalness in India, in as much as two basic legislations for
Witness Protection, which is meant to ensure that those who speak out
against any unlawful activity or any perpetrator of an illegal or
criminal act will be guaranteed adequate protection from the State to
depose before any Court of law and testify and the legislation
against Communal Violence , which not just prescribes punishment for
the guilty, but also ensures adequate socio-economic relief and
rehabilitation for victims and survivors of fanatical violence are
yet to see the light of the day.
However, notwithstanding the fact that such legislations are not in
place, all the guarantees envisaged in them, including adequate
compensation, relief and rehabilitation to all the victims of
communal violence and full security and protection must be ensured to
all the victims/survivors/witnesses. Particularly women, elders and
children, who have been deeply scarred and marred by the violence
fanatic attacks and charged climate need adequate support.
The National Minorities Commission, we also feel, should be
strengthened and given more statutory and operational teeth to act
swift and stern in such situations, beyond the recommendatory powers
that they now possess. We demand that the Government of Karnataka
ensure that the Commission headed by the Retired High Court Judge
functions in an independent and prompt manner and its Report is acted
upon at the earliest, by bringing all the guilty to book and
rendering full justice to the violated and restoring the faith of the
minorities in the Indian State.
Medha Patkar Sandeep Pandey
Prafulla Samantaray Anand Mazgainkar
D. Gabriela Swati
Desai P. Chennaiah Aruna Roy
Mukta Srivastava P.T. Hussain Geeta
Ramakrishnan Rajendra Ravi
_____
[4] India: Shameful Targeting of Minorities by India's Anti
Terrorist operations . . .
(i)
The News International,
September 27, 2008
DELHI ’ENCOUNTER’ RAISES TOUGH QUESTIONS
by Praful Bidwai
India is witnessing an increase in the incidence of both anti-
minority violence and terrorism. Christians are under attack in
Orissa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and now even Kerala, long
held up as a model of pluralism. Leading the attacks are Hindu-
extremist groups like the Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Shiv
Sena, which don’t bother to disguise their identity.
The Indian state has failed to protect Christians and punish their
tormentors. The Orissa and Karnataka police seem to have bought the
myth that most Christians are victims of unscrupulous proselytisers
and must be helped to "re-convert" to Hinduism, although that may not
have been their religion in the first place. Worse, the police seem
to have fallen for the ludicrous idea that the church in India is
primarily devoted to religious conversion, when official records show
education to be its most important activity.
The response of India’s political leadership to the communal violence
has been appallingly inadequate. It has failed to reassure the
religious minorities that the state is committed to protecting their
rights as citizens. The state acts as if it wanted to shield
majoritarian groups.
In parallel with this, and reinforcing it, is the state’s attitude to
terrorism violence. Under the influence of people like National
Security Adviser MK Narayanan and myopic intelligence agency chiefs,
the state has come to view terrorism largely through a religious-
communal prism. This was earlier linked to Pakistani secret agencies’
plans to foment trouble in India. Although the Pakistan angle has
receded into the background, the state’s anti-terrorism strategy
remains strongly Islamophobic. State agencies virulently malign and
harass Muslims.
The term "terrorism" is never used in respect of Hindu-extremists
like the Bajrang Dal, VHP or the Shiv Sena despite their self-
confessed killing of hundreds of innocent non-Hindu citizens. Hindu
extremists have been repeatedly found making/planting bombs in Nanded
in Maharashtra, Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu, and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Typically, the instinctive, knee-jerk presumption of the authorities
in respect of a terrorist attack is that it must be the work of
Muslims. The police round up and interrogate Muslims, especially
young Muslims, and detain them for long periods—in total violation of
guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court, which stipulate that a
person being arrested must be told the reasons, his or her close
relations must be immediately informed, and he/she be produced before
a magistrate within 24 hours.
As the Indian government comes in for increasingly neurotic and
hysterical attacks by the Bharatiya Janata Party for its "weak-kneed"
attitude towards terrorism, it’s tempted to display machismo by
taking ever-stronger measures against Muslims—to the point of staging
fake "encounters" in which suspects are simply bumped off by the police.
Many states have set up anti-terrorist Special Cells, with dozens of
"encounter specialists", each with a licence to kill and huge sums of
money to obtain "sensitive" information.
The BJP’s shrill demand for tough anti-terrorist action has reached a
crescendo. The government’s reactive, but irrational, response has
been to arbitrarily arrest hundreds of Muslims without warrant,
interrogate them by using third-degree methods, and extract false
self-incriminating confessions. This has created a climate of
intimidation, insecurity and terror.
This is starkly evident in Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and now,
Delhi and even villages in UP’s much-maligned Azamgarh district..
Take the alleged September 19 "encounter" in the Batla House area in
Delhi’s Jamia Nagar, in which two terrorists, Atif Ameen and Mohammed
Sajid, were killed, one more was arrested, and two escaped. The Delhi
police say Atif was the top leader of Indian Mujaheedin, which has
been behind all the major recent terrorist bombings. The Mumbai
police contradict this and say the "mastermind" is Mohammad Sadiq
Shaikh.
This "encounter" occurred less than a week after Delhi’s multiple
bomb blasts. It conforms to a familiar pattern like the Ansal Plaza
and other encounters figuring Rajbir Singh, who became notorious for
corruption and extortion, and was gorily killed, probably by a
colleague. The Batla House story would have provoked a sceptical
public response but for the fact that Special Cell Inspector Mohan
Chand Sharma was also killed.
However, the Delhi police version is inconsistent. It claims Atif was
the mastermind behind the recent bomb attacks in Varanasi, Jaipur and
Ahmedabad. But the police in the concerned states name other
individuals: respectively, Waliullah, Shahbaz Hussain, and Abu Bashar
and Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Tauqeer, recently publicised as the
"IM mastermind".
The Delhi police say that Atif led a shadowy existence and recently
stashed away Rs3 crores in an Azamgarh bank. But media inquiries with
the bank say his account had Rs1,400.
Atif recently rented an apartment in Batla House. He registered the
deed and got it verified and duly stamped by the police. It stretches
credulity that a "terrorist mastermind" would practise such openness
and transparency—especially because the police had been stalking and
observing the area for a week before the incident. The police accuse
Atif’s associate, Saquib Nissar, of having planted bombs in Ahmedabad
on July 26. But records show that Saquib took an MBA examination in
Delhi from July 22 to 28.
According to an eyewitness account of the "encounter", there was an
altercation when the police entered the 4th floor apartment where
Atif and Sajid lived. They dragged the two unarmed men down to the
ground, where several heavily armed Special Cell policemen, including
Sharma, were present. They severely beat up the two after cordoning
off the area. In the ensuing resistance and scuffle, a policeman’s
gun went off and three bullets hit Sharma in the back and exited his
body from the side/front..
After this, the police apparently went berserk and fired at Atif and
Sajid from a point-blank range. A picture of Sajid just before he was
buried shows one large bullet wound each in the shoulder and chest,
and at least four bullet holes in the front portion of the skull.
Even one bullet in the head would have proved fatal. But the
assailant pumped more, presumably out of vengeance.
The post-mortem reports on the three dead men, obtained by a private
TV channel, disprove the police claim that Sharma was killed in
frontal firing by Atif and/or Sajid as he entered their apartment.
Newspaper pictures showed that the front of Sharma’s white shirt
wasn’t bloodstained. Atif and Sajid’s autopsy reports show severe
internal bleeding from beatings. The police claim that two terrorists
escaped. But given the layout, with just one narrow entry/exit point,
nobody could have escaped.
Even assuming that Atif and Sajid were terrorists, there’s no reason
why they couldn’t have been cajoled or smoked out of the apartment,
properly interrogated, tried and punished. All this calls for a
ruthlessly independent judicial inquiry.
It’s a matter of shame that India’s anti-terrorist police cells
haven’t managed to rise above the suspicion that they prefer brutal
and even barbaric methods over due process of law. Unless their anti-
terrorist strategies and operations undergo radical reform, the
minorities whom they selectively target will never feel secure or
part of the national community as full citizens.
And that’s the last thing India can afford if it is to have a modicum
of social cohesion, and respect for human rights and the rule of law.
The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a researcher and peace and
human-rights activist based in Delhi. Email: prafulbidwai1 at yahoo.co.in
_____
[5]
outlook magazine
October 6, 2008
BAJRANG DAL
Some Bombs Get Defused
Just who is a terrorist? Definitions change when it comes to the
Hindutva extreme. ...
by Smita Gupta
* Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad’s (ATS) investigation
revealed that Dal activists made bombs in Nanded in 2006.
* Their target was mosques. They were also involved in planting
bombs in three mosques since 2003.
* But ATS & CBI watered down charges.
* In August 2008 two Dal men were killed while making bombs in
Kanpur. Huge cache of explosives seized.
***
"...one of the two who signed the (Indian) Mujahideen e-mail signed
himself as Al-Arabi; but Arabi was the name of a bridge-builder to
other communities, unlike others who were aggressors. Would a
terrorist have used such a ‘peace-loving’ pseudonym? Was this a
mistake made by a non-Muslim mastermind?"
—from ‘Tentacles of Dread and the Terror Gameplan’, by M.J. Akbar
It is no one’s case that there are no Muslim extremist groups
operating in the country, merely because the recent spate of terror
attacks across the country—Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi—benefited
the BJP. Equally, given how tricky investigations into terror attacks
are, all terror organisations, regardless of affiliation and
denomination, must be put under the scanner. After all, Muslim and
Hindu terror organisations do coexist. Indeed, police investigations
have revealed that members of organisations such as the Bajrang Dal,
the militant youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), don’t
just get military training, they are also keen followers of the
methods of Islamist terror groups.
Take, for instance, the Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad’s (ATS)
investigation of a bomb explosion in the home of L.G. Rajkondwar, a
retired PWD executive engineer and RSS member, in Nanded,
Maharashtra, in April 2006. The explosion killed N. Rajkondwar and H.
Panse and injured M.K. Wagh, Y. Deshpande, G.J. Tuptewar and R.M.
Pande. They were all Bajrang Dal activists.
The FIR recorded the injured activists’ claim that stored
firecrackers had gone off inadvertently. But the investigation nailed
this lie, revealing that bombs being assembled by the Bajrang Dal
activists had exploded accidentally before they could be used to
damage mosques. Moreover, the entire operation was being styled in a
camouflage so as to resemble a Muslim terror operation. Soon, the
police arrested 16 persons. The remand application said the accused
had diagrams, maps and material related to the manufacture/storage of
bombs. It said they had also identified terror targets across the
country.
On May 4, 2006, the case was transferred to the ATS. The ATS’s first
chargesheet, filed on August 24, 2006, established a Bajrang Dal-
Sangh parivar terror network. It says:
* The Nanded accused were also responsible for blasts at the
Mohammadiya Masjid in Parbhani (November 2003), the Quadriya Masjid
in Jalna (August 2004) and the Meraj-ul-Uloom Madrassa/Masjid in
Purna in Parbhani district (August 2004).
* The target of the bombs which killed the Bajrang Dal activists
was actually a mosque in Aurangabad. Both H. Panse and M. Wagh had
conducted a recce of the Aurangabad mosque in May 2004.
* Panse and Pande had started a gymnasium to attract Hindu youth
and organised seminars. They also gave speeches to create an anti-
Muslim atmosphere, alleging acts of injustice by Muslims against
Hindus, inciting the latter to do "something for Hinduism." They were
also trained in bomb-making near Pune, Goa and at the Bhosla Military
School at Nagpur. An RSS camp at the school trained 115 participants
in karate, obstacle courses, and shooting. The trainers included two
ex-servicemen and an ex-IB operative.
* Police discovered a false beard, moustache and shervani during
a search of the house of H.V.
Panse; a cellphone intercept revealed that Wagh was to visit
Aurangabad on April 5, 2006. The ATS established that the accused had
carried out bomb blasts across Maharashtra, and concluded that the
Bajrang Dal and other Sangh activists wanted to target Muslims while
creating a smokescreen to make it look as though Muslim extremists
themselves were targeting fellow Muslims. This would help advance the
Sangh parivar’s agenda of spreading hatred for the Muslim community
by projecting Muslims as perpetrators of every bomb explosion taking
place in India.
Activist Teesta Setalvad, who has provided a meticulous account of
the ATS investigations and what followed thereafter in a recent issue
of Communalism Combat, writes, "To its credit, the ATS did a
reasonable job at the level of investigation, uncovering a hitherto
unknown terrorist network in Maharashtra of Hindu extremists linked
to the Sangh parivar.
Given the seriousness of the case, one would have expected the ATS
to ensure that the guilty were brought to book and the terrorist
network exposed. The two chargesheets filed by the ATS do not however
reflect the gravity of its own findings. At some point the ATS
took a sudden U-turn. A public outcry then forced the government to
transfer the case from the ATS to the CBI. But the CBI’s conduct was
questionable in the extreme; it only served to weaken the case."
The CBI chargesheet, which Setalvad procured on an RTI application,
reveals that the agency simply diluted the ATS’s charges of criminal
conspiracy involving terrorist acts. If the ATS investigation
concluded that the accidental explosion in Nanded was only one
episode in a terrorist plot involving the Bajrang Dal, supported by a
network of the Sangh parivar, the CBI chargesheet treated the Nanded
incident as an isolated case so that the trial does not even examine
the possible existence of a terrorist network in Maharashtra.
It also delinked the case from the Bajrang Dal or any other Sangh
outfit.
If that was Maharashtra, in Uttar Pradesh, the original home of the
Bajrang Dal, an incident uncannily similar to the one in Nanded took
place. On August 24 this year, two Bajrang
Dal activists, Rajeev Mishra and Bhupinder Singh, died while making
explosive devices. Kanpur zone IGP S.N. Singh told journalists that
the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force’s investigations had revealed
"plans for a massive explosion". Among the material seized were
countrymade hand grenades similar to those used by the defence forces.
In police raids on Bhupinder Singh’s Lajpat Nagar studio and his
residence, the police found a diary and a hand-drawn map of Muslim-
dominated Ferozabad. The police is also exploring the possibility
that the grenades and other explosives were intended for use during
the month of Ramzan, as the map has markings of at least five spots,
which could be of possible targets.
If in 1984 the VHP created the Bajrang Dal to protect the Ram Janaki
Yatras, in 1993 it moved out of Uttar Pradesh, became a nationwide
organisation and was officially designated the VHP’s youth wing. Over
the years, it has shifted focus from mobilising support for the Ram
temple to what its current chief Prakash Sharma describes as "problem-
solving". The problems include terrorism both in Jammu & Kashmir and
elsewhere in the country, the influx of refugees from Bangladesh,
referred to as "infiltration’’, and conversions to Christianity. "If
government agencies don’t act against those whom the Bajrang Dal has
identified as an isi agent (any Muslim) or involved in the slaughter
of cows, then we just uproot them from society ourselves," said Rukun
Singh Payal, a VHP functionary from Uttar Pradesh.So even as the
Kanpur case is being investigated, and Bajrang Dal activists continue
their rampage against Christians in Orissa, Karnataka and north
Kerala, clearly there is a need to study the stormtroopers of the
saffron brotherhood.
o o o
(ii)
outlook magazine
October 6, 2008
BIASED INDIAN STATE
Few Blind Men Of Hindostan
Why is the Indian State quick to nail minority offences but myopic to
Sangh transgressions? ......
by Saba Naqvi
"We didn’t expect UPA to be so uncaring about our plight in Karnataka
and Orissa. They don’t care because Christians do not make a votebank."
-Fr Dominic Emmanuel, Spokesman, Delhi Catholic Church
"The situation today is more lethal for Muslims because an individual
can become a national hero by showing bias against them."
-Shahid Siddiqui, Editor, Nayi Duniya
"This talk of mastermind is nonsense. No mastermind is involved in
planting bombs. A mastermind certainly isn’t a boy on a computer."
Ajit Doval, Former IB chief
"Some would be satisfied if there is a law offering complete immunity
to a person who shot another on mere suspicion of being a terrorist."
-K.G. Kannabiran, Andhra Civil Rights Activist
"Those who took part in the ’92 riots may be respectable citizens
today. Terrorists are committed to undermine the state’s sovereignty."
-Swapan Dasgupta, BJP ideologue
"State performance relates to all levels of governance, not just
minorities. If the cops are ham-handed, it’s to cover their own
incompetence."
-Gurcharan Das, Author
***
Instruments Of Bias
POTA
* Defunct terror law used in Gujarat to target Muslims for
Godhra. Hindus involved spared
* 3,000 arrests nationwide since the law’s enforcement. Most
detentions in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand; also in TN against LTTE
sympathisers
Armed Forces Special Powers Act
* Applies to declared ‘disturbed’ areas like J&K and Manipur;
offers immunity to army officers from prosecution
* Five Rashtriya Rifles officers still not prosecuted for
killing five in a March 2000 fake encounter in J&K
* Assam Rifles jawans accused of raping Manorama Devi in Manipur
unpunished
Official Secrets Act
* Allows state to persecute those seen as a "national threat"
* Widely misused to fix whistleblowers, dissenters
* Administrative Reforms Commission called for its immediate repeal
Target Maoists
* Most above laws and state-specific security acts have been
used to target Naxals, their ‘sympathisers’ and rights activists like
Dr Binayak Sen
***
Cross Christians: Protesting the attack on this Bangalore church
In the age of terror and hate campaigns, the Indian state looks so
much less than it was intended to be. Human beings are full of
prejudice; the state should be seen to be above bias. In India the
majority of citizens have for years seen the state as the epitome of
inefficiency and corruption. But more damningly, the poor and the
marginalised see it as an active instrument of injustice. And now,
Muslims and Christians increasingly agree.
Consider some basic facts that have been part of the public discourse
in the last few weeks. Muslim youth are picked up at random and
identified as terrorists, with the police in several metros claiming
they have "the mastermind". Their identities and sketches are
released to the media. Christians continue to be attacked in the
Indian hinterland but no serious attempt has been made to stop the
hate crimes or ban the organisations engaged in assaults on the
minority. A dangerous imbalance is at play. An incoherent and
asymmetrical response that can only further undermine the ideals
India was built on.
Today, most Christians and Muslims believe the state is biased
against them.
Says Father Dominic Emmanuel, spokesperson of the Delhi Catholic
Church, "We did not expect the UPA at the Centre to be so ineffective
and uncaring about our plight in Orissa and Karnataka. But they are
callous and don’t care because Christians do not make a votebank.
They don’t want to alienate Hindus and that must be why they are not
coming down hard on the Bajrang Dal and other Sangh parivar outfits.
We are helpless as we continue to be attacked in a country where
liberty and freedom were promised to all."
We see you: Police keep strict vigil on Muslim protesters in Delhi
What about Muslims—a votebank pursued hotly by most political
parties? In an instance of black humour emerging out of the
community, one sms reads: "The politicians are after our vote, the
police in hot pursuit of us." Says Shahid Siddiqui, editor of Urdu
weekly Nayi Duniya and BSP member: "Muslims aren’t the only people
the state is biased against.
Many underprivileged communities and the poor have faced prejudice
from society and the state. But the situation today is more lethal
for Muslims because an individual can become a national hero by
showing bias against them." So, if Narendra Modi can become an iconic
political figure, why should an ordinary policeman care if innocent
Muslims are arrested in the hunt for terrorists?
There is, however, a larger problem in the manner in which
investigations into terror strikes are being conducted. Former IB
chief Ajit Doval is considered a hawk on matters of national security
but he tells Outlook: "The talk of getting a mastermind is nonsense—
no mastermind is ever involved in planting bombs as the police tell
us. If there is a mastermind, it is certainly not a boy with details
on his computer." Does Doval therefore believe the state is biased?
"In certain situations, government agencies behave in a way that
leads certain communities and individuals to conclude that the
response is biased." He explains the process: when security agencies
are under political and media pressure to deliver results for public
consumption, they do not count the collateral damage.
"A policeman will be told nothing should happen in your area and get
the terrorists quickly," says Doval.
The sequence of events could go like this: the police team starts
watching Muslim hubs like madrassas and urban ghettoes in their
neighbourhood.
Some young men are picked up on suspicion. If they do indeed have
other "suspicious" material on their person, in their homes or on
their computers, they are possibly arrested as terrorists. In the
case of the Delhi accused, the police procured head-scarves
associated with Palestinian guerrillas, swathed three young men in
them and produced them before the media as terrorists. The Christian
community too is facing prejudice in a somewhat different form.
In Karnataka, for instance, Christians protesting the violence
against them have been charged under non-bailable sections of the
law. But the charges against Bajrang Dal state convenor Mahendra
Kumar were so weak that he secured bail in a few days. Nor did the
BJP government in Karnataka express any remorse about the attacks on
Christians in the state.
For right-wing ideologue and journalist Swapan Dasgupta equating the
Bajrang Dal with SIMI is like comparing a water pistol to an AK-47.
"Rioters," he says, "cannot be equated with terrorists. An individual
who took part in the Bombay riots of 1992 may be a respectable
citizen today while a terrorist is committed to undermining the
sovereignty of the state." Dasgupta also counters the argument about
the state being prejudiced against particular communities or social
groups.
"The Indian state is not a neutral state. It has multiple levels of
biases. It is also not a very efficient state and is a source of
harassment for all citizens regardless of caste and creed."
A lucid argument perhaps. But facts suggest a systematic bias against
specific social groups at different times because of a perceived
threat by those who constitute the state. Noted Andhra Pradesh civil
rights activist and PUCL president K.G. Kannabiran says that before
the serial blasts across the country, the poor were targeted in the
state because of Naxalism. Now it’s the turn of Muslims to feel this
heat not just in AP but across India.
He also says that the political clamour for stronger laws is just
eyewash. "If POTA is removed, state governments bring in other laws
that are equally draconian. But there is a section in our society
that would only be satisfied if a law existed that allowed complete
immunity
to someone who shot someone on mere suspicion of supporting terrorism!"
Cops parade 'terrorists' in Arab keffiyah head dresses
In the absence of any real political courage or coherent policy to
tackle terrorism, there is competitive sloganeering about stronger
laws. Serial blasts have, after all, struck India in the global
context of the war against terror and the domestic backdrop of a
general election. Given the way our democracy has evolved, it is the
stuff of emotive politics, not sensible policy. Former Chief Justice
of India, J.S. Verma, says that all this talk of new laws is rubbish
as those who understand the legal system know it is adequate to
tackle the problem. "You can bring in any system or law," he says,
"but it is as good as the people in the system who will implement it."
The first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, had once said that
the "worth of the Constitution will depend on the worth of the men
who work it". Justice Verma says the state is not biased, it is
rotting from within. "The original sin is the pursuit of personal
interest by public men. That is today the only ideology followed by
those who serve the Indian State. After themselves, they serve their
kith and kin. Then the caste and community." That, according to the
former CJI, is how biases work in the state. Not because there is a
great national conspiracy. Verma points to the fact that the last
bastions of public accountability—the judiciary and media—are also
getting corrupted or swayed in what passed for public hype. He says:
"Dr C. Rajagopalachari had once said that national character is
determined by the sum of individual character. There are many people
of conviction in India but they don’t get a chance as the system is
rotting from within. If you have a billion rotten apples you will
have a stink."
Is the state biased by intent? Or callous by default? Management guru
and columnist Gurcharan Das believes the Indian state is just
incompetent and incapable of delivering on most fronts. Combine that
with political interference and we have a recipe for disaster. "We
know there is great institutional rot in the bureaucracy, judiciary
and other institutions of the state. The issue of state performance
is related to all levels of governance, not just minorities. If the
police do a ham-handed investigation that terrifies minorities, it is
to cover their own incompetence," he says. He does not believe there
is a grand conspiracy against minorities or the poor.
To define a state as unwieldy as ours would be almost impossible.
Social activists would argue that the state is an instrument of
oppression used systematically against minorities and the poor. The
right wing would say India is a soft state that simply cannot come
down hard on terrorists and "anti-national forces".The truth probably
lies somewhere in between. India is at many levels an incompetent
state that can be manipulated to target certain communities. It is a
state run by men who can be overcome by their own prejudices and
never be held accountable for such lapses. It is a state that some
would argue is biased against all citizens because it delivers
nothing to anyone. It is a state where an attempt is made to cover
incompetence with more incompetence. It is a state that criminally
neglects its duties. Or acts in an overzealous manner that convinces
many citizens that the state is indeed the enemy.
o o o
(iii)
The Telegraph
Traitors without trial & hanging of a community
- UNPROVEN TAINT LEAVES AZAMGARH’S MUSLIMS ALIENATED
by Sankarshan Thakur
Maulana Ashfaq Ahmed at Saraimir’s Madarsa-e-Tul Islah. Picture by
Sankarshan Thakur
Azamgarh, Sept. 26: There’s a disquieting war in the works here,
arrived from afar and unpacking its wares across unmindful townships
and qasbahs.
It is erecting frontiers village after village and installing rabid
little armies across them. It is spewing new poison as it rolls on
and is churning up fires that have left Azamgarh’s syncretic history
in an ominous shambles. It is a war that extant prejudice is waging
on past pride.
The liberal Shibli Noomani and Rahul Sankrityayan lie discarded in
its ruinous wake, the exhaust has gagged the song that Kaifi Azmi
sang. Abu Salem, and the alleged flowering of his progeny, have
become the preferred standard of discourse — it is seeding the
countryside with the prospect of a frightening outcrop.
“Sab terrorist hain… (expletive deleted), desh ke dushman, asli rang
mein aa gaye… (expletive deleted),” says Maniram Pandey, a
schoolteacher at Pharia, a crossroads hamlet short of Azamgarh. “Kas
ke lagaam nahin lagi to gaon-gaon mein tabahi macha denge. Chhoriye
Azmi-Kazmi, Abu Salem ki aulad ki baat keejiye. (All of them are
terrorists, enemies of the nation… if they are not reined in, they
will set off a blaze across the villages. Forget the Kaifi Azmis,
talk about Abu Salem and his children.)”
The broad brush is being brandished hard to apportion indiscriminate
taint; it has left the Muslims fenced in and alienated at home.
“Even protesting innocence is not granted us anymore,” says Obaidul
Rehman, an elderly Saraimir farmer. “Even seeking fair trial becomes
firm proof of our complicity in crime. Where are we to go, who are we
to ask? For police, we are all part of the big conspiracy; for the
politicians, we have become too hot to handle. We have become our own
spokesmen and nobody is listening.”
The usual suspects of secular politics — the Congress, Samajwadi
Party and the ruling BSP — have fallen strangely silent. The BJP,
meantime, is exulting in daily vindications, as much here as across
the country, gleeful that it has discovered in “Islamic terror” a new
energy resource.
“We have been warning all along,” says Bhadresh Singh, a local Sangh
pracharak. “Now the country is realising at its own cost, these
people need to be taught a tough lesson.”
Singh’s cry is getting free run of the field. “There is urgent need
for secular parties to come forth and stop this sweeping canker,”
pleads Ashraf Qazi, an SP votary. “Political leaders have to moderate
the distinction between a handful of so-called miscreants and the
hanging of a whole community. But where are they?”
They are all nervously perched on the fence, twiddling with the vote
calculus, their secular convictions enfeebled by the terrors of
fickle votebanks.
“It’s true we can’t decide,” an Azamgarh Congressman sheepishly
admits. “Abhi maamla bada fluid hai, Hindu vote ka bhi to khayal
rakhna hai, chalen jaayen Muslamaanon ki tarafdari karne is garam
mahaul mein aur suli pe chadh jaayen? (Things are very fluid at the
moment, we have to bother about the Hindu vote too. Shall we rush in
to the Muslims’ rescue in this surcharged atmosphere and get hanged?)”
But the Congress isn’t the only party gripped by perilous confusions.
The SP is at best mumbling inchoately and the BSP is in proactive
abdication. Azamgarh’s man in the Lok Sabha, Akbar Dumpy Ahmed,
hasn’t once sought news of home since the Jamianagar encounter and
its unsettling aftermath. His troubled constituents are guessing,
probably rightly, that following delimitation, Dumpy is probably
eyeing another seat; Azamgarh stands dumped.
Its anxieties, though, eddy portentously. Allegations, no more,
ringing out of Delhi and Mumbai and Ahmedabad have become ruse to
post hurried and harsh judgement: Musalmaan, traitor, lumped with
unproven guilt and unprocessed bias. He labours in the Gulf and wires
back his earnings; the Western Union outlet his family goes to
becomes a signpost of dirty money. He paints his mosque and his
patriotism gets stained. He raises funds to build a charitable
hospital and it becomes added evidence of dubiously gotten wealth. He
sets up a PCO and he is in conversation with the Devil himself. He
builds a school and it becomes the eruption of another seminary of
terror.
The madarsa has long been the maligned eye of sectarian storms.
Saraimir’s Madarsa-e-Tul Islah is no exception. It’s an institution
dating back more than a hundred years, set in a sprawling expanse of
groves and flower-beds. Ashfaq Ahmed, the 76-year-old rector, sits
solitary in the shade of an open, high-domed gazebo. He wears the
calm of a wizened man, but the tumult rippling around hasn’t left him
untouched.
“I have spent all my life here, as a student, then as a teacher,” he
says. “Hundreds of thousands of us have lived here for ages and ages.
We’ve fought wars for freedom, we’ve struggled for independence,
we’re stakeholders in the destiny of the country, and suddenly we are
being told we are traitors. On what ground? By who, with what
legitimacy? Whose country is this now? Not ours?”
He isn’t arguing the boys from Azamgarh are all above guilt, but he
isn’t allowing anyone else to pass judgement on them either. “We’ve
been allowed to believe we have a Constitution and laws. How can the
police, and even you the media, call people guilty without affording
them trial, everybody is innocent until otherwise proved, isn’t it?
What you are doing is tearing this earth apart, it’s my earth too,
don’t forget, I daily labour to spring those flowers you see.”
Not very far from this madarsa is a village called Lamhi, home to
Munshi Prem Chand, who wrote a once-celebrated story called The
Temple and the Mosque in which maulana and mahant together dictate
the end to communal disruption and repair broken fences.
Prem Chand’s craft, we are reliably told, represented reality. Today,
you might want to dismiss that as figment of his fantasy. Rest in
peace, Prem Chand, there’s a war rumbling over your memory, mahant
and maulana are back at the broken fence, this time dealing blows.
o o o
(iv)
The Telegraph
September 27, 2008
PAY RS 1.5 LAKH OR BE BRANDED A TERRORIST, POLICE TOLD HIM
- Portrait of a victim
by Imran Ahmed Siddiqui
Milan Molla recounts the chain of events since a freak blast on
August 3 killed four of his family members. Picture by Amit Datta
When some police officers asked Milan Molla to choose between the tag
of “terrorist” and a Rs 1.5-lakh bribe, the slum-dweller knew he had
to pay or perish.
“They raided our house on August 6 and took me to an SSPD (Special
Staff of Port Division) outpost. They threatened to book me for the
blast that killed four of my family members three days earlier unless
I gave in to their demand,” he told Metro on Friday.
Milan had lost his younger brother Deedar, cousins Ramzan and Shaqib,
and granduncle Hasan in the freak blast in Cossipore on August 3.
Deedar and Ramzan were trying to break open a discarded shell they
had brought home from the banks of the Hooghly when the blast
occurred. Commissioner of police Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti and other
senior officials had ruled out a terrorist link in the incident that
very night.
But a group of policemen from the wing that tracks criminal activity
in the port area then laid a terror trap for the illiterate Milan.
With her son in lock-up and nobody around to help, mother Anwara Bibi
borrowed Rs 35,000 and paid the first instalment to an officer.
“What else could I have done? We were still in mourning when they
were back at our door to pick up my son,” Anwara, 50, said.
According to Anwara, Milan’s father-in-law Ayub contributed Rs 10,000
and the rest of the money came from a relative, Musha Ali, and a
local trader.
The incident remained under wraps until a fortnight ago, when CPM
leader Mohammad Salim visited Cossipore and some residents of the
locality told him about Milan’s ordeal. The MP immediately took up
the case with the police top brass, who promised an inquiry.
“I had gone to Cossipore to attend a meeting when I was told how the
family was being harassed. I met Milan and his mother. They narrated
how the police team had framed Milan. I was surprised to hear that
they were forced to pay Rs 35,000. I called up the police
commissioner and asked him to look into the matter,” Salim said.
Commissioner Chakrabarti met the Molla family at Lalbazar the next day.
Rattled by the developments, two officers of the SSPD went to Milan’s
shanty a day later and asked the youth to withdraw his complaint.
“The policemen said they would return the money we had paid if I
withdrew my complaint. But why should I?” Milan asked, his confidence
stemming from Chakrabarti’s assurance of justice.
Last Monday, Milan and his mother got a call from the deputy
commissioner of the port office, Anand Kumar. “We went there and I
identified the person who had taken money from my mother. The deputy
commissioner assured me that action would be taken against the
policemen who had harassed and tortured me. But I am still scared as
they might try to implicate me in another false case for complaining
against them,” Milan said, holding his year-old son Shabbir tightly
in his arms.
Milan, who owns a tea shop and occasionally deals in scrap, had
escaped the explosion that killed four members of his family because
he had gone to Science City with some friends on that day. The family
lives in a 10x10 feet shanty in Jyotinagar, Cossipore.
The commissioner of police said the inquiry was on track and the
guilty would not be spared. “The additional commissioner of police,
Shivaji Ghosh, is investigating the allegations. We will take action
if our officers are found guilty,” he told Metro.
o o o
(v)
Arab Scarves - to dress up suspects - Religion 'markers' in the heads
of the police.
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2008/09/relgion-in-heads-of-police-is-
this.html
_____
[6] India - Gujarat: Suspect release of Nanavati Commission Report
(i)
The Telegraph
September 27, 2008
Editorial
SPECIALLY COMMISSIONED
Time, it is generally supposed, endows events with perspective. The
Nanavati inquiry commission into the burning of the Sabarmati Express
in Godhra and its aftermath, appointed by the Gujarat chief minister,
Narendra Modi, took six years and 12 extensions to make sure of that
perspective. The Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 does not specify
how many extensions a commission of inquiry appointed by either the
Centre or by a state government is allowed. This commission was
satiated with 12; it could have taken 20 more with impunity. The
first part of the commission’s report, relating to the Godhra
burning, says that the coaches were burnt as the result of an
extensive conspiracy among the minority community. That the first
part of the report should chime in so well with the gradually
escalating Hindutva aggression elsewhere — Orissa and Karnataka, for
example — is no doubt just a coincidence. The Bharatiya Janata
Party’s glee may look indecent, but that is purely pseudo-secular
prejudice. The party has every reason to cheer.
It might seem odd that the second part of the report, to do with the
genocide that followed Godhra, will be released quite a few months
later, in December. The act does not say that the report should be
given at one go. It seems odder that the conclusions of the second
part are given ahead. The first part not only declares that the chief
minister, Mr Modi, and his ministers did not play any role in the
Godhra incident, but also that there were no lapses on their part in
providing protection, relief and rehabilitation to “the victims of
communal riots”. The oddest feature of all is that the inquiry report
should take it upon itself to answer unasked questions. But no one
can say that the commission flouted the act under which it was
framed. The U.C. Banerjee inquiry commission, instituted by the
railway minister in 2004, reported in 2005 that the fire on the train
was an accident. But the report could not be tabled in parliament
because the Supreme Court stayed it on the petition of a Godhra
survivor since the Nanavati commission was already running. That is
exactly according to the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952.
Godhra, and all terrible events of the kind, end up bristling with
commissions. Yet it is the job of institutions such as the police to
find facts. Do inquiry commissions betoken a lack of trust in their
efficiency, or perhaps in their integrity under political pressure?
Or are all policemen failed judges, since judges are preferred as
heads of inquiry commissions? Presumably, a commission of inquiry
exists in a kind of no-man’s land, away from the police and the
courts. But that is not quite a guarantee of either efficiency or
independence from political pressure. The one thing that inquiry
commissions most certainly do is endlessly postpone the possibility
of decisive action. Perhaps that is why politicians love them.
o o o
(ii)
September 26, 2008
Press Statement
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued
the following statement:
On The Nanavati Commission Report
The findings of the Justice Nanavati Commission report on the Godhra
train fire and the subsequent communal carnage in Gujarat has been
presented in a piecemeal fashion with the second part slated to be
released in December 2008. The fact that the report has come after an
abnormally long delay and that too in a piecemeal fashion raises many
needles of suspicion.
The piecemeal delivering of the report tends to justify the action-
reaction theory propagated by Narendra Modi and the RSS-BJP-Bajrang
Dal-VHP. These findings completely contradict the report of the
former Supreme Court Justice U.C. Banerjee Committee which
established on the basis of forensic reports that the fire in Coach
S-6 of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra was accidental. The findings
of the Nanavati report also contradict the fact that in the ongoing
criminal proceedings against the Godhra accused no charge has so far
been established by the concerned courts. These findings also run in
the face of the contradictory admissions made by various players in
the Gujarat carnage as exposed by the sting operation of a private
channel, “Operation Kalank”.
The findings of the Nanavati report have been solely based on the
report filed by the investigating officer in the Godhra train burning
case Noel Parmar. The Supreme Court has rejected the Parmar report
and on March 26, 2008 constituted a police team headed by R.K.
Raghavan, former CBI director to investigate the post Godhra
violence. Clearly, by delaying the second part of the report, the
Nanavati Commission attempts to negate the apex court’s directions.
The timing of the release of the report is indeed suspicious given
that it comes on the eve of the elections to some state assemblies in
November and the second part is slated to be released on the eve of
the coming General Elections. This also comes at a time when the
country as a whole is bracing to meet the challenge posed by the
series of terrorist attacks. It tends to reinforce the communal
stereotype prejudices rather than strengthening the need to pursue
unbiasedly and impartially the antinational criminals who are
perpetrating such terrorist attacks.
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) is of the opinion that these findings
must be kept aside and the country must await the directions of the
apex court and the contingent investigations ordered.
o o o
(iii)
sacw.net - 27 September 2008
NANAVATI COMMISSION HAS FORGOTTEN THE REAL STORY OF THE GUJARAT CARNAGE
by Rohit Prajapati, Trupti Shah
Press Release
DATE: 27TH SEPTEMBER 2008
· The Nanavati Commission has conveniently misunderstood Mr. Modi and
his Government without examining them.
· Mr. Modi and his Government got Full Marks without appearing in the
Exam of the Nanavati Commission.
· We strongly feel that the Nanavati Commission has forgotten the
real story of the Gujarat Carnage 2002, publicly admitted and proudly
advocated by the Mr. Modi and his BJP. - Rohit Prajapati & Trupti
Shah - Activists, Gujarat
The following statements of Mr. Modi say a lot, and even if the
Nanavati commission would have taken the statement of Mr. Modi, he
might have said similar things to the commission
"With the entire population of Gujarat very angry at what happened in
Godhra much worse was expected". Narendra Modi, at a Press Conference
in Gujarat, Feb 28, 2002.
Asked about the violence, Modi quoted Newton’s third law ‘every
action has an equal and opposite reaction’ - to virtually justify
what was happening. The Times of India, March 3, 2002.
"Relief camps are actually child-making factories. Those who keep on
multiplying the population should be taught a lesson.” Shri Narendra
Modi, addressing a rally in Mehsana district during his gaurav yatra,
quoted in The Hindu, Sept 10, 2002.
“(Nothing illustrates the role of the police better than police
commissioner P.C. Pande’s statement that, ‘Police were not insulated
from the general social milieu… (When) there’s a change in the
perception of society, the police are part of it and there’s bound to
be some contagion effect”’. The Telegraph, March 2, 2002
Let us also remind Justice Nanavati that even the then Prime Minister
Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee felt compelled to say the following things:
“My one message to the chief minister is that he should follow raj
dharma. A ruler should not make any discrimination between his
subjects on the basis of caste, creed and religion.” — Atal Behari
Vajpayee, during his visit to Ahmedabad on April 4, 2002; in The
Hindustan Times.
“I do not know what face I will show them (the world) now after the
shameful events in Gujarat.” — Atal Behari Vajpayee, during his visit
to Ahmedabad on April 4, 2002; in The Hindustan Times.
“From Godhra to Ahmedabad, in so many places, there are so many
incidents of people being burnt alive, including helpless women and
children. This is a blot on nation’s forehead and has grievously
harmed India’s image in the eyes of the world.”- Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India, statement on March 3, 2002.
The Supreme Court’s decision in the Best Bakery case again clearly
condemns the state machinery and religious fanatics as the directors
of the 2002 Gujarat Carnage. “When the ghastly killings take place in
the land of Mahatma Gandhi it raises a very pertinent question as to
whether some people have become so bankrupt in their ideology that
they have deviated from everything which was so dear to him. […] The
fanatics who spread violence in the name of religion are worse than
terrorists and more dangerous than an alien enemy. […] The role of
the State Government also leaves much to be desired. One gets a
feeling that there was really no seriousness in the State’s approach
in assailing the Trial Court’s judgment. […] The modern day “Neros”
were looking elsewhere when Best Bakery and innocent children and
women were burning, and were probably deliberating how the
perpetrators of the crime can be saved or protected. Law and justice
become flies in the hands of these “wanton boys”. When fences start
to swallow the crops, no scope will be left for survival of law and
order or truth and justice. Public order as well as public interest
become martyrs and monuments.”
Even the Nanavati Commission has conveniently ignored the above
Supreme Court judgment and other such judgments by the Supreme Court.
The Commission had also ignored the NHRC’s various interim reports.
The recent statements to the Tehelka channel made by various
individuals boasting about their role in the violence, which were
seen and heard by millions of people in the country, also seem to
have made no impression on the Nanavati commission.
Let us remind the people that the PUCL [People’s Union for Civil
Liberties], Vadodara who were active in relief and rehabilitation
during the 2002 violence in Gujarat, had withdrawn from the
proceedings of the Nanavati-Shah Commission. PUCL, Vadodara had
earlier submitted an affidavit to the Commission based on the PUCL
investigations into the violence in Vadodara city and surrounding
villages. But they were obliged to submit a second affidavit stating
that, in view of their lack of faith in the inquiry proceedings, they
would not participate in them further due to the remarks made by
Justice Nanavati.
The prime reason for boycotting the commission was that in late May
2003, Justice Nanavati has been reported extensively in the media to
have said, "The evidence recorded so far does not indicate any lapse
on the part of the police or administration in controlling the
communal clashes in several parts of the state." Thereafter, Justice
Nanavati reportedly backed out and stated that the media had
misquoted him. But a TV channel reported that Justice Nanavati, in an
interview with the channel, had said the Gujarat riots were not one-
sided and that there was limited evidence against the VHP. We were
shocked with the comments made by a senior member of the Commission,
Justice Nanavati, a former judge of the Supreme Court. "There is no
real evidence that has been brought to name individual Bajrang Dal or
VHP leaders," the TV channel quoted Justice Nanavati as saying. This
despite the voluminous evidence that emerged from the investigations
of several independent fact-finding commissions.
We strongly feel that the Nanavati Commission has forgotten the real
story of the Gujarat Carnage 2002 publicly admitted and proudly
advocated by Mr. Modi and his BJP.
Let us remind the Nanavati Commission that denial of justice on such
a scale will have disastrous long-term consequences for the entire
society.
Rohit Prajapati and Trupti Shah
Activists, Gujarat
______
[7] India: Communalism / Terrorism
Orissa: Saffron Flags & 'Reconversion' spree in Kandhamal
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2008/09/orissa-saffron-flags-
reconversion-spree.html
Delhi Bomb Targets 'Phoolwalon Ki Sair' + Six Bangladeshis Picked Up
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2008/09/delhi-bomb-targets-phoolwalon-
ki-sair.html
______
[8] Announcements:
(i) Meeting of group of citizens on Terrorism and Communal Violence
at Press Club [New Delhi], Raisina road at 3pm
28 September 2008
--
(ii)
India International Centre
Monday
29/9/2008
AUDITORIUM
18:00
Buddhist Monuments in the Kabul and Begram Areas (Afghanistan)
Speaker: Prof. Gerard Fussman, Professor of History of India and
Greater India, College de France, Paris
Chair: Dr. Romila Thapar
(Organised by the IIC – Asia Project)
--
(iii)
Upcoming Events at PeaceNiche in Karachi
Road to Happiness - An Art Exhibition Featuring the Work of Hawra
Harianawala
5 October 2008
Empires of the Indus: Book Launch and Reading by Author Alice Albinia
7 October 2008
Alive and Well: Documenting Pakistan's Human Dimension - An Evening
with Filmmakers Ethan Casey and Fawad Butt
9 October 2008
iPhone Magic: Demo of Jaadu VNC by Jahanzeb Sherwani and Tips for
Developing iPhone Apps
11 October 2008
Theatre for Social Change: An Evening with Shahid Nadeem and Madeeha
Gauhar of Ajoka Theatre
12 October 2008
Hotel Mohenjodaro: A Play by Ajoka Theatre (dedicated to victims of
terrorism)
This play is brought to you by Ajoka Theatre, in collaboration with
PeaceNiche / T2F
15 October 2008 | Location: The Arts Council, Karachi
PeaceNiche / The Second Floor
Phone: (92-300) 823-0276
http://www.peaceniche.org | http://www.t2f.biz
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
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