Ishrat Jahan, victim of Hindutva, circa, 2013

The year 2013 saw two biographies of the Chief Minister of Narendra Modi. Neither does The NaMo Story: a political life by Kingshuk Nag nor does Narendra Modi: The Man, The Time by Nilanjan Mukhopadhya have anything to mention about this Lucy Gray of Mumbra suburb. And yet this little unknown girl may prove to be the Achilles heel of Modi. Even if the events finally may not turn the way anyone would have his wish fulfillment to see the denouement to take but Ishrat Jahan is one of the hundreds of daughters of mother India who come clean belying their baiters. That happening every week on such a scale does not reduce the individual position of the girl from Mumbra. There is overt danger that vertically divides the country. Shiv Sena views the cold blooded fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan as rape of National Congress Party president Sharad Pawar upon her. This was in the context of his preferring to travel to Mumbra, Mumbai, in a local train hauling him upon the crowded train and sweating in the sultry May of 2013. Another cold blooded victim of Hindutva extremism is the death of Khalid Mujahid on May 18, 2013 at the hands of Hindutva tainted police. On May 26, 2013 Shiv Sena held a protest rally in Moradabad against the dropping of charges against him by the UP government. (See photo in Asian Age of May 27). This is a tragic irony that the Hindu parties choose to play politics of terrorism while their victims like Ishrat Jahan or Khalid Mujahid might have had no hateful attitude towards the majority community. A girl of parents hailing from Bihar she was interested to improve the lot of her family when her father died. Just before death he asked a young man in the same construction job, Pranesh Pillai aka Javed Sheikh, to look after her. He was an agent of the Deputy Special Director of Central Intelligence Bureau, Rajendra Kumar. At the bidding of Kumar Javed took her to Ahmadabad where both were killed in a fake encounter. Even before her birth her stars were crossed with those of Kumar and Modi. Both were wedded to the same ideology of hate for the Muslims as they were from the Rashtriya Swayamevak Sangh known as RSS. They were close associates in the early nineties when Modi and Kumar were both posted at Chandigarh. Modi was in charge of election in Punjab and Haryana and other places. When Modi assumed office as chief minister in 2002 Kumar resurfaced in Ahmadabad as in charge of state CIB. Director General of Gujarat Police RB Sreekumar blamed Kumar for generating the report that the fire in Sabarmati Express compartment 6 on February 27, 2002 at Godhra was terrorism attack mounted by Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan. Modi went on air after 7 pm and made it public even when the collector of Godhra Jayanthi Ravi had consistently maintained the whole day that it was a fire accident. Kumar also tried to put pressure on Sreekumar to toe the official line of Modi but to no avail. It was the proximity Kumar to Modi that inquiry into the murder of Ishrat Jahan could not move fast and smoothly. He had created a bogus report that she was a terrorist. Even after his retirement Kumar cannot be behind bars because of the rigmarole of government. Epitaph Kutch yad unheyn bhi karlo, jo laut key ghar na aaye/ tum bhool na jao unko is liye kahi yeh kahani [remember something of them who did not return home/lest you forget them (and some others) their tale is narrated here. ]