“
Woebegone widow of Hemant Karkare is at a loss to understand how could an upright, honest and a man of integrity like her husband be “martyred” and then politicking be played over him in assembly halls, in parliament, on public platforms and even in the offices of those who were policing the state differently from her husand. Kavita like many others in the country knew that Hemant was doing what is expected of an officer and that he was aware that there are no half measures in discharging your duty when the country calls on you to do your duty. How could she so traumatized know that those who played on the chessboard just moved a pawn, a person made use of by others for their own advantage! But then things began to dawn upon her.
The politics of terror is the way an organized group uses its clout to effect change in the course of events by violent means or by subterfuge for a slant of thought. What is that slant of thought differs from place to place and people to people. As we near the first anniversary of 26/11 it is easy to recall that it followed on the heels of Malegaon bomb blast of September 29—a matter of 47 days between the two. Both are events of terrorism scarring the face of India. However, much water has flowed down the river between the two. One of the most remarkable and least bothered about flotsam and jetsam was ganging up of Hindutva groups to exert pressure for reversing the ongoing investigation that Hemant Karkare was busy in. Hellbent on this were groups and their leaders like LK Advani and Bal Thackeray and Narendra Modi as well as those handpicked by them for august offices administering the country to scuttle the ATS juggernaut of unearthing the real culprits in the conspiracy of the blast in Malegaon. It threatened to give them out in their entirety, of course including Praveen Togadia.
In an epoch making discovery the ATS had found that Hindutva terrorists were behind it. Formally, this was nothing less than seismic jolt in the fault line of our very conception of terror. By the time it happened we were inured to the jihadi terrorism as if it was the whole and sole ubiquitous phenomenon plaguing nations of the world.
Karkare discovered the truth of terror but not invented it. The Hindu right would have us believe that he did the latter. There were obvious clues which no one could have afforded to ignore. When he visited Bhiku chowk, the site of September 29 blast, the local people told him and home minister RR Patil that the Muslims were not involved in the attack and they demanded impartial inquiry. He must have been struck by unanimous chant of innocent people being arrested and the guilty going scot free. The badly mangled motor cycle of Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur was the most visible proof of it. Then came the startling phone records of the sadhvi and Ramji Kalsangrah. Phones and vehicles are as much a gift of science as are bullet proof jackets both defective and good ones. If David Coleman Headley and other handlers abroad and in Mumbai itself or just across the borders could pull the strings, the local pliant players were not far behind in picking up which jackets they wanted on the occasion.
Headley’s role is ominous on account of his being a self professed Jew and a commission agent. Did anyone outsource terrorism to him living in the US? Or did he graft one kind of terrorism on another to exact maximum profit from it? The extreme orthodox Jewish centre of Chabbad house has acquired the dubious distinction that the cook Qazi Zakir Hussein there had bought a huge amount of chicken and wine as if there was going to be a big party for many people for many days while the inmates were so few. There was also celebration there when the news of the death Karkare was announced on the television. The puzzling inordinate delay in which the police reached places under attack like the Chabbad house and the efforts of the security guard from the Israeli consulate and his manhandling by the people are shrouded in mystery.
For a simple minded woman albeit well educated and a professor at that it was too much to have lost her husband and also comprehend at once the politics of terror. But she got certain things firm in the mind right from the beginning. One, that someone directed her husband to the scene of action though he was not officially obliged to directly and personally fight the awesomely armed terrorists. Second, someone spoke to him on phone at the last moment and what was the message or content of it? The authorities have not taken any care to tell the widow what her mind had questioned her. And now come more disturbing disclosures that her husband waited 40 minutes for a back up that did not come and then he was left wounded for more than 40 minutes and nobody attended him in that condition and a he a top police officer! Any cop worth his name would not have left a fellow police man at such crucial time because the bond between the officer and his men still exists unless ordered otherwise.
History is replete with the fact that the Jews have made countries fight among themselves so that they get maximum advantage from their warfare sale of arms. Moreover, the Israeli connection thanks to Lt Col Prasad Purohit’s liaison effort is veritable truth. It is no surprise that the Jews have done it again. This connection goes back to a much earlier time. Handbills pasted by Jewish groups at public places blaming the Arabs for the hardship Indians were going through had appeared in Pune in the wake of the oil embargo of 1973. The Jews were at it again.
Kavita’s exclamation at what the country is coming to was not simple exasperation at corruption. It assumes larger significance when looked against the backdrop of how India opened diplomatic relationship with Israel and then soon came the demolition of the historic mosque at Ayodhya. It is not for nothing that such things happen. Wherever Headley went there struck terror. Security officials from India have made beeline to Israel to study the Israeli strategy in fighting terrorism and the intifada of the Palestinians and the acquiring and occupying of more and more of the Palestinian land in the occupied territories. In fact a high ranking Israeli military official had given his official view of how to deal with the land acquisition in Kashmir valley which one of the terrorists at Chabbad house had warned India not to follow. This is no simple matter as superintendant of police in Malegaon Mr Rajwardhan and other police officers visiting Abrar Ahmed, an accused turned approver, had promised him land anywhere in India but outside Kashmir valley if he toed the police version on terrorism in the case of September 8, 2006 attack. This smacks of the grouse of Abhinav Bharat and other extremist groups of the Hindu right on the dispute of land in Jammu and Kashmir. The allotment of land for Amarnath pilgrims and the revocation of it and the bloody scenes that followed are in the back ground of what was happening in Maharashtra in the name of the so called terrorism. There is something of Sudhakar Pandey in this as well as of Purohit who was posted in the valley and from where he sourced the RDX for use in Malegaon and on Samjhauta express.
The basic apprehension of Kavita Karkare is that what happened to her husband is what we call insider’s job much like insider trading. The deliberate hiding of the telephone conversation of the callers to her husband and the mysterious disappearance of the bullet proof jacket and the plethora of discrepancies in the postmortem report and the real wounds on his body not to speak of the staggered delay in complying with his call for back up and the designed dereliction of duty in leaving him bleeding for more than forty minutes at the scene of action. The abduction of the fisherwoman who saw the ten terrorists pass through the fisherman’s shanty on the sea beach. She was taken to the US and mysteriously brought back by the FBI.
Why the police cannot come out of it clean is the irrefutable truth that the insider is capable of having knowledge of what is happening on the ground, manipulating action and covering up what is undesirable and unwanted. The media people who told her that she would never know the full truth made a mistake. For they forgot that a surmise can tell you as much truth as hard evidence can which the police (or the two saffron clad men who picked up and put in a car a man without injury or blood on him resembling in dress that Karkare wore) could have attempted to destroy. And even Shakespeare’s wise man Polonious also tells that through indirection you can find the direction out.
Therefore some detour: on September 1, 2008 ATS officers Jaiswal, Sachin Kadam and Rajwardhan (then posted at Malegaon and now a deputy commissioner of police in Mumbai) had gone to meet Abrar in jail. They told him “hum logon ka ek mission hai. Do dhai mahine men pura ho jayga. Phir beech kay kuch log jo tang ada rahen hain koi nahin rahey ga.” Then they specified the mission: “hum nay 2006 men jo tahkikat ker kay chargesheet bani thi use wo log badal dal rahe hain. Isi liya unhain beech may se hatana jaroori hai.” In substance it would mean that there are two groups of officers. One which includes the above three as well as the boss of ATS Raghuvanshi had already prepared the charge sheet in the case of the September 2006 blast in Malegaon. But the others preeminently Karkare had begun making changes in the charge sheet. It was the mission of the first group to obviate the second.
There is no need to make it out anymore melodramatic than what it already is. But if you read the original it is gory tale of a clique. Moreover this is what Abrar has put in in his affidavit to Judge YB Shinde. The court is competent enough to disabuse us or Abrar of the macabre surrounding the same. Even so there is internal logic that cannot be denied. For example Rajwardhan had given more than twenty five lakh rupees to the father in law of Abrar to accept the police version and forget what he had told earlier of what he had overheard at the Medi care hospital that the blast was the work of Hindu right and Dr Rajinder Amin, Dr Bipin Parekh and Someshwar Shanker and others were behind it. Abrar was kept in hotel Pritam at Dadar in Mumbai and taken out for shopping, then his junket to Indore, Ujjain and other places at the expense of the ATS. The costly mobiles given to him and his wife by Rajwardhan and his interaction on phone with that worthy cop are bizarre to say the least. At one time Abrar boasted that he had more than fifty lakh rupees and an Indica car to drive him around towns of Madhya Pradesh. This fabulous amount of wealth could only come from the Jews for the Israeli officials did promise Purohit monetary support. It mocks the country which cannot afford good quality helmets and bullet proof jackets for honest officers has such treasure trove available for a song to such who have sworn to defend the country like the serving lieutenant colonel, Purohit. This is what the country is coming to!
To his consternation Karkare found no evidence of involvement of SIMI or local Muslims in the blasts of 2006. Interestingly the CBI has just told the high court in Mumbai that they have no evidence against the acused prompting the judge to exlaim why shouldn’t they be then given bail! A day before he was assassinated he had told Indian Express reporters in confidence: "I don't know why this case has become so political," "The pressure is tremendous and I am wondering how to extricate it from all the politics."
Was the pressure telling on the investigation, what with someone who could be the next prime minister of the country questioning the credibility of the ATS?
"Of course," was the answer. "We are being very very careful. In fact, when we want to question a suspect and if he or she has any Hindutvawadi connections, we make sure once, twice, thrice, that we have enough reason and evidence to even question. Normally it is not like that. We are able to freely question anyone we suspect."
This revelation is crystallized by the anguish the people who had gathered at the Taj hotel with burning candles had felt as well as the well meaning people of the country. Could Kavita avoid feeling the angst? Or, we? This would be the richest tribute from our hearts for this wonderful son of India! May his soul rest in peace for the service he did to the country!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Terrorism and the new line of investigation
The investigating agencies are notorious for changing horses in the mid stream while probing terror incidents in the country. Somewhere someone in the hierarchical structure does not feel comfortable if the line of investigation is in the right direction. For example, RDX found in Samjhauta express attack could have come only from military stock. This makes sense when Lt Col Prasad Purohit admitted that he had pilfered 60 kg of RDX from Jammu and Kashmir army godown. A part of it he had given to one Bhagwan for use in Samjhauta incident.
This disclosure so much shocked the national security advisor MK Narayanan that he warned the government of the consequences of this on the bilateral relationship between India and Pakistan and the much vaunted weltanschauung that India was victim of terrorism from across the borders. That of course derailed the investigation.
Muslim youths who had nothing to do with the attack were arrested from Rajasthan and other places and are still languishing in prison. The suit cases, bottles and batteries were of course bought in Indore. Then happened Malegaon, thanks to Hemant Karkare.
Karkare admitted on August 18, 2008 that he had found no trace of SIMI in the bomb attack on September 8, 2006. Next month Malegaon suffered another attack on September 29 2008. He caught the real culprits and then someone again stymied. ATS found the mobile phone number of Dr Bipin Parekh with sadhvi Pragyasingh and Ramchandra Kalsangra. The line of investigation did not go any further. But the approver Abrar Ahmed mentioned in his April 2009 affidavit that Parekh along with Dr Rajender Amin and others had caused the blast in 2006.
However, strangely the phone records of Malegaon accused Ramchandra Kalsangra lifted veil from the secrecy of those who had actually bought suitcases, bottles and batteries from Indore that were in fact used on Samjhhauta express on February 18 2007. Pranav Mandal not only had close association with Kalsangra alias Ramji of sadhvi Pragyasingh but was a member of another of the uncountable and ever expanding Hindu right outfits, Shivaji vikas mandal. Indeed so many of these are there that a thesaurus of terror would be half filled with them. Accidental bomb explosions in Goa, Kanpur, Nanded (twice) have played havoc with the numbers. Thus the new line of investigation by the CBI is pertinent but we have to wait and see if it is also persistent.
Goa blast was also accidental. However, what were more persistent and pertinent were the ominous repots over the years how Goa was used to train the terrorists of the Hindu right. No significant action was taken in this regard. Could all this add up to what SM Mushrif argues in his book "Who Killed Karkare: the real face of terrorism in India", that the driving force of Hindu right terrorism is to put innocent Muslims in the dock and bring a bad name to Muslims of the country?
This disclosure so much shocked the national security advisor MK Narayanan that he warned the government of the consequences of this on the bilateral relationship between India and Pakistan and the much vaunted weltanschauung that India was victim of terrorism from across the borders. That of course derailed the investigation.
Muslim youths who had nothing to do with the attack were arrested from Rajasthan and other places and are still languishing in prison. The suit cases, bottles and batteries were of course bought in Indore. Then happened Malegaon, thanks to Hemant Karkare.
Karkare admitted on August 18, 2008 that he had found no trace of SIMI in the bomb attack on September 8, 2006. Next month Malegaon suffered another attack on September 29 2008. He caught the real culprits and then someone again stymied. ATS found the mobile phone number of Dr Bipin Parekh with sadhvi Pragyasingh and Ramchandra Kalsangra. The line of investigation did not go any further. But the approver Abrar Ahmed mentioned in his April 2009 affidavit that Parekh along with Dr Rajender Amin and others had caused the blast in 2006.
However, strangely the phone records of Malegaon accused Ramchandra Kalsangra lifted veil from the secrecy of those who had actually bought suitcases, bottles and batteries from Indore that were in fact used on Samjhhauta express on February 18 2007. Pranav Mandal not only had close association with Kalsangra alias Ramji of sadhvi Pragyasingh but was a member of another of the uncountable and ever expanding Hindu right outfits, Shivaji vikas mandal. Indeed so many of these are there that a thesaurus of terror would be half filled with them. Accidental bomb explosions in Goa, Kanpur, Nanded (twice) have played havoc with the numbers. Thus the new line of investigation by the CBI is pertinent but we have to wait and see if it is also persistent.
Goa blast was also accidental. However, what were more persistent and pertinent were the ominous repots over the years how Goa was used to train the terrorists of the Hindu right. No significant action was taken in this regard. Could all this add up to what SM Mushrif argues in his book "Who Killed Karkare: the real face of terrorism in India", that the driving force of Hindu right terrorism is to put innocent Muslims in the dock and bring a bad name to Muslims of the country?
Terrorism in Goa: the plot thickens
Malgonda Patil who died in the Margao explosion was from the Sangli unit of the Sanatan Saunsthan. Sangli and Miraj had recently been scenes of communal riots over the controversy of the gory depiction of Shivaji killing Afzal Khan. The purpose of the display was obvious: provoking people on a sensitive historical divisive event and sowing seeds of hatred. In Miraj the SS had distributed literature that was starkly communal. During the riots Patil had been traveling between the headquarters of SS at Ramnathi and Miraj. By carrying out bomb attack on the eve of Diwali the calculated aim was creating communal disharmony, suspicion and hatred. The target was an age old local tradition of competition of effigies, Narakasura, which is not a canonized tradition of Hinduism. Hindutva ideology is urbanized middle class drawing room creation of a monolithic Hindu society. Patil was in touch with one of the accused in Mahrashtra bombings of last year. Vikram Vinay Bhave. The scooter was traced to the wife of a Goa, minister. Jyotil Dhavalikar was known as a sympathizer of SS and yet the police did not do much. It could also be weak motivation, or bias.
The bomb blast in Margao and the other at Sancoale surely indicate how organized the Hindu right terrorists are. They also enjoy patronage within the governmental set up and the police and even the investigating agencies. A full year after the exposure of the Sanatan Sanstha's involvement in Thane and Vashi, Mumbai, and Panvel bomb attacks the governments and the police not only did not take any action like banning the organization but let it and other such organizations of the Hindu right flourish. This is in sharp contrast with swift ban of SIMI and branding by the Maharashtra government of the whole Ahlehadesh section of Muslims as extremist involved in terrorism. The central government followed suit.
There is too much of self justification on the part of the office bearers of the SS and it surely smacks of the self justification of Himani Savarker of the notoriety of bomb for bomb strategy. Could this too much self assurance be the product of the general support they enjoy among the power that be?
The other disturbing factor is how the explosives reached there. It is plausible that the arms haul of October 10, 2009 at Bhatkal found its way to Margao through sea route. Nagaraj Somaya Devadiga, Jattayya Devadiga and Anand Manjunath Devadiga were arrested. Although 1200 kg of ammonium nitrate, 3000 electric and 500 non electric detonators recovered from them, this loose end was not tied to the subsequent blasts in Goa. Even so coastal security police officer LH Nandesh does say that the ammunition was brought by the sea. There is also misgiving that the coastal security police have accepted bribe to suppress the matter. People in Bhatkal fear that this is repeat performance of Hubli court blast where Hindu right terrorists were involved and yet the Muslim youths picked up by police are still languishing in prison.
The bomb blast in Margao and the other at Sancoale surely indicate how organized the Hindu right terrorists are. They also enjoy patronage within the governmental set up and the police and even the investigating agencies. A full year after the exposure of the Sanatan Sanstha's involvement in Thane and Vashi, Mumbai, and Panvel bomb attacks the governments and the police not only did not take any action like banning the organization but let it and other such organizations of the Hindu right flourish. This is in sharp contrast with swift ban of SIMI and branding by the Maharashtra government of the whole Ahlehadesh section of Muslims as extremist involved in terrorism. The central government followed suit.
There is too much of self justification on the part of the office bearers of the SS and it surely smacks of the self justification of Himani Savarker of the notoriety of bomb for bomb strategy. Could this too much self assurance be the product of the general support they enjoy among the power that be?
The other disturbing factor is how the explosives reached there. It is plausible that the arms haul of October 10, 2009 at Bhatkal found its way to Margao through sea route. Nagaraj Somaya Devadiga, Jattayya Devadiga and Anand Manjunath Devadiga were arrested. Although 1200 kg of ammonium nitrate, 3000 electric and 500 non electric detonators recovered from them, this loose end was not tied to the subsequent blasts in Goa. Even so coastal security police officer LH Nandesh does say that the ammunition was brought by the sea. There is also misgiving that the coastal security police have accepted bribe to suppress the matter. People in Bhatkal fear that this is repeat performance of Hubli court blast where Hindu right terrorists were involved and yet the Muslim youths picked up by police are still languishing in prison.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Dousing fire with petrol : fake encounters
There is need for a holistic understanding of the kind of situation created by the disclosure of the magisterial inquiry report into the fake encounter of Irshad Jahan, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjad Ali Rana and Jisan Johar. Our definition of terrorism is not inclusive enough to cover the violence which the police or the state perpetrates on the hapless. We often hear people saying that a terrorist propagates certain causes while committing act of terror. Therefore propaganda is an integral defining feature of terror. This description of terrorism does not touch upon the stealth with which the state agents commit terror or a right wing group does in dastardly anonymity for the fear of being named and prosecuted. What is terrorism of one is fake encounter of another.
Gujarat Health Minister and Spokesperson of the government, Jay Narayan Vyas spoke tongue in cheek when he remarked that Irshat Jahan fake encounter must not be connected or compared with Sohrabuddin case. In both the cases state agents were used to kill ordinary people with hardly any criminal background, except smuggling of arms in the case of Sohrabuddin. In both the cases the killer cops justified the ghoulish murder in the name of deshbhakti or patriotism. DG Vanzara used that vernacular word repeatedly in describing how he and his killer team had killed the “terrorists” out to kill Narendra Modi. This created the kind of biased atmosphere against the victims which also helped consolidate the Chief Minister’s party in state election. Inadvertently the guilty cops sent another set of signal propagating the kind of treatment meted out to the minority community in India. To the groups that receive the signal as excuse for their diabolic design mount their own terrorist revenge attack. What the cops are doing is the “dousing of fire with petrol.”
The political parties and in particular BJP and Shiv Sena never fight shy of their muscle and monetary power in their own support of persons involved in terrorism. Thus BJP leader from Mumbai Kriti Somayia’s asking the government to slam MOCOCA against Abu Azmi for his statement that Ishrat was innocent. But nobody in Gujarat asked Pota to be used against industry minister of the central government Shakarbhai Vaghela when he said that Hindutva groups were behind Modasa blast and the police were deliberately neglecting this aspect. Shiv Sena threatened lawyers if they chose to defend anyone from Muslim community accused in terrorism while at the same time the party hired lawyers to defend Lt Col Prasad Purohit and sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur. This is another dimension of “dousing fire with petrol.”
The most dangerous instance of dousing fire with petrol is when the IB or RAW or Special Task Force or CBI in league with the extremist right wing groups like Abhinav Bharat use mukhbirs or police informers and turn them into terrorists for their own consideration of pleasing their political bosses or for promotion. The finger of suspicion points in this direction even in the case of Ishrat Jahan and the accused in the Malegaon blasts of 2006 and 2008, and even in the Samjhauta express bombing. Fighting fire with fire can burn either side. Therefore look carefully in the burn marks and scars.
In July 2004 the Ghazwa Times of Lashkar acknowledged Ishrat as “a woman activist of LeT.” To understand how this is so should not be a Herculean task as our intelligence agencies have their own established practice of luring Muslim youths in going to Pakistan and taking training at camps. They work for the intelligence agencies which then use them to get official recognition and promotion to lucrative posts by bumping them off and passing this off as terrorists on the way to kill Modi. Then apply the veneer of deshbhukti. Ishrat was kidnapped by Vanzara’s DCB. Why should the police carry away someone by force and illegally and then kill her altogether? In her case, the other three were killed early in night or around midnight but she was put in the car and shot in the seat in the wee hours of the next day! Kauserbi was also done to death. She along with Sohrabuddin was kidnapped from a road in Maharashtra on her way from Hyderabad and then taken to Ahemdabad, her last ride. The modern day Neros were making political capital and collecting spoils of office as the Rome was burning.
The double crossing of the Muslim youth had become so well entrenched that people like Afzal Guru had to buy the lucrative post made available to them by the Special Task Force. Destitute Muslim youths saw in this a break for a better opportunity in life and fell a victim when the police and intelligence agencies double crossed them.
This also happened with Irshad Ali and his colleague Nawab Qamar who worked as police informers to the Special Cell (which has acquired notoriety of having Rajbir Singh and MC Sherma on its staff) of Delhi police and the IB. When they refused to play the authorities declared them terrorists and now they are in jail number 8 of Tihar prison. In his letter to the Prime Minister Irshad revealed how they have been trapped and describes the way IB and Delhi police Special Cell are fighting terror as “dousing fire with petrol.”
Irshad and Nawab’s case has been documented by CBI on the order of the Delhi High Court. These two were coerced by the IB to join Lashkar-e-Toiba camp in Pakistan. They refused. The Special Cell acting at the instance of IB trapped them with the help of Mohamamd Khalid alias Majid of IB in league with the Special Cell officials Lalit, Bhushan, Rajinder and Devdutt kidnapped them and booked and implicated them in false cases.
The collusion between the police and the Hindu right in such matters is undeniable fact. In the case of Sohrabuddin a marble merchant belonging to BJP in Rajasthan had allegedgly tipped (supari) the police against Sohrabuddin. It is also well known that Narendra Modi created the kind of atmosphere where fake encounter is accepted by the people at large. For example, on December 4, 2007 Modi justified the murder of Sohrabuddin at an elelction rally at Mangrol in South Gujarat “he got what he deserved.” He asked the people what would they do to a man who dealt in smuggling of guns. The people thundered “mari nakho, [kill him]” Pat he rejoined: “Then if I have done anything wrong, let the government of Sonia Gandhi hang me.” Another version is: Modi: “What should have been done to a man from whom a large number of AK 47 rifles were recovered, who was on the search list of police from four states, who attacked the police, who had relations with Pakistan and was eyeing to enter Gujarat?” The audience replied: mari nakho, mari nakho. The chief minister then bared his fangs: “Does my government need to take permission of Sonaben for this?” He is using the fake encounter to build up vote bank for the Hindu right party but justifying the cold blooded murder. And he, a chief minister!
Modi’s government did not take permission for renting the farm houses of Hindutva activists in Ahemdabad. In such two houses Sohrabuddin and Kauserbi were kept. In some other such farm houses Ishrat and others must have also passed their last days between their kidnapping on June 12 2004 and night of June 14. Ahemdabad, Delhi, Hyderabad and Nashik and Deolali have acquired world fame of having such farm houses kept by the police and the IB where fake encounter victims are kept until they are dispatched at suitable opportune time. That depends on how much benefit the Hindu right demagogue can derive and what promotional chances of office the concerned cops and intelligence officials have. One such farm house is the Jagtap malla in Nashik where Abrar Ahmed (accused, in the Malelgaon bomb blast 2006) was kept and another in Deolali where he shared rooms with Lt Col Prsad Purohit!
http://kafila.org/2007/09/28/ibs-bearded-jihadi-moulvis-trapping-muslims/
“IB’s bearded ‘jihadi’ moulvis trapping Muslims” The Kashmir Times September 21 2007.
Gujarat Health Minister and Spokesperson of the government, Jay Narayan Vyas spoke tongue in cheek when he remarked that Irshat Jahan fake encounter must not be connected or compared with Sohrabuddin case. In both the cases state agents were used to kill ordinary people with hardly any criminal background, except smuggling of arms in the case of Sohrabuddin. In both the cases the killer cops justified the ghoulish murder in the name of deshbhakti or patriotism. DG Vanzara used that vernacular word repeatedly in describing how he and his killer team had killed the “terrorists” out to kill Narendra Modi. This created the kind of biased atmosphere against the victims which also helped consolidate the Chief Minister’s party in state election. Inadvertently the guilty cops sent another set of signal propagating the kind of treatment meted out to the minority community in India. To the groups that receive the signal as excuse for their diabolic design mount their own terrorist revenge attack. What the cops are doing is the “dousing of fire with petrol.”
The political parties and in particular BJP and Shiv Sena never fight shy of their muscle and monetary power in their own support of persons involved in terrorism. Thus BJP leader from Mumbai Kriti Somayia’s asking the government to slam MOCOCA against Abu Azmi for his statement that Ishrat was innocent. But nobody in Gujarat asked Pota to be used against industry minister of the central government Shakarbhai Vaghela when he said that Hindutva groups were behind Modasa blast and the police were deliberately neglecting this aspect. Shiv Sena threatened lawyers if they chose to defend anyone from Muslim community accused in terrorism while at the same time the party hired lawyers to defend Lt Col Prasad Purohit and sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur. This is another dimension of “dousing fire with petrol.”
The most dangerous instance of dousing fire with petrol is when the IB or RAW or Special Task Force or CBI in league with the extremist right wing groups like Abhinav Bharat use mukhbirs or police informers and turn them into terrorists for their own consideration of pleasing their political bosses or for promotion. The finger of suspicion points in this direction even in the case of Ishrat Jahan and the accused in the Malegaon blasts of 2006 and 2008, and even in the Samjhauta express bombing. Fighting fire with fire can burn either side. Therefore look carefully in the burn marks and scars.
In July 2004 the Ghazwa Times of Lashkar acknowledged Ishrat as “a woman activist of LeT.” To understand how this is so should not be a Herculean task as our intelligence agencies have their own established practice of luring Muslim youths in going to Pakistan and taking training at camps. They work for the intelligence agencies which then use them to get official recognition and promotion to lucrative posts by bumping them off and passing this off as terrorists on the way to kill Modi. Then apply the veneer of deshbhukti. Ishrat was kidnapped by Vanzara’s DCB. Why should the police carry away someone by force and illegally and then kill her altogether? In her case, the other three were killed early in night or around midnight but she was put in the car and shot in the seat in the wee hours of the next day! Kauserbi was also done to death. She along with Sohrabuddin was kidnapped from a road in Maharashtra on her way from Hyderabad and then taken to Ahemdabad, her last ride. The modern day Neros were making political capital and collecting spoils of office as the Rome was burning.
The double crossing of the Muslim youth had become so well entrenched that people like Afzal Guru had to buy the lucrative post made available to them by the Special Task Force. Destitute Muslim youths saw in this a break for a better opportunity in life and fell a victim when the police and intelligence agencies double crossed them.
This also happened with Irshad Ali and his colleague Nawab Qamar who worked as police informers to the Special Cell (which has acquired notoriety of having Rajbir Singh and MC Sherma on its staff) of Delhi police and the IB. When they refused to play the authorities declared them terrorists and now they are in jail number 8 of Tihar prison. In his letter to the Prime Minister Irshad revealed how they have been trapped and describes the way IB and Delhi police Special Cell are fighting terror as “dousing fire with petrol.”
Irshad and Nawab’s case has been documented by CBI on the order of the Delhi High Court. These two were coerced by the IB to join Lashkar-e-Toiba camp in Pakistan. They refused. The Special Cell acting at the instance of IB trapped them with the help of Mohamamd Khalid alias Majid of IB in league with the Special Cell officials Lalit, Bhushan, Rajinder and Devdutt kidnapped them and booked and implicated them in false cases.
The collusion between the police and the Hindu right in such matters is undeniable fact. In the case of Sohrabuddin a marble merchant belonging to BJP in Rajasthan had allegedgly tipped (supari) the police against Sohrabuddin. It is also well known that Narendra Modi created the kind of atmosphere where fake encounter is accepted by the people at large. For example, on December 4, 2007 Modi justified the murder of Sohrabuddin at an elelction rally at Mangrol in South Gujarat “he got what he deserved.” He asked the people what would they do to a man who dealt in smuggling of guns. The people thundered “mari nakho, [kill him]” Pat he rejoined: “Then if I have done anything wrong, let the government of Sonia Gandhi hang me.” Another version is: Modi: “What should have been done to a man from whom a large number of AK 47 rifles were recovered, who was on the search list of police from four states, who attacked the police, who had relations with Pakistan and was eyeing to enter Gujarat?” The audience replied: mari nakho, mari nakho. The chief minister then bared his fangs: “Does my government need to take permission of Sonaben for this?” He is using the fake encounter to build up vote bank for the Hindu right party but justifying the cold blooded murder. And he, a chief minister!
Modi’s government did not take permission for renting the farm houses of Hindutva activists in Ahemdabad. In such two houses Sohrabuddin and Kauserbi were kept. In some other such farm houses Ishrat and others must have also passed their last days between their kidnapping on June 12 2004 and night of June 14. Ahemdabad, Delhi, Hyderabad and Nashik and Deolali have acquired world fame of having such farm houses kept by the police and the IB where fake encounter victims are kept until they are dispatched at suitable opportune time. That depends on how much benefit the Hindu right demagogue can derive and what promotional chances of office the concerned cops and intelligence officials have. One such farm house is the Jagtap malla in Nashik where Abrar Ahmed (accused, in the Malelgaon bomb blast 2006) was kept and another in Deolali where he shared rooms with Lt Col Prsad Purohit!
http://kafila.org/2007/09/28/ibs-bearded-jihadi-moulvis-trapping-muslims/
“IB’s bearded ‘jihadi’ moulvis trapping Muslims” The Kashmir Times September 21 2007.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Malegaon: Terrorism and the enforced disappeared persons
As the UNO and many NGOs marked August 30 2009 as the 26th annual day of the disappeared persons it is necessary to look around to take stock. What happened in Malegaon in the aftermath of the bomb blast of September 8, 2006 is still fresh in the minds of the people. Three bombs exploded at around 1.30 pm at the graveyard mosque of what the locals call bada qabrastan and the adjoining Mushawarat chowk. The first enforced disappearance was not of any person who was alive or had survived the blasts. It was strangely the torso and head of a man who had a false beard. There were many volunteers at the scene like the tailor at the graveyard shopping complex who along with others saw the dead body with the false beard coming off from chin where it was stuck. Many also saw the remains at the Wadia hospital. Later on it disappeared. The police and the investigating agencies have not bothered to explain the situation.
But the day of the disappeared persons is mostly about the living who disappear on otherwise a regular, normal fine day. Mostly it is so in their own world. However, disturbances like acts of terrorism, war and riots or massacres take place where the atmosphere gets affected drastically and events are shrouded in mystery. Thus the disappearance of Shankar Shelke in the country side of Ahmednager on September 9, 2006 is puzzling. He was the scrap monger who could have supplied the RDX for the blast in Malegaon on the previous day. It is alleged that he had it in his stock. But given the vicinity of the army cantonment of Ahmednager there is also fear that it had its provenance there. With a hindsight of the reported revelation that Lt Col Prasad Purohit(allegedly involved in Malegaon September 29, 2008 blast) had procured RDX from the army in Jammu and Kashmir and kept it in his house in Pune and Deolali and also the reported tall and bulky man called Mithun Chakravarthy giving over explosives to several trained persons, the death of Shelke assumes sinister implication. The commissioner of Thane police had opined that the Malegaon blasts of 2006 were connected to the RDX found with Shelke, his disappearance and subsequent unnatural death.
The next such unnatural death arousing suspicion is that of Azhar Pervez who had reportedly approached some people and told them very material evidence about the blasts on shabebarat. Thereafter he disappeared. Later on his body was found in the deserted compound near his house. This is enforced disappearance which in 2006 the UN General Assembly defined and adopted through the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as: "The arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons, or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law." Had the people in whom he had confided the horrible truth of the blasts provided him a protective sheath his testimony in court would have been invaluable.
The Malegaon blasts had taken place in the kind of atmosphere which the then home minister Chaggan Bhujbad and his police had created. He blamed SIMI for every bomb blast in the state and categorically dubbed the Ahlehadesh Muslims to be responsible. They were his bete noire, god alone knows for what reason. However, it is significant to note that the new ATS chief Hemant Karkare had said that as of August 16, 2008 the ATS had not found any involvement of SIMI in the blasts.
Nevertheless, the blame on SIMI had created such a scare that the disappearance of the SIMI president of the town Mohammad Amin Munawar is enigmatic. For, he was preparing meat hamburgers at home for Friday September 8, 2006 afternoon sale. Since then there is no trace of him. If he were a bomber and had conspired to blow up people why should he be making hamburgers for afternoon sale? Another enforced disappearance is that of the old cloth seller Ishtiyaq Ahmed Mustak. The third instance is that of Riyaz Arsalan Shafeeq. They have all disappeared. They were the breadwinners of their families and unlikely to indulge in criminal activities.
The most amazing and legally the most serious is the disappearance of Abrar Ahmed. He would have been what the UNO calls enforced disappeared person but for the habeas corpus that his high court lawyer brother Jalil Ahmed submitted on October 25 2006. From October 25 to December 15, 2006 Abrar was virtually guarded by the police and a police informer and his own brother in law Farooq Vardha. This police informer had a revolver given to him by the police. What for had they given him is a mystery. His one point agenda was to coax Abrar into toeing the police version and confessing his involvement in the blasts. If he did not, was the gun meant for bumping him off? Abrar’s case clearly shows “arrest, detention and abduction.” and “deprivation of liberty by agents of state.” In his affidavit submitted to Judge Shinde he says he was picked up by the police on September 13, 2006.
His arrest and detention was on account of what he had overheard in the Medi Care hospital where some people were talking. They were saying that the blasts were the work of their own people, meaning thereby fellow Hindus. They particularly mentioned Dr Rajender Amin, Dr Bipin Parekh, Someshwar Shankar and a couple of others. The in laws of Abrar discussed the matter of what Abrar had overheard and decided to consult Abrar’s brother in law in Bhiwandi, Farooq Verdha. This is how the police came to know. Rajwardhan showed Abrar some pictures of the suspects whom he did not know. But the senior cop was struck by what Abrar came to know at the Medi Care. In the meantime Abrar’s father and others in the paternal family did not have any contact with him immediately.
Rajwardhan gave Abrar a mobile phone 9823436809 for his use and another phone 9825826597 for his wife. The officer gave his own mobile phone number 9422250775 to them to contact him.
But Abrar and wife could not contact any relatives for the plain clothed police around them prevented it. He was not even allowed to visit Malegaon on the Id day on October 25, 2006. Such deprivation of liberty become even more unbearable as the days passed. He was often threatened of fatal consequences to his person if he did not go according to what the police were saying to him. Ultimately he lost his freedom when he was put in prison from where there is no hope that he would be ever released.
A crucial part of the affidavit which the court will have to analyze is Abrar’s meeting with Lt Col Prasad Purohit who introduced him to ATS in Deolali army cantonment on October 24, 2006. Why should the serving officer of the army introduce him to the ATS? Then on September 1, 2008 ATS officer Jaiswal, Sachin Kadam and Rajwardhan came to see Abrar in Byculla prison and told him that he would have been bailed out by now. But some investigating officers had changed the charge sheet and they (the investigating officers) would be removed as obstacles in two and half month’s time. This was part of their mission. Of course, it was the mission of Jaiswal, Sachin Kadam and Rajwardhan. The question is about what exactly the mission was? Was it a mission conducted by the investigating agencies or the Abhinav Bharat of which Purohit was the pivotal part? Remember that Abrar was brought to meet Dyanand Pandey in Bholenath temple of Ujjain. He also met sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur in the town on September 26, 2006. He stayed there for nine days. All this would imply that the organized crime syndicate is embedded by the civil and military parts. Who has infiltrated who?
For a lay person all such revelations are too awful, it would better be left to the courts to sort out. International bodies like Amnesty International could lend their expertise if we are quite honest and keen about resolving the matter.
But the day of the disappeared persons is mostly about the living who disappear on otherwise a regular, normal fine day. Mostly it is so in their own world. However, disturbances like acts of terrorism, war and riots or massacres take place where the atmosphere gets affected drastically and events are shrouded in mystery. Thus the disappearance of Shankar Shelke in the country side of Ahmednager on September 9, 2006 is puzzling. He was the scrap monger who could have supplied the RDX for the blast in Malegaon on the previous day. It is alleged that he had it in his stock. But given the vicinity of the army cantonment of Ahmednager there is also fear that it had its provenance there. With a hindsight of the reported revelation that Lt Col Prasad Purohit(allegedly involved in Malegaon September 29, 2008 blast) had procured RDX from the army in Jammu and Kashmir and kept it in his house in Pune and Deolali and also the reported tall and bulky man called Mithun Chakravarthy giving over explosives to several trained persons, the death of Shelke assumes sinister implication. The commissioner of Thane police had opined that the Malegaon blasts of 2006 were connected to the RDX found with Shelke, his disappearance and subsequent unnatural death.
The next such unnatural death arousing suspicion is that of Azhar Pervez who had reportedly approached some people and told them very material evidence about the blasts on shabebarat. Thereafter he disappeared. Later on his body was found in the deserted compound near his house. This is enforced disappearance which in 2006 the UN General Assembly defined and adopted through the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as: "The arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons, or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law." Had the people in whom he had confided the horrible truth of the blasts provided him a protective sheath his testimony in court would have been invaluable.
The Malegaon blasts had taken place in the kind of atmosphere which the then home minister Chaggan Bhujbad and his police had created. He blamed SIMI for every bomb blast in the state and categorically dubbed the Ahlehadesh Muslims to be responsible. They were his bete noire, god alone knows for what reason. However, it is significant to note that the new ATS chief Hemant Karkare had said that as of August 16, 2008 the ATS had not found any involvement of SIMI in the blasts.
Nevertheless, the blame on SIMI had created such a scare that the disappearance of the SIMI president of the town Mohammad Amin Munawar is enigmatic. For, he was preparing meat hamburgers at home for Friday September 8, 2006 afternoon sale. Since then there is no trace of him. If he were a bomber and had conspired to blow up people why should he be making hamburgers for afternoon sale? Another enforced disappearance is that of the old cloth seller Ishtiyaq Ahmed Mustak. The third instance is that of Riyaz Arsalan Shafeeq. They have all disappeared. They were the breadwinners of their families and unlikely to indulge in criminal activities.
The most amazing and legally the most serious is the disappearance of Abrar Ahmed. He would have been what the UNO calls enforced disappeared person but for the habeas corpus that his high court lawyer brother Jalil Ahmed submitted on October 25 2006. From October 25 to December 15, 2006 Abrar was virtually guarded by the police and a police informer and his own brother in law Farooq Vardha. This police informer had a revolver given to him by the police. What for had they given him is a mystery. His one point agenda was to coax Abrar into toeing the police version and confessing his involvement in the blasts. If he did not, was the gun meant for bumping him off? Abrar’s case clearly shows “arrest, detention and abduction.” and “deprivation of liberty by agents of state.” In his affidavit submitted to Judge Shinde he says he was picked up by the police on September 13, 2006.
His arrest and detention was on account of what he had overheard in the Medi Care hospital where some people were talking. They were saying that the blasts were the work of their own people, meaning thereby fellow Hindus. They particularly mentioned Dr Rajender Amin, Dr Bipin Parekh, Someshwar Shankar and a couple of others. The in laws of Abrar discussed the matter of what Abrar had overheard and decided to consult Abrar’s brother in law in Bhiwandi, Farooq Verdha. This is how the police came to know. Rajwardhan showed Abrar some pictures of the suspects whom he did not know. But the senior cop was struck by what Abrar came to know at the Medi Care. In the meantime Abrar’s father and others in the paternal family did not have any contact with him immediately.
Rajwardhan gave Abrar a mobile phone 9823436809 for his use and another phone 9825826597 for his wife. The officer gave his own mobile phone number 9422250775 to them to contact him.
But Abrar and wife could not contact any relatives for the plain clothed police around them prevented it. He was not even allowed to visit Malegaon on the Id day on October 25, 2006. Such deprivation of liberty become even more unbearable as the days passed. He was often threatened of fatal consequences to his person if he did not go according to what the police were saying to him. Ultimately he lost his freedom when he was put in prison from where there is no hope that he would be ever released.
A crucial part of the affidavit which the court will have to analyze is Abrar’s meeting with Lt Col Prasad Purohit who introduced him to ATS in Deolali army cantonment on October 24, 2006. Why should the serving officer of the army introduce him to the ATS? Then on September 1, 2008 ATS officer Jaiswal, Sachin Kadam and Rajwardhan came to see Abrar in Byculla prison and told him that he would have been bailed out by now. But some investigating officers had changed the charge sheet and they (the investigating officers) would be removed as obstacles in two and half month’s time. This was part of their mission. Of course, it was the mission of Jaiswal, Sachin Kadam and Rajwardhan. The question is about what exactly the mission was? Was it a mission conducted by the investigating agencies or the Abhinav Bharat of which Purohit was the pivotal part? Remember that Abrar was brought to meet Dyanand Pandey in Bholenath temple of Ujjain. He also met sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur in the town on September 26, 2006. He stayed there for nine days. All this would imply that the organized crime syndicate is embedded by the civil and military parts. Who has infiltrated who?
For a lay person all such revelations are too awful, it would better be left to the courts to sort out. International bodies like Amnesty International could lend their expertise if we are quite honest and keen about resolving the matter.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The Heart of the Matter: Partition
In the current controversy over Jinnah some ask with a smirk why India having an ancient civilization should be so much haunted by the past so soon and so often after its independence from the British. So soon, since we got independence in 1947 and so often since LK Advani’s tour of Pakistan in2005 and his hangover of that country’s founder and now Jaswant Singh’s book on qaid-e-azam, India, independence and partition. Still water runs deep and if historical events remain so dominant in shaping the present then there is something pathetic about it.
The creation of Pakistan or rather the inevitability of this eventuality and the role of religion ascribed to it is a matter of perennial interest. During a visit to London the Indian leaders sat for dinner. Sardar Patel, however, did not sit with the group. Afterwards Jinnah noticed him eating alone. He mused about Patel not deigning to eat with the rest. As an epiphany he found that it could be because there were people like him whom Patel did not consider equal and acceptable so far as the caste equation is concerned. If that was so how could the Muslims and Hindus share power and live together in an independent country after the British had left? This haughtier of Patel also comes out when he was home minister in the power sharing constitutional government. He could not appoint a peon without the approval of the finance minister who was from Muslim League. This drove him to such anger that he wished to have the country partitioned rather than governed together. The guilty men of India’s partition did play some role. The Hindu Mahasabha as well as Congress did want the partition of Punjab and Bengal although Jinnah had an altogether different view over the two provinces. (Something like the present time when BJP would be happy to have Jammu and Kashmir trifurcated between Hindu majority Jammu, Buddhist dominant Laddakh and the valley where the Muslims are in majority. )
Could Patel’s reluctance to eat with Jinnah be the result of hatred? There are people who feel so. Among them is Khushwant Singh who in his write up The Legacy of Jinnah says that hatred generated by history is the cause of partition. If this view persists then does it imply that the dynamic force of hatred is the motivating factor of those who want to continue to show the Muslims their place in independent India? Jinnah did change tactics to achieve his goal of having equitable share for Muslims in the governance of the emerging independent India. It was abysmal display of events which put his thought of equitable share in life and government beyond reach given the attitude of some Congress leaders. The strategic objective of equitability was invariable though he wanted to reach it by shuffling different tactics.
The division of India has made some wear their nationalism on their sleeves and be vociferous about it. Many such were not that enthusiastic during the freedom struggle, they were even very obliging to the British. It is they who have not let the ghost of Jinnah be buried once for all. They evoke it from time to time whenever the time is out of joint for them.
The creation of Pakistan or rather the inevitability of this eventuality and the role of religion ascribed to it is a matter of perennial interest. During a visit to London the Indian leaders sat for dinner. Sardar Patel, however, did not sit with the group. Afterwards Jinnah noticed him eating alone. He mused about Patel not deigning to eat with the rest. As an epiphany he found that it could be because there were people like him whom Patel did not consider equal and acceptable so far as the caste equation is concerned. If that was so how could the Muslims and Hindus share power and live together in an independent country after the British had left? This haughtier of Patel also comes out when he was home minister in the power sharing constitutional government. He could not appoint a peon without the approval of the finance minister who was from Muslim League. This drove him to such anger that he wished to have the country partitioned rather than governed together. The guilty men of India’s partition did play some role. The Hindu Mahasabha as well as Congress did want the partition of Punjab and Bengal although Jinnah had an altogether different view over the two provinces. (Something like the present time when BJP would be happy to have Jammu and Kashmir trifurcated between Hindu majority Jammu, Buddhist dominant Laddakh and the valley where the Muslims are in majority. )
Could Patel’s reluctance to eat with Jinnah be the result of hatred? There are people who feel so. Among them is Khushwant Singh who in his write up The Legacy of Jinnah says that hatred generated by history is the cause of partition. If this view persists then does it imply that the dynamic force of hatred is the motivating factor of those who want to continue to show the Muslims their place in independent India? Jinnah did change tactics to achieve his goal of having equitable share for Muslims in the governance of the emerging independent India. It was abysmal display of events which put his thought of equitable share in life and government beyond reach given the attitude of some Congress leaders. The strategic objective of equitability was invariable though he wanted to reach it by shuffling different tactics.
The division of India has made some wear their nationalism on their sleeves and be vociferous about it. Many such were not that enthusiastic during the freedom struggle, they were even very obliging to the British. It is they who have not let the ghost of Jinnah be buried once for all. They evoke it from time to time whenever the time is out of joint for them.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
BJP sans introspection
The controversy over Jaswantsingh’s expulsion and the ongoing crisis over Arun Shourie is nothing new. The RSS has again let the genii of its essentialism out of the bottle and the monster does not want to be imprisoned anymore. The ideological base of the BJP and RSS is also their raison d’etre. At the core is its twisted view of cultural nationalism which excludes the minorities, mainly the Muslims. The Dalit Christians are hardly distinguishable except when they attend the church. The Jains and Sikhs do not arouse any ill will as they are viewed to be culturally embedded in Hinduism. Therefore sanitized enough to be national minded.
To have a peep at the trouble in BJP is to look back at their practices and precepts. Or, to see the extreme reaction in defense of Pragyasingh Thakur and the other accused in Malegaon blasts.
PTI In this August 1, 2009 photo activists of Sanskriti Bachao Manch in Bhopal celebrate after a special court dropped charges under MCOCA against Sadhvi Pragnya Singh, Lt. Col. Purohit and nine other accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
At the Panjim conclave of BJP on April 12 2002 the Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee remarked what no Prime Minister had ever uttered even in private. Post 9/11 when Huntington was made out to be relevant, Vajpayee without bothering to see any nuance in meaning and implication and relevance said of Muslims “not wanting to live together with other communities and wanting to propagate their viewpoint with terror and faith…In Indonesia, Malaysia, wherever Muslims are living they don't want to live in harmony…They don't mix with the society [ghul milkar nahin rehte]. They are not interested in living in peace…Talwar ke bal par mat ka prachar nahin karna chahiye…Aag lagayi kisne?..Aag faily kaise?”
Even before he became PM he had aired such views, he wrote in Organiser May1995: “Islam has yet to learn the art of existing and flourishing in a country where Muslims are in a minority. They cannot convert the whole of India to Islam. After all, they have to live here… The Muslims of this country can be treated in three ways.... One is 'tiraskar' which means if they will not themselves change leave them alone, reject them as our compatriots. Second is 'puruskar' which is appeasement, i.e., bribe them to behave, which is being done by the Congress and others of their ilk. The third way is 'parishkar' meaning to change them, that is, restore them to the mainstream by providing them samskaras.”
He was subscribing to the egregious postulate of the clash of civilization that Muslims have difficulties in living with their neighbours, nay, their intestines are also bloody! How could he have overlooked that hardly a month had passed when the Muslims were subjected to the worst state sponsored pogroms in the subcontinent. Gujarat 2002 massacre of Muslims went on despite the President of India KR Narayanan writing letters to his own Prime Minister to act to save lives and Vajpayee not heeding it! Or was Gujarat 2002 a samskaras?
It is difficult to tell the Home Minister from the Prime Minister because of the sharing of the ideology. LK Advani was sustained by what Vajpayee had uttered and had no qualms in telling the audience in Panjim that there was no need to feel apologetic as far as the ideology is concerned. The two versions of Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie as to what happened in the plane on its way to Goa are the warp and woof of the yarn of that ideology. The man who reminded Narendra Modi what is rajdharm and reminded the world of the shame of Gujarat did not have enough of it to cross the bar. Sending away the secretary to prevent him from taking the dictation of the resignation letter or taking away the paper from the hands of the PM so that he would not write it smacks of orchestrated defense of the in-defensible. Resignation is not resigning to your fate or circumstances.
What Shourie has said must be taken in overall context of what he has been saying in his entire career as a journalist and a politician. While he was taking part in a discussion on Tavleen Singh’s book on her being politically incorrect he had said that if Muslims do not stop demanding implementation of Sachar recommendations then no one can stop Modi from reaching Delhi. Thus he was also voicing rejection of puraskar in favour of parishkar. What else that is if not cutting Muslims to their size and showing them their place, second class citizens of their country. Glued to this kind of ideology, his call for RSS to bombard the headquarters of BJP and take over the party which in the same vein he dubs as kati patang is hardly any introspection. It is this introspection they are not capable of. Had they done it in the humid air of Goa the rarified air of Shimla would not be needed with the monsoon clouds darkening the sky. Did the Ku Klux Klan ever introspect?
To have a peep at the trouble in BJP is to look back at their practices and precepts. Or, to see the extreme reaction in defense of Pragyasingh Thakur and the other accused in Malegaon blasts.
PTI In this August 1, 2009 photo activists of Sanskriti Bachao Manch in Bhopal celebrate after a special court dropped charges under MCOCA against Sadhvi Pragnya Singh, Lt. Col. Purohit and nine other accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.
At the Panjim conclave of BJP on April 12 2002 the Prime Minister Mr Vajpayee remarked what no Prime Minister had ever uttered even in private. Post 9/11 when Huntington was made out to be relevant, Vajpayee without bothering to see any nuance in meaning and implication and relevance said of Muslims “not wanting to live together with other communities and wanting to propagate their viewpoint with terror and faith…In Indonesia, Malaysia, wherever Muslims are living they don't want to live in harmony…They don't mix with the society [ghul milkar nahin rehte]. They are not interested in living in peace…Talwar ke bal par mat ka prachar nahin karna chahiye…Aag lagayi kisne?..Aag faily kaise?”
Even before he became PM he had aired such views, he wrote in Organiser May1995: “Islam has yet to learn the art of existing and flourishing in a country where Muslims are in a minority. They cannot convert the whole of India to Islam. After all, they have to live here… The Muslims of this country can be treated in three ways.... One is 'tiraskar' which means if they will not themselves change leave them alone, reject them as our compatriots. Second is 'puruskar' which is appeasement, i.e., bribe them to behave, which is being done by the Congress and others of their ilk. The third way is 'parishkar' meaning to change them, that is, restore them to the mainstream by providing them samskaras.”
He was subscribing to the egregious postulate of the clash of civilization that Muslims have difficulties in living with their neighbours, nay, their intestines are also bloody! How could he have overlooked that hardly a month had passed when the Muslims were subjected to the worst state sponsored pogroms in the subcontinent. Gujarat 2002 massacre of Muslims went on despite the President of India KR Narayanan writing letters to his own Prime Minister to act to save lives and Vajpayee not heeding it! Or was Gujarat 2002 a samskaras?
It is difficult to tell the Home Minister from the Prime Minister because of the sharing of the ideology. LK Advani was sustained by what Vajpayee had uttered and had no qualms in telling the audience in Panjim that there was no need to feel apologetic as far as the ideology is concerned. The two versions of Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie as to what happened in the plane on its way to Goa are the warp and woof of the yarn of that ideology. The man who reminded Narendra Modi what is rajdharm and reminded the world of the shame of Gujarat did not have enough of it to cross the bar. Sending away the secretary to prevent him from taking the dictation of the resignation letter or taking away the paper from the hands of the PM so that he would not write it smacks of orchestrated defense of the in-defensible. Resignation is not resigning to your fate or circumstances.
What Shourie has said must be taken in overall context of what he has been saying in his entire career as a journalist and a politician. While he was taking part in a discussion on Tavleen Singh’s book on her being politically incorrect he had said that if Muslims do not stop demanding implementation of Sachar recommendations then no one can stop Modi from reaching Delhi. Thus he was also voicing rejection of puraskar in favour of parishkar. What else that is if not cutting Muslims to their size and showing them their place, second class citizens of their country. Glued to this kind of ideology, his call for RSS to bombard the headquarters of BJP and take over the party which in the same vein he dubs as kati patang is hardly any introspection. It is this introspection they are not capable of. Had they done it in the humid air of Goa the rarified air of Shimla would not be needed with the monsoon clouds darkening the sky. Did the Ku Klux Klan ever introspect?
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