[Reader-list] Fwd: stop the award to narendra modi

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Murali

First of all you have diverted from the original topic, but I believe, as I
have since one lengthy discussion with one of my friends, that we always do
get diverted from topics to discuss other issues, and what is critical is to
analyze the arguments raised in those, while not disregarding the main topic
or its importance.

Having spoken on the subject concerned, I slightly move away to what you
have mentioned. First of all, a struggle for enhancement of freedoms of
people must focus on all aspects, and not just on one aspect. Hence,
focusing on just one Modi or one Gujarat or one Sikh riot or corruption
alone doesn't help; what is needed is a multi-pronged approach to struggle
for all kinds of injustices, which may be linked sometimes in very strong
terms with each other. This needs to be understood. For example, corruption
can play a significant role in registering false cases or not including
names of genuine culprits in the FIR's, which can play a role after communal
riots when the victims wish to get justice but are unable to do so, or
communal vendetta is launched after these riots in the name of legal action.


Hence, the struggle against  Modi at one level is not necessarily excluding
corruption, for it can and may be a part of what happened in that state post
2002. Hence, it must certainly be looked at. And on the larger issue of
money hidden in Swiss banks or elsewhere, certainly it's something which
must be looked at and nobody on this forum, I believe, would support hiding
money illegally in these banks for tax evasion purposes.

On the issue of Sikh Riots, yes they were more severe than the Gujarat
genocide, and to me they too are a genocide or state-sponsored act of
terrorism, which we usually associate with Pakistan. (I am consciously using
'we', for however much I wish to dissociate from the states, I can't, having
declared to be a citizen and even applying for passport from the state, and
I believe this is true for all of us on this forum and elsewhere).

They too should deserve justice, which is why I don't think this issue must
be forgotten, but ironically, the very same People's Union of Civil
Liberties, which you have mentioned for the Sikh Riot report, has also given
reports on how the administration dithered and police looked the other way
while mass murders were carried out, in similar fashion to what happened in
Delhi.

Nobody has agreed that Rajiv Gandhi and the killers did the right thing
then, and nobody would agree that  Modi and the killers did right this time
as well. Neither were Sikhs as a community in the holistic sense, traitors
for the action of one person, nor can Muslims be seen as a community as
traitors, even if for act of a few. Infact, at least in case of Indira
Gandhi, we can be sure that two Sikh bodyguards were responsible for it
(though there are people who link a conspiracy theory to her death). But in
case of Godhra, the truth is still not known, which is why we now have a SIT
to reinvestigate Godhra incident, after two panels have already given
diverging rationale for why and how it took place.

Please do go through the following links to find out what the
PUCL and the PUDR have to say about the violence in Gujarat by the way:

http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2002/maro_kapo_balo.pdf

http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2002/gujarat-modi.htm

http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2002/gujarat-nhrc-submission.htm

http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2002/gujarat-violence.htm

http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2002/gujarat-media.htm

http://www.pucl.org/gujarat-index.htm

On the issue of Sikh violence, here are the links:

http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2003/who-are-guilty.htm

http://www.pucl.org/reports/National/2001/communalism.htm

Hence, the fight for injustice has to be against all kinds of injustices,
not necessarily against those committed only by particular political parties
or socio-cultural organizations.

Regards

Rakesh