[Reader-list] Haren Pandya's Murder Judgment: His Father Dissents, Suggests Modi's Hand

[Yogi Sikand]

Dear Friend,
As you might have heard, a POTA court in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, today sentenced
nine persons to life imprisonment for killing senior BJP leader and former
Home Minister Haren Pandya in 2003. All of them are Muslims. Among the nine
persons, one was awarded life imprisonment till his natural death while the
other eight were awarded life term of 14 years.The court which had conducted
the in-camera hearing in the case also sentenced two others to seven years
imprisonment and another accused to a five year jail-term.

However, it is significant to note that Haren Pandya's father, Vitthalbhai
Pandya, has disagreed with the court's verdict. He believes that his son was
killed at the behest of none other than Narendra Modi, the BJP Chief
Minister of Gujarat. I interviewed him at length two years ago about the
murder of his son and had sent out the interview on my email list then.
Given the fact that the case is now again in the news, I am sending it out a
second time [below]. Please circulate it.
Regards
Yogi

79-year old Vithalbhai Pandya is the father of the
slain former Gujarat Home Minister, Haren Pandya. In
this interview with Yoginder Sikand he talks about his
struggle against Gujarat's Chief Minister Narendra
Modi, who, he believes, was the man behind his son's
murder three years ago. He also reflects on the
anti-Muslim carnage of 2002 in Gujarat and the
dangerous rise of Hindutva fascism, which he sees as a
sin against Hinduism.


Q: Whom do you hold responsible for Haren Pandya's
death?
A:. I am convinced and have reason to believe that
Narendra Modi, whom I call a psychic mass killer, was
the person behind Haren's death. Haren, my only son,
was found dead in Ahmedabad on 26 March 2003. He was
just 42 when he was killed. From day one I have been
insisting that Haren was murdered on the orders of
Modi and that is was a politically motivated crime
arranged at Modi's behest. The CBI investigation into
his murder is, I have been repeatedly alleging but to
no avail, not being conducted in a transparent manner,
free from political interference. My appeals about
this continue to go unheeded. A fair investigation can
only happen when Modi is removed from the office of
Chief Minister, which he continues to occupy even
three years after launching a deadly carnage that took
the lives of more than 3000 innocent Muslims. As in
Haren's murder case, justice remains a far cry for the
Muslim victims of the genocide.

Q: Some people claim that Haren Pandya was killed by
some Muslim youth. What do you feel?
A: The claim that the instigators of my son's death
were some Muslim youth from Hyderabad is, I believe,
completely false. It is a sly way of denying Modi's
hand in the affair and to shift the blame onto hapless
Muslims and to spread anti-Muslim hatred. The case of
my son's death should be carried out in public because
the public has the right to know the truth. But, the
inquiry is being conducted in camera, and I think this
is simply in order to save Modi's skin. Haren was a
victim of Modi's political intrigue and innocent
Muslims should not be arrested, harassed or blamed, as
they have been, for his killing.

Q: If, as you claim, Modi was behind Haren's death,
why do you think he wanted him out of his way?

A: Modi saw Haren as a major challenge to his
authority and viewed him as his main political rival.
He may have felt that by doing away with Haren he
could silence all other rivals, within and without the
BJP, because they would be too scared to speak out
against him. There was growing dissatisfaction in BJP
ranks in Gujarat with Modi and so the message that was
probably sought to be sent out was that those who
dared to speak out against Modi would meet the same
fate. Modi detested Haren for his uprightness. When
Haren was the state revenue Minister he took stern
action against land-sharks, including some of Modi's
cronies, who had illegally acquired properties worth
crores of rupees and this Modi could not stomach.

Another factor behind Haren's killing, I believe, was
his clear-cut moral position on the murder of
thousands of Muslims following the burning of the
train carriage in Godhra on 27 February 2002. Haren
believed that the Godhra incident should be limited to
Godhra alone and should not be used, as Modi did, to
spread murder all over Gujarat. He was opposed to
Modi's use of the Godhra incident to launch an
anti-Muslim genocide and to garner Hindu votes. He was
vehemently opposed to Modi's fascist agenda. He told
me, in great anguish, that he heard of a confidential
meeting apparently held by Modi and attended by some
ministers, senior bureaucrats and police officers on
27 February 2002, in which, he said, Modi instructed
police officials to remain inactive in the face of the
anti-Muslim carnage that was launched with active
state connivance the next day. Haren very specifically
mentioned before the Iyer Commission that Modi had set
off this anti-Muslim genocide. Modi did not like
Haren's opposition to the genocide. Haren told me that
Modi asked him to apologise but he refused to. This
further added to Modi's hatred for Haren and made him,
I believe, conspire to have him killed.

Q: But if Haren was against Modi's anti-Muslim
policies, as you say, then how come he chose to remain
in the BJP, because the BJP is known for being
anti-Muslim?
A: Not all people in the BJP are ncecessarily
communal. Haren certainly was not. When Haren was the
Gujarat Home Minister in Keshubhai Patel's government,
some fanatic VHP and Bajrang Dal elements started
hounding Christians in the Dangs but he mediated and
solved the situation. Yes, although Haren was with the
BJP, I, as his father, know that he had no hatred for
Muslims. In the anti-Muslim carnage that Modi
engineered Haren saw to it that no Muslims were killed
in his area. Haren did not believe in the same version
of hate-driven Hindutva as Modi does. His
understanding was of what is called samrasta, equality
of people of all faiths. True, Haren was with the RSS,
but, unlike many other people in the RSS, VHP and
Bajrang Dal, he was not a fundamentalist. He believed
in the "Integral Humanism" of Deendayal Upadhyay, who,
some people say, was killed by Hindu fundamentalists
as they found him a stumbling block in their political
designs.

Q: How did leaders of Hindutva organisations, such as
the RSS, react to Haren's murder?

A: Advani, who presents himself as a die-hard Hindutva
leader, tried to prejudice the investigation into my
son's death by what I believe to be falsely claiming
that the Pakistani ISI or the gangster Dawood was
responsible for it. I told Advani that he was
responsible, in a way, for Haren's death. He had kept
quiet and had allowed the BJP in Gujarat to be
monopolised by a single Ravana—the bloodthirsty
dictator Modi. When he came for the condolence meeting
after Haren's death I told him he was shedding
crocodile tears. This was because the real culprit was
Modi, Advani's henchman. Vajpayee, too, supported Modi
and did not condemn him for Haren's death. The BJP
government was also responsible for this by
deliberately failing to provide Haren with security
although Haren suspected that Modi was conspiring to
take his life. Several other senior RSS and BJP
leaders maintained a stony silence on Haren's death,
thus appearing to support Modi's criminality.

Q: So, how do you characterise these Hindutva
organisations. After all, Haren was also a member of
the RSS.
A: There are some balanced and sensible people in
these organisations, but many of them are driven by
hatred and a thirst for power, for which they are
misusing the Hindu religion. I was an activist of the
RSS myself but now I don't believe in its ideology.
The Sangh Parivar have become a gang. They are not
really concerned about the poor. Nor are most of them
genuinely concerned about Hinduism. Some of them may
be good people as individuals, but now, as a group,
they are very different. Many of them are just
immoral, power-hungry people who can stoop to any
level.

So, I don't believe in the sort of Hindutva that Modi
and Advani preach, because it is predicated on hatred.
I believe that all people, irrespective of religion,
are human beings. Any ideology that teaches us to hate
other communities is a sin in God's eyes, and that is
precisely what people like Modi and Advani are doing.
What fascists who claim to be defenders of Hinduism
are doing is a great crime according to the Hindu
religion. Murdering innocent people is a major sin.
These people are the greatest enemies of Hinduism.
They are not religious in the true sense of the term.
Advani's own daughter-in-law has come out with a
statement that Advani does not believe in the Hindu
religion. Hence, it is obvious that people like him
are simply using Hinduism to get Hindu votes. How can
God forgive them for this crime?

Q: If, as you say, Modi was responsible for your son's
death, how do you think he should be dealt with?
A: Modi, as is well known, has been responsible for
the deaths of thousands of innocent Muslims in
Gujarat. I also believe that he was responsible for
the murder of my son. In that case, shouldn't he be
punished in the same way as those who are sentenced
for murder? What Modi has done, being responsible for
the murder of more than 3000 people, is an enormous
sin in the eyes of God. Justice demands that he should
meet the same fate that he has meted out to the
thousands of people who have lost their lives. But
that has not happened. The law has not been allowed to
take its course. The thousands of Muslims whose
relatives were killed in the carnage and I as well, as
Haren's father, have been deliberately denied justice
and Modi continues to rule as the Chief Minister of
Gujarat. What sort of democracy is this? If Modi's
fascist dictatorship remains unchecked and if he goes
unpunished, I fear the cancer that he is breeding will
spread all over India. Modi is worse than mass
murderers like Hitler and Slobodan Milosevic of
Serbia. His government should have been dismissed a
long time ago if we are serious about democracy and
justice. If I had my way, I would have sought
international summons issued against him for his
crimes against humanity.

Modi claims to be a protector of Hinduism but all this
is just a trick. He curries favour with Hindu
religious leaders to get Hindu votes, but he has no
real faith in God his heart. A decade ago, the
well-known scholar Ashish Nandy met Modi when the
latter was an RSS-pracharak. Nandy then wrote an
article in the 'Seminar' journal describing Modi as 'a
textbook case of a fascist and a prospective killer,
perhaps even a future mass murderer'. And that is a
fact. Last year I sent a letter to the President of
India, Abul Kalam, in which I quoted Modi as declaring
that 'Every Muslim of this country is a traitor and
expected terrorist'. I asked the President what he, as
a Muslim, had to say about this. I urged him to take
stiff action against Modi for this inhuman and
anti-national statement and for the genocide of
Muslims that he had engineered. But no action has been
taken. Such is the state of this so-called
'democratic' country that claims to be the largest
'democracy' in the world.

Q: The burning of the coach of the Sabarmati Express
at Godhra, which was used as an excuse by Modi and
Hindutva outfits to launch a genocide of Muslims in
Gujarat, has been much discussed. What do you feel
actually happened at Godhra on that day?

A: It has been proved that the train carriage was not
set on fire by a mob from outside. No inflammable
liquid, contrary to what Modi and RSS leaders and
others have alleged, was thrown from outside the
train. So, the fire must have started from inside the
train. Maybe this was an accident but, who knows, it
may have been a pre-planned strategy to justify the
genocide of Muslims. In an affidavit presented in
October 2004 before the committee that investigated
the burning of the coach I pointed out that Modi had
delivered a very provocative speech to the so-called
'kar sevaks' going to Ayodhya. When they were
returning from Ayodhya, these fanatics, fired by
pseudo-religious frenzy, began shouting anti-Muslim
slogans and harassing a Muslim girl at Godhra station.
This must have been designed before hand and it
resulted in a fracas with some Muslims outside. This
was intentionally done, I believe. I argued in my
affidavit that the chain was deliberately pulled by
the so-called 'kar-sevaks' at Signal Falia, a
Muslim-dominated locality, so that chaos and violence
could be unleashed. I asked in the affidavit why it
was that some relatives of politically significant
so-called 'kar-sevaks' were said to have been asked to
get down at a station just before Godhra? Obviously,
therefore, at least some of the so-called 'kar sevaks'
possibly knew about this pre-planned strategy.

Q: How are you keeping up your struggle against Modi
and for justice for Haren and for the victims of the
anti-Muslim genocide?

A: I am an old man of 77 years, but in order to get
Modi thrown out and to heal the terrible wounds that
he and his men have inflicted on Gujarat, I stood
against Advani, Modi's protector, in the elections as
an independent candidate. Of course I lost the
election, because I had no money. But I got around
10,000 votes and used the election as a means to
generate support for the demand to have Modi dismissed
and punished. In my election campaign, I focussed
particularly on the desperate need for inter-community
harmony. I went to the sprawling Muslim ghetto of
Juhapura, and the Muslims there greeted me and said I
was the only Hindu candidate who had bothered to visit
them.

I am continuing with this struggle against fascism,
not simply as Haren's father, but as a concerned
citizen, as someone worried about the fate of India if
fascists like Modi continue to go free despite their
enormous crimes. And so today wherever I go I tell
people to defeat this fake Hindutva, because this is a
crime against Hinduism. Every day I keep sending off
letters to people to protest against Modi. I don't get
many responses but I will continue to do this. Ever
since Haren's assassination I have been sending letter
after letter to all sorts of 'important' people,
including the Gujarat governor, the National Human
Rights Commission, the Supreme Court and even the
Prime Minister and President of India, but I have got
no positive response. So, I have lost faith in all our
talk about 'democracy' and 'justice'.

Because of Modi, Gujarat is now standing on the
shoulders of mrityudeva, the god of death, who will
continue to shriek unless Modi and his ilk are brought
to justice. I have decided to fight till my last
breath against Modi, Advani and people like them, who
are continuing to use religion to spread murder and
hatred. Maybe in this world they will not be punished,
but God will certainly punish them after death. But we
must see that such people receive the punishment they
deserve for their crimes in this world as well.
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