Rohini Salian, the Saga of Suffering

The bomb that exploded on September 29, 2008 in Malegaon coincided with that on the same day and time and in similar targeting, Muslims, in Modasa, Gujarat was explained away as the work of Lashkar-e-Toyba. In Malegaon the HM RR Patil spoke of firm hand in dealing with the incident but the people protested in large number. This time it was like similar explosions on Shabe Barat on September 8, 2006. They could not take it in any pacifist manner. In the 2006 case the Sangh meaning RSS had claimed responsibility in a letter that was sent to the Jamte Ulemae Hind. It also had warned further attack. Muslims it asserted must leave the land. But the accusing of first attack on Muslims persisted for some years until Swami Asimanand claimed that it also was the work of their men. By that he meant Sunil Josh module. His claim gravitated attention to the other terror attacks which were also ascribed to the right wing Hindutva group of Abhinav Bharat-- the 2007 Ajmer blast, the 2007 Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad and the 2007 Samjhauta Express attack. When it became clear that Lt Col Prasad Purohit had supplied RDX for Samjhauta attack, no other than the National Security Advisor MN Narayanan stalled the investigation of Haryana police because it was becoming a matter of shame for India. India dilly dallied in the matter and went on offensive in the case of 26/11. Manzoor Ali Memon, spokesperson for the Pakistan High Commission remarked: “Our job is to present evidence and prosecute the accused…we cannot push the judiciary…it is an independent institution and takes its own time.” [1]Notwithstanding this high claim India’s record is of sorts. Judiciary was subverted in full view of the media. Babu Bajrangi: “Narendrabhai got me out of jail…He kept on changing judges... He set it up so as to ensure my release, otherwise I shouldn’t have been out yet…The first judge was one Dholakiya… He said Babu Bajrangi should be hanged—not once but four-five times …Then came another who stopped just short of saying I should be hanged. Then there was a third one…By then four-five months had elapsed in jail; then Narendrabhai sent me a message—saying he posted a judge named Akshay Mehta…He (Mehta) never even looked at the file or anything at the file or anything… He just said [bail was] granted.”[2]The underlined clause implies that Modi established himself into the task of saving the guilty. DG Vanzara had arrested those who had killed Muslims in Naroda Patia. He detained them and hosted them special meal from staffs’ quarters and then released them. In another case of equal horror of mass killing under his watch, Modi ordered ten lakh rupees to be paid to the lawyer of Malika Sarabhai to torpedo the Narod Patia case from within. All this squarely places Modi in the line of hard core Hindutva extremists who are sworn to perpetrate mass casualties on Muslims. Those who are straight Hindus like RB Sreekumar, Rohini Salian are pucca Hindus. Then why Modi and Vanzra, Mehta, both Tushar and Akshay so hardened anti Muslims? Modi even cursed Ahsan Jaffri and instead of saving him and those who had sought refuge in his house he in full knowledge of their fatal circumstances of immediate extension let them go to their fiery death. That precisely is reason his never donning a traditional Muslim cap. For the crimes of hate committed by his omission and commission the last resort is not the SC but International Criminal Court. Modi made Akshay Mehta a member of the Nanavati Commission of inquiry. What truth can you expect from such? Removing Salian as PP is a step in the dark. She has stated that soon after Modi government assumed power in Delhi an NIA officer first phoned her and then called upon her at her office and told her that the higher-ups wanted her to go soft on the Malegaon 2008 case. She countered him saying that she would work for justice. The day of fixing the date of trial she was sitting in the MCOCA court she was witness to a Kafkaesque melodrama. An Additional General Solicitor of Maharashtra government came there and told the senior counsel who was to speak on her side, Mariar Puttam, would no more represent the government. Another Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh came there and asserted that he would replace Puttam. Then both nudged the senior counsel Mariar in full view of the court. They prodded him with their elbow and gestured him to leave showing the door. Mariar sought permission to leave. The judge observed that since Mariar was through the case for so many months the court would hear him. In the vaudeville the court heard and affidavits submitted. Then the end. On June 12, 2015 the same NIA officer came to her and told her that another PP would take over the work. She told him that she expected it and was happy to be relieved and asked him to settle the bill. She said now that she was free to appear in cases against NIA. Next step in the dark will come soon when Ajay Misar will be “shot down shortly” as conveyed in an anonymous letter to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ten days ago, June 15, 2015. [3] Misar was helping Salian and was also the one who acted as public prosecutor at the session court in Nasik. Copies of the same letter were also received by the commissioners of Nasik and Mumbai and the special judge MCOCA court AL Pansare in Mumbai. Then came the parting shot of Salian: “I am a pucca Hindu. Hindu means what? You should be straight, not have bias against anyone — Hindus, anyone who commits an offence, is an offender.”[4] There is much broader context to Salian’s revelation. She says that within a month of Modi assuming office as PM the NIA officer said that the instruction to her go soft came from higher-ups. It couldn’t be any other than Prime Minister’s Office. Modi had given such an instruction in the late night meeting of February 27, 2002 which led to the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat. He also endorsed the murky terror operation that Swami Asimanand based in Gujarat’s Dangs area was handling. He came under cloud when Home Minister LK Advani asked Chief Minister Kehubhai Patel to check Asimanand’s activities. The Swami was also involved in terrorism became manifest later. “It was Jayanti bhai of Navsari who had arranged for our meeting [his meeting with Pragya Singh Thakur]. You [reporter] should not meet him. He was a trustee of the Dang temple. He became anti-Modi, went to the Keshubhai team. So we all have distanced ourselves from him.” “When my conversion stories made national news and Sonia Gandhi flew down to make speeches against me, there was a lot of discussion about me in the media. Then Advaniji was the home minister and asked Keshubhai to rein me in. Keshubhai started stopping our work and even arrested my people.” “Then, Keshubhai left and Narendrabhai came into power. Even before he became CM, Narendrabhai used to come to meet me and he told me, “I know that Keshubhai is troubling you. He will soon be out of power and I will become the CM. Phir aapka kaam hum karenge (Then, I will do your work.).””[5] The work that Modi promised to Asimanand he was maintaining it after becoming PM albeit with a gusto. Salian spoke of the higher ups telling her to go soft in the terror case of 2008 in Malegaon within a month of assuming power in Delhi. Like CM like PM. The threat to the life of Salian’s assistant Misar is of the same piece. TERRORISM. What caused so much agony to the victims, Christians in Dangs and Muslims in Malegaon and elsewhere was also the lot of the straight Hindu, Hemant Karkare. "I don't know why this case [2008 attack in Malegaon] has become so political. The pressure is tremendous and I am wondering how to extricate it from all the politics." [6] Till 7 in the evening of 26/11Karkare was with Salian. He was also in agony over how terrorism was politicized and caused tremendous suffering for which innocent Muslims were accused. In fact he said in an interview on September 17, 2008 that he had not found Muslim involvement in 2006 blasts. He had feared for his life when a couple of days before his assassination he was called by the army regarding his findings in 2008 blast. He feared for his life and had gone to the US embassy for asylum in case the right wing Hindutva made life difficult. He was stung by criticism against him and his family. Even the PM aspirant LK Advani wanted to change the investigators and raised the matter of the torture of Sadhvi Pragyasigh. The last evening of his was of acute suffering and therefore he mournfully asked Salian to read every page of his investigation report. It affected her in the same measure. Julio Ribeiro a former commissioner of police in Mumbai said that Salian was as a “prosecutor who can be equated to Karkare, albeit in a parallel arm of the judicial process. As Karkare was to probity in investigations, Rohini is to probity in prosecution… Shame on those who are attempting to interfere in the course of justice. They do not realise the damage they do to the rule of law, to which, incidentally, they pay lip service.” [7] Much of the apprehension which made Karkare grim faced also came to the PP he selected because both knew from experience and the reality on ground that naming the 2008 blasts as Hindutva terrorism was alarming. It could risk their life both as a public figure and also as a private individual. Just a day before 26/11 Karkare had received a death threat from a caller in Pune. Pune was also the place where Purohit had lived and had his stock of RDX stolen from the army and from where he as Mithun Chakervorty trained in bomb making those behind Nanded blasts, etc. The Hindutva groups are the most awesome in resources and power and would not bear anyone to go against them, Karkare or Salian. Rohini knew it and diagnosed it rightly for the ordinary people when she observed and paid with her job: ““You can’t be selective when it comes to terrorism on the lines of religion and doing so would be like providing the perpetrators with the voices.” [8] But unfortunately the state and the centre under Congress rule were prejudiced against Muslims much like the BJP and hence they tried to suppress the truth of 2006 blasts. Expressing her anguish over it Salian revealed: “I have given my opinion in the 2006 (the earlier Malegaon bombing) case. Hindu khichdi paka rahe hain. I could have done something in the case as a prosecutor. Used the prosecutor’s power. They did not give it to me. Give me in writing, I will save everyone, in the interest of justice…”[9] In his last interview Karkare says investigation in Hindutva terrorism is a double edged sword. Finally it claimed him and at long last Salian who reminisces her last meeting him: “His voice was shaking and he sounded very disturbed. Then I heard that the accused were all Hindus and I was surprised… From morning to evening I read the papers. I was shocked. I started crying and got emotionally upset. In that matter I also got to know about Samjhauta and Modasa. I started to talk to Karkare and was with him till 7 pm on 26/11 after deciding on the next day’s meeting too.” ------ [1] http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pakistan-rakes-up-2007-samjhauta-express-blast-as-india-protests-2611-mumbai-terror-attacks-case-delay/article6249444.ece [2] Tehelka November 6, 2007 [3]Asian Age June 27, 2015 [4] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/the-meaning-very-clearly-was-dont-get-us-favourable-orders/#sthash.74MzYcz6.dpuf [5] http://www.caravanmagazine.in/swami-aseemanand-interviews [6] http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/karkare-s-response-to-a-death-threat-a-smiley/391325/0 [7] http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/why-we-must-listen-to-salian/99/ [8] http://www.thecitizen.in/NewsDetail.aspx?Id=4166&Opposition/Attacks/PM/Modi/for/Double/Standards/on/Terrorism [9] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/i-am-out-of-all-nia-cases-its-a-matter-of-faith-principle-special-public-prosecutor-rohini-salian-the-day-after/#sthash.pkxe6tm4.dpuf

Can yoga relieve the agony of Muslims?

No therapy has been found to lessen the agony of Muslims enmeshed in intractable problems that defy any solution. Of these numerous problems that of the demolition of Babri mosque is humongous. Riots and bloodsheds followed the trail of the chariot on which LK Advani traversed the country exhorting Hindus to get the Ram temple built. There is no shortage of Ram temples in India. But the one in Ayodhya must be built on the site where stood the Babri mosque till December 6, 1992. There is no legal solution in sight. Given the Hindutva government in power at centre it is impossible. Yet the pain is palpably rising because any and every further move towards building the temple would herald in more bloodshed. The rathyata of Advani was the tactic of manufacturing riots and riots did follow wherever Advani went. It was BJP secretary Narendra Modi who had arranged to roll down the chariot from Somnath temple with Advani Pramod Mahajan leading the crowds from the front. That was in the early 1990s. Ten years later the RSS and its conglomerates wanted to revive the stopped work of rebuilding. Now another decade is over and the voters who put BJP in power want to en-cash the cheque that they got in demolition of the mosque. They have appealed to followers to donate one lakh square feet of stone. The right wing have won power through ballot and so why not en cash the cheque! “Ram temple is our identity. We cannot leave it at any cost. This issue will be taken up after we put together a proper strategy. And we are in the process of fine-tuning that strategy." That was Kalraj Mishra. On the yoga day on June 21, 2015 when all the media was focused on the stretching of the parts of the body in far flung places, RSS and its groups were getting ready to put in practice what their chief was ordering them. In a close-door meeting at at Nivedita Shiksha Sadan in Mahmoorganj area in Varanasi where 22 leaders of BJP who had participated in Babri demolition movement were also present Mohan Bhagwat made very serious remarks. It is fraught with dangerous dynamics. 1. The issue of the Ram temple must be settled before 2017 UP assembly election. 2. The movement to build up the temple at Ayodhya would be speeded up. 3. BJP failed to highlight the resolve to build the temple after completing one year in office. 4. Speaking in the constituency of the PM Modi he said he was ready to face the wrath of the people who elected Modi. They had voted Modi for the temple and now Modi must fulfill the pledge to build temple. 5. He condemned the elected members of BJP who were mouthing contradictory statement on Babri mosque issue every now and then. 6. BJP will suffer more from this rather than the rival Congress. This last is well known contradiction, Rajnath Singh saying development and not Ram Mandir is priority, Amit Shah saying BJP not on back foot on the issue.[1] On the yoga day itself stretching of the parts of the body generated tension of the mind of the vice president and the Muslims. Ram Madhav, secretary and RSS spokesman singled out Hamid Ansari’s absence and then said that he was perhaps sick. The Vice President’s office replied that he was not invited and then said that he was not sick. It furthered explained that according to protocols the VP attends function only where he is invited. Equally serious was the barrage of Sadhvi Prachi who said those who do not want to attend yog must go to Pakistan. Being sent to Pakistan is the recurring leitmotif which is maintained inorder to focus on the minority and raise their tension of existence in India. It is programmed to get on their nerves. Although they are the legitimate citizens of India but she says that they have “no right” to live in India. Then came the barb as she taunted that yoga programme was not the wedding function of the daughter of a politician where VP needed an invitation. The whole issue is in fact an aspect of the clash of civilization. Hindus believe yoga originated in Indian culture since ancient time. However western countries do not give credit to India. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board feels that “Brahamin dharma and Vedic culture are out to harm Islamic beliefs by all means.” Pat came the answer of Sadhvi Prachi: “They should connect themselves with the traditions of India, cultureof India. There is no need for any objection. If they ar objecting then they should go to Pakistan. People who are objecting to it have no right to reside in India…They have India’s food and sing songs of Pakistan. Democracy does not tell you to object to India’s traditions and cultures.” [2] This kind of engagement with the minority removes attention from the real problems of the community: backwardness, illiteracy, housing difficulties, diseases and plight caused by riots and premeditated framing of Muslim youths in bogus terror charges of terrorism and unemployment. Thus the community is left in the Sargasso Sea of suffering. ------ [1] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/ram-temple-mohan-bhagwat-rss-up-elections/1/446118.html [2] Asian Age June 24, 2015

Speculators in death: Modi and Ajit Kumar Doval

Since it became clearer that Ishrat Jahan and others were killed for the sake of saving Chief Minister Narendra Modi in a fake encounter on June 15, 2004 much water has flown down the river. Mufti Qayum Mansoori was acquitted along with others in the Akshardham temple attack case of September 2002. The attack on the temple was a fact but it was not the work of those whom the trial and high courts judged guilty. The Supreme Court acquitted them because it was a bogus charge leveled against the innocent for which they suffered so much in jail for nearly 13 years. Another casualty of premeditated charge against another accused was the case of Ishrat Jahan fake encounter in which two Pakistani Zeeshan Johar and Amjad Ali Rana were also killed. The two were supposed to be in a jail in Jammu and Kashmir and ATS chief DGVanzara and his team had taken the Mufti to verify their identity. The team simply visited JK as tourists and did not bother to visit the jail. Therefore the question of what role IB under its chief SK Singh and Ajit Kumar Doval who succeeded him after a month, raises concern. Rajendra Kumar and three other officers played active role in the killing. Doval’s presence in the Golden Temple in 1989 when 40 Sikh militants were killed may have been helpful in tracing some militants. But what KPS Gill did in the case of Jaswant Singh Khalra in September 1995 puts a question mark on the events. Khalra was taken away from his house and then tortured and killed and his body was thrown in a canal. The police celebrated it by enjoying a dinner party at the government guest house. His painstaking work of analyzing the remains of the Sikhs killed and keeping record of the crematorium and the amount of wood sold in burning the dead aroused the anger of the police. He was repeatedly warned and then killed. There is a hint of this kind in what Shekhar Gupta says of Ishrat Jahan fake encounter: “What we do not know is, whether it was an operation that the intelligence agencies would sometimes describe as a "controlled killing", where you use moles and plants to lure your targets into a trap and then put them away, or was it as rogue operation, driven either by a combination of paranoia and arrogance, or to please the powers that be.”[1] One thing that is known invariably is that the “antecedents” of Ishrat Jahan militates against the “intentions” of the spooks and cannot mitigate the enormity of the crime. Furthermore, it is ominous to say as Gupta does that there is need for “controlled fallout” if a fuller disclosure is made in the fake encounter of Ishrat and others. Why should Gupta say this? Is it because he has had long contact with Doval who does not care for past operation of the agency for the assured impunity? Praveen Swami also shows close contact with Doval that he could say things on his behalf like his argument that intelligence would not survive investigation if facts are made known? “I have his permission, though, to speculate that it may have involved the cold-blooded execution of a Pakistani intelligence officer, the illegal detention of terrorism suspects, torture, the smuggling of arms and explosives across India's borders, and the use of false identities. “Lawyers have numbers and words for these things: 302, 304, 364, 120B, the Arms Act, the Explosives Act. These are the laws India’s intelligence services break every single day — to defend the Republic. “To comprehend this is to comprehend why India’s intelligence services simply won’t — at least in their present form— survive the Ishrat Jahan Raza murder investigation. Ever since their inception, the Intelligence Bureau and its sister-services have functioned without any legal mandate. This means authorisation for anything they do. Every time an intelligence officer initiates a covert operation, launches agents across the border or engages in the lethal deceptions that constitute the warp and weft of spycraft, she or he breaks the law and violates the constitution.”[2] Survival of India is not at the stake of disclosure of Ishrat Jahan case or Chittisingpora case. Right to life of citizens of India is more important, be they Muslims, Sikhs or Hindus (Tulsiram Prajapati). The last case is of grave importance because the chain of command leads to Modi whose bête noir Haren Pandya was shot through his testicles by Prajapati. This personal angle of interest does not point accusing finger at the leading accused Asghar Ali. No court so far has taken a su motto action to requisition widow of Pandya who met Asghar in Visakhapatnam jail. If Doval is that sharp why did he not take more interest in the goings on in Gujarat, a sensitive border state like Manipur? Gupta’s fear that one agency would be pitted against another, as CBI a caged bird of Congress versus IB infiltrated with rightwing Hindutva or BJP. If according to S Mushriff Modi can stop IB from Gujarat for seeking truth he can now as PM order fuller details made public in the case of Ishrat Jahan. If India has remained steady after the genocide in Gujarat how can it face any upheaval in just one case? No agency can be hangdog of any political part as the motto of the central government is, truth prevails. Let truth live. Don’t kill it by not making investigation diaries of police in Ishrat Jahan case locked up in vaults of the MHA available in the court where the case is being tried. Home Minister Rajnath Singh was Chief Minister of UP when he had refused to supply intelligence on the kar sevaks’ unruly behavour on the train returning from Ayodhya in 2002. The result was the Godhra fire accident. Now under what obligation he is sitting on the intelligence gathered in the fake encounter of 2004? IB cannot be allowed to be his underdog or of anyone else’s. There is also constitutional difference. India is a working parliamentary democracy. Vice President Hamid Ansari in his R&AW chief Kaul memorial lecture wanted an oversight committee of Parliamentarians to review intelligence. In the American presidential system President Obama may order the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki. For what did the Hindu extremist Dr RP Singh wanted to burn the vice president at Hamdard University meeting? Ishrat Jahan case is not just of any ordinary operation of investigation agency but it is travesty of justice and suborning of the judicial process. Even more the members of the team had been queasy of going ahead in killing Ishrat. GL Singhal felt that the girl did not deserve killing. He even asked counter terrorism in charge ATS chief Vanzara to clarify the matter. Vanzara contacted minister for home Amit Shah (black beard) who in turn sought consent from Modi (grey beard). If the case is allowed to proceed to its logical end even the Prime Minister would be in danger. Ministry of Home Affairs’ denying permission to produce the police investigation record diaries to CBI for court scrutiny is suborning of judiciary. It is also casual “controlled killing” of Muslims who are no better than poultry in the eyes of the reigning echelon and the right wing groups in power. The agony of the victims doesn’t mean anything! Ishrat Jahan’s father was a poor migrant from Bihar living hand to mouth life in the slums of Mumbai. Before his death caused by falling from the scaffold of a building under construction he beseeched Pranesh Pillani (Javed) to have mercy and give livelihood to his daughter. She got death, instead, administered drug by Dr Narendra Amin and killed on road by Gujarat police with guns supplied by IB! ------- [1] http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/body-politics/1138181/0 [2] http://www.firstpost.com/india/ishrat-jahan-case-intelligence-wont-survive-the-investigation-939229.html

What it is to be victims of pogroms: Atali

On Friday June 19, 2015 an eerie but carefully manipulated vaudeville of Hindutva started in Atali. The two fans that riot victims put in the burnt down mosque were removed because they constituted rebuilding the mosque. It was the lion dictating to lamb to behave although the river water was flowing down from the direction of the lion. The lamb was polluting the water even from down the river. A native worshipper Nizam Ali said this as the gist of the matter: “We put fans at the mosque because it becomes very hot and the elderly find it uncomfortable. We didn’t want to begin construction or do anything that could lead to tension. But the Jats protested and said we were trying to take over the land.” [1] Thus a new variety of entertainment of Hindutva began in which the Jats, Hindus, Dalits will watch the hapless Muslims do antics at the bidding of the majority, a comic interlude after the tragedy of May 25, 2015. As was the tragedy the fall out of the panchayat meeting of the majority so was the “variety”, entertainment. The landscape of India dots with mosques and temples coexisting for centuries and yet in the topsy-turvy world of Hindutva how could it be viable: “The land where they built the mosque belongs to the village and not the Waqf. There is a temple there. How can a mosque and a temple exist next to each other?” What Sudhir Choudhary is wondering is that even when the title of the land is vested with the Muslims and wakf board the “variety” has to be accepted for entertainment of the majority. The Ballabhgarh SDM Priyanka Soni played her own role by not using discretion as the matter is in court. Lack of critical thinking is the price to pay to play this role. A fact finding team by Khudai Khidmatgar unearthed another act of the vaudeville: “However on digging deeper our fact finding team found out that the Jat community claims that the Muslims had pelted stones on them twice on the Jats on 24th May 2015. They go on claiming that some Muslim families under the influence of a few rich and powerful Muslims in fact burnt their own homes and even tried to burn an old man from their own community to create the impression that Jats were creating havoc and mayhem. “There is even confusion regarding the land on which the mosque is being constructed because while the Jats claim that there was no judgment in favour of construction of the Mosque in fact those who had filed a case against the construction had withdrawn the case. The Jats claim that the Masjid cannot be constructed in that very spot because it is panchayat land and that cannot be used for construction of religious structures. They add that the Muslims may build their mosque a little away from the spot and that would be a peaceful solution.” During all these varieties of acts a new narrative sobered by experience and resignation surfaced. It is that of a humble hawker of cloths in ten villages of Wallabhgarh including Atali. Shabbir Mullah : “Where can we go. The people of these villages did not let us part them when the partition took place and people were migrating to Pakistan. They stopped us here. So where do we go from her now? If they wanted to kill us they would have done long back. The ancestors of the natives of these hamlets gave us refuge here. “Now in whatever way they want to keep us we would live accordingly.” [2]Those who heard this pathetic realization burst out in tears including minister for social justice Krish Pal Gujjar, education minister Ram Vilas Sharma, PWD minister Rao Ranvir. They hugged each other and spooke loudly that the Muslims need not leave now. They assured Mulla and the rest of the Muslims present in theWallabgarh panchayat hall that they could live as they like. Everyone wept profusely as was the cathartic effect in them. ------ [1] http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/ramzan-in-atali-jats-get-mosque-fans-removed/ [2] Inquilab June 5, 2015 Was the attack in Atali (Haryana) an act of terrorism? The defining feature of the carnage in Atali on May 25, 2015 bore the hallmark of terrifying fear. This is writ large on the doors of the houses of the victims which are unlocked and unbolted and the fans still moving from the ceilings of the houses looted and burnt. The attack came so swift that the hapless Muslims ran for their life and limbs. This was the same ferocity as was seen in Muzaffarnagar in 2013 and Gujarat 2002. Tractor trolleys carried well armed Jats in Muzaffarnagar. In Gujarat the police would first shoot at Muslims and frighten them into hiding and then the extremists of RSS/Bajrang Dal/VHP would descend upon the cowering quarry. In all these the shrinking back of the hapless cornered or fleeing or running head over heels and then being overwhelmed and killed or maimed or quartered is terror. The gas cylinders hurled into the houses and shot at by gun causing terrific explosions is also qua terrorism. It was not mere “Arson at Atali” as is dubbed by Frontline of June 13-24 issue or a skirmish by some from the majority community. It is also astounding that the women Frontline spoke to said that they had no role in it when it was the women who were leading the attacks. One of them acted the role of Maya Kodnani of Gujarat Naroda Patia, exhorting the Hindus to kill and burn the Muslims. The woman who acted a major role gathered other women for the attack. It was tactical move to render police ineffective. But it does not end there. In Muzaffaragar pogroms the niece of the former chief of ATS of Maharashtra Krish Pal Raghuvanshi spoke to her uncle from Muzaffarnagar to delay the dispatch of the paratroopers so that they could finish killing more Muslims. The Tehelka issue of November 2007on genocide in Gujarat 2002 shows pictures of women mauling Muslim victims in the hands of the police and snatching them from the police to vent their fury. As in most other violent incidents it was the armed wing of the RSS, Bajrang Dal that was behind the attacks. The young people in Atali told Frontline that Bajrang Dal volunteers visited the village even afterward and assured full “support” to the majority community. What is its import? Since the people from the majority Hindu communities of Jats and Dalits and others did not get even a minuscule of a scratch on their skin in the operation, nor were they arrested despite being named and identified by their victims in 70 First Information Reports submitted against them. The involvement of the central armed cadres of Bajrang Dal is ominous. Sabir Ali, a victim: “All our economic activities are tied to the Jats. Barring the fact that we do the namaaz, there is nothing different between the two communities. We share many similarities. Was there any need to do all this? ...We do not want to fight. We want to live and let live. Why do they consider us inferior? Is it because we are landless? But we are educated. They do not involve us in any village decisions. This was preplanned, otherwise they wouldn’t have the courage to attack us like this?” A part of the answer lies in the fact that it was a planned attack in which volunteers to perpetrate violence were brought from outside the village, too. There were gas cylinders collected. Tractors were kept ready. The police were withdrawn from the site for three hours during which the attack took place. Two of the Muslim villagers had become very rich and bore the brunt of the attack. Every terror incident is also a means of propaganda. In Atali the message was clear that there would be no mosque allowed, no visiting Tabligi jamat group allowed. It was a reminder that 5 years ago such a group had visited the Muslims and propagated Islam. This attack was what also happened in Charleston, South Carolina, black Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015. The attacker Dylann Roof entered it and asked the name of the pastor and then shot dead nine attending the Bible class. Roof wore jersey with a flag of Confederacy and another of Rhodesia and apartheid in South Africa. In India violence against Muslims is perceived as what they deserve as a reaction to what they do. So Hindus perpetrate terror but it is only in response to what Muslims do and therefore Hindus are not terrorists but Muslims are. The same is the case in executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Nihad Awad’s reflection: “We have been conditioned to accept that if the violence(the attack in church in Carolina) is committed by a Muslim, then it is terrorism.” “If the same violence is committed by a white supremacist or apartheid sympathizer and is not a Muslim, we start to look for excuses — he might be insane, maybe he was pushed too hard.”[1] The politics behind the Atali incident was that Muslims must remain second class citizens and limit themselves to outlying areas from where the mosque prayer calls do not disturb the majority dominant community of Hindus. Nay, the mosques themselves must not be visible. In other words Muslims must either merge in the Hindu fold or became invisible. A sociologist Sudhir Deshpande put it in a frame: “The famous “action-reaction” sequence of 2002 attempted to install a normalised anti-Muslim prejudice as the cornerstone of contemporary Hindutva. While Muslim-baiting is as old as Hindutva itself, the challenge was to normalise it, to legitimise it in the eyes of ordinary people to the point where it would become a self-evident truth.” There is “… imposition of conditionalities limiting the extent and quality of their citizenship” [2] Like Modi succeeded in showing the Muslims their place and teach them a lesson in Gujarat, the Jats and their temporary allies have also done it in another action scene. However whether the Muslims would construe themselves to live like that is not in the hands of those who familiarly teach Muslims lessons. As Modi fore grounded the cycle repairer Muslim in his village who had no social mobility. Even his grandson also remained the same humble cycle repairer. The members of the Muslim minority community often repeat (without realizing the irony in it, perhaps) that god does not change the lot of those who are not cognizant of it themselves. However, regretful is the absence of prudence in those who are hell bent to destroy even such like the fakirs[beggars] and tellies[makers of oil] of Atali! ----- [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/us/charleston-shooting-terrorism-or-hate-crime.html?_r=0 [2]thttp://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-restrained-riot-of-atali/article7333979.ece

Bombs are not for Shab-e-Barat

On June 4, 2015 People’s Liberation Army (Khapang faction) guerrillas based in Myanmar killed 18 soldiers of Indian army in Manipur. In hot pursuit on June 9th Indian commandoes entered the Myanmar jungle and killed around 100 guerrillas. First India claimed that it had taken the Myanmar government in confidence and that the NSA Ajit Doval even visited the Myanmar government officials and briefed them. Later on the Myanmar government denied this. Unwittingly a friendly neighbor was embarrassed. But India’s other neighbor, Pakistan, was alarmed and reacted in more hostile manner than expected. While Myanmar denied that the insurgents in its territory were bombed, Indian government officials on June 10th confirmed the intrusion of the neighbouring country’s space, nay they asserted that more such hot pursuits would follow. In the night of the attack the minister even warned India’s other neighbours of such consequences in future. The minister did not mince words that this was “a lesson and a message to all the terrorist groups that India will not hesitate in going beyond its geographical borders to eliminate terrorists.” [1] Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (retd): “The message is that you are not safe if you are attacking Indians on Indian soil.” However, the director of the Myanmar presidential office remarked: “According to the information sent by Tatmadaw (Myanmar Army) battalions on the ground, we have learned that the military operation was performed on the Indian side at the India-Myanmar border.” The Naga and Meitei militants were the target of the attack. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent his PMO officer Jitendra Singh to visit Nagaland and Manipur to assess the mood there. As expected, Pakistan reacted sharply. No other than the former President Perevz Musharraf chose strong words. He blamed India for this aggressive intrusion in a neighbouring country. This is a preplanned strategy with the ultimate aim of denuclearizing Pakistan. Did he take the surgical strike as a dry run to be replicated in Pakistan? “We do not want to use nuclear capability but if our existence comes under threat, who do we have these nuclear weapons for...Don’t attack us, don’t challenge our territorial integrity because we are not a small power, we’re major and nuclear power. Don’t push us….We should have self confidence that their dream to denuclearize Pakistan is not possible. We won’t let their end game materialize.” He saw red herring in the attack: “Deal them (India) with sovereign equality, my experience is they will further suppress if we back off. Their stand is offensive one.” But the punch came when Musharraf said that “If I say in (former Prime Minister) Chaudhary Shujaat Hussein’s style, do we have nukes saved to be used on Shab-e-Barat.” [2] However curt is the remark it equates Abhinav Bharat bombing Muslim worshippers on September 8, 2006 with the work of the army. It was this kind of back and forth that US Secretary of State John Kerry found to be very disturbing: “These (India and Pakistan) are two very very important countries playing a critical role with respect to regional interests, and it’s very very important that there be no misinterpretation or miscalculation with respect to any of the back-and-forth and the empowerment some entities might feel as a result of that.” [3] It is more disturbing than what Kerry feels. And therefore subject of serious concern. It needs insight into the contours of the back and forth. Prime Minister Modi chose his pack very carefully and had experience in foreign policy nuances. He fought 2002 election between what he calls Mian Musharraf (Pakistan President Gen Perves Musharraf) and him. As a result he broadened his vision and set eyes on Mian Musharraf(an euphemism for Muslims) as his rival while asking the people of the border state to choose him over Mian Musharraf. The Pakistan President took the matter of the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat to the General Assembly of the UNO. Among the pack Modi chose is Ajit Doval as his NSA who had had a long clandestine mission in Pakistan as an undercover agent. As paracharak or guide and teacher of RSS Modi had another associate, the special deputy director of Intelligence Bureau Rajendra Kumar. The latter generated false reports like the burning of the Sabarmati Express as a terrorist attack hatched by Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan. Thus Modi had indulged in foreign policy matters even when he was just the chief minister of a state. The white bearded who ordered the killing of Ishrat Jahan, Pranesh Pillai and two Pakistanis is no other than Modi. The black bearded was of course his minister of state for home, Amit Shah. That Richard Headley had mentioned her as agent of Lashkar-e-Tayaba has no evidentiary value. Kumar was ultimately responsible for supplying guns from IB arsenal to kill the four. The MHA has refused permission to try Kumar and three others of IB. BJP is a staunch Hindu nationalist party which eyes Pakistan as part of India according to its akhand Bharat ideology of its patron organization RSS. In the euphoria of having successfully exploded bombs in Pokharan II in 1998 Madan Lal Khurana in PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had challenged Pakistan to wrestling match. If this is the kind of crude unreformed nationalism how is it any different from defense minister Manohar Parrikar’s point of view of removing a thorn with another thorn? The Sopore killings in early June 2015 are a result of killing Pakistani agents and terrorists by using local terrorists in Kashmir. Former chief minister of JK Omar Abdullah called it the direct outcome of Parrikar’s change of mind set. In carrying out the Myanmar attack there was visible another instance of the change in mindset. Modi’s minister of broadcasting and information Col. Rajvardhan Singh Rathor attributed it to the 56 inches chest of Modi. It is reminiscent of DG Vanzara the close confidante of the chief minister who conducted all the fake encounters of Muslims. Vanzara called the operation as mardon ka kaam, great and daring deeds of the macho. Musharraf chose to side with the US in the war on terrorism in the wake of 9/11. It was right decision though under duress. Secretary of State Colin Powell had conveyed the warning of President George W Bush that “you are either with us or against us in the war on terror.” Later Bush’s deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage threatened Musharraf that in case he did not support it he “should be prepared to be bombed to Stone Age.” The Pakistani leader took the right decision. In case of India it fortuitously jumped on the bandwagon of the war on terror. But India’s war on terrorism turned out to be endogenous. It made it out to be a hunt for Students Islamic Movement of India, its own citizens just because they were Muslims. It banned SIMI even when there was no proof of the organization’s terrorist link. It gave a license to the police and army to frame innocent Muslims as terrorists and get awards and promotion for conducting fake encounters. In the name of fighting terrorism Lt Col Prasad Purohit did that and more. As in charge of counter terrorism intelligence section of the army he generated bogus intelligence report of Noorulhoda Shamsuddoha as a member of SIMI and had him arrested in the September 8, 2006 blasts in Malegaon. This war on terrorism focused on the enemies within, the Muslims. On the pretext of fighting separatists in Kashmir the army and police targeted SIMI and its reduction ad absurdum—IM. That work is still going on as the phenomenon of Islamic States in Syria and Iraq looms larger. To the boss of ABVP Ashok Singhal IS is another avtar of “Jehadi terrorism.” His remark is tell tale: “What happened in Godhra. Rambhaktas were burnt alive; it was an act of jehad. The result was we got a man called Modi who is an ironman.” “Islam in India has the story of being ‘jehadi Islam.” He cited IS as an example. But went further: Islamic jehad is the cause of caste system. It divided the Indian society. The scheduled castes were rendered untouchables by Islamic jehad because they did not convert and hence became dalits. Those who could not bear the onslaught of Islam fled to jungle and became Scheduled Tribes. [4] Drawing inference to the present time Singhal said “A similar situation is arising before the community (Hindus) these days.” This kind of back and forth is capable of producing enormous suffering for which Kerry showed his “enormous concern” when he spoke to President Sharif of Pakistan. In the back of all this is also Headley and Doval’s role in the fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan. An extremist recently spoke to the charity organization in Mumbra that is running an ambulance in Mumbai named “Shaheed Ishrat Jahan”. The man with north Indian accent objected that she was a terrorist. Ishrat’s mother and sister have been shot at from time to time. Doval was chief of Intelligence Bureau (2004-2005), which works under CBI. It was in his period in office that Rajendra Kumar generated the bogus input that declared Ishrat Jahan as a LeT operative, nay indeed a woman fidayeen out to kill Modi. He supplied the AK 57 that the ATS under PP Pandy, DG Vanzara and GL Singhal used in killing her and three others. All this in the name of Modi, Togadia and Advani. Doval is credited with the tactic of “shoot first, investigate later”. This was carried out in the case of the fake encounters. All through Doval defended Modi when he was singled out for the genocide crimes or the fake encounters and severely criticized. Modi’s being at the helms of the affairs of India has diminished what is national and what is international in terms of fighting terror. It was his scurrilous remarks against Musharraf that widened the forum when the matter came up in UNO General Assembly. His delineating 9/11 as “Islamic terrorism” was in the same vein. Even PM Vajpayee instead of sacking Modi spoke in terms of Huntington thesis of Muslims having problems of living with their neighbours. He was speaking in the Goa conclave of his Hindu party BJP where it was widely expected that he would change the chief minister of Gujarat. Those who read RSS as dichotomized and Modi is now acceptable to Muslims miss the point. He is the chip of the old block. When the media persons asked KP Raghuvanshi about Bajrang Dal and VHP and RSS activists were planning to blow bombs in Aurangabad mosque the following day but accidentally blew themselves up in the house of the RSS member and engineer in Nanded on April 6, 2006 he said that the bombs were not for pooja, Hindu prayer. Musharraf knew that scores of Indian army officers were involved in the two bomb blasts of 2006 and 2008 in Malegaon. Only Lt Col Prasad Purohit and retired Major Rmesh Upadhya were named while scores of others escaped scrutiny. And, that it was Purohit who had supplied the RDX that was used on the Pakistan bound Samjhauta express for which innocent Indian Muslims were blamed. A large number of Pakistanis were killed. It was in this context of history of terror that he retorted that the Pakistan nukes were not meant for Shab-e-Barat. This was further context bound by a minister giving the Myanmar surgical attack as a warning to Pakistan. And even to US that had also harboured illusion of taking out the bombs from Pakistan lest they fall in the hands of the Taliban and the al Qaeda. Kerry addressed the situation well. ------ [1] Asian Age June 11, 2015 [2]Asian Age June 12, 2015 [3]Asian Age June 18, 2015 [4]Indian Express June 4, 2015

Why the stake is so high on PM Narendra Modi’s accidental death?

The world is seized of the fact that the fake encounters mounted against innocent Muslims supposedly on the way to kill Narendra Modi was figment of imagination of Modi and his administration. It was foisted upon the worked up public to raise their anger against the Muslims of India. His administration abysmally failed to try in a court of law any Muslim accused of harbouring desire to kill anyone let alone Modi. The collector of Godhra was the earliest to reach the site, a bandh or raised tracks seven feet high where the Sabarmati Express train caught fire on February 27, 2002 and maintained that it was an accident. It was Modi who changed it into an act of terror more than six hours later and called for strike against the Muslims or else why instruct his police to let the Hindus vent their anger for three days! If it was the handiwork of Pakistan ISI India should have taken up the matter with Pakistan. But venting anger against Indian Muslims is illogical syllogism. Now the Brookings Institution is speculating that the death of Modi by bus hitting him or his slipping in bathroom and being removed from the world stage. The think tank is developing the scenario. Whose stake is so high on the PM? The Americans who are salivating the enormous income from arms sale to India or the Muslims’ who are indifferent to how long he lives and how he would die. In a media debate a Muslim leader called him Pharaoh and Muslims leave such rulers to the final reckoning day when the almighty in heaven alone can judge him. Ishrat Jahan was accused of planning to gun down Modi. It proved bogus and even the intelligence report Modi’s associate special deputy director of IB Rajendra Kumar prepared was suspicious. Were not Kumar and DG Vanzara speculating on the assassination of Modi as chief minister and a leader of Hindus? Those speculating over matters of death are construed in a slant of political light as “merchants of death.” Fifty eight passengers were burnt alive in the fire accident and those who advocated retaliation and took out the dead bodies for public viewing were also dealing in the same merchandize. Newtonian tit for tat? There are ominous hints that need scrutiny like: the American Inc is briefing Pentagon, the military establishment, of the US-India trade. Will the US be taking it easy if India does not fulfill the expectation of the Yankees? One of the speakers at the Brookings meeting spoke of the 5 sided building that could not be any other than the Pentagon itself. "I was at a building yesterday, which has five sides -- and you can figure it out -- and the question was as we were giving the briefing, what would happen to India if Modi got hit by a bus tomorrow."[1] Who could hit Modi is an innuendo. Dianne Farrel, the executive vice president of the Brookings Institution and also senior director of the US-India Business Council, qualified by saying that they wish a healthy tenure to Modi. In the Carnegie Endowment conference in 2014 there was a concern that there is no deep bench in BJP. What if Modi were to exit the world stage! There doesn’t exist another Modi in India who could mobilize the people are also worrisome aspects. Farrel has calculated patience as the reform Modi ushered in is slower than expected. Despite these developments the burden of the genocide and fake encounter cases is still weighing on the minds of the minority that suffered most. Even Hindus who were given that kind of treatment like the family of Tulsiram Prajapati in no measure suffer any less the anguish and agony. The families have suffered and would suffer in the foreseeable future. In the Sohrabuddin Shaikh murder Narendra Amin played a crucial role for which he spent more than five years in jail and has been under suspension for eight years but is now released and reinstated in the police force a year after Modi became the PM of India. Nay, he is entrusted with the crime records of the state government Crime Branch. He was also involved in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter. He administered drug to her to make her unconscious when she and others were brought to the scene and shot dead in cold blood. The killing of Sohrabuddin justified by Modi in election rallies produced the desired and intended effect: Modi and his party got abundant vote. Samir Khan Pathan was also killed in a rehearsal where the police allege that he had killed a cop. His mother went to police station but the police did not tell her that he was already dead. Another Muslim who suffered enormously was Gulam Yazdani. He was accused in the case of the assassination of Modi’s minister but arch rival, Haren Pandya. But he was not a rrested. He was arrested in the murder case of RSS leader and owner of a medical store in Hyderabad in 1999. He was detained for a month and then shown on record that he was arrested a month later. During his incarceration two more terror charges were leveled against him. He was discharged from all the three charges. He was not arrested in Haren Pandya case but was dubbed as the architect of the murder. Three bombs had exploded on March 7, 2006. Next day Yazdani lost his life in a police encounter. In January the ACP of Hyderabad had asked his father about his identification marks. The case of Haren Pandya resembles the murder of Captain Saurab Kalia on June 6, 1999 when he and his team sighted the Pak intrusion in Kargil. They were ambushed tortured and killed. His sex parts were mutilated before murder. That would remind how Haren Pandya was also shot through his testicles. Vithal Pandya accused Modi of the murder of his son and called it a political murder. These murders are shrouded in mystery. Brookings meeting might have correctly gauged Modi’s transparency in business, mobilization of people for electoral gains and penchant for development, but it is fraught with danger. Transparency cannot be only in matters of detecting graft and removing it from business, mobilization of people may have been there when 31% who voted BJP. That gave Modi comfortable majority but the overwhelming 69 % cannot be taken for a ride in the administration of the country. As far as development is concerned Gujarat is already well developed thanks to the previous governments and the mammoth diaspora of the people of the state. Their remittance is very huge. The state still has many who are very poor. Transparency is the crux of the matter in terms of what has transpired in the state during Modi’s stewardship. There is the persistent problem whether the US can declare RSS as a foreign terrorist organization. The murders of people reek with murky dealings and involvement of the chief minister Modi in all the gory events. The central government has denied permission to try special deputy director of IB Rajendra Kumar. He was close to Modi who ushered him in Gujarat. He it was who prevailed in the decision to declare the fire incident on Sabarmati express train as ISI terrorist attack without proof as well as generating false intelligence reports to have more than 20 Muslims shot and killed in cold blooded conspiracy to gain vote and win election! There is no iota of truth about the slain being terrorists. Or, is the Brookings preparing for the endgame of Modi as it predicted correctly that he is at risk from the extremist wings of the Hindu right? Stephen Cohen speaking at the Brookings Institution in 2014 had sounded this ominous warning regarding Modi and India even before Modi became PM of India: “India has not squeaked at all and squeaking wheels get the grease and India’s got to be squeaking loud. It’s got to be doing things, some risky, some dangerous, some positive.” Cohen said that once Modi is in office India may squeak “with a vengeance with the advent of a Modi foreign policy.” US ambassador Nancy Powell had resigned for opposing visa to Modi. Cohen has had this in mind among other things when he observed: “Modi has close relations with China, Japan, and South Korea, and bad relations with the US.” [2] So the question which arises in the first week of June 2015 what has remained opaque and what is transparent. More important: is the US competent to deal in such a situation? Can the reinstatement of Narendra Amin, Vanzara and a host of other matters like Home Ministry’s refusal to try IB officers like Rajendra Kumar make India squeak in terms of human rights, religious freedom, justice, etc? These are matters of grave concern which India does not bother like the case of Captain Saurab Kalia’s possible going to International Court of Justice. Albeit coincident, the captain too met his fate on June 6, 1999. Amin was made deputy superintendant of State Crime Record Bureau in Ahmadabad on June 6, 2015. He is capable of tampering the crime records of not just the fake encounters but also of the charges of crimes against humanity which many government officers of Gujarat state face. The chain of command reaches to Modi. In the chargesheet Amin figures prominently. “…Dr NK Amin was not posted in ATS, but was a part of the conspiracy, was in constant touch with accused no 1, 2 (Vanzara and Pandian) and then minister of state Amit Shah (accused number 16). He made/received as many as 25 calls from Amit Shah during the period.”During his jail term he appealed to the court to arraign IPS off Geetha Johari, and accused two cops Nathuba Jadeja and V A Rathod as also involved in the crime of killing Sohrabuddin Shaikh. Amin also absconded when the police wanted to arrest him. Among other crimes he shot dead a youth with his service gun inside the police station in Hyderabad. Andhra police is deeply involved in the kidnapping of Sohrbuddin and his wife, in their murder, in the case of Gulam Yazdani, in the murder of Haren Pandya as the alleged assassins were arrested from AP and Gujarat. In the case of another fake encounter Amin had fired from his service revolver at Ishrat Jahan, her friend Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pillai and two alleged Pakistani nationals — Zeeshan Johar and Amjadali Rana. These crimes could not have been committed without the approval of the Home Minister of Gujarat who was no other than Modi. Do not these heinous crimes against humanity sufficiently squeak for the US? ----- [1] http://www.rediff.com/news/report/pentagon-concerned-about-what-would-happen-if-modi-is-hit-by-a-bus/20150604.htm?pos=3&src=NL20150605&trackid=7MGeiBNRiOgHpjiU22XIw0UhYgsPCBFedrAsNDfdS8Q=&isnlp=0&isnlsp=0 [2]http://www.rediff.com/news/report/ls-election-danger-to-modi-as-prime-minister-will-be-from-his-right-stephen-cohen/20140513.htm Former IB Director Asif Ibrahim had opposed the move to prosecute his officers during his tenure which ended in December last year. Perhaps as a reward he is now appointed to lead counter terrorism. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/ishrat-jahan-case-home-ministry-denies-sanction-to-prosecute-ex-ib-official-3-others/articleshow/47584886.cms

Interviewed on Modi trip to China May 2015

1. Do you think Modi is abandoning the old approach to China? Nitin Gadkari’s scheduled meeting with Dalai Lama was called off just before the PM’s China visit. India is also keen not to include Japan in the upcoming Indo-US naval exercises in Bay of Bengal. Are these precautionary measures aimed at looking at China beyond boundary dispute? --Nehruvian era bonhomie between Buddhist leader Dalai Lama and his followers and their hosts in their adopted country is not yielding anything in economic terms. Moreover it does not cut any ice in development of either. Therefore Modi being born in free India has jettisoned even proverbial humanism. Moreover the verve and enthusiasm of early 1960s utter aamchi utter seema inch inch ladvoo the martial song of that time says we will fight for every inch of our land and recover it. All that has evaporated vis-à-vis Pakistan. Even election 2002 in Gujarat was a matter between fight between Modi and Mian Musharraf. That overriding passion aroused by Modi paid rich dividends without his knowing that China, and not Pakistan, is the greater threat. In his TIME interview of May 2, 2015 even Modi goes beyond the unthinkable. He says that no bullets are fired across the Indo-China border. The carefully thought out strategy is that trade with China would turn in favour of India. This is unthinkable as our markets are inundated with Chinese goods with easily buyable price tag for ordinary Indians. Another strategy of Modi is what he calls direct dealing with China without athird party mediation. He does not take the name of Pakistan who helped Dr Henry Kissing to take the road through Pakistan to China and facilitate President Richard Nixon to visit the Asian giant and establish diplomatic ties and detent between their countries. 2. Do you think Modi has been a weak PM in dealing with China? Last September when Chinese President visited India, there was a reported incursion by Chinese army. What do you make of it? --Modi is desperate to show people at home that his mantra of development would result in economic gains which it is not producing. We are not so entrepreneurial as the Chinese to produce cheaper goods and make them so easily available. There are no takers of all the overtures that he is making to China. 3. Chinese state-owned media has been highly critical of Modi just before Modi’s planned departure to China. They have gone to the extent of warning Modi not to visit Arunachal Pradesh which China considers a disputed territory. Your comments? --Strategic relations are a different kettle of fish in foreign relations. China has developed an economic corridor between China and Pakistan at its cost and maintains and improves it which leads to the rich market of Middle East. India is oblivious to this in its fear of Islam. 4. Do you think Modi will be successful in reversing the trade imbalance between India and China? According to analsysts and some media reports, China has the upper hand on the trade and economic front. No. Modi will not be allowed by his hardliners who even eye his deal with Paris on Rafel fighters and expect re ward from it.