It was a big surprise to see Rakesh Sharma entering the house on April 23, 2009. He is a visionary and I had spent a life time in trailing the vision of others, poets, novelists and film makers. Having imagination as a cementing factor between us we conjectured as to what brought volte face in Ahesan Jafri when he surrendered to the marauding mobs. He had made 200 phone calls including one to Sonia Gandhi but the last call precipitated his personal tragedy in the midst of the holocaust where his death would hardly change anything. So determined was the fate of the victims on that fateful day of February 28, 2002! Did the respondent to him insult him so enormously that he saw no hope? Did he make the last sacrifice to show the frightened refugees within his house that he would give even that for which they had sought refuge there, for their sake?
That was three days before the Supreme Court ordered a thorough investigation into the role of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet and other political leaders as well as leaders of RSS for their alleged role in the massacre of Muslims at the Gulbarg society. The Special Investigation Team would of course deal with it deftly. Coming as it does on the heels of shoe throwing politics and owning up of blame at least as far as Home Minister Chidambrum is concerned there is renewal of hope that the judiciary will save the country from turning over to utter law of the jungle where the centre can not hold and anarchy is let loose and the blood of the innocent is shed amid noise of ceremony of sacrifice of victims. Like the chorus in TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral the ordinary people had been agonized by seven long years of suffering and patient waiting for justice to return to the state of Gujarat!
The secret of Modi’s guilt lies in his own election preceding the pogroms. His bete noire was no other than Ahesan Jafri who opposed him on secular grounds. For the demagogue whose only forte is communalism that was a serious challenge. The mortal combat had begun there. What is true for the individual is true for his party. The raison d’ etre of BJP is nothing else than dividing the people on religious lines. Like the Pharaoh how satisfying it would be for him to know how the mob played cricket with the skull of the slain Member of Parliament. That was at the individual level of satisfaction. At the national level the party which refused to mourn the death of the MP in parliament did not want even his name uttered in the august hall of the Parliament where it had just installed the portrait of Savarkar.
The instigating words he spoke at Godhra in the evening of February 27 contain insinuating his mind was nurtured on while he was in the sangh nursery; by means of whisper and rumour get that done which cannot otherwise be done by official diktats. The secret meeting he had with high ranking police and administrative officers where he told them to let the ‘Hindus’ vent their ire on Muslims, and prominent lawyers were briefed as to what was coming for which they must be ready with their defence strategy need close scrutiny. They contain enough evidence of how the chain of command was intact and working.
When the pogrom was in full swing he did not stir out to quell the mob but chose to visit the chhara community. It was this community among the other backward communities which the RSS had roped in to carry out the murder, rape, loot and arson against the Muslims. He blessed their women to have given birth to the men who were committing the heinous crimes. Which prosecution can ignore this, and if it did at whose behest? If the public prosecutors were handpicked by the CM for their inexperience and fawning attitude how long can an enlightened citizenry be tight lipped about it?
Those who are truly enlightened like Tarun Tejpal, Teesta Setalvad, JM Lyndoh, Rakesh Sharma or Sreekumar or President Narayana these are not startling revelations. For they know quite well that man can sink into the darkness of his own heart. They are made of different stuff from the likes of Arun Shouri, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah, Suhil Seth and their ilks. The latter lack the refinement of accepting the truth of the heart of darkness. For them India is still shining, now with Nano!
The Supreme Court order of April 27 for fresh probe follows a petition filed by the widow of Jafri, Jakia Nasim. "The constitutionally elected head of the state and responsible for fundamental rights, right to life and property of all citizens regardless of caste, community and gender. Alleged to be architect of a criminal conspiracy to subvert constitutional governance and the rule of law; unleash unlawful and illegal practices during the mass carnage and thereafter protecting the accused who played direct as well as indirect role and abetted commission of the crime".
The three components of her complaint are clear that Modi was sworn to uphold the fundamental rights, that he himself chose to violate them when he turned an architect of criminal conspiracy against the Muslims and he went further, protected the murderers and rapists and arsonists by gross misuse of official position. In addition Jakia says there were “deliberate attempts to scuttle (impartial investigation into) most of the cases". In one the most well-known cases all these criminal acts merge into the single case of Babu Bajrangi. He acknowledges the help he received from Nrendra bhai as he calls the chief minister. All happened on account of the chief minister. He did a lot of killings himself. Modi harboured him at the Gujarat guest house at Mount Abu when there was a warrant against him. How could the chief minister pretend not to know that the police commissioner had issued order to shoot him (Bajrangi) for his crimes and still provide him safe hideout? He frequently changed judges who were reluctant to abdicate the judicial probity until Justice Rakesh Mehta
came and acquitted him. He is the same justice who finished the remaining work of the Nanavati commission and submitted the report to Gujarat government exonerating Modi of any involvement in the crimes. The very home minister of Gujarat Gordhan Zadaphia had told Bajrangi to go underground. That happened seven years ago and right this very year Modi allowed his minister Maya Kodnani to hide from his own police. She went into hiding with security forces guarding her round the clock.
What Bajrangi and Kodnani did was pure terrorism and they existed well with Modi. Their coexistence is assured for the foreseeable future unless the people or the courts choose differently this time.
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