[Reader-list] from Goa (Communal riots)

[Aarti]

Dear Vedavati,

Thanks for this article. Opens up an interesting set of questions about 
how and why the media chooses to respond to certain incidents of the 
miscarriage of justice and not others. And also the relationship between 
media reportage and judicial action.

Something I find interesting is that even when certain incidents acquire 
a velocity, such as the Jessica lal muder case, which are then taken up 
by the media and the general public at large, this does not seem to 
translate into a larger public questioning of the state of the jucial 
system on the whole. So even in this case the question has been limited, 
if one could put it this way, to a discussion on the influence of money 
and muscle power on judicial process. But no one has raised the issue, 
for instance to cite one, of the gross injustice of the justice 
machinary wherein thousands of undertrial prisoners are routinely held 
in custody for years. Often the time spent waiting for a trial is much 
longer than the amount of time they would have had to spend if convicted.


Warmly
Aarti


Vedavati Jogi wrote:

> dear friends,
>
> how do you find this article given below (appeared n 'the hoot') 
> written by Dasu Krishnamoorty
>
> vedavati
> .......................................................................
>
> Two judgments coming in the span of a week became the talk of the 
> town. There was all-round applause for a Mumbai special court awarding 
> life sentence to nine of the 21 accused in what has come to be known 
> as the Best Bakery case. The other was a Delhi court acquitting all 
> the accused in the murder of Jessica Lal in a restaurant socialite 
> Bina Ramani owns. Both cases involved capricious depositions by 
> witnesses. In the Best Bakery, media and NGOs zealously took the 
> battle into the sanctum of the Supreme Court and persuaded the apex 
> court to transfer the trial to a special court outside Gujarat. The 
> media are now worked up about the freeing of all accused in the 
> Jessica case and one may assume that the curtain has not come down on 
> the case. It figured in Parliament on Monday. The Best Bakery case 
> also cannot be said to have ended since the accused can still appeal 
> to the Supreme Court,
>
> Several newspapers commented on both the judgments, indicating delight 
> and outrage as also their perceptions on the working of the justice 
> and police systems. These cases, like any other case, assert the 
> reality that one: victims of injustice have a system to fall back upon 
> for relief and two: the accused get a fair trial before they are 
> convicted. The administration of justice is in accordance with the law 
> of the land and precedents that form the basis for challenging any 
> departure from or distortion of the two. The press, on the other hand, 
> is a watchdog that people look to for support. As a watchdog, the 
> press is different from the courts. When an issue comes up for trial 
> before the press, it has no written codes or precedents to go by in 
> assessing the merits of an issue. Also, unlike the courts, media do 
> not readily provide hearing to both sides. That changes the complexion 
> of the hearing.
>
> Pending the last word of the Supreme Court on a possible appeal from 
> the accused, one has to join the Indian Express in describing "the 
> silence from 11, Ashoka Road" (BJP headquarters) over Friday’s verdict 
> on the Best Bakery retrial case as deafening. The Express did not 
> spare the Congress either. "To this day, the dismal failure of 
> governments headed by the Congress to throw even one person into jail 
> for those riots that killed some 3,000 Sikhs that fateful November is 
> a blot that it can never erase," it said. M.J.Akbar commended the role 
> of the media in achieving Friday’s denouement. He wrote, "Every Indian 
> can declare with pride that he or she lives in a nation that has not 
> only democracy, but something more: institutions of justice that 
> deliver in matters of honour, truth, life and death. And thank God for 
> a free media too."
>
> The media gave credit to the judiciary for rescuing the case from 
> Gujarat courts. On several occasions, judiciary took notice of 
> information in the media to suo motu set in motion the due process of 
> law. While this media-judiciary interface is the crux of democracy, it 
> is essential that media are not seen as influencing the course of 
> justice or judiciary seen as taking cue from the media. "Still, it is 
> a landmark judgment, considering that it generates optimism about the 
> outcome of many similar cases and in a way restores some faith in the 
> judiciary which was rudely shaken yesterday in the Jessica Lall’s 
> case," said the Tribune. T.J.S. George of the New Indian Express 
> wrote, "When the Jessica Lal murder case turned our criminal justice 
> system into a farce, the Best Bakery case provided it with a 
> triumphant vindication. Which means all is not lost despite the 
> saboteurs in our midst."
>
> The two judgments of last week bring back memories, unless one is 
> struck by amnesia, of one of similar cases the Tribune mentioned 
> earlier. That is, the tragedy in Radhabai chawl in Mumbai on the night 
> of January 7, 1993. Nine persons - six women and three men, of whom 
> two were minors -- were locked in a room, doused with kerosene and 
> then set on fire. Five of them died on the spot. One died later in 
> hospital. The two minors and one girl survived after sustaining 
> disfiguring burns. The Supreme Court freed all the 11 accused, setting 
> aside a TADA court conviction. The court observed that the police had 
> framed the 11 Muslims and "somehow tried to get them identified 
> through witnesses who belonged to the community from which the people 
> were burnt alive." Courts, of course, have their own criteria to 
> convict or acquit accused, both in accordance with the spirit and 
> letter of the law. This case provides remarkable evidence of media 
> passivity.
>
> Of the Best Bakery case, the Tribune said, "But more needs to be done. 
> There are others guilty of equally heinous crimes who are still 
> roaming free. The law has to catch up with all of them if the shaken 
> faith of the right-thinking people, particularly the minority 
> community, is to be restored." True, the killers of Radhabai chawl are 
> some of those roaming free. They are alive and kicking somewhere while 
> the kith and kin of the deceased continue to nurse their unhealed 
> wounds.. Somebody, other than the 11 persons convicted by the TADA 
> court and later found to be innocent, must have done that heinous job 
> on a January night in 1993. This means that the real culprits are at 
> large. If a fair trial is a human rights issue that concerns every 
> citizen equally, regardless of their political orientation, one might 
> say fair deal eluded the survivors of those who perished in the 
> Radhabai chawl.
>
> The Indian Express said, "For this newspaper, which doggedly reported 
> on the tortuous course of the tragic Best Bakery case, the verdict is 
> a vindication." But the Express overlooked one implication: that the 
> newspaper had started probing the Bakery case on the assumption that 
> there were discrepancies in the police investigation based on the 
> acquittal of all the accused by Gujarat courts. Okay, why did it 
> assume that everything about the Radhabai chawl case was honky-dory 
> and therefore failed to pursue it as doggedly? Somebody must have set 
> the chawl ablaze. Who are they? Did the media lose all interest when 
> they came to know the faith of the victims? Will the killers escape 
> both judicial and media oversight? These questions cry for answers. 
> Under the law, there is no limitation for re-opening a criminal case. 
> Will the media press for it?
>
> The Express and other newspapers that took the interest of a party to 
> the case in Best Bakery can as doggedly work on tracing the culprits 
> in the Radhabai chawl case. Shivraj Patil told the Rajya Sabha, "As 
> the law exists today, no person should be tried twice in any 
> case...Supreme Court has ordered reinvestigation in some cases and it 
> has become a kind of law also for us. It can be followed," This means 
> that it is possible for the police or any other state agency to 
> reinvestigate the Radhabai case. To fend off charges of bias, media 
> have a duty to use all their investigative talent to identify the 
> killers. Victims are victims and need media support irrespective of 
> who they are.
>
> Vir Sanghvi of Hindustan Times said, "I share your rage, your outrage 
> and your determination that we must not let Jessica Lall's murder go 
> unpunished. To allow that to happen would diminish us as a nation." 
> Vir, if the Radhabai murderers go scot free, it will certainly 
> diminish the image of the media beside that of the nation. Akbar, 
> please note.
>
>
>
> Contact: dasukrishnamoorty at hotmail.com
>
>
>
>> From: PREETU NAIR <preetunair at yahoo.com>
>> To: reader-list at sarai.net
>> Subject: [Reader-list] from Goa (Communal riots)
>> Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 01:11:10 -0800 (PST)
>>
>> RANE AND PARRIKAR ARE BOTH CRIMINALS' – Victims of
>> Sanvordem
>> (Article appeared in Gomantak Times, Panjim edition
>> dated March 6,2005)
>>
>> When Godhra happened, Gujarat had a BJP government.
>> Goa is ruled by a party Muslims trusted blindly… till
>> they were blinded last Friday.
>>
>> Does anyone care to listen to the voice of the Muslims
>> in Sanvordem and Curchorem? This is their verdict. You
>> want to know why? Here's why. Nighar Agha was asked to
>> leave her rented house by her landlady cos she was
>> forced to by Hindu mobs. She ran away with her
>> 4-year-old daughter with a heart problem. Seeing her
>> run, the mob snatched away the medicine bag of her
>> daughter. She could have died… running from the mob.
>> Noorjah Sheikh broke her back but managed to cover the
>> mouths of her children so that they didn't shout,
>> Sheikh Rafiq locked himself and his family, but the
>> mob came, broke his garage and damaged both his cars
>> and 2 of his shops. The Sheikh brothers screamed out
>> to the police to help when eight of their shops were
>> ransacked and looted. Not a single policeman came
>> forward.
>>
>> We looked for these victims in Sanvordem, Curchorem,
>> Margao and at the Margao railway station to present
>> voices that would have otherwise been numbed
>>
>> By Preetu Nair
>> preetu_nair at gomantaktimes.com
>> MARGAO/SANVORDEM /CURCHOREM: It was the greatest test
>> of endurance for Nighar Agha last Friday. The images
>> of the riots will haunt her forever. Living alone in a
>> rented house at Sanvordem, Nigar has three little
>> kids. Her husband is in the Gulf and her four-year-old
>> daughter has a heart problem and is easily susceptible
>> to infection.
>>
>> "On that unfortunate day, my daughter got an eye
>> infection and fever. I was scared and worried about
>> her health. Though I wanted to take her to the
>> hospital, I couldn't and her condition worsened. In
>> the morning, our landlady, a Catholic, came to my
>> help. She took my daughter to the hospital. But when
>> she returned, she advised me to vacate the house as
>> people from the majority community in the area were
>> threatening to attack us," she recollects and pauses.
>>
>> Taking a deep breath, she again continues with the
>> horrors she underwent on Saturday afternoon. "Along
>> with some boys, who had taken shelter in my house, and
>> children, I walked to my brothers' house as no one was
>> ready to give us lift and it was impossible for my
>> brothers to enter Sanvordem. Four boys lifted my ill
>> daughter and we walked for nearly 6 km, when a mob
>> surrounded us and abused us. One man snatched the bag
>> containing my daughter's medicine and threw it in the
>> field. They beat two boys and said, "We will ensure
>> that you people are not able to raise your head for
>> atleast another 10 years". When I pleaded and cried,
>> they allowed us to go."
>>
>> 57-year-old Noorjah Sheikh still squirms in pain. "We
>> were scared and helpless. When we heard that mobs were
>> attacking our homes, we armed ourselves with the
>> masalas and utensils. But when they started pelting
>> stones and shouting slogans we got scared. So I rushed
>> upstairs in the dark (they didn't switch on the light
>> that night) to collect some sticks but lost my balance
>> and hurt my back and neck. Though in pain, I didn't
>> scream, lest the mob heard my cry. I was scared for
>> the lives of the young children at home. I was really
>> scared and helpless," she reveals. She admits that it
>> is shocking that majority of people from the mob were
>> people whom they knew, if not by name, but atleast by
>> face.
>>
>> Revealing his tale of woes, Sheikh Rafiq from
>> Sanvordem reveals that he was at the mosque when he
>> got message that homes and shops of minority community
>> were being ransacked. So he rushed home to be with his
>> family of 10. "I locked the door from outside. We
>> switched off the lights and were too scared to even
>> breathe. Around 8 pm, we heard noises and a mob of
>> youngsters approaching our home with torch, shouting
>> "Jai Mahadev". They broke open the garage and
>> destroyed two cars, while I stood near my window as a
>> hapless and speechless spectator. We were so scared
>> that women held the mouth of our children, lest they
>> make any noise," he revealed.
>>
>> Questioning the role of police in the communal riot,
>> he said, "I called DIG Ujjwal Mishra for help. He
>> promised to send help, but then cut the line without
>> taking the address. The police never came. Late in the
>> night, we along with the women and children in our
>> neighborhood (around 20 persons) escaped in their
>> Maruti van to my brother's house in Margao."
>>
>> Sheikh Brothers, who own nearly 10 shops in Sanvordem
>> reveal that eight of their shops were completely
>> destroyed by the mob, homes attacked and vehicles
>> destroyed and burnt. "Everything happened before the
>> police and they stood their helpless as if unwilling
>> to help us. All pleas for help fell on deaf ears,"
>> they added.
>>
>> Thankfully, an eye for an eye is not the motto of the
>> minority community, who allege that just as Nero
>> fiddled while Rome burned, in the same manner, Rane
>> was busy attending functions even as Curchorem and
>> Sanvordem was burning. "It is Congress government and
>> it was the ruling government's job to protect us. In
>> Congress raj if this is our fate, then what is the use
>> of having Rane as the CM? More than BJP and RSS, we
>> blame Rane for the communal tension," alleged Ussein
>> Gazi.
>>
>> * People tried contacting DIG Ujjwal Mishra on Friday
>> and Saturday for help. He promised help but never
>> delivered.
>> When they contacted CM Rane when mob was burning their
>> cars and attacking homes, he said everything is under
>> control. Later, he cut their calls abruptly.
>> All Congress MLAs and MP's had only one answer, we
>> have called DIG.
>>
>> * During a meeting at Margao, the minority community
>> leaders criticized Rane and asked Digambar Kamat (who
>> was present there) what he would do for them? He was
>> absolutely silent.
>> ***********************
>> WAITING TO CATCH THE TRAIN TO FREEDOM!
>> BY PREETU NAIR
>> Preetu_nair at gomantaktimes.com
>> MARGAO STATION: In March 2002, Gujarat burnt as
>> bloodthirsty mobs attacked homes and killed innocent
>> people. In March 2005, Goa is burning. Hundreds of
>> people from the minority community are rendered
>> homeless and jobless. The politics of hate is slowly
>> threatening to erupt the fabric of a harmonious
>> society and robust democracy that Goans have always
>> been proud of.
>>
>> Scared that people who wrongly justified the burning
>> of vehicles, destruction of shops and homes, all owned
>> by the Minority community, by saying that armed people
>> came from Bhatkal and Hubli, would also harm them
>> without any rhyme or reason, they are leaving the
>> state, which was their home for long.
>>
>> At 3.25 pm, the Margao railway station is packed with
>> women in burkha, their children and men, all waiting
>> to board Jan Shatabdi express bound for Mangalore.
>> Somehow their scared and agonized looks were more
>> chilling than the event itself. They were scared to
>> talk and appeared withdrawn. There was shock and gloom
>> prevailing all over.
>>
>> Well, they can't be really blamed, after all their
>> homes were destroyed by the very people they knew.
>> They also never thought that the homes of friends and
>> neighbours would be shut for them during the riots due
>> to fear of a backlash.
>>
>> As violence flared up in Curchorem and Sanvordem and
>> politicians slowly made it an insider-outsider issue
>> (to quote Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar: Heavy
>> influx of migrants to the state was the cause of
>> creation of social tension and disharmony), it has
>> left a feeling of fear and mistrust. "We have been
>> living in Goa since last 20 years and had a small shop
>> at Curchorem. The mob dragged us out of the house and
>> burnt our house. They destroyed our shop. We came to
>> Goa to earn a living, not to spread communal
>> disharmony. It hurts that even after living here for
>> 20 years, we still can't call Goa our home," said a
>> person who was boarding the train to go to his
>> hometown Bhatkal, who didn't wish to be named.
>>
>> Just as the train arrived at the platform at 3.32 pm,
>> they eagerly boarded the train. Once in the train,
>> they removed the burkha, breathed some fresh air and
>> smiled in relief as they set out on a new journey.
>>
>>
>>
>>
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