May 5^th, 2002.

 

               Headlines:

 

·       BJP youth wing to hold rally in Modi's defence(Times Of India)

·       NRIS give clean chit to Modi(Times Of India)

·        Report on Godhra shocks Advani (Times Of India)

·       A day after Gill's posting, all's not well in Gujarat(Times Of India)

·       7 killed in fresh violence in Ahmedabad(www.rediff.com)

·       Modi behind Gujarat riots, alleges Digvijay(www.rediff.com)

 

          Opinions:

 

·       From 1992 to 2002 (By Vidya Subhramaniam, Times Of India)

·       What is new about George?(By M.J.Akbar, Deccan Chronicle)

·       What’s new about rape, Mr Fernandes?(Decccan Chronicle)
 

NEWS HEADLINES

 

 

BJP youth wing to hold rally in Modi's defence

PTI [ SUNDAY, MAY 05, 2002 12:09:00 PM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=8937590

 NEW DELHI: Top BJP leaders including senior Cabinet ministers will
address a youth rally in the capital on Monday to "expose" the
allegations levelled by the Congress and other political parties that
the state Government had "targeted" Muslims in Gujarat.


Over 10,000 activists of the party's youth wing, the Bharatiya Janata
Yuva Morcha (BJYM) will participatein the rally called 'Chhadam
Dharma Nirpekshta Virdodhi Pradarshan' (anti-pseudo secularism
rally), its spokesman Sidharth Nath Singh said.


"The purpose of the rally is to expose the pseudo secular parties
through facts and figures of past communal riots in the country
mostly under the Congress regime in various states," he said.


Singh said the meeting was also aimed at "highlighting and bringing
out the truth" behind the Godhra incident.


"The role of Congress Corporators in the Godhra carnage will be
highlighted," he said, adding BJYM Chief and MP Shivraj Singh Chauhan
would also address the rally.


Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.

NRIS give clean chit to Modi
PTI [ SUNDAY, MAY 05, 2002 9:14:01 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=8938585

NEW YORK: The United States based Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) has
come out in support of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi claiming
he is engaged in restoring law and order and on his orders, the
police has saved the lives of hundreds of Muslims.


In a statement, the organisation's Vice President Rajesh Shukla
attacked Modi's critics, saying they were just out to "malign" him
and tarnish India's name.


Claiming that the hands of Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI,
were evident in the Godhra "carnage" which started off the riots,
Shukla said, Modi is determined to stamp out the "jihadi forces" that
collaborated with the ISI.


"This has unnerved the collaborators of terrorists. The campaign of
vilification and vitriolic attacks on indomitable Chief Minister
should be viewed in that perspective," he added.


Expressing anguish at what he claimed was biased and unjustified
coverage of the Gujarat riots Shukla said, "It is preposterous to
blame police officials for dereliction of duty. They deserve credit
for demonstrating unparalleled chivalry under perilous conditions in
controlling the riots and did very commendable job."

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved

Report on Godhra shocks Advani
BISHESHWAR MISHRA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, MAY 04, 2002 11:38:02 PM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=8899298
 
PORT BLAIR: Union home minister L K Advani on Friday expressed his
shock at the fact that the agencies probing the Godhra tragedy had
been quoted as saying the incident was not pre-planned. Though a
number of newspapers, including this one, have quoted investigating
officers from the Gujarat police, Railway Protection Force and others
to similar effect, Advani was reacting to a report on a private TV
channel broadcast Friday.


Asked for his comment, he said, ``I am myself surprised. I cannot
comment right now since the investigation is still on.'' While the
fact that the investigation was on had not deterred the home minister
from commenting on the `planned' nature of the train tragedy earlier,
he told reporters here that he would speak to Gujarat chief minister
Narendra Modi to clarify matters before commenting further.


The home minister arrived here Saturday for the ceremony to rename
Port Blair airport as Veer Savarkar Airport. Soon after, an emotional
Advani broke down briefly while meeting family members of the
renowned Hindutva icon Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Advani said the
torturous 10 years spent by Savarkar in the Andaman Nicobar island's
horrific Cellular Jail during his struggle for India's
freedom ``would be an inspiration for the younger generation of the
country''. ``It is unfortunate that ruling parties have not done
justice to several freedom fighters of the country,'' he said.


``I am against this kind of discrimination. One may not agree with
the views of certain leaders. But one surely cannot ignore their
contribution to the building of the nation,'' he said and cited as an
example the controversial RSS ideologue K B Hedgewar. ``I consider
some Marxist thinkers like E M S Namboodiripad as great contributors
to India's cause and well-being in their own way.'' Advani dwelt at
length on how he idolised Savarkar from his youth after he read his
The First War of Indian Independence in 1942. He said the British had
dubbed that uprising a ``mutiny''.


He confessed that it was in Savarkar's writings that he had come
across the ``much maligned word Hindutva''. He said that all those
who keep talking about the courts' interpretation of issues must know
that the Supreme Court itself had observed in a judgment that
Hindutva is not a religion but a way of life, a culture.


Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.

A day after Gill's posting, all's not well in Gujarat
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SUNDAY, MAY 05, 2002 9:25:40 PM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=8989361

 AHMEDABAD: After a lull Ahmedabad saw a comeback of arsonists and
rioters on Sunday. Seven people were killed in violence reported from
various parts of the city.


The police control room, however, maintained the toll was three.


The violence started after three days of peace and a day after Chief
Minister Narendra Modi appointed 'supercop' K P S Gill as his
security adviser.


Gill is learnt to have spent the entire day at the CRPF guest house
in Chiloda after "some meetings" in Gandhinagar. He was at the guest
house till 6 pm before he dashed to the Circuit House annexe to meet
Modi.


No police officers were present at this meeting, attended by state
Health Minister Ashok Bhatt and principal secretary to the CM, Anil
Mukim. Gill left for Delhi later in the evening to apprise the Centre
of the situation.


Rioters went on the rampage in the Shahpur, Madhavpura and Dani Limda
areas where the police opened fire to disperse mobs.


A two-year old boy was killed in a bomb blast at Behrampura. One
person was stabbed to death and another was burnt alive in separate
incidents. The boy had sustained severe head injuries and succumbed
to his injuries after he was brought to the hospital.


One more person succumbed to stab wounds in the same area, while
another is said to have died of shell injuries. Unconfirmed reports
said two persons were burnt alive.


Indefinite curfew was re-imposed in the Shahpur and the Dani Limda
areas soon after.


40 persons were injured in the rioting and police firing on mobs.
Police sources said 8 persons have been injured in police firing and
the rest sustained splinter injuries from the crude bombs.


Some of the injured persons are is said to be critical condition. The
injured have been admitted to L G Hospital. Hospital sources said of
the critically injured, two had suffered gun-shots from personal
weapons.


Rioters torched the scrap market at Parikshitlalnagar in Behrampura
apart from eight shops and houses from which they dragged all the
furniture out and made a bonfire of it.


Eye-witnesses said it happened all of a sudden around 1.15 pm and
fire engines too were prevented from entering the area. According to
fire brigade sources, the scrap-yard fire turned into a massive blaze
by the time the fire-fighters reached.


Fire tenders were stoned when they tried to make their way in. At the
Shah-e-Alam tol naka and Piraman naka char rasta rioters burnt some
shops and resorted to stone-throwing.


The area around Parikshitlalnagar resounded with the sound of crude
bombs, tear gas shells and bullets as tension gripped the city.


Curfew was imposed in Shahpur after mobs got out on the streets in
the Dilli Chakla area and indulged in stone throwing, said Additional
Commissioner of Police Keshav Kumar.


Earlier in the afternoon, trouble broke out in the Dhobhi ghat area
of Madhavpura where mobs gathered and resorted to stone-throwing.
Police opened fire to disperse them, but no injuries were confirmed.


Curfew relaxation in Vadodara passed off peacefully barring isolated
incidents, which the police claimed were not communal in nature. The
situation in the city remained under control despite the incidents
and the relaxation was not withdrawn.


Police sources said one person was stabbed and a State Reserve Police
jawan was attacked during the curfew relaxation period. Both suffered
minor injuries.


According to the police, an unidentified person attacked a rickshaw
driver in the Panigate area. The victim said the man stabbed him in
the chest when he refused to take him in the vehicle.


The SRP jawan, Devidas Tiwari, was attacked near the Saibaba temple
in Navapura area. The incident occurred when the jawan intervened as
the accused, one Bansi Kahar, was chasing a woman and abusing her.


Sources said that Kahar was a headstrong element in the area and had
several cases registered against him. He had been booked twice under
the Prevention of Antisocial Activities Act.


Curfew was relaxed in the city from 8 am to 7 pm. The police also
withdrew the ban on pillion riding on two-wheelers for the same
period.


Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved

7 killed in fresh violence in Ahmedabad
rediff.com,
May 05, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/05train3.htm


At least seven persons were killed and 40 injured in a
fresh outbreak of violence in parts of Ahmedabad on
Sunday afternoon even as 'supercop' Kanwar Pal Singh
Gill, who took over as security adviser to Gujarat
Chief Minister Narendra Modi, suggested that Hindu and
Muslim leaders engage in a dialogue to help restore
peace.
One person was killed and at least 12 others were
injured when police opened fire on a rampaging mob in
Danilimda locality on Sunday afternoon where two
persons were also stabbed to death and one died on
being hit by a tear-gas shell lobbed by the police.

Two persons were burnt alive in Bhulabhai Park in the
Kagdapith police station limits while a third met with
a similar fate in Maninagar area, police sources said.


Danilimda and Shahpur witnessed large-scale violence
with mobs setting shops on fire and pelting stones at
houses.

Of the 38 persons injured, at least nine had bullet
injuries. Three of the injured are undergoing
treatment in the civil hospital while the rest are in
other hospitals, police said, adding that they
belonged to Danilimda, Madhavpura, Shahpur, Karanj and
Dudeshwar areas.

Curfew was imposed in Shahpur and Danilimda.

A jawan of the Gujarat Armed Police was injured in
stone-throwing in Shahpur locality while two men from
Dudheswar and Mirzapur area suffered stab injuries.
There were also reports of mobs setting shops and
houses on fire at Behrampura.

Police sources said other parts of the state remained
peaceful. Gill visited some other riot-hit parts of
the city, including Naroda and Patia, to assess the
situation.

Curfew restrictions will be relaxed for about 10 hours
on Monday in Gomtipur, Kalupur, Vejalpur, Saherkotda,
Rakhial, Bapunagar and Dariapur areas.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting
in Ahmedabad on Sunday to review the law-and-order
situation in parts of the state.

PTI

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved.

Modi behind Gujarat riots, alleges Digvijay
rediff.com,
May 05, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/05train5.htm
 
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh accused
his counterpart in neighbouring Gujarat, Narendra
Modi, on Sunday of being behind the violence in that
state.
Addressing a conference of businessmen at Indore's
Khalsa College, he cited the example of Kavat police
station on Gujarat's border with Madhya Pradesh, where
the station in-charge was transferred because he did
not allow riots by dealing firmly with miscreants for
a few days after the Godhra carnage. "The moment he
was transferred, riots broke out in the area," Singh
said.

He recalled former Madhya Pradesh chief minister D P
Mishra's statement that riots take place only when the
ruling establishment wishes them to. Otherwise it is
not possible for a few people to take the government
for a ride.

Singh said, "On the one hand Gujarat was burning and
on the other all attempts made by the anti-social
elements in Gujarat to spread Godhra's after-effects
in Madhya Pradesh's Jhabua district bordering the
troubled state were crushed."

He said the police in Jhabua opened fire on the
troublemakers for six days and forced them to remain
in Gujarat.

PTI

Copyright 2002 rediff.com. All rights reserved.

OPINIONS

 

From 1992 to 2002
VIDYA SUBRAHMANIAM [ MONDAY, MAY 06, 2002 12:19:27 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=8988928

GUJARAT is a blot. Gujarat is a blessing. The violence
in Narendra Modi’s state is a disgrace. Mr Modi
himself is a hero.


Gujarat has returned to normal in 72 hours. Gujarat is
a case of internal disturbance needing Central
intervention under Article 355. Gujarat is well, thank
you. The BJP has swung between these extremes with the
ease of a chameleon.


Atal Behari Vajpayee hangs his head in shame in
Ahmedabad, but justifies the shame in Goa. Kisne
lagayee aag? he asks, making a direct co-relation
between Godhra and the subsequent anti-Muslim pogrom.
L K Advani condemns the idea of ‘revenge killings’,
but accepts the ‘action-reaction’ explanation offered
by Mr Modi and Mr Vajpayee. He also uses Gujarat’s
backdrop of death and desolation to re-assert the core
ideology of his party. Uma Bharati calls the Gujarat
outrage a kalank ka dhabba, but backs to the hilt the
man who presided over that kalank. The BJP’s honorary
member, George Fernandes, bravely walks the
violence-ravaged streets of Ahmedabad and laments that
there are no more “tall leaders” left, only to lead a
peace march with Mr Modi, whom he has implicitly
attacked, whose complicity in the violence is the
subject matter of many an inquiry. Mr Fernandes goes
on to make a speech in Parliament, unparalleled for
its crudity and insulting in the extreme to Gujarat’s
grievously injured women victims.


In the Lok Sabha, the BJP stoutly defends Narendra
Modi. In a minority in the Rajya Sabha, it agrees to a
motion that is virtually an admission that the
constitutional machinery in Mr Modi’s Gujarat has
broken down. Yet, outside the House, Mr Vajpayee says
Gujarat is doing well.


Shame. Pride. So, which is the real BJP? The one that
is shamefaced? Or the one that salutes Mr Modi as a
hero, stokes extremist passions and hails the party’s
return to Hindutva? Obviously it is the latter. The
shame is brought about by political compulsions —
media pressure, lack of numbers in the Rajya Sabha and
condemnation by the National Human Rights Commission,
numerous fact-finding groups, international missions,
and most of all, by the BJP’s own allies.


The pride is natural pride, innate to the sectarian
character of the sangh parivar. That the BJP chose Ms
Bharati, the party’s rabble-rousing Hindutva face, to
open the debate in the Lok Sabha is telling enough.
That it allowed Mr Fernandes to cross the limits of
parliamentary decency only proves the point. It is
easy to see why Mr Fernandes stooped so low. His
unconscionable references to rape and other
unforgivable horrors were meant to strike a chord
among those supposedly re-discovering their
anti-Muslim instincts. True, Mr Fernandes was sharply
rebuked by Mr Advani. But by then Mr Fernandes had
said all there was to say. As he was no doubt meant
to.


The BJP has invested heavily in defending Mr Modi —
against disapproval from all quarters — and not
without reason. Narendra Modi has rekindled the
passions that L K Advani had aroused with his Ram rath
yatra. The parallels between Gujarat 2002 and the
divisive climate following the rath yatra are
striking. Millions of Hindus across the country
cheered Mr Advani as he boarded his rath and declared,
“I’m proud to be a Hindu”. The raw appeal of that
statement electrified listeners and brought closet
saffronites out into the open. Drawing room
conversations were woven around the ‘us and them’
theme. People known for their civility and genteelness
were heard echoing the words of Mr Advani. What was
wrong was not that they had expressed pride in their
Hinduness, but that their Hinduness had been shaped by
the BJP brand of militant Hindutva, with its reliance
on Muslim- bashing and hatred of the ‘other’.


For further comparison, move on to the violent climax
on December 6, 1992. Back then we saw the same ‘shame
and pride’ routine we see now. First the pride. Uma
Bharati: “It is the most blissful day of my entire
life. I keep pinching myself to see if I am awake”.
Murli Manohar Joshi: “The mosque is a sign of slavery.
An independent India won’t accept it”. Kalyan Singh:
“They should arrest me at once because it is I who
fulfilled one of my party’s major objectives”. Party
MPs in the Lok Sabha: “Abhi to yeh jhanki hai, Kashi,
Mathura baki hai”. Then the shame. In a signed
article, Mr Advani claimed that December 6, 1992 was
the saddest day in his life. Atal Behari Vajpayee
dedicated a mournful poem to the dead mosque, and told
his party he wanted to quit. Of course, he didn’t. Nor
did the demolition stop Mr Advani in his tracks. His
campaign grew in vigour and he continued to maintain,
as he does to this day, that while the manner of the
masjid’s going was wrong, the ideology behind it was
right. Exactly what he is saying now. That while the
violence in Gujarat is wrong, the BJP need not be
apologetic about its ideological moorings.


Why does Mr Advani invoke ideology when Gujarat is
afire? Just what is the connection between the
destruction of a masjid and the BJP’s ideological
moorings? What is the connection between the targeted
violence against one community and the BJP’s
ideological moorings? Why is it that the BJP’s
ideology surfaces only in the context of an injury
done to the Muslims? In 1992, the target was a mosque
that had got intertwined with the identity of the
Muslims. Today, the target is the physical well-being
of the Muslims.


If Mr Modi’s elevation to iconic status underscores
anything, it is that the BJP’s ideological highs
coincide, not with good governance, but with sectarian
targeting. Pre-Godhra, successive electoral routs had
pushed party morale to an all-time low. In Gujarat
itself, BJP candidates had lost all the by-elections,
save Mr Modi, who scored an unspectacular victory. So,
what explains the sudden jubilation among party
cadres? What precisely has the newly anointed chhote
sarkar done that his supporters are conducting pujas
for him? What is the ‘Modi effect’, as one magazine
gushingly put it? Why is the BJP raring to go to polls
in Gujarat?


Only two events happened between Mr Modi’s modest
February 24 victory and his subsequent promotion to
demigod. One was Godhra, the second was the
retaliatory pogrom. Godhra was an attack on Hindus
that Mr Modi didn’t prevent. That should have made him
villain, not hero. That leaves the anti-Muslim pogrom.


Is this what drives the BJP to ecstatic heights? Is
this the future that awaits India?

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited

What is new about George?
Byline by M J Akbar
Deccan Chronicle,
May 05, 2002.

http://www.deccan.com/columnists/col1.shtml
 
You can take some people out of boarding school, but
you can’t take the boarding school out of some people.
Kamal Nath’s little sideshow during the debate on
Gujarat in the Lok Sabha, when he passed on gum or a
clove or heaven knows what to his leader Sonia Gandhi,
had all the sophistication of a private giggle during
chapel.

However, mastication is not a crime. What was
irritating about the incident is that it distracted
attention from a singular fact of that long night in
Parliament.

Television and newspapers should have associated
George Fernandes with just one thing during this
debate, and that was not chewing gum.

It was a sentence that must stand out as the most
revealing photograph of the mind of a man who has
turned into a poseur, a fighter who has become a
dwarf, and an idealist who has become a fraud.

That sentence is stark. It is brutal. And it is
confirmation of a deep political and intellectual
corruption that has taken over what once used to be a
heart.

The five words that George Fernandes uttered will
haunt his conscience, if he has one left: What is new
about rape?

Every womb is new about rape, George Fernandes.
Every woman is new about rape, George Fernandes.
Every scream is new about rape, George Fernandes.
Every death is new about rape, George Fernandes.
Every child who smelt burnt flesh is new about rape,
George Fernandes.

George Fernandes began his career training to become a
priest. He left the frock but for long years in
politics he retained that commitment to morality that
must have taken him towards the church to begin with.

Today he reminds one of a saying of the Prophet
Muhammad (I quote from memory): “The nearer you are to
government, the further you are from God.”

The explanations — and they only came days later,
couched in cliché — do not wash. There is no
explanation for the vulgarity and insensitivity of
such a statement, precedence being the least of them.

To his credit L K Advani understood this instantly,
and sought to distance himself and presumably his
government from the hectoring, senseless statement
made by Fernandes through an intervention after the
infamous speech.

But this is not the kind of sentence that can be
forgotten after a minor rap on the knuckles. It
echoes. For it accurately reflects the attitude of
authority to the colossal tragedies that have occurred
in Gujarat.

That sentence is a justification for administrative
indifference and bifocal morality. It also proves the
old adage that when you start to defend a lie, you end
up — inadvertently — telling the truth. Good criminal
lawyers know this all too well. That sentence is a
blinding flash of light that has exposed much more
than the decay of George Fernandes.

Gujarat has already given us a new name for Narendra
Modi: Narendra ‘Milosevic’ Modi. George Fernandes will
henceforth be known as George ‘Rape’ Fernandes.

There is nothing new about governments telling lies to
cover up rape; nothing new anywhere in the world. I am
engrossed at the moment in a superb book written by an
old friend Phillip Knightley, The First Casualty: The
war correspondent as hero and myth-maker from the
Crimea to Kosovo.

The title originates in a comment made by an American
senator, Hiram Johnson, in 1917, that the first
casualty, when war comes, is the truth.

It details how precisely government after government,
across the world, used every mechanism of power (and
whipped-up sentiment can be as much a weapon of power
as any other) to suppress facts, from the Crimean war
to the Americans in Vietnam and Iraq, taking in world
wars, China, Russia, Korea and Algeria along the way.

The book is the story of journalists being forced by
circumstances, or sometimes ideology, to participate
in this cover-up; but it is also the story of an Edgar
Snow who both reported and understood the consequences
of the Japanese rape of Nanking, “when 300,000 Chinese
civilians were murdered by Japanese soldiers in an
orgy of rape and plunder”.

History has never seen such rape and plunder as it
witnessed across Asia, Europe and Africa in the first
50 years of the last century. Even the Mongols of
Chengiz Khan and Hulegu might have shuddered at what
happened between Germany and the Soviet Union and
Japan and China.

We Indians were fortunate in that the Second World War
stopped at the Burmese door in the east and never
reached Iran and Afghanistan to our west. But we made
our evil contribution to this history of horror with
our savage conflicts during the partition of India.

The justification for George Fernandes’ indifference
can go as far back as recorded time and as near as the
Congress hypocrisy that inflamed him more than
Narendra Modi’s proven culpability.

Maybe there were generals and colonels on those Second
World War battlefields of central Europe who did
shrug, what is new about rape? Was George Fernandes
displaying the mentality of a serving general on the
battlefields of the communal conflicts of India, in
which case his place by the side of Narendra
‘Milosevic’ Modi is secure.

But these generals will not have one comfort, that of
censorship. The censorship policy of any army was well
summed by an American censor who said that he would
rather not tell the people anything until the war was
over and then tell them who had won.

India’s media, fortunately, is not going to be
cooperative. The horrors that interfere with our
sanity will be reported, as will be the state of
George Fernandes’ mind.

Perhaps, and I cannot use a word with more certainty,
that Fernandes statement on rape upset the applecart
of moderation that the BJP has been selling in the
last few days.

The early callousness, best exemplified by Narendra
Modi himself, has given way to a let’s-heal-together
rhetoric and peace marches where the one man who looks
completely out of sorts is Modi himself.

The relentless pursuit of the story by the media, the
direct sallies of Sonia Gandhi, and the unwillingness
of the world to ignore such blatant inhumanity has had
its cumulative effect.

The contortion became official when the Gujarat debate
shifted to the Rajya Sabha.

The BJP declared itself its own opposition, joined the
demand to exercise Article 355 in Gujarat and —
incidentally or coincidentally? — sent K P S Gill to
start the long effort towards the restoration of law
and perhaps also some order.

It was an appointment two months too late, but better
late than never. Can the BJP think tank discover any
rationale for the party’s existence other than the
demonisation of Indian Muslims? That is the crux of
its dilemma, and the challenge before it as well.

Much as they might want to believe it, the Modis did
not bring the BJP to power; and they will not be able
to retain the power that others have handed to them.
Hatred is combustible, but it also burns itself out
very quickly, particularly if it is not refuelled
constantly.

It also leaves regret where it once resided, except in
those committed to hatred as a philosophy or a belief.
The dribble has started on the Modi boom; and if the
Gujarat elections are held early next year, as seems
probable, the BJP might discover that Modi’s blood
bank of votes is bankrupt.

How long will the BJP keep asking Indian Muslims to
prove that they are Indians as well as Muslims?
Obviously the hangover of partition will continue to
be a dull pain; and there will be some Muslim
“leaders” who are hysterical, and others who indulge
in the rhetoric of hatred. But the broad mass of
Indian Muslims has never been lured by the politics of
extremism.

Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida organisation had recruits
from all over the world, including Bangladesh,
South-east Asia and America! But there were no Indian
Muslims in the organisation.

We have faced our battles in Kashmir, and armed
recruits to the cause of Kashmiri separation have come
from Pakistan, Afghanistan and even occasionally the
Arab world. But non-Kashmiri Indian Muslims never
joined that cause.

They do not want India to suffer another wrench, for
this is their country as much as anyone else’s. They
are indignant when confronted with allegations from
the past. They are irritated when asked to produce
certificates of loyalty. And they are devastated when
a Gujarat occurs.

This has become a story without an end. For years —
since that harsh winter of 1992 and 1993 — this
monster slept, so that we became complacent. After a
decade it woke up and another generation of children
saw life tortured to death before their eyes.

That is what is new about rape, George Fernandes.

Copyright 2002 Deccan Chronicle. All rights reserved.

What’s new about rape, Mr Fernandes?
Deccan Chronicle,
May 05, 2002.

http://www.deccan.com/columnists/col2.shtml

 I demand his resignation
Jayanthi Natarajan, TMC leader

I strongly condemn the atrocious and barbaric
statement made by the Defence Minister during the
Parliament debate on Gujarat that “all this hue and
cry being raised by relating such stories as if it is
for the first time in this country a mother has been
killed and her foetus taken out or a daughter raped
before her mother.”

Fernandes trivialised the untold agony of the
suffering women. His callous statement is worse than
rape itself.

I call upon all right-thinking people to write to the
President to dismiss him from his post and to grant
permission for prosecuting him in a court of law.


Mere apology will not do
Shobhaa Dé, writer

His outrageous statements are beyond shocking. They
are irresponsible, insensitive and worse, irrevocable.
The damage done to the women of our country can never
be undone. He owes the victims more than a mere
apology.

No penance that I can think of at this point is
penance enough. Fernandes has compounded the original
trauma and insulted all those who suffered a terrible
tragedy over the last two months in Gujarat.


George Fernandes is a bhand
Laloo Prasad Yadav, RJD pesident

George Fernandes is a bhand (derisive colloquial term
for a lower order of multi-purpose musicians) of the
Raj Darbar who will do anything and stoop to any level
to please his masters in the BJP. He is a fascist and
an insult to humanity.

Our 12 and 13-year-old daughters were raped in the
presence of their mothers by Modi’s goons. They tore
open wombs and pulled out unborn children from dying
mothers and threw the two together into the fire and
this man says there is nothing new in this.

He acted more loyal than the king by standing in the
Lok Sabha and dismissing such heinous crimes so
lightly that even the Prime Minister and Home Minister
had to rise and express shock at George’s cavalier
attitude towards women.

By saying this he has exposed himself to his other
friends who thought of him as a genuine champion of
human rights and women’s cause.


He shocked his friends and foes
S Jaipal Reddy, AICC spokesperson

George Fernan-des displayed shocking callousness
regarding atrocities on women in Gujarat. He tried to
condone the unspeakable crimes (committed) against
women on the ground that such atrocities were
committed in the past.

This kind of justification coming as it did from a
person like George Fernandes shocked both friends and
foes alike. Women, irrespective of political or
ideological persuasion, are deeply upset over this
attitude of Fernandes.

I think he should seek an unqualified public apology
from the women of this country.


I thought you are a socialist
D P Yadav, deputy leader of JD(U) in Parliament

He is a veteran socialist leader. But it was shocking
to hear the way he dismissed rapes and crimes against
women as some everyday affair in our country. He is
forgetting that those politicians who were named in
the 1984 riots had to pay a heavy price for their
sins. Where are H K L Bhagat and Sajjan Kumar today?

All those who stood with them and supported such acts
had to undergo many public trials.

He should realise that whoever commits a crime against
helpless people has to suffer one day. And the day may
not be far off when he too may have to pay for his
sins.


He endorsed Gujarat CM
Mehbooba Mufti, J&K Peoples’ Democratic Party

I am speechless. I couldn’t believe it. The country’s
Defence Minister tried to justify the rape of innocent
women unabashedly. Is it normal if a pregnant woman’s
stomach is slit and a daughter is raped in front of
her mother?

Fernandes has only endorsed Narendra Modi. In J&K, the
bad element within the security forces like those
involved in the rape of a Muslim Gujjar girl near
Pahalgam will now feel animated.


Do not misinterpret
Madan Lal Khurana, senior BJP leader

The statement given by George Fernandes on the Gujarat
issue was misinterpreted by political leaders and the
media. Fernandes’ statement was twisted by the
Opposition parties to get political mileage. The Prime
Minister later clarified his statement also.

Copyright 2002 Deccan Chronicle. All rights reserved.