[Reader-list] Fwd: [humanrights-movement:1493] Narendra "Killer" Modi: Some Glimmer of Hope!

[Venugopalan K M]

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From: Sukla Sen <suklasen at yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, May 2, 2009 at 9:46 AM
Subject: [humanrights-movement:1493] Narendra "Killer" Modi: Some Glimmer of
Hope!
To: humanrights-movement at googlegroups.com, chairnhrc at nic.in, covdnhrc at nic.in,
NHRC <ionhrc at nic.in>, sukla.sen at gmail.com, insaaniyatlist at yahoogroups.com,
hope at topica.com, csdmumbai at yahoogroups.com


[The brazenness of this vile person is really astounding.

So is the pusillanimity of the "system"!



He goes about organising murder, loot, rape and arson of people of the state
of which he is the Chief Minister - the people to whom he is supposed to
provide the protection of the law and the state.

He further tells the victimised that they are fortunate that the
awareness(!), that triggered and drove the carnage, has not yet adequately
spread to the villages!

Not only does he deprive the relief camps housing the hundreds of thousands
of hunted and terror-stricken, put up through incredibly courageous private
efforts, of any state help as much as he can and keep these under most
appalling conditions; he also calls these as a baby manufacturing factories!

He of course openly went about blocking all attempts at booking and
punishing the foot soldiers of the carnage as much as he could.



When the state was found directly complicit in murdering one Sohrabuddin
Shaikh and his wife, presumably after rape, and also Tulsi Prajapati – a
friend of Shaikh; and a senior police officer, a close confidante of his,
had to be put behind the bars at the intervention of the Supreme Court,
he openly challenged the "system", in a widely televised public meeting, to
hang him if it can!



Now, in full page newspaper advertisements, he calls the directive of the
Supreme Court to the Special Investigation Team (SIT), formed at its
instance under the impact of long drawn out brave struggles of the victims
and human rights activists, to investigate his role in the gory bloodbath
that he had presided over, a "conspiracy", and nothing less!]

I/III.http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/02/stories/2009050255171000.htm

*Contempt petition against Modi*

J. Venkatesan


*Hearing next week, says Chief Justice*

------------------------------
*

Court had asked SIT to probe complaint against Modi on post-Godhra riots

Modi alleged the order was passed in conspiracy with Minister Kapil Sibal
*
------------------------------


New Delhi: A contempt of court petition has been filed in the Supreme Court
against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged remarks that
the April 27 order asking the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into
a complaint against Mr. Modi and others was passed in a mala fide manner in
conspiracy with the Congress.

On Friday, Prashant Bhushan, *amicus curiae* in the petition filed by Jakia
Nasim Ahesan, wife of the former Congress MP, Ehsan Jafri [who was killed
during the Gujarat riots of 2002], made a ‘mention’ before a three-Judge
Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justices P. Sathasivam and J.M.
Panchal for early listing of the contempt petition. The CJI told Mr. Bhushan
that the matter would be listed next week.

On April 27, a Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and A.K. Ganguly had asked
SIT to probe a complaint dated June 8, 2006 against Mr. Modi that he and his
Cabinet colleagues orchestrated the post-Godhra communal riots in 2002 in
connivance with police officials and senior bureaucrats, and submit its
report in three months.

In the present contempt petition, Mr. Bhushan said Mr. Modi, while reacting
to the Supreme Court order, had alleged that it was passed in conspiracy
with Union Minister Kapil Sibal in the Congress-led government. He said it
was clear that Mr. Modi had made very serious allegations against the
Supreme Court which “are totally scandalous and unfounded and what is worse
is that they have been made in order to derive political advantage in the
elections.”

He said this technique of Mr. Modi making contemptuous statement and
allegations was not new. In December 2007, the Supreme Court was forced to
issue contempt notice to Mr. Modi for having made a public speech obliquely
approving the extra judicial killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and seeking votes
on that basis. This was done when the petition seeking action against police
officers who were involved in the extra judicial killing of Sohrabuddin was
pending before this court.

The petition said: “In these circumstances, it is imperative in the interest
of justice that Mr. Modi be brought to book and held accountable for his
grossly contemptuous action. If this is not done, he will be further
encouraged to make any kind of wild allegations and statement against this
court for his political ends.”

As *amicus curiae* appointed by the court “it is my duty to bring this
matter to the notice of the court for appropriate directions,” Mr. Bhushan
said. He sought a direction to initiate contempt of court proceedings
against Mr. Modi for his alleged remarks.


II.

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=101442997138&h=ixsLX&u=WJL9j&ref=nf

Nemesis catches up with Modi

By Kuldip Nayar

Friday, 01 May, 2009 | 02:58 AM PST |
 THERE is a saying that justice may be delayed but is not out of reach. The
wheel of fortune has turned slowly to expose Narendra Modi, chief minister
of Gujarat, the state where some 4,000 Muslims were killed seven years ago.

It has been an open secret that he and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
members were involved in the pogrom, with the connivance of the state
machinery, including the police.

Modi would say in defence: where is the proof? He would also say that what
happened in Gujarat was in retaliation to the burning of pilgrims in a train
at Godhra, near Ahmedabad. There are too many versions of this to solely
hold the Muslims responsible. The dust was somewhat cleared by the Supreme
Court of India when it appointed the Special Investigating Team (SIT) to
probe the matter last year.

The complaint against Modi was that he and his cabinet colleagues
orchestrated the post-Godhra communal riots in 2002 in connivance with
police officials and senior bureaucrats. The complaint filed by advocate
Sanjay Parikh on behalf of Jakia Nasim Ahesan Hussain Jafri, the widow of an
ex-Congress MP who was killed by a mob allegedly at the instigation of Modi,
the 'architect of a criminal conspiracy to subvert constitutional governance
and the rule of law'.

SIT, a sort of tribunal, is presided over by a retired CBI director, R.K.
Raghavan, who is widely respected. His probe, it is conceded, will be fair,
just and independent. The BJP is uncomfortable. The Congress is overjoyed
for apparent reasons. And the people feel jubilant that the perpetrators of
Gujarat may be brought to book.

The state, much less Modi, expected such a turn of events in the
investigation. A human rights activist, Teesta Setalvad, who has doggedly
pursued the culprits in the Gujarat killings, had submitted a petition on
behalf of Ms Jafri. The petition was filed as an FIR with the police in
Ahmedabad to contend that the killings were pre-planned and that the
authorities did little to protect the victims.

The police refused to register the FIR. She went to the court which took
little notice of the lapse in legality. The matter came to the Supreme Court
where the lawyer appearing on behalf of the state of Gujarat said that all
the information, whether registered or not, could be sent to the SIT. It was
bravado. But it has served the purpose of justice. The whole matter,
including unregistered FIRs, is before the Raghavan tribunal. Modi is now in
the dock. He would have to disprove his involvement before the SIT. Many
skeletons are bound to come out of the closet. Since then many retired
police officials have admitted the involvement of the government.

The immediate reaction of Modi has been that of silence. The BJP’s former
foreign minister, Yashwant Sinha, in a TV interview, did not react to the
Supreme Court’s order but praised Modi for his developmental work in the
state. One cannot expect anything else. The party’s youthful brigade is at a
loss to make comments because it has been vying with one another in its
projection of Modi as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate after L.K.
Advani. They are all well-read, sensible persons. But their blind faith in
Modi makes one wonder.

How can they or, for that matter, any sensible person think of putting Modi
in any responsible position when there are charges of his involvement in the
killing and the looting of Muslims in Gujarat? Whatever the BJP thinking,
India is a pluralistic country, however, wanting in many ways. The party
does not appreciate the secular temperament of the people.

But when the upper-middle class or the corporate leaders — there was a
meeting of top industrialists in Ahmedabad to back Modi — throw to the wind
the basic values of pluralism on which India’s democratic structure stands,
they prefer pelf to principle. Sitting in their air-conditioned offices,
they do not know how the mind of the nation ticks. Modi may be an efficient
administrator but he has also the blood of at least 4,000 Muslims on his
hands. To the unthinking corporate leaders, I can say only one thing:
forgive them Lord for they know not what they are doing.

I was a Rajya Sabha member when the Gujarat carnage took place in 2002. It
was devastating news. Nobody could find any reason to explain Modi’s role.
The BJP criticised him in private, but dared not say anything in public lest
the party should take disciplinary action. Before Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee visited Ahmedabad for the first time after the carnage, I told him
that he should have dismissed Modi straightaway.

After not having done so, I said, Vajpayee should take Modi to task before
the public whenever he visited the refugee camps and felt relieved when he
did so. He lost his temper in many places and admonished Modi.

But the youthful brigade of the BJP which travelled with him from Ahmedabad
to Goa brainwashed him so much that Vajpayee attacked Islam at the meeting
he addressed. He hardly talked about the pitiable conditions in the camps he
had seen or the tales of murder and rape he had heard. His entire speech was
to run down Islam. It seemed that the party had taken over the prime
minister, whatever his feelings or impressions.

Till today, the BJP has not apologised for the killings in Gujarat. The
Congress has behaved better. It has not only apologised for the killing of
3,000 Sikhs in Delhi in broad daylight in 1984, but has also denied party
tickets in the Lok Sabha elections to both Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar,
reportedly involved in the riots which took place at that time. The party
has given rehabilitation grants to the uprooted and to the victims of 1984.
The Modi government has not given even a single rupee to any Muslim for
rehabilitation.

Whether the probe against Modi will affect polling in the current election
is the question being asked increasingly. There is no doubt that the Supreme
Court’s order will dent the BJP’s standing. However, it is difficult to
assess the loss in terms of votes. Yet the damage to the party’s image will
be immense. Other political parties have gone to town to attack the party.
The tragedy is that neither Modi nor the BJP is willing to make amends. They
should realise that Gujarat, like the demolition of the Babri mosque, is a
millstone around their neck. They have to carry it for years to come.

The writer is a leading journalist based in Delhi.


III.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main41.asp?filename=Ws090509Ram_Puniyani.asp


*Gujarat Carnage-Role of Narendra Modi*

*Ram Puniyani*


In the worst ever communal carnage of this century, the post Godhra Gujarat
violence, over 2000 innocents lost their lives. Most of the survivors not
only lost their livelihood and shelter but also have been degraded to the
status of second class citizens. Most of the perpetrators of violence, have
not only gone scot-free; many of them had an upward political mobility. The
efforts of the victims and human rights activists had yielded very few
results and majority of the victims are grieving and living with the scars
of their losses. In the whole process, the direction of Apex court to the
Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the role of Modi, his cabinet
colleagues and other top functionaries of state and those involved in
violence, has come as a sigh of hope. The court gave the direction (April
27, 2002) in response to appeal by Jakia Ahsan Jafri, the widow of slain
Congress MP, Ahsan Jafri. One complements the courage and doggedness of
Jakia Jafri for all her efforts.



 This comes in the backdrop of the arrest of Maya Kodnani, Modi’s cabinet
colleague who instigated and led the carnage in Naroda Patia. Just to
recall, Ahsan Jafri ex Congress MP had made frantic calls to all those
concerned but the police help was not forthcoming to save him from the mob
assembled by the VHP-Bajrang Dal and others, the lead players in Gujarat
carnage. So far the official inquiry committees have not pointed its finger
on the role of Modi, while the Human Rights Commission report (2002) pointed
out that state machinery failed to protect the innocent people. Most of the
citizen’s inquiry committees by human rights activists have pointed out
about the role of state administration and Modi in particular in the
violence. In the major such report of ‘Citizens tribunal’ headed by retired
Justice Krishna Ayer and Justice P.B.Sawant, (Crime against Humanity), a
Minister in Modi’s Government Haren Pandya gave description of the meeting
which Modi had called on the evening of Godhra train accident. As per Pandya
Modi instructed all the top state officials to let the Hindu anger not be
curtailed in the aftermath of Godhra. Modi popularized the thesis that
Godhra train was burnt in a pre planned manner by the international
terrorism, in collusion with the ISI and local Muslims. Infamously, he
announced that every action has an opposite reaction, meaning that now
Hindus will take revenge and state should sit back and let the opposite
reaction take its course.



 Same Harem Pandya was murdered later and his father stated that his murder
had taken place on the instance of Modi. While the carnage was on, the
Central government, NDA led by BJP, kept watching and barring some stray
noises by PM Vajpayee and Home Minister Advani, the carnage went on spilling
the rivers of blood. Despite Modi’s claim that he controlled the violence in
72 hours, it took months for the din to settle. Modi’s acts of omission were
more than obvious. Now as matters stand our legal system has lots of
loopholes and most of the guilty are not punished. On the contrary, in the
case of Gujarat, Modi ‘succeeded’ in splitting the Gujarat society along
religious lines, and he took advantage of the communal divide by riding back
to power and strengthened his vice like grip on the administration and state
as a whole. And now, In Gujarat the matters are not seen as guilty versus
innocents, they are seen as Hindu versus Muslim.



 While on one hand Modi is being projected as the future Prime minister of
India, not only by many captains of industry but also by the party
sustaining on the fodder of communal divide, the BJP. While most of the
people with plural values and concern for national integration are welcoming
the direction of Apex court, the others doing electoral calculations point
out that this investigation will enhance the standing of Modi. BJP spokesman
also pointed out that this direction of Apex court will be helpful to the
BJP in electoral arena. The nation is standing on a tragic point where the
communal polarization brought in by communal violence and anti-minority
propaganda has resulted in the loss of sensitivity of a section of society
towards the miseries and travails of large part of our own country, our own
nation.



 In response to court directive, Modi asserted that he is ready to go to
jail. This assertion is the outcome of his knowledge that in the polarzed
state he will benefit despite his ciminal acts. The observation so far has
been that Modi has shown no remorse for what happened in Gujarat, forget
apologizing for the same. The path to power for the practitioners of
divisive politics is through the rivers of blood, and they know it.

 So should we press for justice or fall in the trap of electoral arithmetic?
The point is if we loose our basic human morality, if we compromise on the
issue of rule of law, what is the worth of values of Constitution? Tragedy
is not that the nation is knowing the guilt of the ilk of Modi and is
watching helplessly, the tragedy is that our justice delivery system has
been eroded from bottom upwards, where justice is sacrificed at the drop of
a hat. The communal mind set cultivated by divisive politics, the large
section of state machinery being guided by considerations other than the
values of constitution is a matter of deep concern.



 It is because of this total communalization of state apparatus that the
Supreme Court had to reprimand Modi, time and over again. It is because of
this that the major cases were shifted out from Gujarat. It is the same
place where Zahira Sheikh changed her versions times and over again, lured
by the lucre offered to her by BJP workers.

 Modi bloating his chest while sitting over the corpses of thousands, is a
symptom of deeper rot which has set in the society. By now first the cases
are not investigated properly due to communal considerations, then when the
reports nail the culprits, many of them are not touched for political
considerations. Rather than having remorse and anguish on what happened to
say that this Apex court direction will benefit BJP, is the most immoral and
base statement which only heartless inhuman characters can make.


Peace Is Doable

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