Gujarat & Justice

Electoral and Secular Values

2007-12-29T15:57:00.000-08:00

(HT Op ed 24th Dec2007)
Electoral Parties and Secular Values
Ram Puniyani

The adjective 'Merchants of Death', was a bold and characterization of Modi/BJP politics in Gujarat. It incited various reactions, the major one stating that Congress is no clean body as its hands are also full of blood of Sikhs in the 1984 and most of the riots took place during Congress regime.
Are BJP and Congress comparable? A situation, where these parties are being put in the same category has been created due to the weak policies of Congress and projection of the image of BJP as the democratic alternative. Are these parties in the same league or is there a shade of difference which is worth recognizing?

Congress began as a secular party with the inclusion of people of all religions, and their continued association with this party during freedom movement. At the same time many a communalists formed the part of its leadership, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madan Mohan Malaviya and Dr. Moonje. Even the founder of RSS, K.B. Hedgewar was associated with it till 1934. At medium and grass root level many a Hindu communalists in particular were and are part of this party. It is this which made Nehru to warn that Congress should be cautious of those members who sound secular but are really communal. At the level of policies Congress took quite a principled secular path till the demise of Pundit Nehru, after which the slip showed regularly. The problem became apparent with Indira Gandhi's election speeches during Jammu bi-election, Rajiv Gandhi's 'when a big tree falls'; Shah Bano, shilaynyas, and Narsimha Raos' afternoon siesta when the Babri was being razed to the ground. Many a riots took place during its regime when the ruling Government either acted as the silent witness or colluded with the rioters.

While apportioning the blame of communal violence it has to be kept in mind that the riots take place due to three major factors, one the instigator and conductor, which according the inquiry commissions, (Jagmohan Reddy, Justice Madon, Vithayathil, Shrikrishna and Venugopal)mostly has been some organization which is a offshoot/associate of RSS. The second factor is the political leadership. Most of the times Congress, when in power, has been lacking the political will to control it effectively. The third factor is the police and bureaucracy, which has been regularly communalized and has been providing the umbrella to the rioters or been the active participant in the execution of the pogroms. It is not enough just to say that so and so part is responsible just because it has been in power. As far as political agenda is concerned, communalism is not the program of Congress. Its basic program remains Secularism, but its execution of those values has been lacking in will power.

BJP is the political child of RSS, which has the agenda of Hindu nation. Irrespective of its temporary mask of Gandhian Socialism, it does lapse in to the 'Hate minorities' mind set at the drop of the hat. It has the patriarch RSS and associates; VHP, Bajrang Dal, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Bajrang Dal etc, who have been communizing the mind set, which is the base of communal violence. This RSS combine has been actively initiating situations which bring in violence. It has led many a carnages and has been polarizing the communities along religious lines. The scholars of communal violence have made the pertinent observation that in the aftermath of most of the communal violence RSS combine becomes stronger in the areas where the violence has taken place. For RSS combine communalism, in overt and covert language, is its political vehicle.

One can classify the political formations/ individuals in to four broad categories on the scale of secularism. The first, and rare, category belongs to the party/individuals who proactively strive for comprehensive social justice. A synthesis of values of Bhagat Singh, Gandhi and Ambedkar can best describe this group, which today is being overshadowed by the other political forces.

Second, the formations like Left are genuinely secular but they have ignored the proactive measures to pursue this and so the prevalence of communal social thinking in states ruled by left. Third are secular but compromising, the major one in this category being Congress. These are mired by too many power seekers to be able to stand firmly to oppose the communal elements and land up being the accomplice, in part or in full, of the violation of secular values. The anti Sikh violence was a sort of one go phenomenon, which had more to do with the ethno-regional factors. The last category is that of BJP, aggressive, intimidating opponent of democracy and secularism, whatever its expression. Communal to the core, looking for pretexts to carry on with sectarian politics. Its biggest 'achievement' not that it is the core vehicle of communalism but that some of the political workers compare it with other democratic electoral formations. It is using the electoral space to do away with democratic values, the way Hitler did. It is the Indian face of fascism.

The subtleties of these differences point out that while we do not have the real good choice in the for electoral arena, we will have to keep putting the civic pressure for bringing in better political policies through the grass root campaigns. All the same, to compare BJP with other electoral formations will be undermining the threat of the agenda of RSS, which seeks to abolish democratic space and build a society in the image of 'glorious Hindu past', a neo brahminical construct for upholding the hegemony of elite males.

One can very well say that while communalism, the threat to democracy is becoming stronger by the day, there is a vast difference between Congress and BJP. The Congress communalism is pragmatic while BJP communalism is programmatic. While no party can be excused for its crimes, no democratic formation should be compared to BJP, as it the vehicle of RSS political agenda, the agenda of abolishing the values of Indian constitution and imposing a fascist state. BJP is in a different class by itself due to its goal, which has nothing to do with democracy i.e. concepts of liberty, equality and fraternity. Unfortunately, today in electoral arena we do not have a choice between Good better and the best. We are riddled with bad, worse, worst and BJP!

(Writer is recipient of Indira Gandhi National Integration Award, 2006)

Erosion of Democracy - Modi

2007-12-12T17:27:00.001-08:00

Erosion of Democratic Norms: A case of Modi
Ram Puniyani

Current Gujarat elections, irrespective of their
results, will remain etched in the memory of the
nation for wrong reasons. Gujarat witnessed the
burning of Sabarmati express at Godhra in Feb 2002.
The carnage which followed this train accident claimed
the lives of thousands of innocents and simultaneously
polarized Gujarat along religious lines. The process
of ghettotisation of Muslims and the fear of
minorities constructed in the minds of majority
community are staring in our face. At the same time
the threads of democratic nationalism, national
integration are breaking rapidly. While various
citizens' inquiry reports did point out the pre
planned nature of the pogrom and the role of RSS
combine led by Modi in the carnage, we could all see
the same for ourselves thanks to the Tehelka. The
consequent polarization led to the victory of the
leader of the carnage back to power in the elections
which took place a bit later. In the elections of
2002, the main opposition party, Congress did not
gather strength to take on Modi with full vigor. One
of the reasons was that Modi deflected the criticism
directed again him and against RSS combine as the
insult to 5 crore Gujartis, and his assertion was well
received in a section of society.

The Tehelka sting showed some of the perpetrators
boasting about their crimes in front of the camera,
and this made most of the people realize once again
the gravity of the crime. Now most of the society got
a direct feel of what had happened, who did it.
Society also registered that the reports of citizens
groups were on the dot in pinpointing the malaise of
Gujarat society. It was in this background that Sonia
Gandhi in her election campaign called the Modi led
BJP as the merchants of death. Modi realized that the
truth is being said after all, and tried to raise the
communal and criminal sentiments by justifying the
extra judicial killing of Sorabuddin, who was killed
in a fake encounter by the police.

The ploy was that since a section of society has been
communized enough, the illegal act of killing someone
will get him sympathy votes. He took 'credit' for this
'bravery' of killing of Soharabuddin and his wife.
Human rights workers raised the issue of Modi
communalizing and criminalizing the people's mindset.
And as is his wont, he presented the criticism against
him as the insult of people of Gujarat, of Gujarat
itself!

Usual damage control exercises unrolled, he has been
quoted out of context, he does not justify the extra
judicial killings etc. But the damage was done and
election commission took a serous note of it. The
frail nature of legal mechanism, as to how a
democratically elected chief minister, takes oath in
the name of constitution, than openly incites the
public and tries to bask in the 'glory' of this
illegal act done by state machinery, is there for all
to see.

The larger issue of democratic norms, morality and
polity are put at the backburner, with the leaders
doing their electoral arithmetic of what will help
them more in getting the power. Now the issue can be
discussed at the level of legalities and also at the
level of electoral arithmetic. All these do have their
importance but one also needs to be concerned about
the deeper and broader issues related to our
constitution, as to what is happening to the values of
democracy enshrined in our constitution?

In Gujarat the legal norms have been put aside in
matters of rehabilitation and in the post violence
justice. In 'regular' life patterns, now a section of
Muslims are willing to bend on their knees to survive,
willing to 'forgive' unilaterally, while no body is
caring to ask for their forgiveness. The 'charisma' of
Modi is on the rise. He was keeping the communal card,
under wraps till the word Merchants of death was
hurled upon him. And then he unraveled his communal
face with full force just before the polling. All this
sounds so unusual but we are becoming used to the
prevalence of these things. Does it ring familiar to
something which happened in history? While there are
lot of differences from what happened in Germany some
similarities are too glaring.

The targeting of minorities, the total abolition of
democratic space, the social common sense directed
against the minorities and secularists, and consensus
built around the fascist state are very similar. 'Kill
them, kill them' is what Modi could easily extract
from the section of crowd for Soharabuddin. What
distinguishes Gujarat from the Germany's state of
affairs in 30s and 40s of last century is that here
the process is taking place at a slower pace and the
same process is on with different intensities in
different states of the country. So can we use the
term Chronic Fascism in Gujarat in contrast to acute
fascism of Germany. Whole of Germany was totally
gripped by this politics, while in India Gujarat is
worst but all the same in other states also this
fascism is strangulating democratic space, though with
different degrees of intensity. The biggest similarity
is the 'successes' of a fascist party, which in
Germany took the pretext of race and here it is
wearing the garb of religion. Interestingly earlier
and even now the fascist parties are using the
democratic space to come to power, to precisely
abolish the same in due course.

During last two and a half decades the rise of right
wing politics has taken place on the pretext of
Hinduism, while it has nothing to do with the humane
streams of Hinduism. It claims to be for Hindus, while
majority of Hindus have become victim of this
intimidating politics. It reflects the state of
erosion of our democratic norms and gradual
strengthening of the forces which do talk about
democracy but are deeply wedded to the RSS, the
organization which is opposed to democracy and wants
to bring Hindu nation. That the concept of Hindu
nation is for Hindus, is just a pretext. It
essentially aims to abolish the values of liberty
equality and fraternity and strengthens the hold of
section of Hindus, the elite, males, on the whole
society. The trick is the agenda of a small dominant
section of society has been propagated as being for
all Hindus.

Coming to Gujarat , one can clearly make out that there
is a slow but dangerous march towards a fascist state.
The classical fascism which one witnessed in Germany
and Italy in the early decades of last century was
marked by the targeting of minorities, of social
rights groups/parties and at the same time doing away
with all democratic norms. It created a terrorizing
atmosphere, where the handful ruled the roost with the
charisma of leader like Hitler, who swayed the people,
worked and he got the anti democratic things accepted
by people in the initial part of the rule, till
Germany itself collapsed under the weight of the
fascist boots. Such politics does discover and project
a single charismatic leader, in Germany it was Hitler,
in Gujarat it is Modi. Incidentally RSS nationalism
also took lot of inspiration from Hitler's
Nationalism, "German national pride has now become the
topic of the day. To keep up the purity of nation and
its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging
the country of Semitic races-The Jews. National pride
at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has
also shown how neigh impossible it is for races and
cultures, having differences going to the root, to be
assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for
us in Hindustan to learn and profit by." (We or Our
nationhood Defined,1938)

The politics of RSS combine has cleverly adopted
itself to the Indian situation and has gone on to
create a fear of the miniscule minority. It is quite
similar to Hitler creating a phobia against Jews,
holding them responsible for the plight of Germany,
and using that as the center of his policies
terrorizing the whole nation into submission to the
agenda of fascism, abolition of the concept of rights,
something which is the life and breath of democracy,
something which is a shield for the average people to
survive. While a large section of Gujarat, Minorities,
dalits, adivasis and women are suffering the middle
and affluent classes are able to get their way through
the agenda of vibrant Gujarat !

The analogy does not end here. The terrorizing
atmosphere created in Gujarat does remind us of the
status of minorities. Now the large sections of
minorities feel that they have been relegated to the
second class citizenship status. Their insecurity is
the index of our democratic ethos. It is correctly
pointed out that if you want to see the state of
health of democracy, have a look at the status of its
minorities!

--

Issues in Secular Politics

December 2007 II

For Publication/Circulation

ram.puniyani@gmail.com
www.pluralindia.com

Modi the Model?

2007-12-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

Modi the Model?
December 11, 2007

The last time the state of Gujarat went to the polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party whipped up anti-Muslim sentiment to win re-election. Now, the BJP is running largely on a campaign of its core competency: economic reform. That's a far better model for the party to follow nationally.

Whether the BJP's reinvention will take root is another story, but the elections in Gujarat this week -- one of India's biggest states -- should provide a good guide. The current chief minister, Narendra Modi, is a controversial figure who played a role in the BJP's fall from grace nationally. As chief minister of Gujarat in 2002, his government stood idly by while more than 2,000 people died in ethnic violence.

That massacre was a key factor in voters ejecting the BJP from national office two years later -- a loss from which the party still hasn't recovered. But it didn't hurt Mr. Modi back home. He campaigned for re-election in Gujarat later that year by igniting anti-Muslim sentiment in a majority-Hindu state. Unusually for Indian state elections, where voters usually turf out incumbents, he won.

Mr. Modi has never fully addressed his government's mishandling of the massacre, which lasted for days while the police stood idly by. An October expose in Tehelka, an Indian magazine, even alleged that Mr. Modi was personally involved in the killings. Mr. Modi declined to comment on the piece. Whatever happened, Mr. Modi seems to have learned a political lesson from the 2002 riots. He spent the next five years playing down his Hindutva, or "Hinduness," streak and getting down to the business of running his state.

By and large, he's done an excellent job. Gujarat grew over 11% last year on the back of an influx of foreign investment and a robust manufacturing sector. In a country with subpar infrastructure, the Modi government has built roads, ensured a steady supply of electricity, eased labor restrictions and secured regular water supplies for rural areas, to name a few achievements.

That's put Mr. Modi in good stead for this week's election. The BJP holds 127 of its 182 seats in the state assembly and polls predict it will be returned to power. If he wins convincingly, Mr. Modi could emerge as a national leader for the BJP.

That might not be a bad thing, though Mr. Modi's history makes him a highly unlikely future prime minister. Mr. Modi achieved economic progress in Gujarat in large part because he wasn't afraid to tackle India's sacred cow: public-sector corruption. The chief minister put systems for public accountability of civil servants in place, installed more courts to work through a backlog of lawsuits and cut out whole layers of inefficient bureaucrats from decision-making processes.

That hasn't always won him friends within his party. A clutch of BJP members of Parliament have jumped ship to the Congress Party, which sees this election as a crucial vote that could boost its national power base. Mr. Modi has also lost support from two local castes, though the far-right Vishwa Hindu Parishad -- a Hindu group -- reluctantly pledged support this month.

Given that, you'd think that the Congress Party would feel emboldened to fight on core local issues, like education and health care. Instead, Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi called Mr. Modi a "merchant of death" at a rally in Gujarat earlier this month, reigniting ethnic tensions. Mr. Modi fired back, calling Mrs. Gandhi a "guardian of terrorists." The Election Commission is investigating both of them.
Both parties know they're treading a fine line. No one wants to see a repeat of the 2002 riots, least of all Mr. Modi's BJP, which sorely needs an electorial win. Mr. Modi's record shows that the BJP's economic platform works. But if the party wants to achieve a national platform again, it needs to address its past. If it did that, even voters outside of Gujarat might give the BJP a second chance.

--------------------
How delightful to read the phrase "running dogs" again! I thought such language went out of fashion with Communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall....

Correct me, if I am wrong, but Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao - whose rule, I hope you will agree was brutal and ruthless, - were they neoliberals?

I don't want to resort to hyperbole here; suffice it to say that many investors would not like a government like Modi's. A government that maintains law and order by ignoring riots and public property, which fails to prosecute criminals, raises insurance costs for everyone, and adds the element of unpredictability in business, and is hardly liked the favorite of businesses. Narayana Murthy, Anu Agha, and Deepak Parekh are three among many people (others not well-known) from the private sector, who like economic liberalization, who don't have time for a leader like Modi. Modi claiming credit for industrial peace in Gujarat is a joke; the credit for that goes to the nearly century-old tradition built by Gandhi and his Majoor Mahajan, which is a pacifist, non-violent union (what else would one expect?), and Gujarati entrepreneural talent as well as industrial base are not Modi's gift to the state.

Salil/Still in LatAm.

-------------------------

Neoliberalism's darlings have quite often been brutal, ruthless
killers. Why are we surprised? From Suharto to Marcos to Fujimori the
record is legion. Brutish, ruthless, killers are often the most
effective, loyal, running dogs of imperialism. Modi's so-called
"record" on "development" is perhaps mouth-watering to the investor
class and a few beneficiaries in the middle class, but for the working
majority its a disaster. And of course, the brutality, hatred and
violent thuggishness this Sangh Parivarite Neanderthal brought to the
lives of Gujarati Muslims can never be forgotten, no matter how the
cheerleaders of capitalism try to gawk on about his alleged
"achievements." Shame on them for even considering whitewashing this
brute.

raja swamy
----------------------------------

It is surprising educated individuals end up making a mockery by only seeing the coin on one side, what human rights are you talking about? Terrorist given justice quicker then Indian courts taking their own merry time or getting rid of the nuisance ASAP!?? I'm obviously referring to the much hyped controversial encounter of Sorabuddin. "Other" states in India who harbour these nonsense at whole are falling short in showing results and its a proven fact, Narendra Modi proved otherwise because he has the support of people, those who voted him in. He has never fallen short in giving out to them, it is only certain section of colleagues from his party and the anti-modi brigade (majority of pseudo secular Media, NGOs, the so called human rights activists). For a start let us all come to the term with the reality of him being real and he being accepted even after "Gujarat 2002" (the way you term it!) by his people. Your worry is because you get feed in with a certain ideologues, articles, figures and statements time and again which gets floated by those who think they got left out in what he is cherishing today, the fruits of thriving economy and solid development base to see the state being number one in all sectors, be it social economic well being of Gujaratis or the local non-Gujarati residents, be it the foreign investments or Indian biggies investing full hearty... These were the words from Ratan Tata saying "If you are not in Gujarat you are stupid" during an investor summit during January, watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a0TEfa74yk.

Lets face the fact, Narendra Modi is real and he is going to be there for a long time to come.

Nishant
---------------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDPJ5dK1Lp4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa7vJLNJjAo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GMcowAYtSI&feature=related

Taming Gujarat’s lion

2007-12-12T16:17:00.000-08:00

Taming Gujarat’s lion
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=421d878c-ddfe-4e79-9951-c436fc31edb5&MatchID1=4603&TeamID1=6&TeamID2=7&MatchType1=1&SeriesID1=1157&MatchID2=4574&TeamID3=8&TeamID4=2&MatchType2=1&SeriesID2=1147&PrimaryID=4603&Headline=Taming+Gujarat%e2%80%99s+lion

Having lost key support, Modi’s position has become tenuous.
With the Gujarat assembly polls drawing close, the question on everyone’s lips is whether Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who’s being projected as an iconic figure by a section of the BJP, will be able to repeat the feat of 2002 elections. Besides facing a spirited challenge from the Congress, Modi also has to overcome resentment from a large segment of the Sangh parivar.

In doing so, he has to bring on board the elements opposed to him and ensure that the BJP and the rest of the Sangh put up a united face in the polls. As things stand, this looks difficult. Veterans like Keshubhai Patel appear indifferent to the elections in view of the central leadership’s support to Modi. And the RSS, despite wanting to help the BJP retain power in Gujarat, is reluctant to wholeheartedly back someone who has tried to project himself as a larger-than-life character at the cost of the organisation.

Surprisingly, the perception within large sections of the BJP in the state is quite different from that in Delhi. According to many Sangh activists, Modi is facing the biggest battle of his life, with all odds tilted heavily against him. He does not have the support of either his entire party in the state, or that of the Patels, the most influential Gujarati community, or even of the Kolis, also an important factor for the BJP to win. The adivasis who had opted for the saffron brigade the last time, thanks to some very good groundwork done by the RSS, too are having second thoughts on supporting him.

Strangely, the Gujarat election is turning out to be a Modi versus Modi contest, where one is either with him or against him. Those supporting him include a powerful section of the media. And the inability of the Congress to project someone as a chief ministerial candidate is also helping him. It may just result in Modi surging ahead in this keenly-watched election, which could have ramifications for national politics.

The Congress, in its keenness to dislodge Modi, seems to have thrown caution to the winds and has even agreed to give tickets to BJP dissidents, thereby diluting its commitment to fight communalism. While the number of BJP activists getting tickets is not known as of now, the Congress’s nervousness is evident from the fact that it is ready to compromise on its basic principles. This may be used against the Congress by other secular parties like the Samajwadi Party.

But Modi’s troubles are far from over and several BJP veterans believe that those seeing him as the victor forget that no individual can be greater than the organisation. Modi has created a myth of invincibility around himself and after the code of conduct coming into operation, even his meetings have started shrinking since government agencies that used to manage his crowds cannot do it anymore.

Modi’s position is also being threatened by the activities of the Sardar Patel Utkas Samiti. This group, led by Gordhanbhai Zadaphia, his erstwhile Home Minister, and two businessmen, Jeevraj Dhrukawala and Vasantbhai Gajera, comprises BJP sympathisers opposed to him. The Samiti had organised a massive rally of more than two lakh people in Surat, which was also meant to be attended by Keshubhai Patel, who eventually pulled out. Another rally in Rajkot was subsequently organised. Now, the Samiti has decided to cover 142 towns in the state to mobilise opinion against Modi, who is being projected as a power-hungry autocrat.

Then, there is a section of the Swaminarayan sect opposing him. And if reports emanating from Gujarat are accurate, even the followers of Asa Ram Bapu may come out openly against him. Keshubhai Patel, who is now silent about his opposition to Modi, is, however, understood to have conveyed the ground-level reality to L.K. Advani and RSS leaders. His son, Bharat, who was offered a ticket, has also decided not to contest the polls.

Modi’s detractors have likened him to Mulayam Singh Yadav, the former UP CM who was considered strong, but was defeated during the last polls. Arrogance and corruption are never tolerated by the people, his detractors say, and give the example of Om Prakash Chautala in Haryana, who, despite having done much in terms of development, was trounced by the Congress in 2005.

The Congress perhaps does not realise that Modi can be humbled and should stop playing a card that identifies it with only one community. No party can win if it is unable to carry the masses with it. It has to come up with a strategy that will help resuscitate it in the state. Failing this, its fortuneswill suffer a setback not just in Gujarat, but also in the rest of the country.

But Modi is unlikely to give in easily. He is a born fighter and it matters little to him how he attains victory. Under the garb of projecting himself as the saviour of Gujarati pride is a cunning, machiavellian and decisive man. He also wields a charisma that inspires his followers, even if their numbers are dwindling.

He had snatched the chief ministership from Keshubhai Patel by outfoxing his colleagues in the BJP and the RSS. He is certainly not going to surrender meekly. He knows victory will take him on to the national stage. But to achieve this, Modi has to first earn the love of the people of Gujarat. In the end, they will decide what is good or bad for them. Between us.

India's Voters Torn on Modi

2007-12-12T16:08:00.000-08:00

India's Voters Torn Over Politician
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1693370,00.html
By SIMON ROBINSON/SURAT

In many ways, Gujarat is the best and worst of India. For years the state, which juts westward into the Arabian Sea, has been one of the most economically forward-looking regions in the country; its diamond-cutting and textile industries earn India hundreds of millions of dollars in exports. But Gujurat was also the scene of some of the worst sectarian violence since independence, when communal riots killed as many as 2,000 people — most of them Muslim — in 2002.

The figure at the center of the election, and perhaps the most controversial politician in India, is Narendra Modi, Gujarat's chief minister. Modi, a member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is hailed by his supporters as a modernizer who has built new roads, brought electricity and streetlights to villages and attracted new business to Gujarat. To his detractors, Modi will always be the man who stoked the sectarian tensions that made the 2002 riots possible. The riots followed a train car fire that killed dozens of Hindu pilgrims. Within hours of the blaze, later blamed on a cooking fire accident, Modi called it a "pre-planned act" against Hindus that the "culprits will have to pay for" — a position he sticks to today. Whatever the truth, the carnage that followed was terrible. In 2004, following an investigation into the incident, India's Supreme Court ruled that the chief minister was "a modern Nero who watched while Gujarat burned." A recent report by investigative magazine Tehelka went further, blaming the violence directly on senior BJP politicians and sympathetic police officers. One BJP politician, unaware that he was being recorded by a Tehelka reporter, allegedly said that Modi had told him that he and his colleagues had three days "to do whatever we wanted." Modi has dismissed the conclusions of the Tehelka story, though many of its specific charges remain unchallenged.

The current poll is, in many ways, a referendum on Modi and whether his modernization policies outweigh his reputation for ethnic demagoguery. Sonia Gandhi, leader of the ruling Indian National Congress party, has spent days campaigning around the state and has accused Modi and his party of playing on communal tensions to win votes. The Gujarat government, she said, were "merchants of death" — a charge that Modi and his party say is outrageous. Gandhi's comment and one by Modi that seemed to endorse the controversial police killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a young Muslim man who was allegedly wrongly branded a terrorist, earned the ire of the Election Commission, who asked both leaders to explain how their comments did not contravene a code of conduct that politicians must adhere to during polling. Modi says his comments were a political response to Gandhi's criticism, though a petition against him was filed with the Supreme Court and will be heard on Wednesday.

State elections in India are usually decided on very different issues than national elections; the country is vast and in many ways fragmented. But with the ruling Congress Party suffering from a deadlock with its own Communist allies over a controversial nuclear deal with the U.S., the Gujarat vote will give Congress leaders a good idea of what popular support they still enjoy. If Congress does well — polls suggest that the election is too close to call — it would embolden the party to call a national poll early in 2008 to break the impasse with its coalition partners. If Congress does badly, it may try to hold on for another year.

Its main role, though, will be to assess the level of support for Modi. The chief minister has recently been hit by the defection to the Congress Party of several senior BJP members, who describe their former leader as autocratic and megalomaniacal. "He wants power and for that he will do anything," says Dhirubhai Gajera, one of the BJP rebels, who spent a recent Saturday afternoon campaigning for his seat in Surat, a city of some 4 million people. "He overstates what he has done for this state in terms of progress, and even where there has been progress it has gone to the rich, not the poor."

That's rubbish, says Atul Shah, a BJP member from the neighboring state of Maharashtra, who was in Surat to support his Gujarat colleagues in the days before the first round of voting on Tuesday Dec. 11. "Gujarat is a model state and Modi has proved himself 10 out of 10." Pravin Naik, head of the BJP's Surat branch, says the idea that Modi was part of communal tensions or violence is a "whole myth." "There has not been a single incident of communal violence since [the 2002 riots]," he says. "Narendra Modi is the only competent chief minister in India." The results of this month's poll will tell how many agree with him.

Forgiving Gujarat

2007-11-28T15:40:00.000-08:00

Two ideas by Mike Ghouse and Ram Puniyani, November 26, 2007
My article is inspired by Mr. Puniyani's article, which follows;

Forgiving-Gujarat

Mike Ghouse, November 27, 2007

Indeed Mahatma Gandhi, Prophet Muhammad, Jesus Christ and several spiritual teachers have believed in the power of forgiveness. Jesus and Gandhi are quoted often; let me give the example of Prophet Muhammad.

When the Prophet was traveling from Mecca to Taif, he was pelted with stones to a point of excessive bleeding, it is said that he could not even remove his blood solidified shoes. His associates and Angel Gabriel were anxious to go out and punish the miscreants. The prophet stopped them and said something to this effect. Let's not punish them, it is not the answer; instead let's pray that God give them guidance and goodwill.

The wisdom is simple: there is hope that people will do better if we give them a break and appeal to their goodwill. Give them a chance to recognize their mistakes without demanding a pound of flesh.

In the tradition of the Prophet, I genuinely ask the People of Gujarat to forgive the perpetrators of the Crimes, it takes a big heart to do it, but when they do it, there is peace in it and hopefully an opportunity for the criminals do their Praischit (repentance) in their own way. We need to help them release from their pain, so all of us can work on living with good will. Let' not dig in our heels, let's step out and reach. Goodwill gives birth to goodwill.
This appeal goes out to both Hindu's and Muslims of Gujarat. The few, who are burning with revenge to go back and destroy each other, really don't care about themselves, Gujarat or India. The people of Gujarat are one family; no one can step on other's dead body and achieve personal, spiritual, business and moral success.

Why does it make sense to forgive?

Hate and revenge is binding, when you hate the other person, you cannot be good to yourselves as you are loaded with the poison called hate, then you cannot be good to your family, your community or your state. Useless you are tied down to the Khooti (anchor bolt for tying animals) called hate, every moment and at every turn, you are occupied with revenge. Why load yourselves with it? Not only that, you are also worried about being attacked by the other or the law reaching out to you someday, and without any doubt, the guilt that you carry around your neck, which makes you do weird things.

You simply cannot be happy with hate and anger eating you alive. Put that energy in forgiveness, it is liberating. Both the religions in this instance; Sanatana Dharma and Islam incessantly preach to achieve liberation. One speaks about the ultimate freedom human beings achieve with the stoppage of the cycle of birth in lower forms, the other talks about God sending you in to a state of eternal bliss. Both systems assure entrance to the kingdom of God, if you do good things to the others.

How would Justice be served?

Those who have committed the crimes must be given the chance to do their praischit and atonement. Put them to work for making the lives of others better for a period of five years or put them in the jail for a similar period of time. If Jai Prakash Narayan or Mahatma Gandhi were alive, they probably would have suggested the same.
Better yet, let it be open to the criminals to step forward and volunteer, let them have the chance to achieve the inner peace. Hate breeds hate, love breeds love. In hate no one will live in peace, in the other option they will. Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” And the Qur’aan states,” the one who forgives is dearest to God”.

I appeal to the Muslims of Gujarat in particular to take that first step; there is a beautiful universal prayer that Muslims say after every prayer.

To paraphrase it:
Dear God, please forgive me, my parents, my teachers,
Those who bow to you, surrender to your guidance,
Please forgive the living and the dead,

Time for the healing process must begin and it is time now. The Hindus will follow it up. There is no way goodness does not produce results, you must have the patience, peace will come and every one will be better off in Gujarat, forgive we must.

May God bring peace to all.
Mike Ghouse

... and now Mr. Puniyani's article.

Gujarat Muslims - Way ahead

Ram Puniyani

Many a voices have emerged from a small section of Muslim community which is arguing that Muslims should unilaterally forgive the pain they suffered during the carnage of 2002. This section says that we should draw from the reality of Gujarat where the religious and other community leaders have refused to apologize for the crimes committed in the name of Ram. Also that the state apparatus is so communalized that chances of getting justice are bleak, and how long a community can live in such a state of pity and victim hood, it affects their self respect and dignity. This section does see that civil rights groups are fighting for the rights of Muslim minority against odds, irrespective of their religion.

One can appreciate the personal magnanimity of those who personally suffered serious losses due to violence against them, like Mrs. Gladys Stains who personally forgave the killers of her husband and children. Jesus and Gandhi urged the people to put another cheek forward when slapped on one. One has to see the difference between personal magnanimity and the political assault of a section of people to victimize the weak. One has to see that the communal violence is not just violence against person but is also a part of political agenda of some. The crimes against a person can not be forgiven in law, as justice is the basis of tranquility and peace in society. The question is, can such a position of individual/ individuals to forgive the crimes against them be acceptable to major sections of victims in Gujarat? Many a religious teaching do emphasize on forgiveness. Are such things applicable to the situation of those facing Gujarat Muslims?

There are many a precedents where the culprits have been forgiven. South Africa was the major experiment, where truth and reconciliation commission undertook a massive exercise in this direction. The starting point there was that the culprits confessed to their crimes. Reconciliation followed. Personally putting forward another cheek when someone slaps is based on the basic human understanding that the one slapping you has a potential for reforming, will have remorse of his actions and will feel apologetic about what he has done.

In Gujarat the things are very different. The communalization of society was going on from many decades. The demonization of Muslim minority went unhindered for a long time, and violence was used as a method of polarizing communities. Later Dalits, Adivasis were co-opted to unleash on the Muslim community by clever social engineering. The truth of this has been reconfirmed by Tehelka expose (Novemember 2007). Modi used the pretext of Godhra to unleash the genocide. The state machinery is totally communalized, no rehabilitation, no justice for victims, and there is a deliberate marginalization of Muslims to the status of second class citizens! Today in Gujarat not only are communities polarized, the partitions between communities are becoming worse and deeper by the day. No body is asking forgiveness as the criminals, Modi downwards, believe, that what they did was for their religion, was right, and was needed to teach 'them' (Muslims) a lesson. There is also an un-spelt understanding that they will anyway be protected by the mighty arm of the Hindu Rashtra of Gujarat. So whom are you going to forgive?

The problem is essentially that of violation of democratic rights and civil liberties. Problem is that Gandhi's Gujarat has been manipulated to become Godse-Modi's Gujarat. Modi, the mass murderer, is hero for large sections. He is acquiring a halo around him duly helped by a section of media. The alternative pole, the one of Congress is more interested in electoral arithmetic and so far has been behaving as B team of RSS combine. The defense of democracy and forthright stand for secular values has been put on the backburner.

One can understand the painful sigh of a section of Muslims, some of whom may be thinking on these lines. This section, seems to have accepted and internalized the second class status and seem to be willing to be on the bent knees to live in this Hindu Rashtra, where Indian constitution is present by its absence. Can there bee peace without justice? Can there be dignity and self respect if the injustice is inbuilt into the social system and is institutionalized to the core?

Are the civil rights groups working just for minority community? The work of civil rights groups is more a defense of democratic rights and civil liberties than just a defense of rights of this or that religious group. It is more a question of defending our constitution and not just the rights of minorities. Can we call it a democratic society if a large section has to reconcile its status as the one of a second class citizen? RSS combine is celebrating this relegation of minority rights, as now more and more villages of Gujarat are putting the hoarding of 'Welcome to so and so village Hindu Rahtra of Gujarat'.

While totally empathizing with this section of Muslims one has to turn the criticism to the larger democratic polity. What have we done to our democracy? How is the status of democracy judged? One of the parameters is to see as to how safe and secure the minorities are. At another level the acceptance of such position of Muslims is a sign of total surrender of democracy to the religious fascism, which is on ascendance more so in Gujarat. And this intimidation of minorities is just the beginning. As we witnessed in Germany, the same thing is being played here in the slow motion. Jews were the first target, followed by communists, trade unionists and later sections of Christian minorities. Here in India the order planned by RSS combine is Muslims, Christians, Secularists and other weaker sections of society, in that order.

When Gujarat is facing elections and many forecasters are talking of Modi's return, the time has come to put all our energies to save democracy there. The time that we get over the diffidence, that Modi is too clever to be defeated, that the polarization has gone too far to be repaired. These may be part of the deliberate propaganda of the well oiled machine which organized Gujarat pogrom. We need to reassert that there is no substitute for democracy. The treatment of ills of democracy is more democracy and more democracy. National integration means that we have the overarching national, Indian community in which any injustice to one is the injustice to all. Any undermining of the rights of one section tantamount to erosion of the values of our freedom movement and the principles as given in our Constitution, which these communal elements do not hold by.

Even today the chasm between the religious communities can be bridged by broadening the awareness about our syncretic traditions, Bhakti and Sufi. There is an urgent need to remind people that Hindus and Muslims have lived together for centuries. What has been propagated is opposite of this that there is a centuries old fight between Hindus and Muslims. Even today there is a need to remind people every where that freedom movement was the movement in which all communities participated equally. We need to remember that Hinduism of Gandhi and Islam of Maulana Abul Kalam unites people while Hinduism of Godse-Modi-RSS and Islam of Jinnah-Muslim League-Taliban divide the people.

It is never too late to counter the negativity injected by communal forces and bring back the humane values ingrained in our plural history to ensure that the process of remorse, reconciliation and justice comes to the fore, and Muslims feel as much at home as any one else. That a section of our society is made to think that one sided forgiveness is the only way out just shows that our system is deeply infected and needs to be cleansed by the spirit of Indian ness. And that's where all the conscientious and aware citizens believing in democracy have to stick together, for getting justice for all and to soothe the wounds of those thinking of unsolicited, unilateral forgiveness.

http://gujaratjustice.blogspot.com/2007/11/forgiving-gujarat.html

Your comments: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2888477267724926792&postID=2469043351020210901
Mike Ghouse

Gujarat Muslims: Way Ahead

2007-11-26T19:23:00.000-08:00

Gujarat Muslims: The Way Ahead
Ram Puniyani, November 26, 2007

Mr. Puniyani's article follows Moderator's comments;

Dear Mr. Puniyani, I appreciate this idea of forgiveness, indeed, Mahatma Gandhi, Prophet Muhammad, Jesus Christ and several spiritual teachers have believed in the power of forgiveness. You have quoted Jesus and Gandhi; let me give the example of Prophet Muhammad.

When the Prophet was traveling form Mecca to Taif, he was pelted with stones to a point of excessive bleeding, it is said that he could not even remove his blood solidified shoes. His associates and Angel Gabriel were anxious to go out and punish the miscreants. The prophet stopped them and said something to this effect. Let's not punish them, it is not the answer; instead let's pray that God give them guidance and goodwill.

The wisdom is simple: there is hope that people will do better if we give them a break and appeal to their goodwill. Give them a chance to recognize their mistakes without demanding a pound of flesh.

In the tradition of the Prophet, I genuinely ask the Muslims of Gujarat to forgive the perpetrators of the Crimes, it takes a big heart to do it, but when they do it, there is peace in it and hopefully an opportunity for the criminals do their Praischit (repentence) in their own way. We need to help them release from their pain, so all of us can work on living with good will. Let' not dig in our heels, let's step out and reach. Goodwill gives birth to goodwill.

I appeal to the Muslims of Gujarat in particular to take that first step; there is a beautiful universal prayer that Muslims say after every prayer.

To paraphrase it:
Dear God, please forgive me, my parents, my teachers,
Those who bow to you, surrender to your guidance,
Please forgive the living and the dead,

Time for the healing process must begin and it is time now. Thanks for writing this thoughtful healing piece of information and I request all people to give it a currency.

May God bring peace to all.

Mike Ghouse
http://www.worldmuslimcongress.com/
http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/

... and now Mr. Puniyani's article.

Many a voices have emerged from a small section of Muslim community which is arguing that Muslims should unilaterally forgive the pain they suffered during the carnage of 2002. This section says that we should draw from the reality of Gujarat where the religious and other community leaders have refused to apologize for the crimes committed in the name of Ram. Also that the state apparatus is so communalized that chances of getting justice are bleak, and how long a community can live in such a state of pity and victim hood, it affects their self respect and dignity. This section does see that civil rights groups are fighting for the rights of Muslim minority against odds, irrespective of their religion.

One can appreciate the personal magnanimity of those who personally suffered serious losses due to violence against them, like Mrs. Gladys Stains who personally forgave the killers of her husband and children. Jesus and Gandhi urged the people to put another cheek forward when slapped on one. One has to see the difference between personal magnanimity and the political assault of a section of people to victimize the weak. One has to see that the communal violence is not just violence against person but is also a part of political agenda of some. The crimes against a person can not be forgiven in law, as justice is the basis of tranquility and peace in society. The question is, can such a position of individual/ individuals to forgive the crimes against them be acceptable to major sections of victims in Gujarat? Many a religious teaching do emphasize on forgiveness. Are such things applicable to the situation of those facing Gujarat Muslims?

There are many a precedents where the culprits have been forgiven. South Africa was the major experiment, where truth and reconciliation commission undertook a massive exercise in this direction. The starting point there was that the culprits confessed to their crimes. Reconciliation followed. Personally putting forward another cheek when someone slaps is based on the basic human understanding that the one slapping you has a potential for reforming, will have remorse of his actions and will feel apologetic about what he has done.

In Gujarat the things are very different. The communalization of society was going on from many decades. The demonization of Muslim minority went unhindered for a long time, and violence was used as a method of polarizing communities. Later Dalits, Adivasis were co-opted to unleash on the Muslim community by clever social engineering. The truth of this has been reconfirmed by Tehelka expose (Novemember 2007). Modi used the pretext of Godhra to unleash the genocide. The state machinery is totally communalized, no rehabilitation, no justice for victims, and there is a deliberate marginalization of Muslims to the status of second class citizens! Today in Gujarat not only are communities polarized, the partitions between communities are becoming worse and deeper by the day. No body is asking forgiveness as the criminals, Modi downwards, believe, that what they did was for their religion, was right, and was needed to teach 'them' (Muslims) a lesson. There is also an un-spelt understanding that they will anyway be protected by the mighty arm of the Hindu Rashtra of Gujarat. So whom are you going to forgive?

The problem is essentially that of violation of democratic rights and civil liberties. Problem is that Gandhi's Gujarat has been manipulated to become Godse-Modi's Gujarat. Modi, the mass murderer, is hero for large sections. He is acquiring a halo around him duly helped by a section of media. The alternative pole, the one of Congress is more interested in electoral arithmetic and so far has been behaving as B team of RSS combine. The defense of democracy and forthright stand for secular values has been put on the backburner.

One can understand the painful sigh of a section of Muslims, some of whom may be thinking on these lines. This section, seems to have accepted and internalized the second class status and seem to be willing to be on the bent knees to live in this Hindu Rashtra, where Indian constitution is present by its absence. Can there bee peace without justice? Can there be dignity and self respect if the injustice is inbuilt into the social system and is institutionalized to the core?

Are the civil rights groups working just for minority community? The work of civil rights groups is more a defense of democratic rights and civil liberties than just a defense of rights of this or that religious group. It is more a question of defending our constitution and not just the rights of minorities. Can we call it a democratic society if a large section has to reconcile its status as the one of a second class citizen? RSS combine is celebrating this relegation of minority rights, as now more and more villages of Gujarat are putting the hoarding of 'Welcome to so and so village Hindu Rahtra of Gujarat'.

While totally empathizing with this section of Muslims one has to turn the criticism to the larger democratic polity. What have we done to our democracy? How is the status of democracy judged? One of the parameters is to see as to how safe and secure the minorities are. At another level the acceptance of such position of Muslims is a sign of total surrender of democracy to the religious fascism, which is on ascendance more so in Gujarat. And this intimidation of minorities is just the beginning. As we witnessed in Germany, the same thing is being played here in the slow motion. Jews were the first target, followed by communists, trade unionists and later sections of Christian minorities. Here in India the order planned by RSS combine is Muslims, Christians, Secularists and other weaker sections of society, in that order.

When Gujarat is facing elections and many forecasters are talking of Modi's return, the time has come to put all our energies to save democracy there. The time that we get over the diffidence, that Modi is too clever to be defeated, that the polarization has gone too far to be repaired. These may be part of the deliberate propaganda of the well oiled machine which organized Gujarat pogrom. We need to reassert that there is no substitute for democracy. The treatment of ills of democracy is more democracy and more democracy. National integration means that we have the overarching national, Indian community in which any injustice to one is the injustice to all. Any undermining of the rights of one section tantamount to erosion of the values of our freedom movement and the principles as given in our Constitution, which these communal elements do not hold by.

Even today the chasm between the religious communities can be bridged by broadening the awareness about our syncretic traditions, Bhakti and Sufi. There is an urgent need to remind people that Hindus and Muslims have lived together for centuries. What has been propagated is opposite of this that there is a centuries old fight between Hindus and Muslims. Even today there is a need to remind people every where that freedom movement was the movement in which all communities participated equally. We need to remember that Hinduism of Gandhi and Islam of Maulana Abul Kalam unites people while Hinduism of Godse-Modi-RSS and Islam of Jinnah-Muslim League-Taliban divide the people.

It is never too late to counter the negativity injected by communal forces and bring back the humane values ingrained in our plural history to ensure that the process of remorse, reconciliation and justice comes to the fore, and Muslims feel as much at home as any one else. That a section of our society is made to think that one sided forgiveness is the only way out just shows that our system is deeply infected and needs to be cleansed by the spirit of Indian ness. And that's where all the conscientious and aware citizens believing in democracy have to stick together, for getting justice for all and to soothe the wounds of those thinking of unsolicited, unilateral forgiveness.

http://gujaratjustice.blogspot.com/2007/11/gujarat-muslims-way-ahead.html

Your comments: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2888477267724926792&postID=3606756544876132369

Modi-fying victory

2007-11-21T19:10:00.000-08:00

Modi-fying victory

Hitler had duplicates, Saddam Hussein had a few

and who is having duplicates now?

BJP workers wearing masks of Gujarat

Chief Minister Narendra Modi campaign ahead of the

state assembly elections in Ahmedabad. (TOI Photo)

Parallels can be drawn between Hitler and Modi. Both of them had an Iron clad grip on some of their people, both of them brought economic prosperity while one was annihilating Jews, the other was tacitly letting Muslims be butchered. The ones who were/are reaping the benefits of the unprecedented economic prosperity considered both the men as their God given leaders; their word was the final word to them. However deep down, any soul should feel the intense pain and suffering of the victims, after all without such feeling, one cannot be called a human. Adharma is a bigger killer of a civil society than any weapons of mass destruction.

Whole of the BJP is debased

2007-11-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

The whole of the BJP is debased
Shailendra Pandey, Nove 14, 2007
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne171107THE_HOLE.asp

.
" True, a lot of Muslims were killed; but the real murder happening here is that of Hinduism, of the liberal face of Hinduism. Ordinary Hindus do like the glorification of Hinduism and Hindus, but when it embraces such visceral violence, it disturbs them."

“Don’t think you will be spared because you take shelter in Gandhi’s ashram. We will detonate bombs here and unleash terror as long as these Muslims are with you.”

Swami Agnivesh tells S. ANAND about Gujarat during the riots, and about Hindutva’s assault on Hinduism. Swami Agnivesh, who has been called ‘a Marxist in ochre robes’, is the president of the World Council of Arya Samaj. He pioneered the liberation of bonded labourers through the Bandhua Mukti Morcha, an organisation he established.

You worked in Gujarat after the 2002 pogrom. There seems to be a lack of outrage over a genocide of such magnitude.

To an extent, I witnessed this genocide. I visited Gujarat between April 1 and 5, 2002 as part of a group. Rear Admiral Ramdas, Nirmala Deshpande, Valson Thampu, Father Dominic Immanuel, the Maulanas of Jamait-e-Islami and Jamait-e- Ulema-e-Hind, and others were part of the group. We were on a healing mission. On the second day, we were to stay for the night at a place called Eshwar Bhavan in the Ahmedabad’s Navrangpura area. There, we were accosted by a group of well-dressed Hindu fundamentalists. They told us, point blank, that we were most welcome to stay in the Bhavan but our Muslim colleagues must go stay in a masjid. We said, “We are all together, we are here just to ask everyone to stop this madness.” They simply insisted that Muslims must be separated from the rest. When we said this was not acceptable, they warned us that if the Muslims stayed they would blast bombs at the site.

Which Hindutva outfit did they represent?

They seemed to be from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. After they left — it was about 9 in the evening — we decided to go to Gandhi’s Sabarmati Asharm on the outskirts of the city. On reaching there, we realised the goons had followed us in their cars. They reiterated their demand. They said, “Don’t think you will be spared because you take shelter in Gandhi’s ashram. We will detonate bombs here and unleash terror as long as these Muslims are with you.” Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was to arrive the next day, and so we reasoned with them that such violence would be send an inappropriate message. Their reply was, “This has nothing to do with Vajpayee or Modi. This is dharma yudh and we do not want Muslims around.” Ramdas and Nirmala then contacted the Army in Gandhinagar and they gave us protection.

The state machinery was paralysed. TEHELKA offered proof of this.
What I saw on TV and read in TEHELKA gave me goose bumps. A man is boasting how he slit a pregnant woman’s womb; men are talking about hoisting a dead pig atop a mosque. And these men are roaming free. This genocide, and the state’s total complicity… we had sensed all this. But still there was reason to give [them] the benefit of doubt. But after the TEHELKA report, I am beginning to feel that Godhra itself was staged.

TEHELKA’s dissection of Godhra and the fire in Sabarmati Express, does raise some disturbing questions.

About the same time, along with Inder Gujral, Harsh Mander and others, I met Vajpayee at Panchvati. I requested Vajpayee for a white paper on Godhra. I said, find out exactly who was responsible for Godhra. The PM just laughed and said the inquiry was on. Early in April, when the rioting was at its peak, Vajpayee had expressed regret over the carnage, and had famously wondered how he would face the world. He had admonished Modi in this speech and reminded him of his raj dharma (duty as the chief minister). Our esteem for Vajpayee went up. We thought he was one truthful person. We thought he would remove Modi from the chief ministership. Nothing happened. Later, in Goa, Vajpayee took a U-turn, and began to praise Modi. After that statement he was totally exposed.

But Vajpayee has always maintained he was a Sanghi.

After the 2002 election and Modi’s victory, Vajpayee was once asked by a reporter if they would repeat the Gujarat experiment in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan which were going to the polls. Vajpayee’s reply was dangerous and irresponsible. As PM, he asked, “Will Godhra be repeated?” No prime minister has made such a dirty statement. Without waiting for what the inquiry said, he had made up his mind on who was behind Godhra and justified the genocide. That’s when we realised this entire party is debased. On our return to Delhi, Nirmala Deshpande, Nafisa Ali and I filed a case in the High Court seeking BJP’s de-recognition as a political party under the Representation of the People (PR) Act. Our contention was that the RSS, VHP, Ba-.jrang Dal and BJP are all one. These different names and different leaders are just for show; their identity is one. If all of them are violent, communal and have participated in genocide, the BJP as the political wing of the Sangh Parivar should necessarily be de-recognised under the RP Act. The judgment on the case is not yet out.

But what is the alternative to the BJP? The Congress behaves like its B-team. Take their role in the 1984 pogrom.

What is the alternative in Gujarat? We only have the Congress occupying the opposition space. When Sonia Gandhi visited Ahmedabad, we were hoping that she would visit Ehsan Jafri’s home and offer solace to his widow. But no, the Congress was afraid of the “Hindu reaction”. So Sonia did not visit her own party MP’s house. Modi’s victory in 2002 was dangerous. More dangerous was Congress’ admission that he had won. This is wrong. Hitler too had used democracy and elections to promote Nazism. How is Modi different? He used a similar model and made Gujarat a laboratory. Is this democracy or fascism? How can we even recognise him as a democratically elected chief minister? This is democracy’s biggest weakness. Modi manipulated these votes through mobs and frenzy. Which is why I think we should de-recognise this party. There’s no scope for such parties to exist under the PR Act.

What about the reaction of most Hindus, the civil society and the media? They seem to offer tacit support by their silence.

There are many who feel strongly about this, but their revulsion is not being channelled properly. Elections have been announced, and people expect the Congress to react. While Laloo Yadav speaks strongly, Jayanthi Natarajan soft pedals the issue. Why? In this depressing scenario, there’s one ray of hope. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar called me and said he was shocked by what he saw on TV.

The general impression is that Ravi Shankar is pro-Hindutva?

That’s true. During the 2004 general election, it was said that Ravi Shankar had sent bulk SMSes canvassing votes for Atal and Advani. The entire Congress lobby believes Ravi Shankar is a representative of Hindutva. It is therefore especially significant that he called me after seeing the TEHELKA exposé. Which is when I suggested that he draft a statement. Valson Thampu and I co-signed it.

Most of the responses have talked about the timing of the exposé and its impact on elections.
This is the height of perversion. Truth in itself is most important. One cannot think of the consequences and then tell the truth. If the truth has to be uttered at a chosen time, it cannot be the truth.

What we call Hinduism encompasses such a variety of philosophies and traditions, that we do not know what we are dealing with. And the violence in Gujarat happens in the name of Hinduism.

Hinduism is amorphous. You are a Hindu and yet need not be one. This is both Hinduism’s strength and weakness. Hence it is difficult to be a fundamentalist in Hinduism. The most violent face of Hinduism is the caste system, where you view a fellow human with hatred that even an enemy does not deserve.

But Hindutva is pitting Adivasis (like the Chharas) and Dalits against Muslims.
This is dangerous. The four Vedas, the 11 Upanishads and the 18 Puranas never mention Hindu or Hinduism. Neither the Ramayana and Mahabharata nor the Gita use these categories. In fact, Islam’s position on god comes close to the Vedic-Upanishadic position that doesn’t assign a bodily form to god.

All this doesn’t take away from what is happening on the ground.
Yes, a majority of the “liberals” in the country identify themselves as Hindu today. True, a lot of Muslims were killed; but the real murder happening here is that of Hinduism, of the liberal face of Hinduism. Ordinary Hindus do like the glorification of Hinduism and Hindus, but when it embraces such visceral violence, it disturbs them.

Tehelka Magazine, Vol 4, Issue 44, Dated Nov 17, 2007

Modi must be punished

2007-11-14T11:30:00.000-08:00

Modi must be punished
Kuldip Nayar, November 13, 2007

http://www.asianage.com/presentation/columnisthome/kuldip-nayar-/modi-must-be-punished-.aspx

Some serious-minded secularists feel that the sting operation showing Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's foot soldiers boasting about conducting the Gujarat pogrom with state support should not have been publicised. The point being made is that this would polarise society and help consolidate the Hindu vote in Modi's favour. I do not understand how gloating about the killing of innocent Muslims will increase Modi's votes. Assuming this is true, should the crime be suppressed? That would be like a cover-up of a murder on the ground that the perpetrator would be lionised. The issue is not whether the sting operation benefits Modi, but whether the confession of murder is something to be made public when it is reconfirmed.

It is a coincidence that the killers' admission came after Assembly elections were announced in Gujarat. Would the publicity have been justified if the killers had spoken earlier? We have seen on television screens the perpetrators of the crime describing how "execution squads were formed, composed of the dedicated cadre of Hindu organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Bajrang Dal, the Kisan Sangh, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party," and how "the idea was to harm as many Muslims as possible, burn them, kill them."

The brutality of a pogrom is not lessened if it is hidden from the nation. Exposing a crime is not linked to electoral strategy, but to the value system. I believe, a person begins to die the day he sees an act of injustice being committed but keeps quiet. The Congress is not coming out openly because its approach is political. It is not sure how the Gujarati Hindus would react to it. The party would have reacted differently if it had realised that murder was murder, whatever the fallout of its exposure. As for the BJP, it is hoodwinking the people because it knows that both Modi and the party have been thoroughly exposed. The complicity of the Congress in the death of 3,000 Sikhs in Delhi does not justify the Gujarat killings. In both cases, those who committed the crime should have been punished.

Also, it is the Gujaratis who are now being tested. I do not think that the state's economic growth which is a result of their own enterprise and hard work can make them soft towards Modi's crimes which are now told in black and white. Peace cannot be built on the dead bodies of innocent people. Hitler too gave peace to Germany for 15 years. But we know at what price, we also know how the state of Germany just crumbled when the truth was known. No citizen can forget or forgive the pogrom because status quo will be disturbed. Today, Gujarat is a fractured society. It is vertically divided. This, I am sure, must be bothering the people in the state, and I have no doubt that they will assert themselves to see that the guilty are brought to book. Till today the Germans have not forgiven themselves for overlooking what Hitler did in the name of the purity of the German race. Sometime later, if not today, Gujaratis will also realise that Modi misled them by converting his communal approach into Gujarati self-respect. The people who were killed were also Gujaratis. Whenever he is accused of planning and executing all that happened in the wake of the Godhra train burning, Modi plays on Gujarati sentiment and argues that in reality it is they who are being run down. This is how he has got away with murder. Gujaratis do not deserve a chief minister who builds his reputation at their cost and polarises society to escape its wrath.

Modi even makes a mockery of Mahatma Gandhi's ideals of pluralism. Modi's style of functioning is authoritarian and parochial. So much so, that a revered state leader like Keshubhai Patel feels humiliated and is maintaining a distance from the BJP, the party he has served for decades, for it has put up Modi as the candidate for the chief minister's post once again.

Had the Nanavati-Shah Commission which was set up to ascertain the truth, submitted its report, Modi would have probably been exposed by this time. But even after five years the inquiry committee is still conducting its investigation. It seems as if the judges are extending their job after retirement. The commission is turning out to be another Liberhan Commission which was set up in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992. The committee has had as many as 84 extensions, costing nearly Rs 8 crores. It has not submitted even an interim report in the last 15 years. I think the Chief Justice of India should look into the working of such inquiry committees, because the way in which some extend their tenure, brings a bad name to the judiciary. There should be a time frame and no inquiry committee should last beyond three years.

Modi's defence by the BJP spokesman does not surprise me. The party, because of L.K. Advani's increasing influence and Atal Behari Vajpayee's waning say because of ill-health, is most vociferously communal when it projects Modi. The BJP's thinking is that if it loses the Assembly election in Gujarat, it will lose in the general election. It might do so even otherwise if it continues to back Modi. True, the process of election has begun in the state and it cannot be stopped till the polls take place. But surely Modi can be hauled up for his crime. The Centre lacks that kind of courage, not because it cannot muster enough of it to take action, but because it is afraid of the BJP's hostile reaction.

To say that we all are to blame is to rationalise the crime. No doubt, the nation is not as secular as it should have been after 60 years of independence. But this is because we have not really worked for a pluralistic society. The belief that the communal bias will go away with the departure of the British who divided us to rule, has not turned out to be correct. The communalism which had taken root in the 150-year-rule of the British needed to be fought relentlessly.

It is a tragedy that the Congress which has ruled the country for the first 45 years did very little to change the parochial attitude of our society. It did not even punish those whose names were mentioned in the inquiry committees set up after riots. School and colleges were allowed to be the breeding ground for communalism. Books written were either too superficial or too sophisticated and went over children's heads. Then there was the growth of some political parties which thrived in misleading the people in the name of religion and caste. The situation is deteriorating, not improving.

Godhra Tak, the movie

2007-11-11T07:13:00.000-08:00

Godhra Tak, the movie

Godhra fire was not a pre-planned conspiracy:

Shubhradeep Chakravorty, November 8th, 2007

Delhi-based freelance journalist Shubhradeep Chakravorty is the director of ‘Godhra Tak’, a documentary film on the burning of the train coach in February 2002 at Godhra, that set of a wave of murderous attacks on Muslims in Gujarat. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand he talks about his film and the reactions that it has evoked.

YS: What made you decide to make ‘Godhra Tak’?

SC: When the Godhra incident in February 2002 happened what struck me was the contradictory theories that Hindutva leaders and government officials were putting out. Some said it was a conspiracy hatched by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. Some others said the Students’ Islamic Movement of India or a Kashmiri militant group was behind it. Yet others said it was a result of a conspiracy of local Muslims in Godhra. These contradictory theories puzzled me and so I decided to investigate the incident for myself.

So, I began visiting Godhra in May 2002. It was not possible for me to go there earlier as the whole town was under a sort of siege. I had to visit Godhra seventeen times before I could start using my camera because it was obviously difficult to gain the confidence of the people for them to talk to me. The local Muslims were naturally too scared to speak out, fearing that they might be harassed for whatever they said. Many Hindus and Muslims were also suspicious of my intentions. But finally I got down to filming in December 2002, and after months of work finished the documentary.

YS: Basically, what exactly is your film all about?

SC: The film focuses only on the burning of coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, which was then used by Hindutva groups to launch murderous riots against Muslims in Gujarat. Piecing together evidence from local people, survivors of the incident, social activists and forensic experts I have tried to show that, in all probability, the coach was not set on fire from the outside by a Muslim mob, as the Hindutva-walas claim, an argument that they deployed to justify the mass killings of Muslims in Gujarat. Rather, it seems, given the evidence that the film highlights, that in all likelihood the fire started from inside the train itself. Hence, to claim that it was the handiwork of the Muslims seems to me to be completely false.

YS: If, as you say, the fire started from inside, what could have set it off?

SC: We can only speculate on this, of course. One possibility is that there was petrol or some other inflammable substance being carried by the Hindutva activists in the compartment. Some say that that maybe they were carrying stoves to cook food, and these may have caused the fire. A forensic expert I interviewed in Gujarat said that he had seen a television programme in which a girl who was travelling in S-6 revealed that when she was crossing into S-7 she felt a cold liquid on the floor of the compartment. This may have been petrol, which may have been carried inside the train, rather than having been thrown from the outside. Another theory, which, again, is only speculative, is that the coach may have been deliberately set on fire by someone travelling in the coach, who might thereafter have escaped or else died in the fire, in order to set off a wave of attacks on Muslims. Who knows?

YS: But your film does not explore the possibility of this theory.

SC: No, it doesn’t. I deliberately left that out as I did not want to be seen as biased or be branded as an ‘anti-Hindu’ communist or a ‘pseudo-secularist’ or whatever. I did not want to step into the realm of the speculative. I wanted to highlight only the confirmed evidence that I could gather, because otherwise ‘soft’ Hindus whom I wanted to reach out to would have dismissed the film as ‘propagandistic’ and ‘anti-Hindu’. After all, I didn’t want to preach to the already converted, to those Hindus and others who are already opposed to Hindutva or communalism.

YS: Your film has been used as evidence before the Banerjee Committee that is investigating the Godhra incident. What are your views about the Committee?

SC: Yes, the film has been used as evidence before the Committee, and the members of the Committee have watched it. I myself deposed before the Committee in December 2004. Although the Committee has its merits, I feel that it is toothless. Being a Committee, and not a Commission, it has no judicial powers to call people to depose before it. I am also pained at the way the interim report of the Committee has been politicised. It was used by Laloo Prasad Yadav in his election campaigns to garner Muslim votes. This is as bad as the BJP using the Godhra incident to get Hindu votes in Gujarat and elsewhere. I really am opposed to this use of dead people, whether the Hindu victims in Godhra or of the Muslims killed elsewhere in Gujarat, for political purposes.

YS: What has been the response to your film?

SC: The film has been screened in different places in India and abroad, and the response, on the whole, has been very encouraging. As a friend of mine put it, if a neutral or a ‘soft’ Hindu sees the film he would probably be convinced that the fire was not pre-planned or engineered by a Muslim mob outside, and if a hardcore Hindutva-wala watches it he would be confused. This is because, as I said, I deliberately focussed on the available evidence that seems to be difficult to refute.

I have been travelling across the country to screen the film and to organise press conferences to discuss it. We organised two such screenings in Gujarat as well, one with NGOs and the other with the press. As you can imagine, it was really difficult to do this, and I was even attacked by some VHP activists in Ahmedabad for this. NGOs in other parts of the country have invited me to show the film and address press conferences, and so far I have visited seventeen state capitals to do this. The purpose of the press conferences is to get the press to send out the message that the Godhra fire was not a pre-planned conspiracy. If they can do at least this, it’s enough for me, as that is really what the film is all about.

The film has also been screened by NRI activist groups in Europe and America in different universities. It was also screened at the South Asian Film Festival in Kathmandu and will be taken by them to various countries.

YS: Do you have any other films in the pipeline?

SC: Having worked to promote this film for the last almost two years, I think I am ready to do another one. My next film would seek to explore the rise of right-wing groups in India and the multiple ways in which people from different classes, castes and communities are seeking, in their own ways, to challenge the politics of communalism and fascism

http://www.twocircles.net/2007nov08/godhra_fire_was_not_pre_planned_conspiracy_shubhradeep_chakravorty.html

Courting injustice

2007-11-10T11:33:00.000-08:00

Courting injustice
by Priya Pillai, November 8, 2007
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/11/end-impunity-of-perpetrators-and.html
End impunity of perpetrators and the horrors of genocidal hatred-Hindustan Times

With the recent revelations by Tehelka alleging high-level State complicity in the pogrom in Gujarat in 2002, the need of the hour is an effective law that will tackle the impunity of perpetrators and the horrors of genocidal hatred. We need to examine India’s international legal obligations. International law proscribes the commission of genocide in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948 (Genocide Convention), which India signed as early as in 1959. As per this international treaty, which has been signed by 137 States, there is a positive obligation on States to prevent the commission of genocide, as well as to punish the perpetrators of any such acts. Surely, this make it incumbent on the Indian-State to formulate an appropriate legislation?
The Genocide Convention, in Article II, defines genocide as “any of the acts with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”. it goes on to define the acts which include, among others, killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm to group members, deliberately inflicting conditions of life and the imposition of measures intended to prevent births within the group.

Among the obligations the Convention places on countries is the enactment of legislation to not only prevent and punish genocide, but also designate a tribunal for the trial of those charged. More significantly, the Convention includes in its list of punishable individuals “constitutionally responsible rulers” and “public officials”. This clearly means those involved in State-sponsored genocide.

Genocide is one of those international crimes that has been recognised as a jus cogens norm. This means that derogation from it is not permitted under any circumstance, even if the State is not a signatory. The State is still obliged to prevent and punish genocide.

Recently, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rendered its judgment on February 26, 2007, in the case on the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Serbia and Montenegro). Elaborating on the onus on the State, the ICJ held that the “serious risk of genocide” was to be taken into account when assessing State responsibility, which would involve assessing knowledge or awareness of acts of genocide that were about to take place. In this case, the ICJ held that Serbia neglected to prevent genocide. The court held that for the purposes of the obligation to punish genocide, there needs to be a territorial link, i.e. the acts are committed on the territory of the State. Clearly, when there is such a link, as there is in the case of India, there exists State liability for the lack of punishment for genocide.

In such a situation, it is troubling that successive governments have never bothered to legislate this criminal behaviour into domestic law, even after 50 years from the time of signing the treaty. Article 51(c) of the Constitution of India emphasises the respect for international treaties, and Article 253 places the onus on Parliament to legislate in respect of any international treaty or agreement. Clearly, in this case, there has been a failure to comply with the constitutional mandate as well as with provisions of an international treaty.
This failure to comply with international legal norms, while clearly signalling the intention and the willingness to do so, is of grave concern. This is especially so in the case of mass crimes, where the ability of the Indian criminal justice system to dispense justice is in grave doubt.

Further, the ability of a domestic system to conceptualise and legislate on mass crimes is limited. There is, thus, a need to look to comparative and international jurisprudence, so that Indian law can meet the need of the times. In keeping with these international obligations, as many as 83 countries have enacted domestic legislations for the punishment of genocide. However, in the Indian scenario, there is no legal definition of the crime of genocide, despite occurrences that can be categorised as such.

It is time to look at meaningful legal redress for victims of mass crimes. An important step in that process is for India to fulfil its international obligations to safeguard the human rights of its own citizens, at the national level.

Priya Pillai is a lawyer and has worked at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal on war crimes and genocide issues.

Does Anything Matter?

2007-11-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

Does Anything Matter?
by Tarun Tejpal
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/11/on-shameless-silence-of-congress-party.html

On the Shameless Silence of the Congress Party after the Tehelka Expose. Tehelka Magazine, Vol 4, Issue 44, Dated Nov 17, 2007

THE LAST time we broke a story that rumbled the jungle that is Delhi’s power elite, we were condemned to a three-year walk over burning coals. The story, peration West End, an exposé of the rampant corruption in arms procurements, was first aired in March 2001, and almost immediately two things happened. The first was a groundswell of public applause and affection that did not abate for a long time. The second, fairly predictable — though not in its ferocity and longevity — was an immoral and unconstitutional assault on our work and lives. That too did not abate for a long time — not till the state’s entire ammunition was spent, and there was nothing more to throw at us.

At the time, six years ago, we were, in succession, accused of being Congress stooges, agents of Dawood Ibrahim, on the payroll of the Hindujas, connected to the ISI of Pakistan, responsible for crashing the stock market, and in possession of hundreds of crores in payoffs. The estimates varied from twenty to two hundred. Narendra Modi — yes the same one — was at the time I think a general secretary in the BJP, and I will never forget a television interview in which both of us were doing phone-ins and he was spewing lies with the stentorian voice of a Supreme Court judge. A day later he was to issue printed pamphlets with ten facts about me. The first and most crucial was that I was the son of a contractor who was a close aide of veteran Congress leader Arjun Singh from Madhya Pradesh.

Delhi’s perennially skewed elite — a relic of the Mughal durbar, pathologically fixated on its positioning on the social and power chessboard — relished every floating accusation and relayed it with embellishments. Even friends and acquaintances whispered. They had never seen anyone do anything but for a sweet personal reason. It was fair to assume that, similarly, we had many or at least one. Now that the state was hunting us with all its hounds it was only a matter of time before the truth was out. Having said that — a great job still, much needed, and most courageous!

As it were I had never met any of the Hindujas.

As it were I had never bought or sold a single share on the stock market.

As it were I’d never had anything to do with the Congress, never having been a political reporter in my career. (For record’s sake let it be said TEHELKA must be the only company in India which has three CBI cases — all trumped up and lodged during the time of the NDA government — still going on against it, three years after the UPA came to power. We routinely go to court to seek bail on them.)

As it were we were not in possession of a single illicit rupee, else the hounds of the state that were panting after us around the clock would have locked us up and thrown away the keys. At the time there were just four of us left, down from 120, officed in a small borrowed room in the village behind South Extension. The money we borrowed then, running into tens of lakhs, to wage our legal and public battle, much of it from luminous Indian names, is still being repayed.

And of course, as it were — despite our exposé on cricket matchfixing, which badly hurt the underworld — none of us had ever met Dawood Ibrahim or any of the star-struck bhais.
Illustration: Anand Naorem

More absurdly still, leave alone my father I too had never met Arjun Singh at the time. Not to add that my father far from being a contractor had spent his life in the Indian army, wearing olive, and fighting in the two Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971. Yet Modi had thought nothing of throwing a blatant untruth into the public space, amid all the others listed above that were being flung about. And the media — more giddy than the Sensex — had refused to clarify and rebut.

And unrebutted and unclarified lies — like an unpoliced Sensex — have the ability to swell to dangerous proportions, deforming reality and ushering in chaos. The core fascist axiom is a cliché: the whisper campaign of lies that soon becomes the truth or at least drowns it out. We saw that in 1984 as the Sikhs were put to the sword, and we saw it in 2002 as Gujarat was set to burn with a mishmash of false information and ill-intent. Mostly the media relayed unchecked versions, but sometimes it unearthed the truth. But truth by then had ceased to be a factor. The strategy of those exposed was to ratchet up the public noise till everything was drowned — good, bad, true, false. With our present exposé it has been: but why have you left out Godhra? Whereas the truth is we haven’t. In fact 30 pages of our issue were devoted only to the Godhra investigation!

Noise as strategy when faced with serious charges may be smart if deplorable political tactics, but what is mystifying is the Indian elite’s penchant for the conspiracy theory. It smacks of a self-serving culture where the greater good is seen as no motive at all. Over the years I have had the bizarre and nauseating experience of the well-heeled casting aspersions on the financial integrity of fantastic public warriors like Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy. To differ in thought is one thing, but to automatically assume corruption of those who take up public causes says grim things about the kind of people we are. Some of this deformity may have to do with our colonial past: the desperate urge to please the white master engendering corrosive emotions of envy, cunning, plotting, backbiting and betrayal.

This time — with our investigation into the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 — the conspiracy-seekers scaled new heights. While the BJP attacked us for working for the Congress, the Congress spread the word that we were working for the BJP! Clearly we were doing something right. In all this the battle for the idea of India was left to Laloo Yadav, Mayawati and the Left. The Congress one presumes knows the phrase — since its forebears literally coined it — but they can’t anymore seem to remember what it means.

It’s extraordinary that more than a week after the Gujarat massacre exposé, the prime minister and the home minister had not made a single statement. For the first time in the history of journalism, mass murderers were on camera telling us how they killed, why they killed, and with whose permission they did it. Nor were these just petty criminals; these were fanatics, ideologically driven, working the most dangerous faultline of the subcontinent, revealing the truth of a perilous rupture fully capable of tearing this country apart. But that was clearly not enough for the good man of Race Course Road. Had the CII burped loudly, the PMO would have issued a clarification. Had they then organised a seminar on the untimely burp, the prime minister would have addressed it.

It may be unfair to pillory the prime minister, a man given responsibility without power, the honest man sitting atop a dishonest hillock. Let us then look at the grand strategists of the Congress who cannot win an election themselves but know the secret of winning elections for the many. On their perverse abacus, exposing Modi’s hand in bestial murders and rapes was designed to convince the Gujarati Hindu that this is precisely the kind of leadership it wanted! It never struck them that they could use the evidence of violence to shape a stirring dialogue against it.

THE FACT is the Congress is today run by petty strategists who no longer know what it is to do the right thing. They possess neither the illuminations of history, nor a vision for the future. They fail to see that once great men sutured a hundred fault-lines — of caste, religion, race, language, class — to create the idea of India out of a diverse, colonised, feudal subcontinent. Foolishly they preside over the reopening of these fault-lines, unable to see the chaos that will ensue. They do not know how to wield morality as a weapon in politics, and they lack the courage to walk any high road. At best they are vote accountants who waver between the profit and the loss of various elections.

The present Congress brings grief to the liberal, secular, democratic Indian who needs a political umbrella under which to wage the civilisational battle for India’s soul. By not saying the right thing, by not doing the right thing, it weakens the resolve of the decent Indian, who lacks the stomach for conflict and seeks affirmation of his decency. The vacated space is then colonised by poisonous ideologies based on exclusion and a garbled — pseudo-religious, pseudo-historic — hunt for identity.

And all this is happening while the elite Indian behaves like the elite American during the gilded age, the 1920s — glitz, glam, champagne times — even as the ground shifts beneath its feet. The latest statistics show the numbers living in abject poverty are actually growing in five major states. In 30 percent of India’s districts Naxalite insurrections, rising from crushing poverty, are on the upswing. Can Manhattan and sub-Saharan Africa exist in the same space endlessly without some resulting cataclysm? The fact is India needs not just economic tinkering but great political vision. And there are no signs of it. The apathy of Gujarat tells us that the most complex country in the world faces its most complex challenges ever.

Cowards Who Caved In

2007-11-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

Cowards Who Caved In
Does this society have the nerve nerve to confront the beast exposed by the Tehelka expose ?
by Prashant Bhushan
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/11/does-this-society-have-nerve-nerve-to.html

That's how history and future generations will remember us if we as a society do not show the nerve to confront, contain and exorcise the beast exposed by the recent Tehelka expose. ......

The recent Tehelka expose of the "Gujarat riots" of 2002, demonstrate very starkly that these were neither "spontaneous" nor "riots", but were in fact mass murder, loot and mayhem orchestrated and organized by the top echelons of the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, and the BJP with the full connivance and complicity of the Gujarat government headed by Narendra Modi. The Tehelka tapes show senior functionaries of these organizations and the government bragging and confessing to their having committed and participated in committing heinous crimes like brutal mass murder, rape, burning, looting etc. Many of them claim and boast about how Narendra Modi explicitly encouraged the carnage and told the killers and rioters that they were being given a free rein of three days.

These people also claim how several senior police officials not only abetted these killers by their actions and inaction, but in many cases, themselves participated in the carnage. They also claim how Modi provided shelter to these people and even got inconvenient judges changed to ensure that these mass murderers got out on bail. They also claim that the integrity of the Nanavati commission has been subverted.

What is even more disturbing is that none of these people display the slightest remorse for the horrific and inhuman violence that they perpetrated on innocent human beings, on women and children, on an entire community. In fact they continue to take pride and boast about their barbaric actions. They go about in Gujarat, supremely confident that they will enjoy total impunity and will not be brought to book. In his brilliant edit on this expose titled Read and be afraid", Tarun Tejpal has written how the expose shows that Gujarat seems to be losing the very notion that India was created as a secular country where its many ethnic and linguistic communities would enjoy equal rights.

In short, the tapes reveal a frightening state of affairs in Gujarat, which seems to have gone beyond the pale of the rule of law, and the most basic norms of humanity. It shows most clearly that it has become a state where the government cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution.

All this has happened in Gujarat primarily because for the last 10 years, it has had a government which is openly and brazenly communal and fascist, which has methodically stoked communal feelings and encouraged and eulogized violence against minorities as being a sign of manliness and indeed heroism. That is why Modi's men repeatedly say in their interviews while boasting about the Muslims that they have killed, that they are also macho men who do not eat "khichri". This eulogizing of violence against minorities has been systematically done, not merely by using all instrumentalities of the state to perpetrate violence against them, to protect and harbour those who do it, but also by using the education system, the media and all instrumentalities of propoganda. The closing down of the broadcast by Aaj Tak, CNN-IBN etc. in Gujarat who were showing the Tehelka expose is another example of how Modi's government has systematically used state power to subvert the media for its communal fascist purposes. Similarly the education system has been used to poison young minds with hate propaganda against the minorities. Modi thus takes great pride in having accomplished in Gujarat what Hitler had accomplished in Nazi Germany. Modi's VHP goons like Hitler's "storm troopers" enjoy total protection from the State when they go about their carnage against Minorities.

There are many ordinary and decent Hindus in Gujarat and elsewhere who have been influenced by Modi's propaganda and who believe that there is nothing wrong in killing Muslims, who they have been taught to believe are essentially terrorists.

Such a cavalier contempt for the basic norms of humanity, for every principle held dear by our Constitution, is bound to lead to a dehumanized, lawless and violent society. It will eventually lead to a complete breakdown of civilization and the creation of a monstrous and sick society.

In order to get Gujarat back within the pale of law and the Constitution, it has become imperative to dismiss the Modi government and bring Gujarat under President's rule. All the institutions of the ruling establishment in Gujarat must be purged of those who have allowed the systematic subversion of the rule of law in Gujarat. This might require the postponement of elections in Gujarat. But this would be a small price to pay for healing the still open wounds that have tormented Gujarat for the last 5 years, for delivering justice to an entire community which have been denied to it in Gujarat. This must be done not merely for their sake, but for the sake of humanity itself and all the values that we hold dear.

Certain other things need to be done. A special investigating team must be immediately constituted to investigate the involvement of Narendra Modi and other senior functionaries in his government and the police in the killings and their abetment. This SIT can be constituted by the Supreme Court and should be monitored on a regular basis and asked to compete their investigation within a few months. This would be one of the most important investigations ever undertaken in this country.

But most immediately, the persons shown on tape confessing to having committed crimes must be immediately arrested and those of them who are serving officials, must be placed under suspension. If the State government shows any hesitation in doing this, that will only reinforce the overwhelming evidence of their complicity in the Carnage.

Again we stand at a crossroad of history. Gujarat, which Modi has made the laboratory of Hindutva, is the leading edge of the onslaught of communal fascism in this country. If we as a society do not show the nerve to confront, contain and exorcise this beast, history and future generations will remember us as cowards who caved in and squandered away a nation which had been so painstakingly built by the struggle of many led by the Mahatma.

No less than mass murder

2007-11-10T11:25:00.000-08:00

No less than mass murder

A pogrom does not lessen in brutality if it is hidden from the nation
by Kuldip Nayar, November 9, 2007
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/11/pogrom-does-not-lessen-in-brutality-if.html

SOME serious-minded secular persons are heatedly arguing that the sting operation showing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s foot soldiers boasting about carrying out the killings with state support should not have been publicised.

The point made is that all this would polarise society and help consolidate the Hindu vote in his favour. It is not understandable how gloating over the killing of innocent Muslims will increase Modi’s votes.

Assuming this is true, should the crime be suppressed? It would be like a cover-up of murders on the ground that the perpetrator would be lionised. The issue is not whether the sting operation benefits Modi but whether the confession of murder is something to be made public when it is reconfirmed.

It is a coincidence that the admission by the killers came after the announcement of elections. Would the publicity have been justified if the killers had spoken earlier?

We have seen on TV screens, the perpetrators of crime telling “how execution squads were formed, composed of the dedicated cadre of Hindu organisations — the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Bajrang Dal, the Kisan Sangh, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party” and “how the idea was to harm as many Muslims as possible, burn them, kill them”.

A pogrom does not lessen in brutality if it is hidden from the nation. The exposure of crime is not linked to the strategy of election but to a value system. The day a person sees an act of injustice and keeps quiet is the day when he begins to die. The Congress is not coming out openly because its approach is political.

It is not sure how the Gujarati Hindus would react. The party would have reacted differently if it had realised that murder was murder, whatever the fallout of its exposure.

The BJP is only hoodwinking the people because it knows that both Modi and the party have been thoroughly exposed. The complicity of the Congress in the killing of 3,000 Sikhs in Delhi does not condone the Gujarat killings. In both cases, those who committed the crime should have been punished.

The Gujaratis are facing a test. I do not think that the state’s economic growth, which is due to their own enterprise and hard work, will make them soft towards Modi’s crimes which are now being viewed in black and white. The Gujaratis cannot afford state peace to be built on the skulls of the innocent. Hitler, too, gave peace for 15 years.

But we know at what price and how the state of Germany crumbled when the truth was known. No citizen can forget or forgive killing on the ground that the status quo may be disturbed.

Gujarat is a fractured society today and it is divided vertically. This must be bothering people in the state, and I have no doubt that they will assert themselves to see that the guilty are brought to book. Till today the Germans have not forgiven themselves for not having seen through what Hitler did in the name of purity of the German race. Some time, if not today, the Gujaratis will also realise that Modi misled them by converting his communal approach into the Gujaratis’ self-respect. Those killed were also Gujaratis.

When Modi is accused of planning and executing all that happened in the wake of the Godhra train burning, he plays on the sentiments of the Gujaratis and argues that in reality they are being run down. This is how he has got away with the murders.

The Gujaratis do not deserve a chief minister who builds up his reputation at their cost and polarises society to escape its wrath.

Modi even makes a mockery of Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals of pluralism. Modi’s style of functioning is authoritarian and parochial. So much so that a revered state leader like Keshubhai Patel has felt so humiliated that he has kept his distance from the BJP, the party he served for decades, because it has put up Modi as the next chief minister.

Had the Nanavati-Shah commission, which was set up to ascertain the truth, submitted its report, Modi would have probably been exposed by this time. But its inquiry has been going on and on for the last five years. It looks as if the judges are extending their job after retirement.

The commission is turning out to be another Liberhan inquiry committee which was set up in the wake of the Babri mosque demolition in 1992. The committee has had as many as 84 extensions, costing nearly Rs80m. It has not yet submitted even an interim report in the last 15 years.

The chief justice of India should look into the working of such inquiry committees because the ways in which some extend their tenure bring a bad name to the judiciary. There should be a timeframe and no inquiry committee should last beyond three years.

Modi’s defence by the BJP spokesman is not surprising. The party, because of L.K. Advani’s increasing influence and Vajpayee’s waning say, is most vociferously communal when it projects Modi. The BJP’s thinking is that if it loses the assembly election in Gujarat, it would lose in the general election. It might even otherwise do so if it continues to back Modi.

True, the process of election has begun in the state and it cannot be stopped until the polls. But surely, Modi can be hauled up for his crime. The centre lacks that kind of courage, not because it cannot muster enough of it to take action but because it is afraid of the BJP’s hostile reaction.

To say that we are all to blame is to rationalise the crime. No doubt, the nation is not as secular as it should have been after 60 years of independence.

But this is because we have not really worked for a pluralistic society. The belief that communal bias would go away with the departure of the British who divided us in order to rule, has not turned out to be correct.

The communalism which took root in almost two centuries of British rule needs to be fought relentlessly. The Congress, which ruled the country for the first 45 years, did very little to change the parochial attitude of society.

It did not even punish those whose names were mentioned in the inquiry committees set up after riots.School and colleges were allowed to breed communalism. Books written were either too superficial or too sophisticated and went over the heads of the children.

Then there was the growth of some political parties which thrived in misleading the people in the name of religion and caste. The situation is deteriorating, not improving.

The writer is a senior columnist based in New Delhi.
Labels: commission of enquiry, communal violence, Gujarat 2002 riots, Tehelka expose

Time to speak up

2007-11-10T11:20:00.000-08:00

Time to Speak up.

Mahesh Puri, November 7, 2007
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/11/time-of-speak-up-after-tehelka-sting.html

Time of speak up after the Tehelka sting
(outlookindia.com - Web only feature November 7, 2007)

Time To Speak Up

The response that the Tehelka sting has evoked from some among us is both shameful and dangerous. I have read Chandan Mitra and I am constrained to say that I am happy not to have ever known or met him. ......

by Mahesh Peri

Being the publisher of a large magazine is a blessing as well as a curse. You are in an enviable position to be a social change agent. However, you are supposed to treat all other media -- including good journalism -- as competition and treat them with suspicion.

Post the Tehelka sting, planned and executed at Tehelka's offices and later aired on Aaj Tak and Headlines Today as a joint operation, many media-watchers have asked me a very common but sinister question: "Why now? Don't you think it is motivated?" Every questioner was looking at an answer that wanted me to ignore the content and focus on the motives behind the operation. And motives, we know, can always be insinuated, even imputed.

I have known Tarun and Aniruddha Bahal (now operating CobraPost, which has aired many exposes on many other channels), the founders of Tehelka, for long. As their publisher when they were at Outlook, I used to be both excited and fearful of their exploits, but never saw any reason to doubt their motives. At Outlook, we believe in following a story and putting it in the public domain, without bothering about the after-effects. Even at the cost of sounding immodest, I implicitly assume that the people groomed at Outlook continue to follow the same philosophy. And, even if I hadn't ever known Tarun or Tehelka, I would still go with the contents of the sting and not look at excuses to rubbish the operation.

And lastly, if they have tried to recover some of their costs by selling it to any television channel, and that too a channel as big as Aaj Tak, I don't have a problem. Tehelka is a commercial enterprise whose survival depends as much on making their work viable as on credible journalism. And let's remember the power of television which is important in reaching a larger number of people.

However, the response that the sting has evoked from some among us is both shameful and dangerous. And when it comes from leaders -- the so-called intellectuals and especially editors who are supposed to mould public opinion -- it is despicable. I have read Chandan Mitra and I am constrained to say that I am happy not to have ever known or met him. I think I am freer than him because I can see, hear and process everything that is said on camera not through the prism of my own magazine, organisation or people.

Mr Mitra wants you to investigate Godhra and the 1984 riots before the current operation is taken at face value. Just because the infamous Delhi schoolteacher sting was a contrived operation, he would have you rubbish this sting as well. He wants you to justify the timing of the operation before the contents are accepted at face value.

It just doesn't end there. Elected representatives and public officials seem to be excused on the grounds of being 'braggarts' (and no, I will not say anything about his research at Oxford University) -- 'small-time, small town politicians who are known to exaggerate their importance given half a chance'. He seems more bothered about the money that Aaj Tak paid Tehelka and the money made by mobile phone operators than the contents of the sting operation.

Both the BJP and the Congress are spreading the word about the sting operation having been done at the other party's behest. No one wants to take the issue further; it is vote bank politics at the worst. Even a statesman that our prime minister is supposed to be has not uttered a single word condemning the contents of the expose.

Under the Press and Registration of Books Act (which regulates the publishing industry in India), as a publisher you are responsible for everything that is printed in your publication. At the same time, following the basic tenets of editorial freedom, I get to know about all the stories published in Outlook along with millions of our readers. And no matter what the laws say, that is how it ought to be and I am proud to be working in such an environment.

Being a publisher with tens of cases filed by Raja Bhayyas and Narendra Modis, I have become immune to cases filed by certain kinds of people, especially politicians. So perhaps I should not be too concerned by their reactions to the Tehelka expose. But when I see people becoming immune to tragedy, death and human suffering, I think it is time for the average Indian to speak out.

Have we as a country fallen to such a state that murders, rapes, wrenching the foetus out of a pregnant woman, hacking a person bit by bit and then burning him alive have all become part of 'bragging'? If this is the country that Mr Mitra thinks he represents as a parliamentarian, then our leaders have failed us in creating a civil society and on that charge alone, they must be driven away.

Have we fallen to such a state that every political party in this country -- the stung included -- would benefit out of a systematic dehumanising of our collective conscience? Can't we as a country prevent people from benefiting out of mass rapes and murders? Do we need to see even the most despicable things that happen around us through a prism of caste, creed, religion, political parties, competition, business, sex, region, and so on?

The political compulsions are such that the stung party that should be ashamed seems smug and even jubilant whereas the opposition Congress, that should have been creating a hue and cry, looks visibly shaken and most unhappy. A day after the contents were aired, we had a union minister belonging to the Congress claiming it to be a Bharatiya Janata Party operation to 'encash the sentiments of the people through an overexposed Godhra episode'.

Sting in its social context

2007-11-07T18:58:00.000-08:00

The sting in its social and ethical context
Vidya Subrahmaniam, November 7, 2007
http://www.hindu.com/2007/11/07/stories/2007110756821200.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tehelka sting on Gujarat 2002 is a credible effort. Yet it is difficult not to question its timing and the exploitative manner of its presentation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the ironies of the Tehelka sting on the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat is the way it has been received. Narendra Modi’s supporters, though denouncing it as a “Congress-secular conspiracy,” seem nonetheless convinced that it will strengthen him before a crucial election.

In the case of Mr. Modi’s detractors, the logic works in reverse: They worry that images of the riots, made worse by the insensitive manner of their presentation, will revive the raw passion of 2002, helping to seal the widening cracks in Mr. Modi’s Hindutva vote bank. Civil rights activists find the reaction unfathomable and are distraught that so courageous and spectacular an investigation should be measured for its immediate, rather than long term, impact.

In one sense the activists are right. For years those who felt revulsion at the 2002 pogrom had fretted about the apparent hopelessness of it all. In Mr. Modi’s Gujarat, the calendar might have stopped at Godhra 2002, judging by the prevailing notions of justice and injustice. In this narrative, the horror aboard the Sabarmati Express was injustice but not the horror that followed it. Consequently, the victims were always those killed on the train, never the thousands brutally, revengefully killed in the aftermath.

For years, those despairing of the situation had waited for just the kind of clinching, incontrovertible evidence that Tehelka produced to establish the macabre truth of that time — a truth known to everybody, documented previously, acknowledged by the apex court, and yet unfailingly dismissed as so much fabrication by the Modi administration and the Chief Minister’s legion of admirers. Now finally it was out in all its gory detail — told by the perpetrators themselves in their own words. With frame after chilling frame of the pogrom dramatically unspooling before them, those claiming to be “politically conscientious” ought to have rushed to embrace the Tehelka team. Instead, they reacted in dismay. The questions, “why now?” and “why like this?” soared above the audio-video effect of the sting, undercutting what was billed by Tehelka as “the most important story of our time.”

Rights activists feel let down by the reaction. Yet there are aspects to the sting that are discomfiting. For those of us in the media who go by the label “pseudo-secularists,” the Tehelka scoop was a difficult moment to confront. The swirl of emotions we were caught in spawned questions and counter-questions, all springing from within, each with its own unclear answer. Surely, the dilemma underscored the complexity of a problem that was inseparable from its political and ethical dimensions.

Overused phrase

Tehelka unveiled its latest sting at a time when the phrase was in bad odour from overuse. Too many fake stings had damaged way too many reputations, and it was with some trepidation that viewers approached the latest script, theatrically narrated television-style. By the end of it, though, there was no doubt that the investigation was first-rate; the footage was the end product of a search that led from one gut-wrenching story to another, each unashamedly told to a camera candidly capturing the depravations of that time.

The journalist behind the veil was the anti-thesis of the high-flier, armed, as he was to recollect later, “with nothing more than a couple of spycams and some daredevilry.” Ashish Khetan had been part of several of Tehelka’s operations, yet few knew him. He put his anonymity to good use, spending six tortuous months under cover, fearing all the while that the lid would be blown off his impersonation of a Hindutva sympathiser. What started as an aimless quest turned into a most astonishing discovery, as quarry after quarry turned up to speak to the camera — from the Bajrang Dal, from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, from the State Government’s legal department.. The men were unrestrained, almost garrulous, as they narrated how cold bloodedly they committed their crimes.

Some of us watched this incredulously. Why would anyone go this far to implicate himself? But then strange things happened in Gujarat. In an environment where support for the 2002 pogrom was treated as a given, confessions of this kind were presumably quite in order. Asked about this, the Bharatiya Janata Party did not allege the tapes were doctored. The spokesperson dismissed the evidence as “bragging.” This prompted a journalist to ask: “What sort of people do you harbour that brag and boast about committing heinous crimes?”

The unease about the Tehelka sting does not stem from doubts about its credibility. It stems from the timing of its release, and the exploitative manner of its presentation. The Tehelka tapes hit the television screens just when Mr. Modi’s Hindutva base appeared to be splintering. Five years after the pogrom, the parivar’s disillusionment with the man, once beloved of them all, seemed near-complete. In 2002, the VHP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh hailed Mr. Modi as a hero, and conferred upon him the title, “Hindu hriday samrat.” The same parivar now threatened to boycott him, led by the VHP’s fire-breathing Pravin Togadia, and joined in by a myriad other saffron outfits, all accusing Mr. Modi of straying from the Hindutva path, and issuing daily bulletins on his misdemeanours.

The anti-Modi rebellion in Saurashtra, previously made up of a handful of BJP malcontents, and therefore easily containable, was now a full-blown threat to Mr. Modi, having become the focus of any and all discontentment in the region. The rebels, always blessed by the former Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, and now fortified by the entry into their fold of veteran Suresh Mehta, were in the middle of evolving a joint strategy with the Congress, when Tehelka aired the sting.

Operation Kalank revisited the wounds of 2002 and in the process held up a mirror to the Congress which had taken the rebels in its embrace, forgetting the role they played in the riots. The sting unarguably saved the Congress from a major folly: Gordhan Zadaphia, Minister of State for Home in 2002, and leader of the BJP rebels, was among those expected to join the Congress. He retreated. But the sting also closed the window of opportunity provided by the division in the saffron ranks. In 2007 Gujarat, the only way to undermine Mr. Modi was to separate him from his post-Godhra image. Indeed, the parivar’s annoyance with Mr. Modi flowed from his perceived departure from the path he had himself shown in 2002. In reviving the memories of 2002, Tehelka revived the memories of saffron togetherness forged on a felt need to fight Muslims. The sting clubbed the guilt of Mr. Modi with that of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal at a time of debilitating tension between the Chief Minister and his ideological family.

Flawed argument

Undoubtedly, this line of argument is repugnant to the very notion of justice. This amounted to consciously, premeditatedly excluding Muslims and the injury done to them from the election debate. There was another pertinent question: if people rushed to vote for Mr. Modi, enthused by images of extreme violence done to one community, what sort of a people were they? The Tehelka team made a persuasive case to view the sting from a larger perspective: the aim of any investigation was to bring out the truth, and this truth could not be sacrificed at the altar of electoral calculations. Yet others said if the sting strengthened Mr. Modi, enabling his re-election, it had also caused long-term damage to his national and international image.

Perfect reasoning. However, it was also in some sense lofty and removed from the reality of Gujarat — where Muslims faced the prospect of five more years in isolation. Of what use was a journalistic investigation that brilliantly captured their suffering yet expected them to endure it in their own alleged interest?

Finally, there is the matter of how the sting was presented. The television channels chose the thriller format for a footage that was so graphic in itself that it required no further embellishment.

Yet in the hand of its exploitative anchors, the gore and death became a voyeuristic melodrama, complete with teaser-trailers that promised more and commercial breaks that stretched on and on — in evident admission that somebody’s misery was somebody else’s bottomline.

Perhaps the sting will make no impact. Perhaps the rebellion against Mr. Modi was illusory anyway. Nonetheless, there is no getting away from the singular important question the sting has posed: can you separate an investigation, however important, from its social and ethical context?

Global Fundamentalist Wars

2007-11-05T17:29:00.000-08:00

Global Fundamentalist Wars
By Gary Corseri - 19 March, 2007
Countercurrents.org

A review of The Gujarat Genocide. Garda Ghista, Author House, Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A. 175 pages

Garda Ghista dedicates The Gujarat Genocide to “the innocent victims of fundamentalist and communal violence everywhere.” The fundamentalisms that beset our over-trodden world today take many forms, including corporatism, militant “democracy,” Zionism, Islamic jihadism, Evangelicalism. Ms. Ghista, a long-time resident of India, now in the United States, focuses upon an extremism she has observed closely: that of right-wing Hindus; in particular, her book accounts and analyzes the horrific events of February and March, 2002 when riotous mobs in the state of Gujarat, spurred by leaders of the Sangh Parivar nationalist Hindu party, slaughtered between 2,000 and 5,000 Muslims. An additional 150,000 Muslims were rendered homeless and destitute. “Even after the initial 72 hours, the violence continued with the active support and collaboration of local police,” Ms. Ghista notes. About that time, Arundhati Roy wrote: “We’re sipping from a poisoned chalice—a flawed democracy laced with religious fascism … Gujarat has been the petri dish in which Hindu fascism has been fomenting an elaborate political experiment.”

The massacre was precipitated by the burning of a train in Gujarat returning from the demolished Babri Masjid site where Hindu volunteers had gone to help construct a temple on top of a demolished Muslim mosque. “Fifty-nine men and women perished in the fire,” Ghista writes. It was not known how the fire started, nor by whom. Despite the lack of evidence, within hours, Muslim communities across Gujarat were under assault. The Hindu mobs were well armed with trishuls (tridents), inflammable fuel, gas cylinders and acidic powders, and thoroughly indoctrinated with the xenophobic racism and other-hatred of Sangh Parivar.

How has our "modern" world come to such a fix in which tribal hatreds festering for centuries or millennia explode with virulence upon a canvas of hope and progress? Hope and progress were themes sounded briefly at the end of the Cold War when George H.W. Bush spoke beneficently of a “peace dividend” for the world. Hope and progress are catchwords in articles on India in recent issues of the Financial Times, Time or Newsweek magazines, etc. The Indian miracle is touted daily, second only to the Chinese miracle, but we read little about the dark side of the transformations taking place in both of these ancient, miraculous lands. Ghista’s book is a sensible corrective for restoring a fuller perspective.

And the book will not only better our understanding of Mother India, but help us to put our own struggles into high relief. As Ghista writes, “With the rise of Jewish and Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East and Christian fundamentalism in the US, the Gujarat genocide looms large in a scenario of global fundamentalist wars. It is a story that reverberates in every corner of the globe where the wolves of religious fundamentalism howl at the gates of power. How are we to face this juggernaut of religious fascism, presently manifest in all major world religions?” Ghista aims her book at “those who cherish human freedom from dogma and hatred.” It is well-aimed.

Garda Ghista created World Prout Assembly to educate people to fight for economic democracy. She can be reached at editor@worldproutassembly.org.

Gary Corseri's work has appeared at CounterCurrents, ThomasPaine'sCorner, Dissident Voice, CounterPunch, CommonDreams and elsewhere. He can be contacted at corseri@verizon.net.

Moditva To Sanity

2007-11-05T17:27:00.001-08:00

Moving From Moditva To Sanity:
The Stakes In Gujarat
By Praful Bidwai - 29 October, 2007
Kashmir Times

When Mr Narendra Modi walked out of an interview
with the CNN-IBN television channel last week
after being questioned about the Gujarat communal
carnage of 2002, he probably didn't realise he
was inflicting grave damage upon his image. The
impact of the walkout, which showed Mr Modi as
confused, shaky, arrogant and unreasonable, has
since been magnified several-fold by Tehelka's
exposure of the gruesome violence planned and
encouraged by the Modi regime, whose barbarity
has shocked the nation.

"The two episodes have dented Mr Modi's contrived
image as a swashbuckling, super-confident leader
who can ride out any adversity," says
Ahmedabad-based activist-analyst Mukul Sinha.
"The man is nothing. His larger-than-life image
is everything. But he can longer maintain it. He
comes across as a criminally minded, viciously
communal leader."

As he readies himself for electoral battle in
December, Mr Modi is likely to find that his
deflated image extracts a high political price.
Five years after his Bharatiya Janata Party won
70 percent of all seats in the Assembly despite
(or is it because of?) the communal violence of
February/March 2002, it appears much more
vulnerable than at any time during its 12
continuous years in power in Gujarat. The
vote-share gap between it and the Congress
narrowed from 10 percentage-points to barely 3
between 2002 and 2004, and may now get reversed.
Gujarat's Assembly elections are likely to be a
national turning-point. If the BJP wins them
under Mr Modi's stewardship, the result will
greatly influence leadership succession within
the party and strengthen its hard- Hindutva
elements. More vitally, in conjunction with the
Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh-also due in
December, in which the BJP is widely expected to
displace the Congress-it'll prove a major
morale-booster and help the party stem its losses
in the next Lok Sabha elections. (A recent poll
by NDTV-GfK-Mode forecasts a fall in the BJP's
national tally from 138 seats to 116.)
If, on the other hand, the BJP loses Gujarat,
it'll be a massive setback for it and a major
gain for the secular forces. That'll set the
stage for a long-overdue correction to the
ghastly trend that brought about the communal
violence of 2002, in which more than 2,000
Muslims were butchered, many more raped, and
150,000 rendered homeless. This could herald the
BJP's relegation to the margins of politics,
where it belonged until the Ram janmabhoomi
campaign clicked in the late 1980s. This could
transform Indian democracy qualitatively for the
better.

Mr Modi, the chhote sardar who looked invincible
just some months ago, now seems beset by
adversity and enemies-ironically, mainly from his
own sangh parivar . Not just Vishwa Hindu
Parishad sadhus and RSS cadres, but even
significant sections of the BJP, bitterly oppose
him.

They comprise at least 11 MLAs and two MPs,
including heavyweights like former Chief
Ministers Keshubhai Patel and Suresh Mehta,
former Union textiles Minister Kashiram Rana, and
state ex-Home Minister Goverdhan Zadaphiya. Some
of them are prepared to quit the BJP and work
with or through the Congress to defeat Mr Modi.
They have held about 80 anti-Modi rallies in
different parts of Gujarat, including an
unprecedented 300,000-strong one in Rajkot.
Beneath the leadership-level changes lie major
shifts in the BJP's social support-base. Two
large caste groups, the Kolis and Leuva Patils
(Patidars), have moved away from it. The OBC
Kolis are among the state's largest castes,
comprised largely of small and marginal farmers,
and landless labourers. Traditionally Congress
voters, the Kolis gravitated towards the BJP in
the mid-1990s and voted en masse for it in 2002.
By the 2004 Parliamentary elections, however, 55
percent of their vote went back to the Congress.
The prosperous Patidars dominate Gujarat's
agriculture, small and medium-scale industries,
and diamond polishing. Their vote is decisive in
one-third of all constituencies. They account for
37 of the BJP's total of 127 MLAs; its Koli MLAs
number 15. Both groups are upset with Mr Modi
because of his extremely abrasive style,
readiness to humiliate, refusal to share the
loaves and fishes of office, and his government's
failure to allow the fruits of growth to trickle
down.

No less significant is the anger among Gujarat's
tribal community and civil society organisations
(CSOs) with Mr Modi's rule. Adivasis comprise 15
percent of the population-among the highest
proportion in Indian states-and have 26 reserved
seats. Earlier, they would vote overwhelmingly
for the Congress, but in 2002, the Congress got
only 11 tribal seats to the BJP's 13. Now,
however, Lok Sangharsh Morcha, an Adivasi
organisation, has decided to take on the BJP and
contest seven Assembly seats.

Similarly, CSOs active among the victims of
violence are preparing to confront the BJP and
mobilise the Muslim community to go out and vote.
The 2002 carnage, followed by constant
harassment, persecution under anti-terrorism
laws, and social intimidation, economic boycott
and political marginalisation, ghettoised Muslims
and pulverised them into submissiveness. But
resistance to marginalisation is growing and
groups like the New Social Movement are planning
to put up solidly secular candidates.

All this offers the Congress and its allies a
great chance to defeat the BJP and vanquish
Moditva, that diabolical combination of rank
communalism, blatant violation of human rights,
and pursuit of extremely dualistic elitist
policies in the name of "development".
Mr Modi, who mouths the "Vibrant Gujarat" slogan,
boasts that the state is one big SEZ-where 'S'
stands for spirituality, 'E' for
entrepreneurship, and 'Z' for zing. India Today
magazine and the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of
Contemporary Studies have rated Gujarat a high
performing state with all-round growth and Mr
Modi India's most efficient Chief Minister.
In reality, Gujarat is a misgoverned state, with
unbalanced growth and warped development.
Eloquent proof for this comes from the fact that
74.3 percent of Gujarat's women and 46.3 percent
of its children are anaemic. Gujarat's
macro-economic indicators are unflattering. It
has a higher per capita debt-ratio than UP and
Bihar. Agrarian distress has driven more than 500
Gujarat farmers to suicide over the past four
years. Sweetheart deals for business groups have
sent the prices of basic services and inputs
rocketing. Despite high tariffs like Rs 5.32 a
unit, the power supply situation remains
pathetic. Gujarat continues to attract industrial
investment not because of its leaders' dynamism
or policies but because of a historical
accident-business groups invested there early on,
and there's a big petrochemicals cluster around
Baroda.

As the official Human Development Report (2004)
points out, " Gujarat has reached only 48 percent
of the goals set for human development". It lags
behind in this thanks to "several distortions in
[its] growth path", including agricultural
stagnation. Its gains in literacy, education,
health, nutrition, welfare and social security
are much lower than its GDP growth. Recent
"deceleration in [its] achievements", it says, is
cause for "serious concern."

Gujarat's human development and gender
empowerment ranks actually fell during the 1990s.
Although it's Number 4 among all states in per
capita income (down from Number 2), it has fallen
to Number 6 in education, 9 in health, and Number
12 in participation.

Gujarat's indices of patriarchy are frightening.
The sex-ratio is an abysmal 487:1000 in the 0-4
age-group and 571 in the 5-9 group (national
averages, 515 and 632 respectively). Gujarat's
health indices have since dropped relative to
other states and are barely higher than Orissa's,
HDR co-author Darshini Mahadevia told me. In
social sector spending as a proportion of total
public expenditure, Gujarat ranks a lowly 19
among India's 21 major states.

The industries that have flourished the most in
Gujarat are all highly hazardous or polluting:
poisonous chemicals-Vapi is the world's fourth
most toxic hub-, textile dyeing, shipbreaking,
and diamond polishing, which turns people blind
in their thirties. Gujarat hasn't still recovered
from the de-industrialisation of the 1980s and
1990s with its mill industry's wholesale closure.
In Gujarat, labour rights are virtually
nonexistent. On minimum wages, Gujarat ranks
eighth among Indian states.

As for the claim that Gujarat is
well-administered, its legislature's Public
Accounts Committee has severely indicted the
government for awarding contracts in the Sujalam
Sufalam scheme without tenders, causing a loss of
hundreds of crores. Tax breaks and shady deals
have cost Gujarat some Rs 15,000 crores.
"Hindutva laboratory" Gujarat's law-and-order
situation is appalling. Its religious minorities
and Dalits suffer extreme discrimination and
exclusion. Like Muslims, its Christians face
persecution. More than 100 Dalits were murdered
in Gujarat over the past three years. The
harassment of hundreds of Muslims originally
arrested under TADA and POTA continues
unabated-although these laws stand repealed. The
absence of the rule of law means a hollowing out
of democracy.

The Congress has a historic chance to inflict a
stinging defeat on the BJP. To do this, it must
offer an alternative vision, take a strongly
secular line, build alliances with other
anti-communal parties/groups, and run a spirited
campaign with a wise choice of candidates, while
keeping the BJP dissidents at an arm's length.
The fight is winnable-and certainly worth winning.

Modi And Indian Democracy

2007-11-05T17:24:00.000-08:00

Narendra Modi And Indian Democracy

They Two Cannot Coexist
By Daya Varma & Vinod Mubayi
01 November, 2007 - INSAF Bulletin

The Tehelka exposure of the crimes of Hindutva
fascists led by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi only proves what was already well known. Yet
proof is important because legal action against
any one requires proof. The crimes committed by
the ruffians of Sangh Parivar in 2002 are
horrendous. They cannot happen unpunished in a
civilized society and the fact they happened in
India and the criminals remain scot-free simply
reveals not only the cultural degeneration of
Indian society but also the sham and incompetent
nature of Indian democracy.

There are lots of Asians, Arabs, Africans and
Latinos in Western countries. There is racism
here too. And yet any overt racial slur or
arbitrary harassment of visible minority people
does lead to consequences, which may be delayed,
unevenly applied, or insufficient, but which also
include retribution, enquiry and often enough
dismissal of the media person or police official.
In this sense, even the aftermath of 9/11,
horrible as it was for the hundreds of mainly
Muslim immigrants who were harassed, detained,
and deported, was not allowed to go out of
control a la Gujarat, nor was the bomb blast in
the London underground or riots in the Paris
suburbs. Bourgeois democracy just cannot afford
to violate certain norms.

However, the case in India is in stark contrast
to what is expected of a democracy. First the
Muslim community was brutalized under the
rationale articulated by Modi that the fire on
the railway train at Godhra station was an
"action" calling for a "reaction." Leaving aside
the question of whether there was any Muslim mob
that allegedly set fire to the train - all the
evidence gathered by agencies not directly
connected to the Gujarat government indicates
that the fire was an accident caused by kerosene
fuel cookers carried illegally in the train
carriage - no civilized society would allow a
general lawlessness to prevail against an entire
community, which ultimately resulted in a
horrendous pogrom. The laxity shown by the NDA
government towards the hordes of the Sangh
Parivar led by Narendra Modi was shameful but
understandable. It was a question of solidarity
within a mafia family.

But the hesitation of the UPA government, which
survives with the support of the left parties, on
the Gujarat genocide is beyond comprehension.
This marriage between parliamentary democracy and
feudal highhandedness must be broken if India is
to emerge as a modern democratic society. Herein
lays the challenge for the Left and Democratic
forces of India - to mount a massive protest to
force the UPA government to immediately dismiss
Narendra Modi's government, place all those
accused in their own words by the Tehelka
evidence in jail and try them all for crimes
against humanity. In the meantime, President's
rule should be declared and a central policing
authority should be placed in charge of Gujarat.

Modi A Psychic Killer

2007-11-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

Modi A Psychic Killer

By Yoginder Sikand
http://countercurrents.org/sikand051107.htm
05 November, 2007, Countercurrents.org

Interview of Vithalbhai Pandya by Yoginder Sikand

Q: What do you feel about the recent judgment by the POTA court in the Haren Pandya murder case?

A: I firmly believe that my son Haren Pandya was killed at Modi's behest through D.G. Vanjara, head of Gujarat's Anti-Terrorist Squad and Modi's blue-eyed boy. This was because Haren was a transparent and efficient man, whom Modi thought of as a threat to his power. Haren was opposed to the worship of any individual, and so became a thorn in Modi's flesh. He was the only BJP MLA in Gujarat who did not act according to Modi's will. When the train coach was set alight in Godhra, Haren told Modi to confine the incident to Godhra itself and not to spread violence in the rest of Gujarat, as that would tear apart the fabric of our society and cause irreparable economic, besides human, destruction. But, yet, Modi went ahead, and organized a meeting in Sabarkantha where he plotted the genocide of Muslims throughout the state. These were state-sponsored massacres. I am saying this in the capacity of the father of the then Gujarat Home Minister, because I knew this from Haren himself.

I have leveled specific charges against Modi but the CBI did not interrogate him. Under stiff pressure from Modi and his mentor, Lal Krishen Advani, then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India, the CBI did not conduct a proper probe. Modi, Advani and Vanjara are all criminals. It is the height of tragedy that the criminals I have pointed to have not been interrogated and punished and key witnesses have not been called to court. Advani and Modi must be arrested and sentenced for their anti-national activities, for spreading communal hatred and violence and thereby tearing apart our country and destroying its unity and integrity.

From the very beginning I have been arguing that Modi was not killed in his Maruti car outside the Law Gardens in Ahmedabad, contrary to what the CBI claims in order to pass the blame on to the arrested Muslim youth. A team of top forensic scientists who studied the matter also concurred with me on this. No blood drops were found in the car, nor was there any residue of the bullets. Haren was shot at in the scrotum and the bullet traveled vertically from there, which would not have been possible if he had been shot at in the car. Since the data in the form of investigation is wrong, how can the judgment be right? The court did not consider the opinion of the forensic experts due to political interference in the case. I demanded that Modi be first removed from the post of Chief Minister of Gujarat and then let the CBI conduct its probe if it is to be fair and impartial, but, sadly, this did not happen, for obvious political reasons.

Q: Have you appealed in the court to present your case?

A: I applied to the court to file my appeal. I wanted to appear as a party in person but I did not get any reply from the court. I then wrote to the Supreme Court, but from there, too, I got no response. I also appealed to the President of India, the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice and leaders of various political parties to take up the case, but no one showed any sincere interest. I sent letters to BJP and RSS letters, but they, too, did not reply, despite the fact that my son was a top BJP leader, the Home Minister of Gujarat.

Q: What, then, do you think of the RSS and the BJP?

A: The BJP is today not a genuine political party at all. It is a gang of a few sophisticated ruffians. These people are hungry for money and power. Their speech and their actions do not match. They want to spread communal hatred in the name of Hinduism and thereby climb to power. According to the noted scholar Ashish Nandy, Modi shows all signs of being a psychopathic dictator. He, Advani and their likes have worked against the unity and integrity of this great nation. For their anti-national and anti-Constitutional crimes they must be arrested and jailed.

People are losing faith in the RSS. Modi has created a vertical split in the RSS, and many RSS leaders tell me that they dislike him. He has also put aside the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), and is, instead, patronizing a bunch of sadhus who constantly flatter him. Ambitious, selfish people have taken control of the RSS and the VHP. Look at Modi's ministry—it contains so many criminals and ruffians. Modi's government in Gujarat is being run on jhoot (lies), julm (oppression) and jasusi (spying). Modi has his spies in every office. And Gujarat is now engulfed in crime, in riots.

RSS and VHP leaders have amassed vast amounts of money in the name of destroying the Babri Masjid and building a temple in Ayodhya. Some time ago, Gauri Advani, Lal Krishen Advani's daughter-in-law came out with a statement that Advani was not a true Hindu, that he was misusing the name of Rama. Such is the state of the BJP.

Q: So, do you feel that the Muslims arrested and sentenced in the Haren Pandya case are actually innocent?

A: I am concerned with the actual motivator of the murder, who, I say, is Narendra Modi. The Muslims who were arrested are poor and illiterate, and such people can be used. Modi is worse than Hitler. He will use all means to protect himself, including threats and enticements.

Q: But what about the Muslims arrested? Do you think they are innocent and have been wrongly framed?

A: Maybe they are innocent. This is something that should be properly investigated. How can I cite my own opinion? I am in touch with the families of these Muslim men. They respect me greatly. They have told me that their sons were not at all involved in Haren's murder. It may be that the CBI has fabricated the whole story about these Muslims in order to save Modi.

Q: So, are you saying that you think that these Muslims were not involved in the killing?

A: They were not involved. They did not kill Haren. They had no role in his murder. But, still, this is a matter for the court, so what can I say? The court should have been impartial but it was not. Key witnesses, such as myself and Haren's secretary, have not been examined. I believe Vanjara arranged for Haren's murder to please Modi in order to get a promotion, and the story of these innocent Muslims being involved was concocted in order to further fan Hindu emotions while getting rid of a major rival to Modi. One man, Mufti Sufiyan, who was under constant police vigil, was allowed to cross over to Pakistan so that witnesses could be made hostile and Modi could escape conviction.

Further, efforts were made to destroy all possible evidence. All the telephone numbers on Haren's mobile phone of calls made on the 25th and 26th of March, that is the day before and the day of his murder, were later deleted. The Hutch company may have been bribed or led astray or put under pressure to do so. Had the numbers not been deleted, it could easily have been ascertained who it was who had called him the morning he was murdered, because it was after getting this call that he left home in haste, shortly after which he was killed. Obviously, that person must have been very familiar to him, otherwise he would not have rushed out like that. And then when he reached the place which he must have mentioned to this caller, he must have been surrounded by the killers, who pushed him on the ground, because of which some gravel got lodged in his knees. They must have shot him there, then put him in his car and taken it and his corpse to the Law Gardens. The fact of the gravel in his knees clearly indicates that he was not shot inside the car, but that he was killed elsewhere.

I have clear-cut evidence to prove that Modi was responsible for Haren's murder. It is as good as a dying declaration. Some two or three months before Haren's murder, Modi asked the President of the Gujarat unit of the BJP to issue Haren a show-cause notice, because he felt that Haren was emerging as a powerful challenge to him. Haren said that he feared that he might fall a victim to Modi's ego, vendetta and revenge. Haren did not follow Modi's whims, and so Modi arranged for this show-cause notice to be issued. The President of the BJP state unit had to do as Modi had told him, although he held Haren in great respect, and was literally in tears when he informed Haren about the notice.

On 24th March, two days before he was killed, Haren, referring to Modi, told me, 'Take it from me, this Ghanchi (oil-presser, the caste to which Modi belongs) may be rusticated from Gujarat within 15 days, by around the 10th of April, otherwise I am not a Brahmin.' And that matter leaked out. Haren may have told the same thing to someone else, who might have informed Modi, and then became the apple of Modi's eye.

Q: And who is that person?

A: Oh, let that person go to hell. As I said, Haren might have told some friends of his the same thing that he told me. It may have been a very big builder in Ahmedabad, who might have told this to Advani, and maybe Modi came to know of this through him. That is why Modi might have conspired to have him killed. Haren wanted to drive Modi out of Gujarat using constitutional means. He disliked Modi's attitude, his arrogance and his unconstitutional deeds.

Q: What do you feel about the burning of the coach of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, which was then used by Modi to engineer a genocide of Muslims across Gujarat?

A: I think it was a pre-planned strategy of Modi to use the Hindutva card to keep himself in power at any cost.

Q: So, are you saying that you think that the train was set alight on Modi's instructions?

A: Yes.

Q: Not by some Muslims in Godhra?

A: No, no, no.

Q: So are you saying that you believe that Modi was involved in the burning of the coach?

A: Definitely.

Q: Did Haren Pandya tell you that?

A: He told me that Modi would certainly do something (Modi zaroor kuch na kuch karega).

Q: But did he explicitly tell you that Modi had planned the burning of the coach?

A: No, he did not tell me this. But I believe that the Muslims of Godhra were not responsible for the burning of the coach. The karesevaks returning from Ayodhya in the train were absolutely frenzied and then this happened.

Q: But do you mean to say that you think the coach was burnt at Modi's instigation?

A: Definitely. Definitely. Definitely.

Q: Since you believe that the Gujarat High Court's judgmnent is wrong, have you demanded a reinvestigation into the Haren Pandya murder case?

A: Yes, yes. I have sent numerous letters to leaders of the country demanding a reinvestigation. I wrote to the President of India, the Chief Justice and also delivered a letter to Sonia Gandhi in person. However, I have got no response at all. Maybe there is some pressure not to go ahead with the reinvestigation. I've been moving heaven and earth to get at the truth but as long as Modi and Advani are not punished justice will elude me.

Q: What do you feel about Modi's chances of winning in the coming elections in Gujarat?

A: He is feeding the people with sleeping pills, fanning communal hatred. But this time I don't think he will be elected. Who knows, prior to that he might be behind bars? I wish I could file a suit against him to disqualify him, but I am an ordinary middle-class man and cannot afford the exorbitant cost that this would entail. And then, only a lawyer who will not succumb to Modi's tactics—bribes and intimdation—can take him on.

But I will continue my struggle against Modi. It is not a struggle for my son, but for Gujarat, for justice and democracy, for humanity, for the victims of those thousands of innocent Muslims who Modi arranged to have massacred. I am 80 years-old, and now at the fag end of my life. I am doing what I can to see that Modi and Advani and their likes are brought to justice. I send off letters to various leaders demanding justice. I cannot even remember the number of these letters. I have yet to get any positive response, even from the Congress. But still I shall continue to raise my voice. Otherwise, what is the use of living? I don't want to live like an inert corpse.

Modi behaves like the monarch of all he surveys. But I know in my heart that God will not let him go unpunished. He will die a dog's death. These are the words of a Brahmin.

Truth Of Gujarat Carnage

2007-11-05T17:18:00.000-08:00

The Truth Of Gujarat Carnage
By Ram Puniyani

05 November, 2007, Countercurrents.org
http://countercurrents.org/puniyani051107.htm

Tehelka sting operation, Kalank, brought forward the
truth of Godhra and Gujarat violence. This
investigation reinforced the findings known earlier.
Most of the reports by human rights activists had
unearthed the same facts, the complicity of state with
RSS combine to unleash a pogrom, to launch violence
against Muslims, burning their properties and
destroying their dargahas etc. What was new was that
we all could see in live the perpetrators of the crime
gloating over their shameful acts, from opening the
womb of Kausar bano to hacking to death of Ahsan
Jaffri!

In any civilized society this would have been a reason
enough for the central govt to dismiss the Modi Govt
and to launch the cases against those who are
confessing in front of camera. But what do we see? The
top leadership of Congress kept mum as if some minor
incident is being reported by Tehelka. From the UPA
Govt only Lalu Yadav demanded the arrest of Modi, the
main person responsible for this mass murder. The
response of BJP was more revealing. While its top
leadership kept quiet, its spokespersons tried to
raise the fingers of doubt about the motives of
Tehelka sting, the timing, the powers behind the
expose and all that. The central point of the crime
being committed by their supporters was dodged,
bypassed and defended indirectly. What is all this a
symbol of? How low a section of society has stooped
while pursuing the games of power? Now, even the
gloating of the killers is being accepted and
defended, the rule of law seems have given way to the
communal fascism, the real label for the politics of
Hindutva, a blot to the values of saint tradition of
Hinduism, as represented by people like Kabir and
Gandhi.

It has given the identity of its politics with Hindu
religion and that's the worst abuse for the humane
values of many a rich Hindu traditions. The RSS
combine has deliberately associated their social
agenda with the word Hindu so that they can get away
with their crimes under the cloak of faith, so that
they can polarize the society along religious lines,
intimidate the society as a whole and do away with the
concept of human rights, paving the way for
suppression of the rights of weaker sections of
society, dalits, adivasis, women and workers, while
demonizing and attacking the minorities, Muslims and
Christians.

Why this silence of Congress leadership? The fear of
Hindu votes? Can we keep measuring the social
phenomena of such tragic proportions in the terms of
electoral gains? Does the human tragedy, violation of
law, trampling of human rights, the plight of
minorities not matter to us in the first place?
Communal forces have brought in religious divides in
the society. We do not have time to think that what
would the leaders of our national movement, have done
in a situation like this. Imagine Mahatma Gandhi
seeing the tapes and keeping quiet for the fear that
he may loose the position of power! Imagine Jawaharlal
Nehru looking the other way around when Babu Bajrangi
is proudly describing his crimes? Imagine him
exonerating Modi for giving three days to the RSS
goons to unleash mayhem of his magnitude which took
place in Gujarat?

As such the erosion of secular values has taken place
at various levels. The communalization of mind, the
institutionalization of biases against minorities,
relegation of minorities to second class citizenship
has gone on through various mechanisms. Pundit Nehru's
warning to Congress that the communal elements have
entered Congress and are a threat to the values which
Congress should uphold seems to have fallen on deaf
ears. That seems to be the reason as to why the
Congress coalition elected twice in Maharashtra, on
the promise that Shrikrishna Commission will be
implemented, has shamelessly kept the report in cold
storage.

The issue is not just of defense of minorities, the
issue is the overall system of democracy and its
accompanying values. The erosion of rule of law in the
state machinery overall, affecting all its wings is
what has to be addressed urgently. The misuse of
religious identity for political purpose by the RSS
and its affiliates has to be countered properly, if we
want to bring back the ethos of freedom movement. The
argument that minorities should forget the past and
get on with life is too simplistic. Can there be peace
without justice? When section of minorities start
saying that they no longer want to look back at the
past, it is not that they have over come the grief and
sense of injustice, it only means that they are
surrendering to the politics of the dominant sections,
they are realizing that they cannot live here as equal
citizens. The test of democracy is that even the
tiniest minority can live here with as much dignity
and honor as any one else. While the leadership in
Maharashtra is too 'shrewd' and has been avoiding the
implementation of the Shrikrishna report despite the
promises, the likes of Modi will try to distract the
whole issue and consolidate their vote bank by
instilling a sense of fear amongst majority community.

Time has come that we face the truth head on, punish
the guilty and protect the innocent irrespective of
religion and caste. In Gujarat if state Govt has
failed to prosecute the guilty, that's a breach of the
oath taken by political leadership and it has to be
dealt with like that, i.e. violation of constitutional
obligations by state Govt. The state officials who
were aiding, abetting and participating in the crime
must be dealt with as criminals. The judiciary and
central govt has to devise a mechanism so that rule of
law is brought back in Gujarat. If the Congress
coalition in Maharashtra just wants to buy time and
play with words, while sleeping over the
implementation of Shrkrishna commission, time that a
mass satyagrah is launched to get justice for the
victims of the carnage.

Read and be afraid

2007-11-04T18:42:00.000-08:00

Read. And Be Afraid
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107Tarunspiece.asp

TARUN J TEJPAL

IN AUSCHWITZ the exposed-brick barracks sit in neat rows, in a calm so deep it must necessarily rise out of death. The tidy paths cut each other at right angles, and the trees are stately and still. The sweet boxy buildings could be town houses, or school blocks, or military quarters. Or killing factories that smoothly sucked in human beings, separated them from their clothes, their hair, their gold teeth, their reading glasses and their children, and then processed them in a furnace. The electrified barbed wire fences that run in straight lines held up by concrete pillars could have kept out unwanted intruders, or kept in helpless innocents.

The Nazis believed in the differences in men, and believed in the extermination of these differences. The imagination can never fully get around the horror of Auschwitz — and adjoining Birkenau — where in less than three years the Nazis gassed and incinerated nearly one-and-a-half million men, women and children, many no more than a few years old. In a world full of memorials to our creativity and genius, this is a memorial to the darkness that ever lurks in the heart of men.

As you walk through those surreally peaceful double-storey blocks, you will invariably find yourself tailed or led by a crocodile of teenagers — scrubbed shining, brightly attired, speaking in hushed voices — winding their way through a byway of history to which they — and each one of us — are deeply connected. Round the year, ceaselessly, the Jews ship out their children from all over the world to show them the beast that resides in us all. By their own long suffering they understand that the battle of life against death is the battle of memory against forgetting. That to not look the beast in the face is to have the beast on your back all the time.

There is nowhere in India that you can take your daughter if you wish to level her with the beast of Partition, the beast of the 1984 Sikh riots, the beast of a hundred communal and caste massacres, or the beast of Gujarat 2002. Because we do not remember, we repeat; because we do not look the evil in the eye, it dogs us all the time.

There is nowhere in India that we enshrine our cruelty so that we can look at it and be dismayed and be afraid.

Well, read this special issue of TEHELKA and be dismayed and be afraid. Ashish Khetan's extraordinary six-month investigation — one of the finest in the history of Indian journalism — peels off all kinds of masks, and shows us the beast in us. For five years since the carnage, we have heard charges and counter-charges. We have heard the victims, the government, the police, the judiciary, and the civil rights groups. Now for the first time hear the story of the killings from the men who did it. Put to rest your doubts about the foetus that was pulled out from its womb; about the systematic slicing of Ehsan Jafri's limbs and torso; of the raping and chopping and burning of women and children; of law officers who turned on the victims; of the collusion of the police and the government.

Read it and be afraid.

One problem is we live in an age of spiralling hype and sensation.An age of cheap spectacle in which the indulgences of sports and cinema can be so easily deemed landmark and historic. An age in which words like chilling, appalling, inhuman, outrageous, have all lost their charge. We are all desensitised viewers set upon by a turbofuelled media. Image is chasing image at such blistering speed that we dare not hold on to anything — lest we burst. This issue of TEHELKA, perhaps, can be a kind of litmus test. Read the following pages and see if you rediscover the meaning of some words — barbaric for one; for another, heartbreaking.

Read it and see if you can still be made afraid.

Illustration: Uzma Mohsin

Of the many things that are uniquely appalling about Gujarat 2002, three are particularly disturbing. The first that the genocidal killings took place in the heart of urban India in an era of saturation media coverage — television, print, web — and not under the cloak of secrecy in an unreachable place. The second that the men who presided over the carnage were soon after elected to power not despite their crimes but seemingly precisely because of them (making a mockery of the idea of the inevitable morality of the collective). And finally — as TEHELKA's investigation shows — the fact that there continues to be no trace of remorse, no sign of penitence for the blood-on-the-hands that — if Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky are to be believed — is supposed to haunt men to their very graves.

Like Germany and Italy once, Gujarat begs many questions. How do a non-militant people suddenly acquire a bloodthirsty instinct? Does affluence not diminish the impulse to savagery? Does education not diminish the impulse to bigotry? Do the much-vaunted tenets of classical Hinduism not diminish the impulse to cruelty? If tolerance and wisdom will not flourish in a garden of well-being and learning, in the very land of Mahatma Gandhi, then is there any hope for these things at all?

Are we all, finally, only making a reckoning of differences and numbers? Would we all, given the advantage of numbers, and protection from the law, gleefully brutalise anyone who is different, or in disagreement? Today it is the overwhelming question in the mirror. Each of us needs to see it and to answer it. For the violence that bloomed so bloodily amid the Gujarati is also all around us. Every day brings news of a fresh mob attack, a fresh case of vigilante justice. The strong will tame the weak — if only law and order will look the other way for a moment.

Is it possible that contrary to all the hoopla we may have already lived out the high tide of our democracy? Many Indians may get richer and richer but as a people — a deep civilisation — we will now only get poorer and poorer? Is it possible that a country sprung from the vision of giants can now only sustain small men with small concerns? Once a few good men shaped a modern egalitarian nation out of a devastated colony; are there none now to staunch the rot?

FOR MORE than three years there has been a government at the centre that claims a legacy of the founding vision. Amazingly it has not once lifted a finger to alleviate the grief of Gujarat. There has neither been a display of the impartial steel of law and order, nor the soothing balm of any efforts of peace and reconciliation. Shining names like Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh present abject report cards — full of the desperate calculus of votes and seats; fully bare of any act of courageous morality. On the other hand, there is the bravery of the bigot: with élan Narendra Modi walks the talk and flings the gauntlet. And the idea of India dulls by the day.

Great leadership — power — is a complex duet of control and vision. India lives with a generation of politicians who at any given time only possess one of the two. The resulting catastrophes erupt around us like rash on an allergy.

Today India has a thousand mutinies awaiting an opportunity to violence, but this is the most important story of our time because the schism in Gujarat is the biggest slap in the face of the idea of India. We would do well to remember that there were once other contesting ideas to that of the liberal secular democracy. We would do well to remember nothing is forever. We could still become other things, the beast within us could still tear us apart — as has happened in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar — if we do not do what we need to do, if we do not look into the mirror and fix our face.

The face can neither be an angry snarl nor a glassy-eyed indifference. And it certainly cannot be the vacuous grin of the shining Indian. In equal parts it must reflect concern and memory and compassion. Read the following pages and know why. Read the following pages and be afraid.

................................................................................................

Selected Articles: http://gujaratjustice.blogspot.com/

We have to take bold steps to put an end to terrorism, be it by an individual or a state. Any one who disrupts the peace must be tried as a criminal without giving him a religious cover. We have "protected" criminals too long giving them a religion to hide under; be it in Kashmir, Gujarat, Mumbai, Delhi, Ayodhya, Hyderabad or any where else. If we do not bring Justice, the problems would linger, shifting our energies from prospering to dealing with unabated terrorism. No one should be above the law.

--
Mike Ghouse
(214) 325-1916
www.MikeGhouse.net

Remorseless Bragging

2007-11-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Remorseless Bragging

Mayanak Chhaya, November 1, 2007

Mayanak's comments follow my notes:

I read Mayanak's notes posted at the South Asian Journalists forum, and sought her permission to reprint here. The barabarism displayed is beyond human belief, Mayanak writes, " See the relish with which he brags about how a police report against him recorded the way he cut open a pregnant Muslim’s woman’s stomach with a sword, extracted the fetus and threw it before killing her. There is a fiendish twinkle in his eyes while he reminisces about the incident" and she cites the harrowing tale of a Muslim in Bhiwandi " “Salon ko bhed-bakri ki tarha kat dala. Maza aya. (We hacked them (Hindus) like livestock. It was enjoyable.”

Mayanak, thanks for sharing the above two incidents. It reaffirms my belief that each one of those individuals must be tried as criminals, and let's not give a religious label to these, we need to single them out for their crimes and punish them singularly. It is not a Hindu, or a Muslim, it is a criminal we should be trying out in the court of the law.

The Media can change the course of the history, by not touching religion, as the crime was unquestionably commited by individuals. Let's learn to punish the wrong doer, not his family, his town, his community, his religion or his nation.

Mike Ghouse

Here is Mayanak's story:

There are a few stories that ought to be uncovered outside the strict definitions of ethical journalism. The Gujarat story is one of them. Having reported extensively on earlier Gujarat riots and hailing from Ahmedabad I am very aware of the chemistry of a religious riot, especially the Hindu-Muslim variety.

It would be a mistake to focus on the means, that is whether the kind of investigative journalism that went behind it was acceptable, rather than the end, that is bringing out in the open a cold-blooded killer. In this case, the means, however questionable, did indeed serve a larger purpose
and hopefully a larger good, and hence created a mitigating circumstance.

Of course, those who know Gujarat knew it all along that the killings of the Muslims that followed the equally revolting murders of Hindu pilgrims, which in some ways set up a perfect retaliatory environment, were a systematically orchestrated event which Narendra Modi at the very least connived at if not took part in it altogether. I say this from personal knowledge gained from some of those who led the killings with open swords.

Journalism, ethical or otherwise, is a response to a society it operates in. While one can surely expect and demand journalists to follow certain basic standards, it would be unrealistic to believe that men like Babu Bajrangi can be exposed during the course of a normal interview. Of
course, some of these people are so full of themselves and their own bigotry that they will be more than happy to volunteer any and all information. Having spoken to a large number of people who were involved in rioting I know that many of them wear their involvement as a badge of honor. Many of them live under the delusion that they are history warriors, out to avenge the wrongs done to the Hindus by marauding Muslim invaders over the past few centuries.

Unfortunately, the Hindu-Muslim equation in India, like everything else there, is so complex that it is at once both glorious in the noblest sense of the word as well as irredeemably shameful in the worst possible manner. And the state of Gujarat has become the emblem of that equation
and the politics that flows from it. Rightly or wrongly a vast number of Gujarati Hindus have decided that the community’s millennia old tradition of tolerance, liberalism and composite culture are no longer an effective antidote against the rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism. It is instructive to hear Bajrangi say with contempt, “Hum khchidi-kadhiwale nahin hai. (We are not the khichdi-kadhi type)” To fully comprehend what Bajrangi is saying it is necessary to understand the Gujarati mindset and socio-cultural logic behind it. Of course, khichdi is seasoned rice and kadhi is a form of curry made with whipped yogurt.

Although delicious, khichidi-kadhi has long been seen as a symbol of defeatism and peculiar cowardice among those who consume it as a staple, which is predominantly Hindus. It is as if khichidi-kadhi releases certain chemicals that damage the part of the brain responsible for religion-based aggression. In contrast, Muslims are largely non-vegetarian and eat all manners of white and red meat, which according to this ridiculously flawed logic, has made them aggressive and bloody-minded. When Bajrangi asserts that he is not the “khichdi-kadhi” type he is responding to the conditioning arising from food habits.

If the purpose of the sting was, at least by implication if not explicitly so, to irretrievably damage Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's electoral prospects in December, then I am not too sure whether it would achieve the purpose. On the contrary it might end up bolstering his
chances in a constituency which in any case sees his handling of the aftermath of the 2002 Godhra killings as a stellar assertion of his role as a protector of Hindus. I hate to say it in such unambiguous terms but do so with a great deal of anguish that Gujaratis in Gujarat have become rather indifferent to the frequent and bloody break-downs in Hindu-Muslim relations.

You and I may be horrified at the utterly remorseless bragging of Bajrangi, I am not sure people of Gujarat are particularly outraged. One reason could be they already knew all that Bajrangi has boasted about. The only question is why did they not stand up in 2002 when that is the most natural thing they could have done. This in a state which effectively architected India's freedom movement under Gandhi and Patel and the one which has a great history of standing up for great causes.

More than the politics of a riot or a sectarian conflagration, I am more intrigued by the socio-psychological aspects of it. What makes Bajrangi balding, mustachioed and seemingly affable man, who could have well been a low level bureaucrat pushing files in some obscure government department, so striking is the casualness with which he unveils what went on. He speaks as if he is talking about his day at work with his wife and children. He is unapologetic and appears to be struggling to keep his exultation in control as he mentions acts which in his mind are merely all
in a day’s work.

To call him a sociopath is not really doing justice to the full measure of his profound sickness. See the relish with which he brags about how a police report against him recorded the way he cut open a pregnant Muslim’s woman’s stomach with a sword, extracted the fetus and threw it before killing her. There is a fiendish twinkle in his eyes while he reminisces about the incident.

I have encountered the same level cruel apathy among Muslim rioters in a small town called Bhiwandi in Maharashtra state which in the early 1980s experienced harrowing Hindu-Muslim violence. At least two of them boasted to me personally, “Salon ko bhedbakri ki tarha kat dala. Maza aya. (We hacked them (Hindus) like livestock. It was enjoyable.” If the media ends up holding a mirror to such events, irrespective of how they do so it would have more than compensated for some of its waywardness.

Mayank Chhaya

Beyond the Rule of Law

2007-11-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

'Beyond The Pale Of The Rule Of Law'

The Outlook Magazine, October 30, 2007

The Supreme Court should order arrest of those shown confessing to having committed crimes and suspend the serving government officials pending investigation, constitute and monitor a Special Investigative Team, and move on the stayed cases.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20071030&fname=tehelka&sid=1&pn=1

Admiral R.H.Tahiliani, B. George Verghese, Shanti Bhushan, Muchkund Dubey, Ramaswamy Iyer, and others

The recent Tehelka expose of the "Gujarat riots" of 2002, demonstrates very starkly that these were neither "spontaneous" nor "riots", but were in fact mass murder, loot and mayhem orchestrated and organized by the top echelons of the Gujarat units of the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, and the BJP with the full connivance and complicity of the Gujarat government headed by Narendra Modi. The Tehelka tapes show senior functionaries of these organizations and of the government bragging and confessing to their having committed and participated in committing heinous crimes like brutal mass murder, rape, burning, looting etc. Many of them claim and boast about how Narendra Modi explicitly encouraged the carnage and told the killers and rioters that they were being given a free rein of three days. These people also claim how several senior police officials not only aided and abetted these killers by their actions and inaction but in many cases themselves participated in the carnage.

These senior functionaries who boast about having committed these crimes also claim how Modi provided shelter to these people and even got inconvenient judges changed to ensure that these mass murderers got out on bail. They also boast about having successfully subverted the integrity of the Nanavati Commission. In short, the tapes reveal a horrific state of affairs in Gujarat, which seems to have gone beyond the pale of the rule of law, and the most basic norms of humanity. And that it has become a state where the government is not being carried on in accordance with the Constitution.

It has become imperative that a special investigating team be immediately constituted to investigate the involvement of Narendra Modi and other senior functionaries in his government and the police in the killings, their abetment and the shelter and help given to the criminals. This SIT can be constituted by the Supreme Court and should be monitored on a regular basis and asked to compete their investigation within a few months. This would be one of the most important investigations ever undertaken in this country.

But most immediately, the persons shown on tape confessing to having committed crimes must be immediately arrested and those of them who are serving officials, must be placed under suspension. If the state government shows any hesitation in doing this, that will only reinforce the overwhelming evidence of their complicity in the Carnage.

The pending cases of Naroda Patia, Gulbarga society etc. which have been stayed by the Supreme Court, pending hearing of the applications for their transfer outside Gujarat for the last 4 years, must be immediately taken up by the court, ordered to be expeditiously reinvestigated by an independent agency and cases tried expeditiously.

We therefore call upon the central government and the Supreme Court, whose duty it is to enforce the rule of law and protect the Constitution, to immediately take the above steps. We also call upon all right thinking people of Gujarat to come out in support of these demands. What is at stake is not merely the survival of Constitutional values and the rule of law but the survival of civilisation itself in this country.

Signed by:

Admiral R.H.Tahiliani (Former Navy Chief, Chairman Transparency International, India)
SP Shukla (Former Finance Secy, GOI)
Shanti Bhushan (Former Law Minister)
Muchkund Dubey (Former Foreign Secretary, GOI)
Ramaswamy Iyer (Former Water Resources Secy, GOI)
EAS Sarma (Former Power Secretary, GOI)
B George Verghese (Senior Journalist)
Madhu Bhaduri (Former Ambassador, GOI)
Medha Patkar (Social Activist)
Aruna Roy (Social Activist, Former member NAC)
Arundhati Roy (Writer, Social Activist)
Arvind Kejriwal (RTI Activist, Magsaysay awardee)
Sandeep Pande (Social Activist, Magsaysay awardee)
Major Gen SG Vombatkere (Retd. Mysore)
Prof Amit Bhaduri (Former Professor of Economics, JNU)
Prof K.M.Shrimali (Department of History, Delhi University)
Arun Kumar (Professor Economics, JNU)
Prof Girijesh Pant (School of International Studies, JNU)
Prof Pramod Yadava (Professor, Dean, School of Life Sciences JNU)
Prof Sujata Patel (Dept. of Sociology, University of Pune)
Prof Achin Vinayak (Professor, Third World Academy)
Nasir Tayabji (Director, Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Milia Islamia)
Jean Dreze (Visiting Professor, Allahabad University)
Arshad Alam (Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Milia Islamia)
Shailesh Gandhi (Convenor, NCPRI)
Vikram Lal (Director, Common Cause)
Shabnam Hashmi (Social Activist, ANHAD)
Dunu Roy (Social Activist and Director, Hazard Centre)
Ravi Chopra (Director, People's Science Institute)
N Bhaskar Rao (Director, Centre for media studies)
Dr Ajay Mehra (Director, Centre for public affairs)
Manoj Mitta (Journalist)
Sundeep Dougal (Journalist)
Ajit Bhattacharjee (Journalist)
Sudhirendra Sharma (Journalist)
Smitu Kothari (Dir Centre for Intercultural Resources, Co-Founder Lokayan)
Himanshu Thakkar (Centre for Water Policy)
Nandini Oza (Social Activist, MP)
Ashish Kothari (Founder Member Kalpavriksh)
Vinod Raina (Founder Eklavya)
Rohit Prajapati (Social Activist, Baroda)
Trupti Shah (Social Activist, Baroda)
S Srinivasan (Baroda)
Sanjay Kak (Filmmaker)
Arshad Amanullah (Documentary Filmmaker)
Nikhil Dey (Social Activist)
Ashok Rao (Secy National Confederation of Officers Association)
Kamini Jaiswal (Lawyer)
Prashant Bhushan (Public Interest Lawyer)

Genesis of investigation

2007-11-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

Genesis of investigation

What prompted Tehelka to get on with it.

Here is the information from Horse's mouth. Harinder Baweja, Tehelka’s Editor for News and Investigations responds to the questions why now? Why this expose' just before elections?

Hear it in her own words. The investigation took on its shape in May this year when a big mouth probably thumped his chest....

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107editor_videos1.asp

Media Ethics-Mira Kamdar

2007-11-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

Media ethics -Mira Kamdar

Mira Kamdar had posted the following comments on South Asian Journalist Forum, published here with her permission. The more angles we see the issue from, the more informed we will be. I appreciate the enlightening comments and links Mira has provided. Thank you Mira - Mike Ghouse
______________________

I think a discussion of sensationalism in Indian media, particularly television, is appropriate. The whole "sting" thing has really gotten out of control there, and mostly is deployed on titillating subjects, as the original post points out. I also think a discussion of journalistic ethics is appropriate in this story.

An important factor not mentioned in Arthur Dudney's fine post is the coincidence of this sting with the imminent Gujarat elections and the importance of these at the national level, especially to the fate of the Congress Party.

And another point that should be made on the journalism front is the role the vernacular Gujarati-language press played in whipping up anti-Muslim fervor during the first days of the post-Godhra massacres and until today. I imagine that these publications are running stories right now supporting Modi and his henchmen, and ditto for Gujarati television news programming. With the blackout Modi has imposed on NDTV, Headlines Today, Aaj Tak, most Gujaratis simply never see or read any version of what happened in their state other than the one Modi, the RSS and the BJP support. And now you have class after class of kids in Gujarat educated on textbooks that have been rewritten from a Hindutva point of view as well.

There was a very important report on the role of the media in what happened in Gujarat published in 2002 by the Editors Guild of India, with Aaktar Patel, Dileep Padgaonkar, and B.G. Verghese as principal authors. Here is a link to it:

http://www.sabrang.com/gujarat/statement/report.htm

While I agree that strict journalistic ethics were transgressed in this latest Tehelka sting, I believe the revelations achieved by it are incredibly important,so important as to justify how they were obtained. I applaud the paper for going after the guys they got to talk. Many knew of the complicity up to the highest levels of government, the police and the judiciary in Gujarat but it had been impossible to bring any of the big players to justice. The "rot in Gujarat" to cite an expression that is not mine, runs very, very deep at this point. Muslims of all social classes live in fear for their lives on a daily basis, including the state's most prominent Muslim citizens. There is no normal social interaction between Muslims and non-Muslims at all: schools, apartments blocks, neighborhoods are completely segregated.

One of the most chilling revelations of the Tehelka sting for me personally was that Professor Bandukwala's house in Baroda was ordered destroyed by the University of Baroda's chief accountant! Professor Bandukwala, a professor of physics, was granted immediate asylum by the United States when he fled Baroda for his life in 2002, but after a short stay here decided to go back to Baroda. As he told me when I interviewed him right after the riots: "if I desert my community, who will they have?" Here is a link to the article I published after my visit to Gujarat closely following the post-Godhra carnage, "The Struggle for India's Soul," in which there is a passage on my visit with Bandukwala. :

http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj02-3/kamdar.html The sources I cite in the notes are worth revisiting as well.

All those who have dared go after the truth of Modi's role in what happened in 2002 have been hounded, harassed and threatened. Here is a link to an article I published in Tehelka (yes!) on the fate of Mallika Sarabhai, who was ultimately cleared by the Supreme Court of India but only after much money and effort was spent on her defense: http://www.mirakamdar.com/pdfs/malika.pdf

Those of us who are of Gujarati heritage and love the culture of Gujarat so much despair of what has happened to this state under Modi and his ilk. Will the forces of tolerance, harmony, free speech and respect for difference ever regain control of Gujarat? I think the reaction -- or lack of it -- by New Delhi will be a critical factor at this point.

Given the evident impotence of Gujarat's, or for that matter India's justice system to reveal the truth and achieve justice in this horrible episode in recent Indian history, who else but Tehelka had the courage to "out" these people? This particular sting is an immense public service, in my view, a patriotic act of the highest order.

It remains to be seen, however, if these revelations lead to meaningful steps being taken to obtain justice and begin the process of healing and reconciliation that is so badly needed. Frankly, how India deals with this will tell us much about its much vaunted "democracy," "open society," and the other values it trumpets to the world.

Imagine a governor in the United States giving cover if not outright ordering similar actions against citizens in his state? Imagine a governor ordering CNN or MSNBC off the air because he didn't like how he and the actions he had sanctioned were being depicted? That this can happen in democratic India is utterly shameful.

A passionate plea for Gujarat

2007-11-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

A PASSIONATE PLEA FOR SOLUTIONS

Was the Gujarat Government complicit in the Massacre?
http://gujaratjustice.blogspot.com/

The extremists are passionate about participating in whatever goals they pursue, unless we, the moderates in all faiths, races, nations and cultures become passionate, they will not be able to tilt the balance. It is as simple as that. Let the good people keep the balance by participating in it.

An online Petition is on the way, and it is to bring solutions and to bring justice to every Indian. I need your support, I will ask my Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Jain, Jewish, Buddhist, Bahai, Zoroastrian, Dalits and Muslim friends to sign. The majority of Hindus stood in the way of the bizarre mayhem, or from spreading it, and we need support the goodness of all people to check the spread of state terrorism and bring justice to every Indian, no matter who it is, and punish every one per the laws of the land, not matter who that is. No one should be above the law. If we let that happen, even the extremists who support the bad guys will not be safe in the long run.

We are asking what every one should be asking - justice to the people, the hallmark of civil societies. Nothing more or nothing less.

You are welcome to comment, or send selected articles to post, that will bring solutions, that will laser point the criminals and not their religion or their affiliation. Send the email to: MikeGhouse@gmail.com - In the subject line, please type -Solutions for Gujarat, else it will be deleted due to the volume of emails. We will publish only selected pieces.

This is not about religion, it is about human rights. I could not be more clearer than this. No one can have advantage over the other, such benefits are deleterious and a detriment to lasting peace. Justice will last for a long time, and peace becomes sustainable.

May God give us the courage to do the right thing.

Mike Ghouse

Journalists redeem values

2007-11-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends.

This is my take on the valiant effort by the Tahelka editors and reporters on the Gujarat pogroms in India. It shows what serious journalist can do for justice. I hope this will add to the weight of the voices that call for justice. Warm regards,

Mirza

Journalists Lead Indians to Redeem their values
Mirza A. Beg, Tuesday, October 31, 2007

Tahelka, the intrepid news magazine did what the Indian government should have done in the past five years. The nation owes a debt of gratitude to the editor of Tahelka, Tarun Tejpal and reporter Ashish Khetan who took enormous risk to procure evidence on video tapes about the planning of the genocide perpetrated by the fascistic Gujarat state government in February – March 2002. The tapes also record admissions of suppression of evidence and bribery by the public prosecutors to protect the guilty.

The culpable Gujarat state government (still in power), got away with it, because at the time their party (BJP) was also in power at the center in Delhi. In 2004 elections for the central Parliament, the Indian electorate exhibited maturity by defeating the fascistic coalition in favor of a secular coalition dominated by the Congress party. However the Congress has been reticent to bring the Gujarat government to the bar of justice. It is afraid of being falsely tarred by the fascists, as anti–Hindu.

That may not come to pass. In the past, when the Congress party was a large undefeatable behemoth, many in its cadre were extremist sectarians who had joined in pursuit of power and weakened the secularist principles from within. To the extent that in early 1990s, Narsimha Rao became the Congress Prime Minister, who by his calculated inaction allowed the demolition of the Babari Masjid, unleashing the demon of naked violence, aided and abated by the guardians of law and order.

Those chauvinists have left the Congress and joined the BJP. The Congress after a long time is again a secularist party and has garnered the votes in 2004 based on secularist values. There is always political danger in taking a principled stand. With the strong evidence provided by the Tahelka reporters, there is more political danger in not following the principles.

Indian newspapers have reported for years that minorities, Muslims and Christians have been harassed in Gujarat since the BJP – a fascistic party came to power. What was not well known is that BJP and its allies were prepared to unleash a state supported pogrom of death, burning and looting on the Muslims. They just needed an excuse. The burning of a train carriage at Godhra on February 28, 2002 provided the pretext. Local Godhra Muslims were accused of setting the carriage afire from outside.

Instead of taking time to bring the culprits to justice, Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat gave verbal license of unrestrained pogrom for three days. It has been known for years, the Tahelka reporter have provided the corroboration on the video tape.

In 2003 a forensic report from the Capital of Gujarat, Ahmadabad came to the conclusion that the fire was set from inside the carriage. In March 2006, a commission appointed by the Ministry of Railways, under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court Justice Banerjee came to the same conclusion.

The Gujarat state Police and judiciary under pressure from the Modi government have stymied the investigation for years; so much so that the Supreme Court of India passed strong strictures and ordered a proper investigation in the only case filed, because the government could not stop it.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, V. N. Khare, referring to the Best Bakery Burning case, wrote on September 13, 2003, " Your rajdharma (governing principle) is to punish offenders and bring the guilty to book. If you can't, you quit.

In the final judgment, the Justices Raju Doraiswamy and Arijit Pasayat, April 12, 2004 wrote," 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."

The Supreme Court can only pass strictures on the cases brought before the court. The court has provided the strongest directive to the government of India to take the rights of the oppressed minorities with utmost seriousness.

It is the duty of the state government to follow. In this case the state government is the chief culprit. This puts the onus on the Union (Central) government. The constitution provides for the Union government to intervene when the state government is the oppressor and the state police and judiciary are badly compromised.

The investigations that the Gujarat government suppressed and the Central Bureau of Investigation should have carried out long time ago, were done by Ashish Khetan of the Tahelka magazine at enormous risk. Now the evidence is on the tape and can not be ignored.

For the editorials and articles in the Tahelka Magazine go to- http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107Tarunspiece.asp

For the Spy-cam video of the culprits boasting of their heinous deeds go to. http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107spycam_videos.asp

Independent observers have widely reported the brutal killing of about 2000 Muslims and the burning and looting of more than 100,000 Muslim homes .The government is the culprit so its figures are suspect. Many of the looters were photographed while the police were looking on. Many social workers, most of them from the Hindu community have taken enormous risk in helping the helpless in preparation of cases and have become voices of the voiceless.

This is not a struggle among the Hindus and Muslims as the bigots would like to propagandize. It is a struggle of decent humane Hindus and Muslims against the oppressive wing of the religion gone astray within Hinduism and Islam.

The greatness of the progressive Indian democracy is evident in that Muslims have done better in India than in many Muslim countries. The struggle against the state sponsored pogroms by the Gujarat government controlled by a fascistic Hindu party is led overwhelmingly by the secularist as well as deeply religious humane citizens, rooted in the Hindu ethos. The Supreme Court Judges, the brave community activists such as Tista Setalvad, Ram Punyani, V. K. Tripathi, and thousands others come from the Hindu tradition. Editor and brave reporters of the Tahelka Magazine and many other national publications such as "The Hindu" have an overwhelmingly Hindu staff.

While India is making great strides, some sectarian criminals in the provincial legislators have become an impediment to peace. Bal Thakary in the name of Hinduism has held the whole state of Maharashtra and its great city Mumbai hostage as his fiefdom. He has engineered riots where hundreds of people have been killed. Narendra Modi is still the chief minister of Gujarat and has used the levers of power to kill and deprive minorities of their constitutional rights.

Last week the Indian government awarded a well deserved national integration award to Professors Punyani and Banduklwala for giving voices to the oppressed. These well deserved awards are not a substitute for justice.

The appointments of judicial inquiry commissions are used as sop. The retired judges do a meticulous job. T he inquiry takes a few years to complete. In time passions cool and the national memories fade. The government ignores the recommendations. The guilty not only go free, but also find encouragement to become even more brazen and bold in their evil deeds. It is time to bring cases before the courts to be pursued assiduously against all culprits, particularly those who have used power to spread mayhem and injustice.

Decent citizens of all religions and creeds should raise their voices against the terrorism by misguided individuals. The struggle for the soul of the nation becomes the highest duty when the state itself engages in planned terrorism, in our collective name. The religion we hold dear is besmirched when it is used to justify heinous atrocities. To raise our collective voices to bring the culprits in power to justice becomes imperative and the utmost duty. Those who keep quiet, or find excuses become supporters of the tyranny.

Brave reporters of the Tahelka Magazine have blown the lid off a very well known secret. They have provided the evidence. If the government does not follow through, it will be terribly injurious to the foundational values of Indian democracy.

Mirza A. Beg can be contacted at mab64@yahoo.com, Read his articles at http://mirzasmusings.blogspot.com/

Ethics of Tehelka

2007-11-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

Ethics of Tehelka

South Asian Journalist Forum

Which is greater evil?

Letting the crimes of the state continue or bending the rules for the general good of the nation. Bringing good governance is in the interest of every citizen.

As peace makers, our words and actions should propel dialogue, mitigate conflicts, promote cooperation, if not, we cannot be called peace makers. We have to laser point criminals and clearly prevent good people from taking an offense.

Less than 1/10th of 1% among us are extremists, you can slice them by nations, religions, ethnicity, culture or race, you will still come up with the same percentage. It is the goodness of overwhelming majority Hindus that prevented Gujarat Mayhem from escalating to other parts of the nation or even permeate into the veins of Gujarat. Unlike most of the US journalists who do not question and go with a singular belief in what is dished out to them. Indian Journalists have been the fairest in reporting Gujarat Massacre.

In our writings we will avoid the stupid combination of words – Terrorism with the name of a religion. It is the people who are responsible for murder and not the religion, religion is a guise, and we should strip it from those who hide behind it.

Mike Ghouse
________________________________________

MEDIA: The Gujarat killings, and the ethics of Tehelka

Below is an item about the big media news out of India, an undercover sting investigation by Tehelka into what it calls "the most important story of our time." The focus of this post, by Arthur Dudney, is on the various journalistic issues raised. Please take a look and post your comments below.

http://www.sajaforum.org/2007/10/tehelkas-sting.html?cid=88331682#comment-88331682

"We have heard the victims, the government, the police, the judiciary, and the civil rights groups. Now for the first time hear the story of the killings from the men who did it. Put to rest your doubts about the foetus that was pulled out from its womb; about the systematic slicing of Ehsan Jafri’s limbs and torso; of the raping and chopping and burning of women and children; of law officers who turned on the victims; of the collusion of the police and the government." --Tarun Tejpal, editor of Tehelka

On October 25, Tehelka, an Indian investigative magazine, published a special feature devoted to the Hindu-Muslim riots* that took place in Gujarat in 2002, and the state government's active role in fomenting the violence against Muslims. It refers to the gruesome events, which some have labeled genocide, as “the most important story of our time," and in the last week it has in fact generated headlines in India and abroad (see links to coverage at the bottom). However, while the magazine’s editors boldly defend their sting journalism, some question the ethics of such reporting.

Tehelka has broken 30 to 40 major stories over its seven year existence, according to Tarun Tejpal, the magazine’s editor-in-chief and one of India’s most famous investigative journalists. The magazine has had a troubled existence because from its first year, when it was just a website, it was under investigation for two years for allegedly breaking the law in the course of tricking government officials into accepting bribes for fake arms deals. The fallout from Tehelka’s reporting, which was known as Operation West End, resulted in the resignation of the Defence Minister, George Fernandes. Despite its incredible influence, the magazine almost went bankrupt and finally relaunched in 2003 as weekly. Now, according to Tehelka’s website, it is the fastest growing weekly in India.

The magazine became famous for the necktie and handbag hidden cameras it uses for stings, but how does the magazine justify the subterfuge? “We do not like to induce, we do not like to trap, we do not like to pay. … It is a superbly clean operation,” said Harinder Baweja, Tehelka’s Editor for News and Investigations in an interview after the Gujarat story broke. “Extraordinary stories need extraordinary methods.”

Tehelka’s reporter, Ashish Khetan, was sent to Gujarat in May to investigate an act of vandalism, according to Baweja, but Khetan discovered that Hindu chauvinists involved in some of the events of 2002 were willing to talk about what happened. Posing as a scholar writing a book about “Hindu resurgence,” he secretly filmed interviews, some of which appear on Tehelka’s website, and promised subjects that he would not quote them.

From the perspective of squeaky-clean journalism, Khetan has broken two rules: Firstly, misrepresenting his identity as a journalist and secondly, making false promises about confidentiality. When a subject hesitated during an interview, Khetan said: “I won’t quote it anywhere…For that matter… I am not even going to quote you” and immediately after the reporter promised that, the interviewee made a chilling admission: Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat (picture from Tehelka), had given the Hindu chauvinists three days to do whatever they wanted without government interference. Obviously the fact that the sitting Chief Minister of a state participated in communal violence is a matter that the public must know about, but I can see no way that the story would have come out had Khetan not bent the rules.

Tejpal refers to the government’s handling of the Gujarat events as “the biggest slap in the face of the idea of India” and insists that government and society both must come to terms with what really happened. Although some accuse Tehelka of having a pro-Congress, anti-BJP bias, Tejpal sees it as working for the public, forcing all political parties to act on the accusations. (He is quick to cite the stories Tehelka has run that indict Congress politicians.)

Recently many Indian news channels have been following Tehelka’s lead by staging taped sting operations — many of them involving sex — and showing the footage, but some people question where the line between the public interest and prurient voyeurism has been drawn. It is worth considering Indian sting journalism in light of the case of former New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald, whose December 2005 expose on Justin Berry, a boy selling pornographic images of himself, basically ended the reporter’s career. Whatever public service Eichenwald considered he was doing, questions of ethics overwhelmed the story itself.

The Tehelka story will certainly have repercussions. Activists have already filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking that the Tehelka expose be entered as evidence. The Gujarat government, which is being accused of complicity in the events of 2002 and blacked out TV channels that broadcast the Tehelka piece last week, finds itself in the odd position — and it’s not clear why — of submitting the expose on CD to the commission investigating the riots. Lastly, a broad coalition of Indian-American groups has demanded that action be taken against government officials and others implicated by the expose.

Tehelka and other news outlets like it bring out a paradox in journalistic ethics: If getting the truth is paramount then don’t reporters sometimes need to bend the truth to get the story?
[*We've used the term "riots" with some hesitation. Although it is the default term that's been used for several years, and is still used by the BBC and others, it suggests a level of spontaneity that Tehelka's coverage contradicts]

Read the Tehelka story, includes videos, English transcripts and more.
Coverage elsewhere:
AFP: "Gujarat state head supported 'Muslim massacre'"
AP: "Report: Hindu extremists say they killed Muslims with consent of top Indian officials"
Reuters: "Hindu activists accuse their leader in India riots" ('accuse'?)
The Hindustan Times: "Top RSS, VHP men planned post-Godhra riots: Tehelka"
Independent, UK: "State minister 'encouraged massacre of 2500 Muslims'"
BBC: "BJP dismisses Gujarat riot claims"
PTI: "TV Blackout: Collector says his orders misinterpreted"
CNN-IBN: "Narendra Modi can't black out 2002 riots"
NDTV: "After sting, Modi takes on media"
SepiaMutiny: "Cut, Kill, Burn: Tehelka Gujarat Expose"

Punish the Guilty

2007-11-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

GUJARAT: PUNISH THE CRIMINALS
Mike Ghouse, October 31, 2007

We have to take bold steps to put an end to terrorism. Any one who disrupts the peace of the nation must be tried as a criminal without giving him a religious shade. We have "protected" criminals too long; be it in Kashmir, Gujarat, Mumbai, Delhi, Ayodhya or any where else. If we do not bring Justice, the problems would continue to linger. It shifts our energies from prospering to dealing with unabated terrorism. Let the law of the land prevail.

We have to factor in the fact that the extremists will label this as a religious issue, I insist, it is not. It is the issue of violating the laws of the land by individuals and we have to treat them as criminals and punish them whatever the law allows. No one should be above the law.

If we want peace and stable societies, we have to take the responsibility to make it possible. Great teachers have concurred that the evil persists in the world because the good people avoid getting involved, making the job of exploiters easy . It's time for us to speak up against the criminals in the general and the ensuing injustice.

The least one can do is to speak up.

In February 2002, the state of Gujarat, India, witnessed the ugliest of all genocides in the Indian history, butchering and burning pregnant women, pulling their babies out of their womb, gang raping girls, burning people alive and slaughtering children mercilessly. When the extremist elements were on the killing spree, the State machinery tacitly gave permission to the killers to finish the Muslim community within three days.

The pogrom was well devised , the killers had the addresses of the Muslim owned businesses, and Muslim leadership, well coordinated through text messaging on the cell phones. According to the Union Minister, 1044 people were killed in all, that included 254 innocent Hindus and 790 Targeted Muslims leaving thousands homeless. The compensation paid to the survivors was also handled in discriminatory manner.

On February 27, 2002, in the town of Godhra in Gujarat, a compartment of a train called Sabramati Express was set afire when the train stopped leaving 56 Hindus burnt beyond recognition. It was alleged that the Muslims set the fire and poured the gasoline in the bogey carrying the 56 karsevaks (volunteers) returning from a pilgrimage to Ayodhya where a 16th century Mosque was razed to ground by the extremists claiming that it was built on a former temple.

Immediately following the Godhra incident, the State of Gujarat witnessed the ugliest of all genocides in human history; it also involved one of a Medical doctor by the name of Dr. Parveen Togadia.

According to the Human rights activists and reports, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi was tacitly involved in the carnage. The Federal government run at that time, did not condemn this mayhem, instead the home minister gave a clean chit to the Chief Minister.
The blame should be placed squarely on the individuals, not on their family, not on their religion and not on their ethnicity or culture. Blaming a religion is a futile, as no religion authorizes one to go kill. The Bhagavad Gita asserts "Vasudeva Kutumbam " " the whole world is one family " and the Quran, "saving one life is like saving the whole humanity " and " Killing one life is like killing the whole mankind ".

Our first Governor General and Philosopher Shri Rajagopalachari 's vision of a civilized society was to see a man, woman or a child regardless of the social status, or religious affiliation to be able to walk on any place in India, any time of the day or night without fear. We can make that happen, if we prosecute the criminals particularly those criminals who hold political offices and besmirch the nation and its people; and show to the society that we believe in Justice.

As a civilized society, we should not let any one hide in the garb of Religion. It insults the religion, and the criminals go Scot-free. Our Civil and Criminal laws on the books should be used against all people involved in Godhra train burning and the Gujarat massacre. No one should be above the law.

When every Indian believes that Justice will be served, and no one will take advantage of the other, that brings trust in government and peace in the nation allowing people to focus on prosperity.

We ask the President, the Prime Minister, members of the Rajya and Lok Sabha, the High Court of Gujarat and the Supreme Court of India to administer Justice including but not limited to dismissing the guilty individuals from power in the state of Gujarat. We request you to sign this petition because you care.

Online References:

http://www.countercurrents.org/gujarat.htm
http://www.sajaforum.org/2007/10/tehelkas-sting.html?cid=88331682#comment-88331682
http://www.onlinevolunteers.org/gujarat/reports/pucl/vv_annexure2.pdf
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107gujrat_sec.asp
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107Tarunspiece.asp
http://mikeghouse.net/Gujarat-Massacre-and-Justice.asp
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071026/asp/nation/story_8474936.asp
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2003/05/18/stories/2003051802751000.htm

The documentaries:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3829364588351777769
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107spycam_videos.asp

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker, Writer and a Moderator. He is president of the http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/ and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. He is the founding president of the http://www.worldmuslimcongress.com/ with a simple theme: "Good for Muslims and good for the world." His personal Website is http://www.mikeghouse.net/ and his articles can be found on the Websites mentioned above and in his Blogs: http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/ and http://mikeghouse.sulekha.com/ Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com

1-President of IndiaName- Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, Rashtrapati Bhavan,
New Delhi, India – 110 004.
Telephone : 01-11-23015321
Fax : 91-11-23017920 / 91-11-23017824

Shri Faiz Ahmed KidwaiDeputy Secretary(K) President's Secretariat,Rashtrapati BhawanNew Delhi - 110 001Phone - (011) 23016767 23015321 Extn:4444
Fax: 23014580
9871322244

2.Vice President of IndiaName-Mohammad Hamid Ansari
Vice-President's House, 6, Maulana Azad Road,New Delhi - 110 011 Telephone - 011-23016422, 23016344E-mail: vpindia@nic.in
Vice-President's SecretariatS.No NAME & DESIGNATION TEL. NO. Off. 1.Shri Shumsher K. SheriffSecretary to the Vice-President
2301721023016344

2.Shri Ashok Dewan
Deputy Secretary
2379347823018471 3. Shri Parvathaneni Harish OSD to the Vice-President 23794336
23016422

4. Shri Gurdeep Singh SappalOSD to Chairman, Rajya Sabha
23010673
23016422

5.Shri Arvind Kapoor
Under Secretary
23018684

6. Shri Mahitab Singh
Under Secretary
23022322

3. Prime Minister
Dr,Manmohan Singh
The Prime Minister's Office, popularly known as the 'PMO', is located atSouth Block, Raisina Hill, New Delhi, India-110 011. Telephone: 91-11-23012312. Fax: 91-11-23019545 / 91-11-23016857. e-mail: Click here

4.Speaker of Rajya Sabha1. Mohammad Hamid Ansari - Chairman

2. Shri K. Rahman Khan - Deputy Chairman
parishad@sansad.nic.in,rsmail@sansad.nic.in,joshin@sansad.nic.in,mukul@sansad.nic.in

5.Speaker of Lok SabhaMr. Somnath Chatterjee17, Parliament House,New Delhi-110001Tels. (011) 23017795, 23017914,23013211 Fax. (011) 23792927Email : lokmail@sansad.nic.in http://speakerloksabha.nic.in

6.Chief Justice Gujarat High CourtMr. Justice Y.R. MEENAHigh Court of Gujarat,
Sola, Ahmedabad - 380 060.
Email : rg-hc-guj@nic.in
http://gujarathighcourt.nic.in

7.Chief Justice Supreme CourtK.G. Balakrishnan, The SecretaryGeneral, Supreme Court of India, Tilak Marg, New Delhi-110 001 (India) For Query/suggestions please e-mail at : supremecourt@nic.in

8.Chief Minister GujaratNarendra Modi well about him the official page of Guj Goverment is Empty!http://www.gujaratindia.com/Government/govt2.htm
and this is his personel self praising websitehttp://www.narendramodi.in/html/index.html

9.Governor GujaratNawal Kishore SharmaRaj Bhavan, Sector-20,Gandhinagar-382020 Gujarat, India