Expostulation and Reply: Civilization and Dialogue

There are moments when the mind is teased by passing thoughts and prepares to respond. William Wordsworth, Iqbal and now Aayan Hirshi Ali have all resorted to this. In her criticism of Islam Ali dramatizes her thesis in the form of an imaginary conversation between the owl and the ostrich, the former sees everything in stark nakedness and the latter hides from facing harsh reality thinking that it would pass away. However a better form of dialogue is what Tariq Ramadan refers in his interview on BBC today Sunday December 30, 2007 as the Islamic tradition of having knowledge and respect while dealing with your interlocutor.

Much vaunted concept of radical Islam buoys up in discussion these days like the one carried in a national daily on December 28 and 29, 2007. As it prizes the mind, from the recess comes the argument that the teaching and practical life of the prophet does not justify the epithet. Clubbing Islam with any other religion is also not correct. So the binary justification that the “twain meet” is unnecessary, some followers of Islam, but not Islam itself, are radical, but they are few although vocal. Mahatma Gandhi and Lokmanya Tilak derived a different interpretation from their holy book is their individual personal choice and cannot be ascribed to all the people practicing Hinduism. Moreover, talking of India today, culprits of heinous crimes cannot be punished either by the rules of Gita or Mahabharta or the sharia. We have a constitution and our own penal laws which are different from theological injunctions like the biblical and Judaic an eye for an eye or taking a thorn out by another thorn or an iron needle, for that matter. The laws of India must be viewed equably in dealing with people irrespective of their religion.


However, the politicizing of judiciary and the criminalizing of politics is a complex reality of contemporary India and a cause of concern. No one group can appropriate the laws or amend and modify or apply them in order to settle score for the past or present deeds of “the other”. That is what the Chief Justice of India K.G.Balakrishnan was referring when he came down heavily against the “communalisation and politicisation “ of anti terrorist laws when he addressed the conference in New Delhi organized by the Intelligence Bureau on December 22, 2007. “The fact that several states have suggested that they will enact new laws similar to Pota raises serious human rights concern.” The intention behind framing or enforcing such laws is not so much to punish the guilty but to trample the human rights of all the members of the group from which some criminals come and who happen to be in minority. If this naked truth is unpleasant it is there behind the back of the mind of those who are calling for ever stricter laws to deal with terror. They also do not fight shy of the fact that terror of one hue poses as much threat to our nation as the terror of another hue. Given their penchant for “kantakenaiva kantakam” death would have come much earlier to Dr Haneef because he would be deemed deceitful even before the trial gets under way, nay, why trial at all? To this kind of propensity of mind the Vanzaras and Vazes are ever available zealously waiting to carry out what they view as deshbhakti, patriotism. Khwaja Yunus has to wear the cross, let him wear. What does it matter?

“Complex” reality of present India is different from India 1857 On the day of Bakrid August 1, 1857 the commissioner of Amritsar was in Delhi on a special duty. To suppress the ‘mutiny’ the British waited for the Sikh regiment to arrive before they started slaughtering the Bengali Muslim soldiers who were kept in prison there. They had hanged so many of the rebel soldiers that they were tired of dispatching them quickly. They moved them to the open fields and locked them because of which many died out of fear and asphyxiation. Then the slaughter began and the commission boasted as the Muslims were slaughtering animals in the city his men were doing the same to the Muslims. This is also taking out a thorn with another. But in the civilized perspective of today that was as reprehensible any other. But then the leap from then to today covers more civilizing processes the world has gone through and hence no justification for discriminating between the saintly criminal and the other who is deceitful. A criminal is a criminal.

People of different religions have been facing hardship of getting livelihood and administrative justice down the centuries and it is difficult to place a tectonic shift at a particular time. Past 200 years in India saw British rule for most of the time, only in the last 60 years we have had our own laws modeled on the British. Only in 1892-93 one thousand people were killed in disturbances. If the British tried to vitiate the harmonious co existence of the people for their end they did not gain much. However, the stupor in the Indian mosaic society of different communities was such that Swami Vivekanand was dismayed by the ugliness and sickness of Indian society as a whole. He wanted to take the ball and kick it and play and be healthy and clean. Vedantic mind of Hindus was store house of wisdom and strong physique of Muslims because of the dietary habit of the Muslims. The great Swami was not narrow minded but a large soul who saw bright future for our country if the two important groups along with other groups could unite for the motherland and make it healthy. That is what he meant when he wrote it in a letter.

Calling Judaism, Christianity and Islam as exclusivist just because each says that what it preaches is the only truth need not be taken to mean that it says every other religion is false. Respect other religions as you respect your own is a dictate of Islam and practiced by no other than the prophet himself. The noun ‘vice’ used as countable with ‘a’ means ‘a particular kind of evil’. We must be more discerning in using it. Religion has come to mankind to fight evil.

Death Comes to the Daughter of the East, Benazir

Benazir Bhutto’s life was tragic all through in the Greek sense. She was the eldest child of her father. Zulfikarali Bhutto had to go through a humiliating death row wait with world leaders pleading for commuting the sentence and the inevitable merciless execution of the flamboyant sybarite former president. Benazir had two brothers. One of them died in Paris in mysterious situation after having spousal difficulties. Another was shot dead by Pakistani police right at the front of his house. But her end at the hands of the suicide assassin was part of destiny.

The word assassin comes from Arabic hashshashin which is plural for hashshash meaning one who is addicted to hashish, or an Ismaeli sectarian who used to intoxicate himself with hashish or hemp when preparing to dispatch some king or public man. Sectarian strife of yesterday is secularized into today’s political schism. The sectarian could be Baitulla Mehsood or any foot soldier.

Only two months ago there was another suicide attack on her. On October 19, 136 people lost their lives but Bhutto escaped although she was the target. That did not sway her from her determination to fight the polls scheduled for January 9. In November she expressed her determination:"I am not afraid. I am ready to die for my country." With grim resolve she got busy with her campaign and had no time to wait for death. Therefore, in the words of the American poet Emily Dickinson, death called upon her and waited for her. Together they rode, through mammoth rallies, like the one in Rawalpindi, to eternity.

She continued her crusade against terror but died a victim of it. She was better educated than many of the leaders of Pakistan and had been mellowed by the liberalism of the west.

Her death extinguishes the popular aspiration for democracy, at least for the present. It also puts the January 9, 2008 election in a limbo. What her rivals did not achieve she had achieved: distinction of being a popular leader in all the four provinces as was her meteoric father.

Nawaz Sharif, though her rival was allied to her in the war on terror, rushed to the hospital where Benazir Bhutto was taken after attack and remarked: "I myself feel threatened... Are things in control now? Had things been in control, would this have happened? "We both were struggling for the same cause, and we had signed the charter of democracy. I assure you that I will fight your war from now. It is tragic not only for [her party] but also for my party."

Let alone Pakistan’s traditional enemy, some even in the US believe that the military government supports terrorism. The lead article in TIME ends with a wry irony. “There will be many tense days ahead for the Musharraf government as it deals with this political crisis. And that's good news for terrorism.” A woebegone People’s Party member told BBC that Bhutto had feared that there were people in Punjab who were hell bent on killing her. She had named some from there in the military establishment whom she believed to have been behind the earlier attempt on her life. She was not targeted in any other of the three provinces. As if according to the design she would have her tryst with destiny in Punjab only.

Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the assassination. Why Al Qaeda? It is strange that President Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto have a common enemy in that terrorist outfit. Bhutto and Musharraf’s enemy is Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda’s enemy is the United States. Does it follow the syllogism that your enemy’s enemy is your friend? Or else why should Osama be still at large, that too in the tribal unwieldy belt of Pakistan? And if he has a surrogate in Baitulla Mehsood brother of Abdulla Mehsood in Wazirastan, then the fact is twice removed from the original. (Pakistani army along with US marines had killed Abdulla.)

Rebuking Narendra Modi

Ever growing need for commonalty is threatened by ever increasing communalism in the country. Commonalty is the concern for humankind on the basis of their wants and situation in life as well as their problems and aspirations. Communalism is dividing the humankind on the basis of religion and pitting one group against the other in considering with a bias wants, situation in life as well as problems and aspirations of the people.

There will be two different perspectives when the matter of dealing with justice the question of the Muslims in the country, especially their development and their massacre and subsequent plight in Gujarat since 2002. The National Development Council that met in Delhi on Wednesday December 19, 2007 to approve the 11th five year plan document witnessed the clash between commonalty and communalism.

It is universally acknowledged within the country that Muslims are more backward than any other group of our population. The Sachar Commission report makes a sobering realization of the present day tangent truth. Everyone knows but most do not want to do anything in this regard. A burgeoning economy like ours can afford to march further in the near foreseeable future. But in the long run this would increase and enlarge ghettoization to such an extent that there would be enclaves like Nagorna Karabekh and Kosovo, if they are not already there.

The Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh while addressing the audience which included the chief ministers of states took a commonalty approach when he said "The goal of this plan is to invest in our people to enable them to become active participants in economic growth processes. The plan does not attempt to divide people on the basis of caste, creed or gender or religion..The plan does pay special attention on the needs of these marginalized groups and targets them in a precise manner.
"Inclusiveness does mean better targeting and it is not at the cost of other groups. You will all agree that if we hope to have a prosperous, equitable, just India, we must cover all groups and ensure that no one is left”.
Finance Minister Chidambram had gendered the previous budget because there was need for targeting improvement of women and empowering them. Their needs were felt to be real. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. What is crucial in today’s context is that leaving out minorities including Muslims far behind does not serve the nation as such. The 11th Plan that stipulates earmarking 15 per cent of targets and outlays under various schemes for minorities is a step in the path of bridging the gaps and avoiding pockets of stagnant pools in the backwater settlement.
But that is what exactly two chief ministers from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh opposed.
Have the Muslims ceased to be part of the social fabric of India? When? Modi has a different sense of society; perhaps his spin doctors are telling that he represents the the middle class and they feel like him. This self delusory strategy worked in the relief camps when Modi closed down the camps from where the victims had nowhere to go as their commercial establishments, jobs and works were totally destroyed along with their houses, lock stock and barrel. The ration and medicine in the camps were too scanty to go around and then this expulsion! Modi dubbed the camps as the breeding grounds of “we five and our twenty five”. What he could not provide to his own population worst affected by his state sponsored pogroms he is niggardly about for the rest of the country where similar groups exist. As he lectured the audience for which the PM rebuked him. "The New 15 Point Programme that focuses on earmarking certain outlays of various developmental schemes and programmes of the government of India amongst the eligible beneficiaries, based on their minority status, should be reviewed in the interest of maintaining the social fabric of the nation. Such discrimination, amongst the eligible beneficiaries, for flow of funds based on minority status, will not help the cause if taking the people of India together on the path of development,"
This is a clear and most flagrant attempt to carry the laboratory experiment result from Gujarat to the whole country. In other words, the minorities, in particular Muslims, do not deserve any uplift or entitlement. As he managed the pogroms and then the closure of the relief camps and the divisive and unjust relief given to the relatives of the dead, and the boycott they face and their virtual disenfranchisement, and then the fake encounters in the name of patriotism, Modi thinks that he would carry the day with him all the time and everywhere. But there is a catch. Even when he wins the election he would be liable to prosecution.
Since July 2002 the International Criminal Court has not only come into existence but has been quite active. It will prosecute individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. There are 18 judges and a prosecutor elected by the ratifying countries. This is a great step forward in the protection of human rights and international justice. Now individuals have a right in international law that would safeguard their right against torture, right to life and dignity.

Every ratifying member country of course should try anyone of its nationals (within its own jurisdiction) who is accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, like rape, massacre or war crimes. If such a country does not do this, any victim of such a crime is entitled to go to ICC and seek prosecution of the perpetrator of crimes against humanity or war crimes and genocide. This is recognized as the principle of complementarity. Crimes committed before July 1, 2002 do not come under the purview of ICC. This is known as the principle of non-retroactivity. The rule of complementarity is a breath of fresh air in the fetid atmosphere of oppression and suppression that is commonly found in countries like Rawanda and former Yugoslavia. This would deter countries where national courts conduct sham trial or fail to investigate such crimes at all.

Moreover, what about the continued torture of a people as a result of the action which took place before July 1, 20002. Thousands of riot affected people in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in Gujarat were forced out of the relief camps and this has continued even after July 1, are they not entitled to international justice as their right to life and right to dignity and right to equality are denied. All this despite promises of rehabilitation! Out in the monsoon rains with no shelter and sans succour! In one such a case a man who lost his house received just Rs 70 as compensation. A girl took the government cheque from the hands of her father and tore it because her house had cost several lakh and the government had sanctioned a meagre two thousand rupees. Their denial of human rights constitutes crimes against humanity and it is continuing though the carnage happened several months ago. The pogroms affected are from the minority Muslim community which has very few doctors to treat its wounded and burnt and even fewer lawyers to plead their cases in courts. And all this on account of the boycott of the majority community’s guilds of doctors and lawyers. If Modi and Advani, after the latter really becomes the next PM, have their own way, then the only hope for the victims of Gujarat would be ICC. For Modi and Advani it would be to build global landmarks like the Akshardham Temple in Delhi and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

Looking at Gujarat Beyond 2007

The situation in Gujarat has become so volatile and fluid that there is a need to take stock of the situation. One must not overlook the fact that there are more important things involved there than meets the eye in the flux of things. As much of the focus is not on development but the chief minister’s headstrong views on Sohrabuddin in particular and by implication Muslims in general there is need for strategic depth in understanding.

First of all we must address juristic scope of culpability of Narendra Modi in the crimes against humanity, for that is what he brought about to happen subsequent to the events of February 27, 2002. The collector of Godhra had described the burning incident of Sabarmati express as accident. This was the stand taken by the administration until Modi changed it at 7 pm and made it into an attack on Hindus by Muslims. In the meeting at his residence that night he also ordered the police and the administration in the presence of the DGP and the police commissioner of Ahemdabad “Hinduon ka gussa uttarne do teen din tak.” (Let the Hindus vent their ire for three days).” This was despite the fact that the collector had opposed carrying the dead bodies to Ahemdabad and displaying them. Such an act would incite mob violence against Muslims was crystal clear. He visited worst areas affected by massacres of Muslims during the three days he had asked for the Hindus to vent their anger and applauded them for the crimes against the Muslims including rape, murder and arson. He harboured murderers and rapists by using the position and power of his office so that they escape the law of the land he was sworn to keep. He misused the judiciary to shield the murderers.

The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide says that genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (A)Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group’ (C) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.(D) Imposing measure intended to prevent births within the group.

In the light of the above convention Modi is clearly responsible for the genocide of the Muslims. He was equally heinous in closing down the relief camps. It was another step in genocide. The refugees had the bleakest prospect of survival before them.

The systematic boycott of the Muslims. Who brought about this collateral calamity for the whole community? Was it not a link in the overall strategy of punishing the Muslims and making their survival impossible after the horrendous crimes of rape, murder, loot and arson?

The prevention of Muslim survivors from returning to their houses, farms, shops, and other commercial establishments and jobs, or whatever little was still left. is genocidal. They are reduced to grim scenario of extinction en mass.

Subversion, systematic and premeditated, of the judiciary process by misusing official position involves the CM in genocidal juggernaut of the state machinery.

These are “a group of crimes that the international community of nations has declared to be criminal offences against the whole human race because they shock the conscience of all humankind and are an affront to humanity…The international criminal norms known as ‘crimes against humanity’ create international responsibility of individuals under international law for certain horrendous acts of violence against human beings.”

These issues remain to be addressed and redressed irrespective of who wins the election 2007. This must not be partisan matter, left to either of the two main parties contesting there. Non governmental organizations, human rights chapters, civil liberty groups must mount fresh and concerted efforts to get full justice to the victims of the genocide as well as any other victim of crime that may be different.


Determining the quantum of criminal acts must begin with the use of international law as crime against humanity is violation of international law. First of all who is a perpetrator? “A person or state who commits human rights violation. The term is sometimes used to describe one who causes such violation to occur through others.” Thus Modi asking his police and administrators to let the Hindus vent their anger for three days constitutes him as a perpetrator.

Modi is fully accountable for what happened in 2002. It was his constitutional duty to protect the lives of all the people. He not only caused the mass murder of Muslims but he asked his police and officers to let it happen and then subverted the judicial system to protect the murderers, rapists, arsonists and looters. Accountability is basic human rights law and implies that nobody is above law or immune from it. An example of the legal procedure is the trial of Lieutenant William Calley of the US army for the My Lai genocide in the Viet Nam, of Slobodan Milosevic in the massacre of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia.

But of course, there is also the urgency of what to make of what he said on December 4, 2007: “They want me to answer why I killed Sohrabuddin?. Sohrabuddin was a notorious criminal who had links with Pakistan and from whose farm house AK 47s were recovered. So what should I have done with him? Pooja? Or should I have called up Sonia Behen before he was killed? I am thumping my chest and declaring that Sohrabuddin ‘s encounter had taken place on the dharti of Gujarat. If I have done something wrong, hang me.”

People committing crimes against humanity can be tried internationally, not necessarily in the country where they have committed them. Modi taunted “Why not a court in Pakistan?” In the famous case Soering v. United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights had transferred it to the US because of the long death row ordeal there.

Narendra Modi and the Murder of Sohrabuddin

The election campaign of Chief Minister of Gujarat at Mangrol reached a climax that might prove a temporary respite from the ultimate eventuality in his drama of politics. A huge shock had come after the exposure of the sting operation. Temporarily it seemed to have passed away. But who knows whether it has. He stirred the emotion by his insidious reference to the fake encounter death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser. He was at his communal best when he vowed to shield Taslima Nasrin and within the same week justified the fake encounter murders. About Sohrabuddin he remarked “he got what he deserved.” He asked his people in Mangrol, south Gujarat, on December 4, 2007: What would the people do to the man who dealt in smuggling guns. They thundered: “kill him". "Then if I have done anything wrong, let the government of Sonia Gandhi hang me," he said. There is a more accurate version of the Tuesday meeting of Mangrol:
Modi asked, "What should have been done to a man from whom a large number of AK-47 rifles were recovered, who was on the search list of police from four states, who attacked the police, who had relations with Pakistan and was eyeing to enter Gujarat?"
The crowd replied "mari nakho, mari nakho (kill him)" to which the Chief Minister responded, "Does my Government need to take permission of Soniaben for this?"

Modi has thrown down his gauntlet not only to Congress but to the judiciary of our nation, as well as the Election Commission.


This is playing with fire. But the premium is very high. For example there is the case of Haresh Bhatt who was the Bajrang Dal rashtriya sah sanyojak in 2002 and is now the BJP MLA from Godhra. He has said that bombs were made at his factory and that even rocket launchers were made there and then they were distributed throughout Ahmedabad during the pogroms of 2002. During curfew in the city arms including guns and swords were brought in from Punjab, Bihar, UP and MP for the obvious reason of murdering Muslims during the pogroms. They were distributed under the nose of the police in the curfew times. How Haresh Bhatt and his men distributed the weapons to the murderous crowds he narrates proudly:
Bhatt: I have my own gun factory… I used to make firecrackers… We made all the bombs there… Diesel bombs, pipe bombs, we made them there… and we used to distribute them from there as well… We ordered two truckloads of swords from Punjab… right here, in a village called Dhariya, we readied everything there… and then we distributed the samaan [arms]… At that time, the only thing was that the samaan was needed…TEHELKA: Where did you get the arms from?
Bhatt:We got many country-made pistols… from MP, from UP… we got pistols from everywhere and I distributed them from here… I am talking about this for the first time…nobody knew this secret.TEHELKA: I know that Hindus do not keep weapons, apart perhaps from kitchen knives…
Bhatt:We distributed so many weapons that people were shocked to see how many there were… We would make them here and then test them... We made a completelauncher inside a pipe, right here in the factory... It was a launcher from the side and had piping over that… chaar ki pipe lagaate the… after closing the entire hole we filled thatwith shrapnel and nails... and beneath that placed a 595 bomb… We’d set it off… it would go through a wall nine inches thick…• • •
Bhatt and his cohorts also smuggled weapons as Modi hinted that Sohrabuddin did:
TEHELKA: Hareshbhai, you were saying that you got arms from Kanpur, but there was curfew…
Bhatt: Why couldn’t they have been brought?… Anything can be brought.TEHELKA: I was thinking that if curfew…
Bhatt: I got them from MP… I got them from Bihar.TEHELKA: But how, when curfew was in force?
Bhatt: Things come, everything can come.TEHELKA: If it came from other states, it had to cross borders…
Bhatt: That’s it… they would smuggle [emphasis added] it… and it wasn’t just one trip that came for me… there were scores of them.

Another person who told similar ghoulish premeditated plans of carrying out the genocide is Dhawal Jayanti Patel, the VHP Sabarkantha zila sanyojak:
Patel: Lots of bombs… lots of desi bombs were made and sent…
TEHELKA: A thousand? Two thousand?Patel: They were useful in the galis, in face-to-face encounters… Juhapura… Kalupur

The vibhag pramukh of VHP Anil Patel has corroborated what Haresh Bhatt and Dhawal Jayanti Patel have said.


Now the ball is in the courts of the Election Commission and the judicial courts. Given Modi’s justification of the murder of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser and his tacit involvement in it [or else why should he wish to be hanged] and the asseveration of Haresh Bhatt, Anil Patel and Dhawal Jayanti Patel of their evil deeds; they [the courts and the Commission}have to define what is smuggling, can any individual or organization take the laws in their hands to mete out punishment for smuggling, who have smuggled arms; their party affiliation and should the election in Gujarat go ahead as if nothing has happened.


What I had written in newspaper columns on May 6, 2007has relevance here:


“The proverbial iceberg tip in the Sohrabbudin and Kauser bi Sheikh, and Tulsiram Prajapati murder in Gujarat will become quite ominous to our national life in the days to come. What with state elections due there and elsewhere. To the truly national minded it sends a chill of apprehension down the spinal cord. From all accounts including the ones that the Rajasthan government has purportedly collected to save its Inspector Dinesh, Sohrabuddin and Prjapati were as much criminal as many others, including BJP MP from Dahod, Gujarat, Babubhai Katara [accused in smuggling people into the US and Europe], and his son Bhavesh who is accused of killing Muslims in the post Godhra carnage and the last election. ..
.

“Sohrabbudin and Prajapati were taken out of the Hyderbad Sangli bus. Kauser climbed down the bus in protest, the cops told her to go back into the bus. When she didn’t they took away her as well. The fiery burial that police inspector DG Vanjhara gave to Kauser is most macabre and the disposal of the ash most saturnine. A glimpse of the state sponsorship of pogroms is also here. Traffic was stopped for arresting and carrying dead body of Kauser, crane was used to haul out of mud the car carrying the dead body. Anti Terrorist Squad purchased 400 kg wood to burn the body. Ala Modi, everything was done for a noble cause: patriotism. Precisely this justification has the potential to polarize the country again. Mark the gathering and shouting of slogans of the burly members of the Vanjhara community in the court of the metropolitan magistrate on May 2, but mark more how the Chief Minister, as a true Machiavellian, is reportedly instructing his cadres to exploit the murders in the coming polls.”

Islam and its Volatile Critics:Taslima Nasrin's hunkering down with time for asylum

There is a tendency to view Islam as a whole in terms of some untoward practices ascribed to it. This way the whole body of faith and traditions shrinks to a mere questionable aspect. The most notorious is vaunting of the purdah in Islam. That Islam gives equality to women, that they have share in the property of parents as well as their spouses, that they have choice of suckling milk or not doing it and asking the husband to make provision for it are swept under the carpet by the broom of the so called religious bias against woman. This skewed perception of dubbing Islam by ascribing an attribute has turned it into synecdoche-Islam.

Among the most vehement critics of Islam are the women who ride on the crest of the wave of discontent fermented within the fold. Aayan Hirsi Ali, Irshad Manji, Taslima Nasrin make headlines often for what is not so characteristically the soul of Islam. They are piqued by the variant and at times deviant practices rather than the core values of the faith. Manji’s contention is that the trouble with Islam today is literalism. Muslims take Islamic injunction as literal truth. She is upset that the mosque where she went as a child had a divine who did not allow her questioning spirit to probe while the Christians did. This was the fault of the individual working in the mosque and not of religion. In the same way her father would often beat her mother. This harsh treatment was not justifiable as her mother according to her could not be at fault. Her father would also treat their family servant in Uganda harshly though the flunkey was a native Muslim. The traditions of the prophet show that he treated even slaves with human dignity and awarded them freedom for their good deeds. Manji also thanks god that there is the West. She means to say that if the West were not there she as well as others like her who confronts Islam would be lost. She has overlooked one important fact. The US is also the home of Muslims who follow their religion in letter and spirit despite their different racial and cultural backgrounds. Their tenacity of faith is purely because of devotion and not fanaticism. They are content with the edicts and practices of Islam and are truly religious minded. Her criticism of Islam falls flat in view of the self content US Muslims.

The Somali born Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote the script for a film called Submission. The producer Van Goth was killed for making the film. A semi nude woman is shown wearing a transparent dress with verses from the Quran. There are lash marks on her skin. This in itself is indecent. One may not revere one’s own religion in private life but what if those who revere it see such depiction. Her latest argument is that Muslim immigrants to Holland and other European countries indulge in crime as they lend themselves to be exploited. Hence, multiculturalism is wrong if such immigrants are allowed and pampered. But this then militates against the European principle of secularism. The Dutch tolerated her as long as she was not a threat in election where votes of immigrants matter. Now that she is with the conservative think tank in Washington she has the sobering realization of the owl as against the deliberate shunning of reality of the ostrich.
Taslima Nasrin’s bumpy ride through the turbulent time has reached a milestone. She now realizes swimming against the tide is sapping her energy against the options available to her. “Things had taken such a turn that my security and safety have come under great risk in any part of the world. Islamic fundamentalists would not have allowed me to rest in peace anywhere in the world. My intention is never to hurt anybody’s feelings and if my writings hurt the sentiments of others, it’s better to withdraw such portions. I am withdrawing some lines from the book [Dwikhandita].” This way she could come to confront reality, ala Salman Rushdie. But it does not mean recanting. It also does not touch upon what otherwise she has been speaking out in magazines and newspapers.

In a magazine article she was shocking and cruel when she remarked about the origin of the veiling. “Prophet Mohammed’s wife Ayesha was very beautiful. His friends were often found staring at her with fascination. This clearly upset the Prophet. So the Quran has an Ayat that says, ‘Oh, friends of the Prophet or holy men never go to your friend’s house without an invitation. And if you do go, don’t go and ask anything of their wives.’ It is to resist the greedy eyes of friends, disciples or male guests that the purdah system came into being.” Her insidious write “Let’s Burn the Burqa” carries the innuendo for which Rushdie also faced music. Her exhorting Muslims to burn burqa and disobey the Quran may be music to some people’s ears but what would the pious believers think.

Her flight to Rajasthan was feasible because she adopted what she wanted to burn. She and her relative wore burqa to escape Kolkata. One of the problems with religion today is that it is cross fertilized with the local politics. Nasrin went to a BJP ruled state and sang their tune by saying that MF Hussein was better off while hell was let loose around her. “Nothing happens to MF Hussein who has done so many things, while everybody is after my life.” She also did so many things. She slept over the rape of Sabina and her two daughters from Nandigram. One of the daughters is still missing. Will she write for this parzania?

Nasreen and Nandigram: intent behind events

The military deployment in central Kolkata, the first since the demolition of Babri mosque, assumes sinister dimension. Pity that it is to defend a single woman for whom the phalanx of CRPF, RAF and the military are ranged, what though they had failed earlier. The intent matters. This time nothing would happen because of the presence of political will as it also happened in the case of the Kalayan Singh government in UP and Narsimha Rao government at the centre when the political will was absent to prevent what was impending.

Ever since assuming charge of the West Bengal government Budhadeb Bhattcharjee has had a difficult equation with the Muslim minority. Madrassa when it came handy or refugees when they gave him the chance and now the poor peasants whose land grab became the end of the stick in hand and finally a much universal chorus of Islam and woman (Nasreen’s war cry) despite the ghoulish murder of Rizwanurrehman. As if these were not enough the periodic taunts and barbs of Tasleema Nasreen on religious practices were beyond the propriety of being an asylum seeker. It is also reflective of her prejudiced mentality that the rape of scores of women mostly Muslim in Satangabari Ranichawk and elsewhere in Nandigram and death of many did not impinge her mind while the death of 19 Hindus during 1992-93 made her write a whole novel against the Muslims of Bangladesh.

Being a Marxist run state the poor should have been taken care of by the left rather than leaving them at the mercy of the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee. And if Trinamool Congress and Congress parties entered the fray what queered the pitch? The minorities at the receiving end, suppressed and oppressed, in view of the concerted effort to exploit them for their lands so that the upper class/caste would pocket the jobs once the industrialization takes place, turned to the opposition parties. Their growing support to the opposition parties and vice versa emboldened the movement for keeping their land in their hands. This sent alarm to the CPM who feared their citadel falling to the opposition, it could have cascading effect. Alarmed by these the chief minister chose to become a Machiavellian politician rather than a statesman. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said:
“Well, it was a violent takeover by dangerous forces, they have now been paid back in the same coin. We did not trigger violence. We faced it, resisted it for months and then, eventually countered it. As I said before, the Opposition and the BUPC have got a taste of their own medicine. There was tension, total chaos and lack of peace in Nandigram. We had to do something. Our supporters risked their lives and returned home and retaliated only in desperation,” The so called take over was no less than state terrorism unleashed on the hapless. The police were not sent in, in fact the CRPF was kept at bay when hundreds were hounded out of their houses, many were killed, women were raped and their houses were burnt after looting. A handful who returned had to rejoin CPM, organize marches twice a day and shout slogans in favour of the ruling party. Others cannot even dare to return.

The imam of the Juma mosque of Delhi was not allowed to enter Nandigram in the aftermath of the March firing and death. If his entry was feared to cause communal heightening of tension what has the backing of Congress and Trinamool Congress done to the minorities? Summoning of the army and clamping curfew is on the pretext of the situation turning communal. Protest against Nasreen is not any new phenomenon on the horizon. Why now? To the minorities like Muslim it is another cause of grievance but to the ruling elite it is another card in the hand they can use in the game.

The chief minister was equally obdurate in dealing with the Rizwanurrehman and Priyanka Todi matter. His top police officers in the press conference they had called even kept secret the last call Rizwanur made to his lawyer. In this matter also Nasreen chose to keep silence. Even the two Todi girls are more feminist and more secular minded as they chose their partners in life irrespective of religious consideration. One chose a Muslim graphics teacher and the other her Hindu driver. How the government mishandled these cases are now history. These episodes have alienated the intelligentsia and the chief minister must have been disturbed and even panicked in reaction.

The large scale violence during the three hours of bandh on Wednesday resulted in the burning of two dozen vehicles including a school bus and a couple of CPM offices, arrests of hundreds and injuries to many. What role did the police play is far from clear. But Idris Ali the president of All India Minorities Forum said that the police arrested 200 agitators from his organization and the Furfurasharif Muzadeddia Anath Foundation “without reason”. The Muslims are agitated and duly concerned as they face even extinction as can be seen in what happened to one Golam Rasool.

Golam Rasool of Chowk Kendamar was kidnapped by the CPM cadres and kept in a jungle. Then he along with others was transported by a motor launch to Orissa. He would have been killed but he told the guards that he wanted to relieve himself. Then he made good his escape. They chased him but after an hour he gave them the slip. He got a lift in a truck somewhere near Cuttack. He contacted his father from a PCO as he had only three rupees in his pocket. His father came to his rescue. His abduction and capture and imprisonment in a camp and torture are nothing less than extraordinary rendition (the outsourcing of torture that the US is practicing in Iraq and with the prisoners at the Guantanaymo Bay).

Iniquity of Religious Intolerance and State Connivance

It is self evident that all religions have come for the well being ofmen. God has created all men equal. There are certain moral values inevery religion which wants its followers to obey. However perceiveddifferences in meaning of what religions say lead to differences whichmorph into groups. One group tries to out do the others. Every modernstate is bound by some governing principles of equality before laws aswell as security of life and property and retributive justice, if anyone is wronged, is the right of every citizen.The Iraqis had enjoyed many such rights as well as religiousobservance until the other day. But now the state and religioussituation is so skewed that they have undergone a traumatictransformation. Neither religion nor the state can be justified forthe suffering of the people in its name. India has also seen greatupheavals of injustice. The genocide of Muslims in Gujarat is onesuch glaring case.In Iraq the lots of the women plummeted with the fall of Baghdad. Theylost freedom and equality they had enjoyed before 2003. The policechief of the southern town on Basra said in mid November 2007 thatreligious intolerance had risen very high. One section tried to showthat it was holier than the other. They were shias of differentdenominations. Imam Khomeni had brought a degree of modest coveringfor women which allowed them to live in Iran as well as in Mumbai orPoona like many Muslims in Kerala. Now extremism has seized the land.There are self styled followers of religion who chase women and runthem down by their cars because they are unveiled. In this way a partof the religious observance is made into the whole body of faith,synecdochic Islam. Ayaan Hirshi Ali calls it Parada Islam. There aregroups who apply the electric grill to the knees of their opponents toinstant death.

In America there is a similar change. In his book Our EndangeredValues former president Jimmy Carter says that in the last quartercentury there has emerged a right wing movement. This right wingmovement is revolutionary (radical) and gives special favours for thepowerful at the expense of the others, and justifies abandonment ofsocial justice and denigration of those who differ. All of theseviolate the basic Christian teaching of loving our neighbours asourselves. The fundamentalist Pat Robertson says about the differentgroups, "You say you are supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians andthe Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, and the other thing.Nonsense, I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the antichrist."Samuel Huntington has nuanced his nefarious thesis of "clash ofcivilization" (Islam versus the Rest) into cultural conflicts. Thisis nothing else but what the RSS has been saying in India. Golwalkerand others have always asserted that everyone who lives here is Hindu.But the RSS exists to maintain the Hindu culture against the culturesof the minorities. Thus on October 20, 2007, marking the 82ndanniversary Sarsanghchalak S.K.Sudarshan said "When we try to evaluatethe result of more than eight decades of effort, one thing comesoutstandingly. When in 1925 the Sangh was founded, the Hindu societyhad descended to such an abyss of self negation that they were ashamedof calling themselves as Hindus. 'Call us donkeys but don't call usHindus.' Today, however, the Hindu has become conscious of hisidentity. He doesn't feel any inhibition in calling himself aHindu…But the Sangh is not satisfied with only this much. Sangh wantsthat not only the Hindu society should be vigilant and full of selfrespect but should be able to face all kinds of onslaught perpetratedagainst the Hindu society."

Former sangh pracharak and now Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modiused state power to make experiment in the Gujarat Hindutivalaboratory of what sarsanghchalak exhorts above. The result is thegenocide of Muslims, on whatever pretext that comes handy. Therefore,the subversion of religious and state power and belief is not onlyinterlinked but justified. To save India from such disastrousconsequences the retributive justice system must be enforcedimpartially.J.S.Bandukwala's specious appeal to Muslims to forgive theperpetrators of the genocide of 2002 and his placatory lopsidedreasons cut no ice. He says "It is time for Muslims to considerunilateral forgiveness. Such forgiveness by victims confirms to thehighest traditions of Islam." Bandukwala fails to understand that inthe Hindutva laboratory the guinea pigs are Muslims. They areessentially victims of the pogroms but in the heinous design of theexperimenters the Muslims have always been victors and aggressors anddeserve no pity. That is what Bajrangi and Bhatt, Modi and Sudarshanwant. Can eighty years of cumulative revengeful efforts disappear by aformal declaration of forgiveness?

Emergency in Pakistan

It began with an attack near the official residence of General Musharraf on the heels of the operation red mosque July 2007 and came full circle on October 29 a little away from the same residence when the ruler of Pakistan was in a meeting half kilometer away as a motorcyclist drove against an air force bus killing seven and ending himself. That is awesomely momentous.


The highest moment of emergency was in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack on the twin towers of World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. President George W Bush had put Pakistan in a very difficult situation. Either you are with the US or against it. General Musharraf had gone on the air and told the world that extremism in religion was not Islam. He would fight terrorism along with Pakistan’s traditional ally, America. It proved him much wiser than any ruler his country had seen so far. His foresight saved his nation from perceived threat on the cusp of becoming real. He saw it coming, his hard-line opponents did not.

Lal masjid imbroglio produced the next emergency he has still not come out of, nor has his nation. The relentless attacks on the security forces by the heavily armed extremists opposed to his regime have led to death and destruction unprecedented in the history of Pakistan. Many observers proved themselves wrong when they said that the general had deliberately allowed the situation to worsen to make the people there view the waywardness unleashed by sections opposed to him. They thought that he had choreographed everything to achieve his hidden agenda of postponing election and thereby remaining in power. Now also his critics may be having the same thought.

But rising fatal terrorist attacks in quick succession since his solders entered the red mosque not far from his house is a gamut of blitzkrieg. The onus of carrying on administration after March 2007 with a showdown with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Iftikhar Choudhry and the July stand off at the red mosque and the military solution which sparked off retaliatory attacks can hardly be palatable for any military rule. The military junta of Myanmar acted far swifter than the Pak leader.

Situation vis-à-vis forthcoming election is precarious. Nawaz Shariff enjoys the support of the people in the Punjab, Benazir Bhutto in Sindh province. The rest of the country is quite chaotic. There is no single leader who can claim popular acclaim as did Zulfikar Ali Bhutto or his daughter once and General Zia though for different reasons. Overthrowing a very unpopular leader is not at stake now nor was it in 1999 when Musharraf seized power. However, many supporters of the Muslim League of Pakistan may not support Musharraf after the action in the sprawling complex of the red mosque of Islamabad. It might not be untrue to say that this time around the general is in fact saving his nation as he claimed while he declared emergency on Saturday November 3, 2007.

Of the two reasons for imposing emergency one was immediate and the other was much pervasive. The general’s trouble with the judiciary was one time phenomenon which jarred on his mind. The Supreme Court had postponed until Monday giving its opinion about whether the general can run for election/form government. The general saw which way the wind was blowing. He put the Chief Justice Choudhry under house arrest. This would be for the immediate purpose. Hashim Javed, spokesperson of former premier Sharif, is also under arrest. But the incarcerating of the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Asma Jahangir is for the much longer purpose. Suspension of the constitution inevitably ultra vires the human rights. Lawyer opponents Munir A Malik and Aitzaz Ahsan are the bete noire of the general and were arrested and put under detention for a month.

It is a strange coincidence that a single month saw India reacting to two different countries confronting demand for democracy. India is the largest democracy in the world. New Delhi’s response to Myanmar monk protest against the military rule was tardy. To Pakistan it was knee jerk reaction. The cause of concern is different though as a practicing democracy it should be one.

India and Pakistan are both fighting terrorism. For the first time they have just exchanged dossiers on mutual cooperation on fighting terrorism. New Delhi blames Pakistan for the mess in Kashmir and terrorist attacks in the rest of the country and Pakistan blames India for the situation in North West frontiers. In the aftermath of the attack on Parliament India had raised stake so high that we mobilized our defence forces and would have let the situation escalate into a war had not the wiser counsel and mediation by US prevailed upon New Delhi. Arundhati Roy and other distinguished journalists, jurists and human rights activists in a book on that Attack on Parliament December 13 would have us believe that it was fake! So a new denominator or divisor (terrorism) has entered into the response of the one into the democratic changes in the other. Some leaders of a national party evoke mian Musharraf to fight election in India when ironically he cannot fight his own election in his own country.

However, Pakistan has to walk a much tighter rope in its acrobatics of politics than a democracy like India. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s declaring emergency after an adverse court judgment and the general’s declaration after a perceived and feared would be adverse decision signify differences of the two countries.

The western powers are very much worried that any emergency would entail Pak losing their support and assistance. Admiral Fallon of the US landed in Islamabad a day before emergency was declared. His aim was to discuss the rising militant attacks and the emergent situation. In August Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice had phoned the general at 2 a.m. and prevented him from declaring emergency then. But now she is asking for a “quick return to constitutional law.” After having pumped $ 10 billion into the Pakistan army since 2001 the Americans are feeling desperate as much as the general himself as his current rule ends on November 15.

Was there any choice left for the general? Ahsan remarked that “President Musharraf is illegal”. That precluded any succor to the beleaguered president from the judiciary which not only declared that Nawaz Shariff could return now but was determined to give a verdict against the president when it would have reconvened on November 5. The ascendancy in suicidal terrorist attacks had cost 700 lives in the last four months. Attacks on army runs into two scores and more. So alarming was the situation that the soldiers were now wearing civilian dress and traveling in unmarked cars to avoid becoming easy identified targets. Desertion from army was also reported.

There is a saving grace still left. If the people of Pakistan can see that howsoever unpopular, the general is still struggling to keep the country from a slide into chaos they may rally around him. Not the individual but his action. At the time of going to press we hear that he has got 200 soldiers released by the militants in exchange of releasing their leader and about forty of the militants from jail. That is a flicker of hope; the emergency may not be a setback after all. Still the Swat valley may take time to return to tolerable armed neutrality if not truce.

Tehelka in the Regional Vernacular Press

There is an encouraging sign that the regional language papers from the non metropolitan districts are coming of age. Most of them are seized with the enormity of the crimes committed in Gujarat 2002 genocide of Muslims now caught on the camera of the sting operation of the weekly Tehelka news magazine.

Daily Deshdoot (Marathi) was the first to carry the disclosure on Friday October 26, 2007. It leads the rest of the papers from the Nasik district. It highlighted the seriousness of the fact that the components of bombs and gunpowder were brought from neighbouring states. However the bombs were made in Gujarat itself. The entire plot was conceived and prepared in the presence of the activists of RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP. They had prior knowledge of preparation and the ultimate use. It also shows how uncountable dead bodies of Muslims were thrown into the Narmada River. In the editorial, the first in the Marathi papers, the paper says that there are Ravanas and Kansas ruling in the name of Ram. The rising number of criminals who get elected will make it necessary to hold Lok Sabha session in the Tihar jail or make the jail a part of the parliament. The editorial mentions Babu Bajrangi, Narendra Modi and home minister Zadaphya who took active part in managing the pogroms, encouraging and praising the killers and shielding them and says that we shiver when we read today what had happened five years ago. The culprits are still in power and boast about their black deeds. The editorial enumerates other criminals of the day: Amarmani Tripathy and wife are sentenced to life imprisonment, a Delhi deputy commissioner of police and nine constables are also facing the same sentence, Shibu Soren is already convicted as a murderer and member of parliament Anand Mohan is sentenced to death and wife to life imprisonment for the lynching of the collector of Gopalgang. MAA Fatmi has link with criminals in Bihar. The paper exclaims that such are the leaders of India today!

Gaonkari reports the exposure twenty four hours after Deshdoot, on October 27th. It focuses attention on that part of the sting operation where the Chief Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Zadaphya had given the rioters three days for murder, mayhem and loot and arson. The paper also mentions on its front page the insistent demand of the opposition to have L.K.Advani and Modi arrested for the massacre. There is also upfronted news about how the Ahmedabad collector has banned the telecast of Aaj Tak, CNN, IBN and ND TV as well as the sale of Tehelka publication. Again on the front page the paper gives in a box the demand of the state Congress spokesman Hussein Dalwai who says that Modi is a vinash prush (a man who destroys) and not vikash prush (a harbinger of progress and prosperity). It also gives the name of the reporter at the centre of the operation, Ashish Khetan.

Lokmast also takes up the story on Saturday October 27th. It begins with the demand of the Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadu who has demanded immediate arrest of Narendra Modi and L.K.Advani. The exposure has removed any remaining doubts that the pogroms were state sponsored. Lokmast also mentions the central minister Kapil Sibal who says that the people have now the opportunity to pull Modi to court for his heinous deeds in the five years of his misrule. The Election Commission’s refusal to ban publication of Tehelka in view of the election there also finds mention on the front page. Congress Spokesperson Jayanti Natrajan has said that his party would like that Modi should be prosecuted for the massacre. His party is in the government but the government cannot sue any chief minister in the court of law against whom the Supreme Court is already hearing a case. The paper also gives in a box the sharp reaction among political leaders, human rights activists, jurists. The paper opines that there is clear proof of the involvement and complicity of the Chief Minister in the massacre.

None of the papers has taken any political stance in reporting. This is unlike the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Samna which emphasizes “why now”, rather than “what new!”

Hour of Reckoning for desi Slobodan Milosevik: Narendra Modi

Democracy cannot work if one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter or protector. Neither a Narendra Modi nor a Nasser Mahdani. The former had assimilated the Nazi gestapo or Getheime Staatspoleizi, or secret state police-strategies to destroy the Muslims. The latter had tried to use RSS tactics to confront the RSS when it killed old Alavikunju Maulavi of Kolam on his way to mosque in 1984 and later Maulvi Ali of Thrissur mosque in his sleep and had attempted to kill Mahdani himself and left him crippled for life. Mahdani wanted "to physically train and equip our men to take on the RSS the same way the Hindu organization did motivating them with religious discourse." Mahdani has met his fate and paid with limb and ten years of imprisonment, Modi is on the way.

The sting operation of Tehelka will remake India into a first rate country if people are really reawakened to the news and feel fear of what had happened in the pogroms in Gujarat 2002. Under arch demagogue Chief Minister Narendra Modi come who-is-who in this modern day revenge tragedy. Babu Bajrangi begins the rostrum: "I was the first to start the [Naroda] Patiya operation.." Bajrangi and his killers had forced Hindus to handover their guns (23 in all) or get killed. They collected the Muslims near the ST workshop and killed them not by shooting but by hacking!. They were herded into a pit in the ground with one outlet. The hapless could not escape. This was the black hole of Naroda Patiya.This would go donw in history as worse than the other, the black hole of Calcutta! Babubhai Patel alias Babu Bajrangi had spoken about this genocide to the Home Minister Gordhan Zadaphia who asked him to go into hiding and not speak about their telephonic conversation to anyone.Babu Bajrangi confessed that he did rip open the stomach of a pregnant Muslim and killed her after spearing her foetus. As the line of command runs from the Chief Minister down to the cops and the marauders, Bajrangi says: "Nobody can do what Narendrabhai has done in Gujarat. If I didn’t have Narendrabhai’s support, we would not have been able to avenge Godhra... because the police was standing right in front of us, seeing all that was happening, but they had shut their eyes and mouths." He puts the police officer K.K.Mysorewala on record for having phoned him to go into hiding. This Mysorewala is that SRP officer who had told the Muslim women and children begging him to save them from the marauding mob that it was order from above that on that day they would not be saved. Every order came from Modi, even surrendering of Bajrangi: "Narendrabhai asked me to surrender... I said, alright saheb, if you tell me to, I will give myself up... I surrendered near Gandhinagar..it was all a big drama." Commissiner of Police PC Pande had asked his cops to disperse the bodies to other parts of Ahemdabad as so manyhad been killed at one place.Bajrangi and his killers had killed 700 to 800 at that one single place!He had personally pulled Saleem dada of that area out of the police van. The killer cops had asked him to finish off Saleem and burn him so that there would be no proof and they would not be pulled up!He took the victim away and finished in the sight of the cops.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi was himself on the scene at Naroda Patiya at 7.15 p.m.and applauded the murderers for their murderous deeds. One Suresh Richard, from the criminal tribe of Chharas which the RSS had roped in to work with Bajrangi in slaughtering the Muslims, gave his testimony: "He(Narendra Modi) said our tribe was blessed… He said our mothers were blessed [for bearing us]…" On his arrival at the house of Richard, the sisters of Richard had welcomed the CM with garlands

As the December 2007 Gujarat elections are round the corner and these fresh disclosures are coming out, Modi got the wind of what was coming. In one rally he asked the people to burn him! Bajrangi after having burnt so many Muslims in the pit wished that he should be hanged!He was afraid of being burnt. But before that he wants another chance. This time he wants to be allowed to go to Juhapura where Muslim refugees are sheltered. He would like to finish the job of what he could not when he and his ilks had killed 700-800! This time he would like to kill 25000 to 50000. Will India give him that last chance before he is hanged?

And if the Tehelka exposure does not dent our conscience as it happened in the case of the report prepared by the Citizens for Justice and Peace committee headed by Justice Krishna Iyer, Suresh Hospet and Anil Dharker we are doomed!

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has described the pogroms as holocaust and holocaust it was. It should go for trial in the way of the Nuremberg trial in Germany. Modi should be arrested immediately and no bail until the trial is gone through and punishment is mete out to him and his cohorts! The collector of Godhra had described the burning of the train as an accident and had opposed the parading of the dead bodies. Modi had rejected collector Jayanti Ravi's counsel. In the night of February 27, 2002 at his residence he had told the police and the aministrative officers that he wanted "Hindus to vent their anger" ( quoted from the fourth affidavit of DGP Raman Pillai Bhaskaran Nair Sreekumar).

World Diplomacy and India

It has been a puzzle that India as the greatest democracy in the world did not respond to the the crushing of the democracy movement by the military junta in Myanmar.In 2002 the European Union had asked India to play a much larger role. The Nehru era saw the efflorescene of the Nonalignment movement of which Pandit Nehru, Jamal Nasser of Egypt and Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia were the architects. There was dignity attached to the names of the three leaders. The world seems to have shrunk. Democracies have become bypartisan and the risk of war and violence has ugly face as never before.

World People's Opinion has conducted a survey of 54000 people across the globe. It has found that there is need for multipolar world. After the disintegration of Soviet Union the world became unipolar and the ascent of the United States as the single world power is posing greaver dangers than ever before. It is obsessed with oil and the terrorists. DorisLessing (88) says "September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), what happened to the Americans wasn't that terrible." She dubbed US President George W Bush 'a world calamity'. "Everyone is tired of this man. Either he is stupid or he is very clever, although you have to remember he is a member of a social class which has profited from wars."
She also said that she "always hated Tony Blair from the beginning". "Many of us hated Tony Blair. I think he has been a disaster for Britain and we have suffered him for many years. I said it when he was elected: 'This man is a little showman who is going to cause us problems.' And he did." Another Nobel laureate of literature, Harold Pinter, had branded Bush as the greates terrorist of the world. If these greate creative writers have described the leaders of America and Britain like that then one is reminded of the Nonalignment leaders. Nehru, Nasser and Tito, thou shouldst be living today! The world has need of thee!
Former President APJ Abdul Kalam was from the world of science and hence did not know the full implication when he said that there should be two party system in India.Among the elder statesmen of the world today is the former president of America Jimmy Carter. In his recent book Our Endangered Values:America's Moral Crisis, he remarks "Nowadays, the Washington scene is completely different, with almost every issue decided on a strictly partisan basis. Probing public debate on key legislaltive decisions is almost a thing of the past. Basic agreements are made between lobbyists and legislative leaders, often within closed party caucuses where rigid disipline is paramount. Even personal courtesies, whic had been especiallycherished in the US Senate, are no longer considered to be sacrosanct. This deterioation in harmony, cooperation, and collegiality in the Congress is, at least in part, a result of the rise of fundamentalist tendencies and their religious and political impact."(8) The sharp division in the Indian parliament between the right wing Hindutva and the rest is a nightmare we are living through. Even the nuclear treaty between US and India cannot escape the fate.
How did we come to this sorry pass? Apart from the partition of the country in the name of religion we also neglected Mahatma Gandhi. When he was about to take the 500 crore to Pakistan and tour that country he was cut down in his track. That was a turning role. Let alone Pakistan, dealing with Iran for our energy requirement and the ABC nuclear agreement is subject to this partisan shibboleth. This is in the words of Carter fundamentalist tendency and its religious impact. The turbulence in the neiboughoring Nepal against monarchy forestalled Indian diplomacy because the king there is Hindu and the BJP favoured him against his subject! What we sow we reap. How strange is the turn of events affecting diplomacy!Sardar Patel had arranged the marriage of the heir apparent (Karan Singh) of the king of Kashmir (Hari Singh) to the Hindu princess of Nepal hoping that the two Hindu dominated countries would have closer ties! If we could negotiate with the Talibans and exchange Maulana Masood for the hostages in the plane at Kandahar what prevented us from talking with them for enduring peace.After all the Afghans have much longer relations with Indian than Pakistan.

National Security and Terrorism: Reading the Pattern

The national security adviser M.K.Narayanan says that Pakistan's ISI is responsible for Ajmer and Ludhiana bomb blasts.There is a common pattern in all the bombings.His agency along with the intelligence agencies has been making use of the spectrum analysis and socil network investigation and has come to the conclusion that Hizbul jihade Islami (Huji) is behind all the terrorist attacks.Now we either find out the locals who are employed to do the work of ISI or chase the foreigners doing the same. As we do not seem to be making any headway should we call it a day?
But there seems to be another and broader spectrum before us. After 9/11 we have toed the line taken by the US and put all blame on the so called jihadis for all the trouble. Once again the Germans, the French and the British trace the terrorists to Pakistan and therefore India must also trace the same source. Narayanan says "there is no connection between the blasts in Ludhiana, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid (Hyderabad) other than the fact that the ISI 's involvement is suspected, that is the common link...There has been a manifest attempt in Pakistan to build up a radical Sikh environment. Sporadic blasts were creating sensation, but the desired effect of sustained tension was not working. We had intelligence about four to six months back that a lot of effort was going into attempts to foment militancy. We have traced intelligence information, we have studied the way such attacks take place and we can read a pattern. We have also seen signs of resuscitation of militant groups in Canada and US and Germany. We had been bracing for such a move by such elements..They have a feeling that the Kashmir issue is not able to attract the kind of attention they would want it to. We believe that some thinking has gone in, they are looking to change their style. So far it has been sporadic, soft attacks. But the human grief is not exactly adding upto the big impact they would want to see. Our information is that they may try high profile targets in and around Kashmir and also outisde the state."
There is hardly anything that is very perceptive in this observation.Narayanan's views are as set and fixed as that of the national security advisor of US of yesterday. Dr Condoleeza Rice has been advocating preemptive strike and the disasterous effect of it is there for anyone to see. She chased the phantom of bin Laden and the nuclear weapons to Iraq. The world is paying heavily in what our adviser on national security calls "the human grief". Even so another pattern that is emerging without the knowledge of the adviser is that there is a bold and concerted attempt to destroy the trail of terror. Within minutes of the Ajmer blast five to six men destroyed the close camera recording of the scene there. Around that same time news from Ahmedabad indicates that the AT&T and Cellforce have destroyed the mobile phone records of post Godhra days! If Ajmer, Ludhiana and Mecca mosque are events of state terrorism of ISI of Pakistan government then the pogroms in Gujarat 2002 were also acts of terrorism sponsored by the state.The failed state is to blame in both the countries and hence the national security agency as well as intelligence agencies must be overhauled to produce better and more realistic result.
What if the elelctronic records are available? In the case of the Anzar Plaza shoot out in Delhi a homeopathy doctor of international reputation had seen the police bringing the so called 'terrorists' who were dazed as if they had not slept for weeks. They could hardly walk, either they were sleepy or drugged.The doctor's cell phone record showed that he was there. He spoke to the media soon after the terrorists were killed and told them what he had seen. Even so the police denied that he was there. Not only this, they also dug out a family case lodged against him by his wife some years ago in order to harass him and coerce him into silence.
In January 1986 the space shuttle Challenger fell into the Atlantic ocean 70 second after lauch. Deep sea diving and dredging recovered the black box of recording after days of hard work. But then it was difficult to restore the voice. The US government declared a prize for anyone who could restore it. An Indian scientist from Bombay accepted the challenge and restored the record and won the huge prize. Why not restore the records of the cell phone in Gujarat and the visual and audal records of Ajmer and establish truth? It might be more difficullt than the deep diving and dredging of the Atlantic because those who carried out the black deeds were confident of protection and impunity. Whose confidence did they enjoy?
It is odd that the National Security Adviser whould travel to the headquarters of the RSS to warn the sangh chief of a terrorist attack on its way there. And, lo! the attack happened. But then what really transpired was nothing else but a fake encounter. Another familiar pattern of our time! Justice Kolse Patil and members of the People's Civil Liberty group found that there was no sign of shooting from the car in which the assasilants were travelling. They were made out to have been heavily armed. They were alleged to have broken the security check cordon and yet no fight had ensued. The shot wounds on the alleged 'terrorists' revealed that they were killed from close range and not in a fight and the car was not damaged. A neighbour did not hear any challenge or shooting! Did the security advisor foresee all these as well?
Punjab has again surfaced in the intelligence world as well as the world of the terrorists. Rabinder Singh, a deputy chief of Research and Analysis Wing, and Surenderjeet Singh have sought asylum in US pleading that they were asked to kill Sikh leaders in Punjab duirng insurgency there. Both worked for RAW as field workers. Although RAW deals with foreign intelligence but it is appropriated for internal use as well. Internal and external threats merge when the national security is in question. Security in Gujarat is as important as in another border state, Punjab. Notorious Gujarat laboratory experiment was and still is as a serious matter of the national secuirty as that of Punjab. We cannot fight a state election by pitting oneself against mian Musharraf and also allow him to take the pogroms to the platform of the UN and close the eyes ala the ostrich and see no danger to the country. If the agencies of the government fail to perform will the national security adviser advise the government to allow the grieved group to take the matter to the UN under the provisions of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights?

Ajmer : attack on composite culture but with a communal tinge

The bomb blast at the shrine of Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer is the most sinister and diabolic event to have happened. It is clear targeting of the Muslim community. This is borne out by similar attacks on Jama Masjid of Delhi, Mecca mosque of Hyderbad, Malegaon Hamidia mosque and several mosques of Purna, Parbhani and other places of Marathwada region in the past. Of the most holy nights this last lailatulkader, the powerful night of prayer is revered by all sections of the community. The only other night is the shab-be-barat that precedes Ramzan by a fortnight. Both these holy occasions were chosen to kill and maim Muslims in India. Shab-be-barat here in Malegaon on September 8, 2006 saw the mosque and cemetery, biggest in India, bombed. More than fifty Muslim boys and men were blown up and killed, more than two hundred injured. This evening of October 11, 2007 is the onset of the last of the lailatulkader of Ramzan. The place is Ajmer, the sanctum sanctorum of Sufism:Moinuddin Chisti’s gave side. Three have died in the bomb blast and seventeen injured, five of them are serious. One of them is Abdul Rehman from Nasik. It will shock the members of Muslim minority everywhere in the country as well as Hindus.

At this early hour it is difficult to say who might have carried it out. But ominous signs are there. It is crystal clear that this is an attack on our composite culture of which the shrine is a symbol. Hindus, if not more, equally revere the shrine, like their Muslim brethren. Thousands of them pay respect and wish for their well being there. Scores of film stars, candidates in election, business men and ordinary people go there seeking blessings and praying for prospects in profession, business and family.

All visiting heads of states and governments who come to India invariably visit the shrine and pay tributes. Those who carried out the bombing did not like the worldwide obeisance and the composite culture. The dargah was the mark of the secular foundation of the Indian polity and a popular place of national unity.

A third reason is propaganda. Every act, as this one is the latest, of terrorism is an exercise in propaganda. Someone is trying to destroy the secular and constitutional foundations of the country and this is their message. The hour is iftar or breaking fast, no other moment would be so peak hour for publicity as well as for crowding as this one! What do they want to propagate?

It is irony of ironies that government minister Shri Prakash Jaipal had visited the shrine ten days ago and warned that it was on the target of the terrorists. That is what exactly happened. It again underscores the universal failure of the intelligence agencies and indifference of the police. The top intelligence agency RAW is entirely made up of Hindus. They have barred Muslims and Sikhs from entering the agency. Currently they are preoccupied with corruption to the tunes of crores of rupees. Is that the work they deem necessary and hence bar others from sharing? Intelligence gathering requires people of all castes and communities who can merge with the crowd and infiltrate organizations to find out vital clues. The official stance is highly discriminatory against the minorities like the Muslim and the Sikh. It also smacks of lack of trust in fellow countrymen.

In most of the bomb blasts cases there seems to be no tab kept on the Hindu organizations like the RSS, Bajrang Dal, VHP, whether such organizations have any thing up their sleeves or not. This lack of intelligence has been pointed out by no other than a former police commissioner of Mumbai, Julio Ribero. It is also the syllogism of the Nanded bomb blasts in which RSS and Bajrang Dal activists in collusion with VHP were actively making bombs. Such a one exploded before it could be used before the targeted mosque in Aurangabad. The narco test analysis of one of the injured shows this to be the case. To hold this mighty country together it is necessary to involve all. The dargah at Ajmer teaches a lesson to the agencies of the government. The Hindus who have been injured there bear witness to this fact.

Once officials readily and facilely blame the ‘terrorists’ our attention is diverted from the fact that there are others who also believe in violence and practice it for their sectarian interest what if they come from the majority?

The other angle is that Islam is blamed for what the so-called jihadi terrorism is doing around the world. But there is a catch here. There is no credible evidence that Muslims themselves are hell bent on destroying their own mosques and shrines so that they alone would be held responsible and bear the ignominy. Dividing the community between the Wahabis and the Sufis, or Sunnis or Shias or Salafis does not render any help. All of them hold the occasions of lailatulkader and shab-be-barat in high respect and do works of piety and devote hours in praying for individual and group salvation and forgiveness. They may not practice each tenet in the same way. But to attribute terrorism to them at such times would be rather far-fetched if not unrealistic.

Another angle is the agent provocateurs from across the border. In every bomb blasts in the country the Pakistani agent is involved but he is never caught. Is he the mythical wandering Jew? Why? And the Paki foreign spokesperson asks us to do our homework first before raising accusing finger.

Checking and frisking fifteen to twenty thousand people is worth detecting the tiffin box, or school bag that contains the RDX. Already the place was teeming with security personnel. What are they there for?

Malegaon October 2001: Revisited

On October 26,2001 serious communal riot broke out in Malegaon after Friday prayer when a cop tore a handbill with the heading .Be Indian and Buy Indian. Curfew was imposed continuously for seven days; nearly 18 Muslims and a lone Hindu were killed. A Muslim woman was raped. If it had stopped at that it would have been like any other communal riots in the long history of such disturbances in the town. But the most horrific was the first ever migration of citizens from many towns and villages paralleling the partition of the country on a minor scale. Then followed Gujarat February 27 2002.

With this backdrop the President of India K.R. Narayanan said on July 24,2002 that ‘the Hindus, who form the majority (need) to speak out in the traditional spirit of the Hindu religion.’ He also emphasized that India must deal with its Muslim minority ‘in a civilised manner, ensuring them ‘security and the rights of citizens in a democratic state.’…Mr Narayanan quoted from Nehru’s 1947 letter to the chief ministers emphasising that the Muslim community in India was ‘so large in numbers that they cannot, even if they want to, go anywhere else. They have got to live in India. That is a basic fact about which there can be no argument. Whatever the provocation from Pakistan, and whatever the indignities and horrors inflicted on non-Muslims there, we have got to deal with the minority in a civilised manner.’

Gujarat has been in the news for quite sometimes but Malegaon has been sidelined. It was here that one could see a kind of dry run carried out for what later transpired in Gujarat. The intense hatred created against the minority, the gas cylinders used on large scale to blow up the mosques and houses of Muslims, the orchestrated murder of municipal member Khalil Ahmed (precedent to Ahsan Jafri) and the forced migration of hundreds of refugees from more that a hundred villages and small towns, the wanton loot and destruction of their property, farm and cattle, and the unjust distribution of relief to the affected fall into a designed pattern.

What really went wrong can be logically inferred even if there are different versions. Either the police snatched the handbill or slapped the youth who refused it to him but what is conclusive is that he tore the bill. In his official duty he should not have done either. The intelligence personnel and police informers could have obtained a copy. The US companies listed for boycott were also enumerated and published for boycott by Arundhati Roy, among others. Afghanistan has always enjoyed better and friendlier relations with India than Pakistan and hence bombardment of a friendly country should not have been causa belli, cause of fight. Despite their claim to the contrary the alliance of BJP and Shiv Sena did play a remarkable role in the trouble that erupted. The local Shiv Sena MLA Dada Bhuse is allegedly involved in the murder of Khalil and is still embroiled in a lawsuit. Gopinath Munde and Uddhav Thackeray readily and selectively breathed down the neck of the former MLA Nihal Ahmed. A senior BJP functionary quite ironically said on October 30th that ``the Vilasrao Deshmukh ministry can be trusted to make matters difficult for itself by its inept handling of the law and order situation. The Sena-BJP alliance need do nothing to accentuate the trouble for the state government.'' Luckily Chaggan Bhujbad was Home Minister and did not have the luxury of the opposition leaders using abuses against the Janta Dal leader as he did in the past even on the floor of the assembly hall. His unparliamentary language against Nihal had made headlines in national dailies then.

Among the first three killed on the first day was a child of three. When the figure rose to 18 there was a woman shot dead. She was in the balcony of her house away from any protest and brawl. The only woman raped was a Muslim farm hand living in a small village around the Girna dam area. It was a case of gang rape and was tried in the court of law; among the rapists one died during the trial period and others were convicted and sentenced. The only case adjudged so far. Florence Sequeira, a journalist working for Asian Age was unable to investigate any other case involving women simply because the police dismissed her saying that there were women of high birth and did not want their name to appear anywhere! What happened in the darkness and in remote places of Devla is dreadful to even think.

The most momentous fact was the widespread hatred generated against the minority community in towns and villages of not just Nashik district of which Malegaon is a major town but in the other neighbouring districts of Mahrashtra. Devla tehsil town saw rioting in which shops and vehicles of minority community were destroyed and curfew was clamped. Soon after Kalwan, Satana, Antapur, Ravalgaon, Andarsool, Yeola, Boris, Vinchur in Niphad taluka of Nasik, Jaikhede and Pimpalner were also seized with communal frenzy where looting and burning was followed by forced migration. In the taluka of Malegaon itself Chichgwan saw a mosque systematically razed to the ground, a work of several days as the structure was reinforced concrete. Zhodge and other towns and villages saw similar destruction. The entire Muslim population in most villages took shelter in farms and bushes and migrated to Malegaon. For the first time high school and primary school buildings housed the internally displaced people, the first refugees of free India as far as the state is concerned.

State home minister Manikrao Thakare, patron minister of Nashik Swaroop Singh Naik, Home Minister and deputy CM Chaggan Bhujbad, Chief Minister Deshmuck visited the town. Congress President Sonia Gandhi wanted to visit the affected areas but former home minister SB Chavan advised her not to visit. People alleged that relief was distributed to people who had their houses and shops in their own safe and secure areas and yet got the state bounty. The Right to Information Act can help anyone to easily trace which revenue department official distributed relief to whom and for what loss. This would go a long way to dispel suspicion from the mind of the people and also establish truth.
Communal riots have been a scourge periodically visiting the town. No citizen of the town would like that people to suffer and hence ubiquitous feeling to rid the town of the menace of communalism. Occasions like the 9/11 attack on America and miscreants taking name of Osama cannot be allowed to play against the well being of the town. People from outside want to fish in troubled water. The arrest of Praveen Tagodia and the banning of VHP meeting in Jalgaon also marked the week that saw the rioting and hence the focus on Malegaon was sharpened. Defunct MLA Nihal Ahmed, also arrested but released on bail was dug out for contrast with treatment to VHP fire-eater.

War on Iran: Oil Profligacy and Roguery of the States

Iran is under the strenuous pressure from the West, especially the US. The US is turning the screw on Iran. So relentless is America that the fear of war seems more likely now that only sixteen months are left for George W Bush in office. The same kind of hype has been prepared as it was done in the days preceding the current war in Iraq. What at stake is not certainly uranium enrichment that Iran is legally entitled to under the non-proliferation treaty.

Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani has made it clear that Iran was readily complying with the inspection and surveillance of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the cameras are in place there. The chief of IAEA Mohammad ElBaradei has proved himself correct what he had said before the Iraq war that there was no weapon of mass destruction in Iraq. The chief inspector of arms Hans Brix too had similar opinion. Bush disregarded both. With hindsight ElBaradei now says ruefully: “I would hope that everybody would have gotten the lesson after the Iraq situation, where 700, 000 innocent civilians have lost their lives on the suspicion that a country has nuclear weapons”

Despite this foreboding the US is adamant on Iran. The stock reaction to President Mehmud Ahmedinejad’s visit to the Columbia University and the General Assembly indicates that war is a foregone conclusion. It is a matter of time. The president of the university took more time to ‘introduce’ his ‘guest’ speaker and gave him less time to reply. Bollinger Lee said of his ‘guest’ that the critical premise of freedom of speech is that “we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices”, it is not the speaker’s right to speak but the audience’s right to listen that is important. They listen that they have “the intellectual and emotional courage to confront the mind of evil and to prepare ourselves to act with the right temperament”.

In a real sense of the America absurd drama Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? of Edward Albee, the host begins humbling the ‘guest.’ “Let's, then, be clear at the beginning, Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.” Taking issue with the ‘guest’ over the denial of the holocaust the host goes a step further: “You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.” There has been a move in the US to boycott Israeli college and university teachers because of the harsh, inhuman and intolerable treatment of the Palestinians. In order to build pressure on Iran and humble the ‘guest’ Bollinger turns this against Iran, which has no direct link with the issue. He concludes a la Samuel Huntington that he has “the weight of the modern civilized world” to ask him the questions. And thus the host excludes the ‘guest’ from the civilized world. What else is this if not continuing the clash of civilization between Islam and the West? Hence the war must continue.

In his reply to Bollinger, President Ahmedinejad took up the trenchant question of the holocaust and asked rhetorically, “Why is it that the Palestinian people are paying the price for an event they had nothing to do with?” In his riposte to the introduction of the President of Columbia University he remarked that the introduction was an “insult to the audience” and the university where “people are free to speak their mind.”

Most people believe that the US is not going to leave the Middle East because of its oil reserve. It is also using Israel to this end. The Israelis themselves may not like all that the Americans are doing but they too are hostage to the roguery of the States. Hence the Palestinian problem is kept boiling as well as the non-capture of Osama bin Laden hiding somewhere in the American protégé Pakistan. For the energy profligacy of the people of the United States the world is paying a heavy price.

The UN International Atomic Energy Agency is doing its work but America is peremptory in its insistence that Iran is not complying. Therefore the matter has become political rather than what it is, technical. Thus in the General Assembly Ahmedinejad remarked that Iran would from now on consider the nuclear issue not a “political” one for the Security Council, but a “technical” one to be decided by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Oil has corrupted the whole of the States in the same way as Mark Twain wrote of the man who corrupted the whole Hadleyberg. Bush family has had dealings with the Saudi magnate Osama bin Laden family in the matter of oil. Money has exchanged hands. It is no surprise that after 9/11 bin Laden family was allowed to leave the United States without even interrogating!

Who is who in this mad world? Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter described Bush as the greatest terrorist of the world. Even the US is not safe let alone the world because of him. Seven hundred housand innocent people have died in the Iraq war and two thousand US soldiers who were aggressors and hence not innocent. Will the world wait for seven hundred thousand citizens to die in the coming Iran war so that Bush will be declared good and Ahmedinejad evil?

Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua told the General Assembly that Washington’s actions against Iran were like those of “God telling people what is good and bad”. There might be a misuse of word here as last year the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had addressed the same after Bush, he had remarked that he knew that the devil was there; he could still smell the sulphur there.

Need for Civil Raights Movement in India

Posted on September 22, 2007

The civil rights movement in the United States was a watershed in the relationship between the whites and blacks. It opened up the American society for justice and equality. Much of the ugly racial violence substantially subsided because of it. Equal opportunity took roots in the aftermath of the movement in the 1960s. The result is there for anyone to see. More blacks have got education and jobs and come in the mainstream as one can see them in the armed forces, in the state department or the defence department, in the judiciary as well as in the legislature. The front-runner of Democratic Party for the presidential election Barak Obama, Secretary of States Dr Condoleeza Rice and her predecessor Colin Powell are all blacks. The great writers and musicians and sports persons from that community make a much bigger list. The nation enjoys greater sense of togetherness. Civil rights marches in the streets of Washington and elsewhere included whites and blacks alike. Martin Luther King Jr and his fellow workers across the racial divide bridged the gulf that was a cause of disaffection and violence.

India has not seen such civil rights movement although the communal violence has risen in a crescendo and threatens to make haywire of the society if it has not done so already. The bomb blasts in Hyderabad on May 18 and August 25 of this year crystallize how two different sets of reactions were witnessed. This fissiparous attitude calls for the civil rights movement that would bring back sanity to the people as the people themselves suffer irrespective of their religion. Similarly the judgment in the serial bomb blasts of March 1993 is not followed by equally prompt registration of crimes of rioting and fair investigation and conviction. The Chief Minister Mr Deshmuckh and his party succeeded in persuading the Muslim to call off their rally on August 20, 2007. That rally was meant to put pressure for speedy justice to the victims of the communal riots of December 1992 and January 1993. However, what happened after that is not only dragging feet in the matter of inquiry and prosecution but self-justification on the part of the police. Instead of good will there is deepening of the stagnancy of ill will, which does not augur well.

On Thursday September 20, 2007 thousands of blacks and human rights activists descended on the town of Jena in Louisiana to launch a second civil rights movement in America. Exactly a year ago six black boys had attacked a fellow white schoolmate who became unconscious. The victim Justin Barker had his face badly swollen but attended school later that night. The six were arrested and tried for attempted murder. They were released on bail except Michal Bell, 16. He remained in prison for a whole year and could not get $90,000 for bail. The civil rights groups point out that the police have selectively used the criminal laws.

A year ago in September a black boy sat under a tree in the recess. The tree was called “white tree”, not that the bark was white but because it was preserved for the whites. Three white boys hung three nooses from the tree later that day. This was reminiscent of lynching of the blacks in the pre 1960s civil rights time and also a warning to the coloured students to avoid the tree. The three whites were suspended from school but were not prosecuted. The tree was cut down. Racial tension increased and then the six attacked Justin. The police did not register a case of hate crime against the whites but not only arrested the six blacks but booked them for adult crime while they should have been booked under juvenile court laws.

Addressing the rally Rev Al Sharpton remarked that he would work with others and have the district magistrate explain to the American Congress his indiscriminate use of law. Martin Luther King III (son of the legendary father who addressed the famous 1960s’ march and delivered “I have a dream” speech) told the gathering that punishment of some sort may be in order for the six defendants, but “the justice system isn’t applied the same to all crimes and all people.”
"It's not just about Jena, but about inequalities and disparities around the country," said Stephanie Brown, 26, national youth director for the NAACP. "Every year at Jena High School there's a black-and-white fight," said Casa Compton, 26, a Jena native, who is African-American. "It's always been tense. There's always been prejudice and bigotry here. Every day they're throwing away a black man's life down here.'' "I think a lot of people recognize that the criminal justice system grinds down people of colour everyday," said J. Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group based in Montgomery, Ala. Rev Jesse Jackson said of the district magistrate prosecuting the case and who threatened the blacks that he would "ruin" their lives, "That is persecution, not prosecution. That is prosecutorial misconduct." "Nobody has taken our side. The only white people who have are from out of town," said Tina Jones, the mother of 18-year-old Bryant Purvis, the only defendant still facing attempted-murder charges. "I don't know if it's racism. But blacks and whites are not treated equal. That's what I call it."
With this kind of another civil rights movement underway in the US, the situation in India is far more aggravated but there is no civil rights movement to take up the cause for the greater good of the nation. In the third week of September 2007 the government of Maharashtra submitted two affidavits in Bombay high court regarding the Hari masjid, Sewri, firing case of January 10, 1993, in which six people were killed and among the injured was Farooq Mapkar. Justice Srikrishna had found sub inspector Nikhil Kapse “guilty of unjustified firing and inhuman and brutal behaviour” However, police deputy commissioner Dattatrya Shinde and senior inspector Namdeo Wayal in their affidavits now assert that Kapse did his duty when a mob attacked the police. Farooq Mapkar was one of the 40 arrested. Except him the others cooperated with the police and were released. Mapkar had appealed the court to book Kapse for murder. In response to this the police now charge Mapkar with murder and have produced an “eyewitness”, Arun Ghadge. But the same Arun Ghadge had in his deposition to the court last year said that he was not in the locality at the time of the incident. How differently would have the civil rights movement activists handled this case if it were in America!
Sacchar committee report and the follow up recommendations of Mr Antulay to improve the backwardness in Muslim minority should have created some kind of affirmative action acceptable to all. This is what the Americans did Instead we have the signed statement of Bal Thackeray containing ominous warning and repudiation of Muslims. It does not acknowledge the backwardness of the minority rather ascribes to them that they have more landed property than the Hindus of India, and where they are less in number and are considered poor then where they are in larger numbers they must be deemed rich, they enjoy a Haj committee, their literacy rate is higher than that of the Hindus, if the ajlaf in their community are backward the ashraf have shored them up, they have financial corporation of their own (so, the Hindus have none?). In this letter to the Prime Minister he questions the need to appoint Sachar commission, and ironically points out that the dalits have already their quotas and are numerically more than the Muslims. Therefore giving concessions to Muslims will harm their interest. He ends the letter with warning that it is sowing of seed of another partition.

Thus the lot of the Muslims must remain what it is. They must remain where they are and doing anything to them would be paving way for another partition of the country. This trend of thinking shows that the sense of civil society has not taken roots in the country yet. Civil society involves an equal regard for all others who share life and amenities with us. Whereas the need of the hour is to involve all others and reach out to all others within the country in a spirit of affirmative action Thackeray’s line and that of the BJP would create negative action. Deprive more the deprived rather than redress.