Shame in Gujarat and India's Honour by Mustafa Khan

Filled with pride Narendra Modi’s much vaunted five crore people of Gujarat and like minded elsewhere did not experience painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behaviour during the pogroms of 2002. Or else, the then Prime Minister of India AB Vajpayee did not use that dictionary meaning of shame is also not clear because neither his Chief Minister in Gujarat nor did his own Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, LK Advani, feel any such thing. Nor do they seem to feel today, either. Even today the latter glorifies the former as the best chief minister that Gujarat got.
To uphold India’s honour is to appeal to its high principled commitments in the Constitution, a monumental document worthy of bowing to it in reverence and, more, observing its articles in letter and spirit in practical administration of the country. Concerned Citizens Tribunal in its report on the carnage in Gujarat called Crime Against Humanity did just that. Prepared by Justice V R Krishna Iyer, Justice P.B.Samant, Justice Hosbet Suresh, Advocate K.G.Kannabiran, Ms Aruna Roy, Dr K.S. Subramanian, Prof Ghanshyam Shah and Prof Tanika Sarkar it strove in the spirit of right to information which is a fundamental human freedom, to put the finger on the pulse that the health of any society lies not in denials and half-truths when grave injustices have occurred, but in courageously admitting to them, righting those wrongs with justice and then reconciliation. Most of what the PM said about Gujarat was half truth and what CM and Deputy PM said was outright denial of truth. The tight control of reign ruled out admission of what happened there, and then the question of righting of wrong did not arise. The disclosure in Soharabuddin murder case is proving the point.
Ehsan Jaffri was an eyesore to Narendra Modi. He often denigrated the MP and wanted him out of his way when he toured for electioneering. That was before 2002, since then Mian Musharraf replaced the MP and our shame went right to the podium of General Assembly in the UNO. How could we stop it when the marauding crowd, despite commissioner of police Ahemdabad PC Pande’s presence in the vicinity, was playing cricket with the skulls of the hapless victims of the Gulberg society in the evening of the fateful day?
Since then Pande has been elevated as DGP of Gujarat and the Gulberg has given way to Holiday Home bungalow where Vanzara and others held petty criminals hostage until they collected hefty sums of money. This illegal detention centre is a piece of our time, outsourcing of torture with the Gujarati entrepreneurial acumen, the extraordinary rendition. The owner of the notorious bungalow of illegal detention, torture, rape and murder, Raju Jirawala, has reportedly admitted that Ishrat Jahan was also kept there before she was bumped off in a fake encounter along with three others.. Even Zahira Sheikh had “enjoyed” the hospitality of the state of Gujarat there when it extended patronage to her vis-à-vis Teesta Setalvad. Whose pride was Modi celebrating during those gaurav yatras and whose shame was orchestrated?
Sub nationalism is a challenge to nationalism. Dr Samuel Johnson has truly said that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. Vanzara committed the crimes in the name of patriotism and Modi denied that Muslims could be patriotic. Like Bush of either with us or against us- policy he left them no choice, either you vote Modi or vote Mian Musharraf.
The Constitution of India has enshrined the simple truth that those who create disaffection among the people of India pose a threat to the nation and hence guilty and liable to prosecution. Could Pandes and Vanzaras dare to bell the cat? Whose honour were they sworn to uphold and whose shame were they orchestrating? Modi: ditto.
That they were subverting the Constitutional authority is undeniable. When Chief Election Commissioner JM Lyngdoh felt that situation was not suitable for election Modi and his party were hell bent on election as they were sure of reaping a rich harvest of hatred they had sown. Nay, Modi went on repeating the full Christian name James Michael Lygdoh to carry home the point that as the Commissioner was a Christian he was against election. This kind of tactics is equivalent to the modus operandi of the encounter cops: that they received tip off from informers that a criminal was coming to town, they laid a trap, the criminal refused to surrender and opened fire at the police who returned fire, he was injured, they rushed him to hospital but he died before admission. This is simply a canard. Modi’s harping on Lyngdoh’s religion or any other person’s religion, other than his own, is another. When Ahemdabad was burning this Nero went to the bank of Sabarmati and croaked that the Hindus prayed and got rain and dared the Muslims to perform the miracle!
Adding insult to injury, Modi said about the wretched refugees in relief camps: “Relief camps are actually child making factories. Those who keep on multiplying the population should be taught a lesson”. (The Hindu, September 10, 2002) When the National Human Rights Commission asked for a copy of the speech the government of Modi said that no such tape existed. It was then that Star News telecast the same. As is their wont even the worst situation they are reputed to turn to their advantage (doesn’t matter if it flies into the face of the Constitution). Pravin Tagodia came out with VHP’s plan to distribute one lakh cassette of that notorious speech of Mehsana district of September 9, 2002. In all this there is no feeling of qualm either on the faces of Modi or Tagodia as there was no such expression on Vanzara the other day. The National Human Rights Commission is a constitutional statutory body and the Gujarat government is another.
Is not the whole world watching what is going on here? Sometimes back there was an attack on the American library in Kolkatta (Calcutta) in which several police men died. The US State Department refused to buy our argument that it was a terrorist attack. The reason was that a man had a brother who was killed in fake encounter in Gujarat. In revenge he organized the attack in Calcutta. The US State Department told India that it was a personal revenge and not a terrorist attack. Lest the same might happen again we need to do our homework well for the honour of the country.
Much like what the British court and police did. On Monday 30 April 2007 a British court sent five persons to life imprisonment for preparing to plant a bomb. Two were acquitted although one of them, Sujah Mehmood, was the brother of the main accused, Omar Khayyam. The other acquitted was Nabeel Hussein whose debit card was used to pay for storage of the fertilizer used in making the explosive device. The British police did not require any stringent laws like Pota to operate. They used the everyday criminal law of investigation and arrest and did not go for fake encounters. Neither the police there is complicit nor the judiciary.
What is the reason that we in India failed abysmally? And the reason is: money. Sohrabuddin Sheikh was an extortionist. He forced the marble traders of Rajasthan to pay for safe passage of their goods which passed through Madhya Pradesh. Some BJP trader gave “supari” to Vanzar to end the nuisance. Vanzara used Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh police to arrest Sohrabuddin and wife Kauser. Holiday Home was used for illegal detention and extra judicial killing which is what an encounter is. Vanza must have also tried to make Sohrabuddin cough up money. He has minted wealth to the tune of 150 crores by this way, not to speak of how much Daya Naik has got, what with his five star hotel in Dubai and all.