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!”
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
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).
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).
Thursday, October 25, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, October 22, 2007
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?
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?
Sunday, October 14, 2007
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?
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?
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
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.
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.
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