Gujarat seeks time to file report on riots
rediff.com,
may 15, 2002.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/15train.htm

The Gujarat government has sought further time from
the National Human Rights Commission to file its
"comprehensive" report on the communal riots in the
state, as the time given by the commission for filing
of the same ended on Wednesday.
"We have received the state government's plea seeking
2-3 days time to file their report to the commission,"
NHRC sources said.

The commission had on May 1 given two weeks' time to
the Centre and the state government to file their
responses to its preliminary comments and
recommendations.

The Centre had filed its report the same day.

The commission had observed that the reply of the
state government earlier did not respond to the
contents of the report of the commission and had
sought a more "comprehensive" response.

"A specific reply was sought to this report to enable
further consideration of the matter in view of the
allegations made, which are mentioned in that report,"
it said. PTI

Copyright (c) 2002 rediff.com

NCM satisfied with Modi’s response
Deccan Herald,
NEW DELHI, May 14 (DHNS)

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may15/n12.htm

National Commission for Minorities (NCM), which paid a
two-day visit to Gujarat to examine the situation in
the state after the communal riots, today said they
were "satisfied" with the "response" of the Narendra
Modi government to the situation.
"We are happy that Modi has conceded to many demands
made by the Muslim leaders who met him and various
senior state government officials including newly
appointed Security Advisor to Chief Minister K P S
Gill," NCM Vice-Chairman Tarlochan Singh, who led the
delegation comprising members of the Commission to the
state, told PTI here.
NCM, which brokered the meeting, the first ever
between Muslim religious leaders and Modi, has been
making efforts to ensure peace among the various
communities in the state, Mr Singh said adding it was
the Commission's third visit to Gujarat. Besides
agreeing to give time for filing fresh FIRs, the state
government has said it would undertake a survey to
ascertain the damage to properties in the violence and
NGOs would be involved in the work to ensure that it
was carried out properly, he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© Copyright, 1999 The Printers (Mysore)Ltd.

Realpolitik changes Modi
Raveen Thukral
Hindustan Times,
(Ahmedabad, May 14)

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/150502/detNAT08.asp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The apparent softening of Gujarat chief minister
Narendra Modi's stance at Monday's meeting with Muslim
leaders is believed to be the result of new political
compulsions, not an indication of a change of heart.
At the meeting, also attended by K.P.S. Gill, security
adviser to the state government, Modi announced
several measures aimed at assuaging anti-government
feeling among the minorities, and reportedly even said
sorry for the delay in making the announcement.

The riots have achieved the maximum that they could by
way of polarising the electorate along Hindu-Muslim
lines, observers here feel.

From here on, continuing violence can only have a
negative impact. Business has come to a standstill,
prices have gone through the roof and the insecure,
jittery population has plainly had enough.

Modi, therefore, must stop the rioting immediately. If
he doesn't, even Hindus would turn against the BJP.
This is something that is as clear to the chief
minister as it is to the BJP leaders in Delhi.

The question, however, is whether the vested interests
- both political and economic - will allow Modi to
act, even if he wants to.

For several of the chief minister's detractors —
chiefly Keshubhai Patel, Sureshbhai Mehta and Kashiram
Rana — any change in the situation would only bring
credit to Modi, and weaken their case for his removal.
"If the violence stops and Modi stays on, he will have
a major say in the allotment of tickets for the
Assembly election," said a Gujarat BJP leader.

"And that would mean the rise of a group of Modi
loyalists, and the eclipse of Patel, Mehta and Rana."

According to the leader, a rich, pro-Keshubhai,
anti-Modi, Patel lobby is at work against the chief
minister, pulling out all stops to ensure that he
makes no gains. "For this lobby, Modi, a
non-politician who hasn't even been a corporator ever,
is an intruder," he said — “a sort of lowbrow
constable who has suddenly, and unfairly, been made
DGP”.

There are, however, people who believe that Modi had
merely implemented the party's agenda in the state,
and, therefore, had the leadership's support.

©Hindustan Times Ltd. 1997.

Traffic jams are back, can peace be far?
MUKHERJEE
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2002 12:20:24 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=9902207

AHMEDABAD: Every time the city witnesses a period of
relative calm, the question uppermost in people's
minds is whether it is a lull before or after a storm.
Experience of the past 11 weeks has shown that peace
in the city has been short-lived. But this time, there
appears to be a distinct difference. The crisis of
confidence and the eerie feeling of trouble lurking
round the corner are no longer there.

Call it the result of effective policing or plain old
riot fatigue, two days of relative peace in the city
has drawn out scores of people onto the streets. If
there is anything still keeping people indoors it is
the scorching heat. A road from Raipur Chakla to
Kalupur, where an ambulance was set ablaze by a mob
last week, was on Tuesday bustling with activity. So
much so that there was even a traffic jam, a
reassuring thing in such times.

"It is the no-nonsense attitude of the police seen
over the last week that has quietened things down. For
the first time, the mobs are actually scared of the
police," says Bhimji Parmar, an auto-rickshaw driver
in Khadia.

Late in the afternoon, a group of eight women thronged
the Kalupur police station. They had a complaint to
lodge - outsiders were creating tension in their<
locality. It was in connection with the two successive
explosions late on Monday that had re-injected tension
among the locals. In a completely different approach,
police neither fired tear gas nor bullets at the mobs.
The men in khaki reasoned with the restive crowd and
convinced them to go back home.

DCP Vikas Sahay said, "There was no need for force,
instead we talked some sense into the residents."

The confidence-building measures have reached the
grassroots too. The hand-cart pullers, who have been
jobless since riots began in Ahmedabad, restarted work
on Monday. General secretary of the hand-cart pullers'
association Ranchorbhai Chimanlal Rana said, "Policing
has definitely changed for the better but still a lot
needs to be done, many of our Muslim colleagues have
still not reported to work."

The Dhalgadwad area under Karanj police station, which
used to draw people from all corners of the city to
its cloth and vegetable markets, saw brisk business
activity on Tuesday for the first time since February
28. Allahrakha, a fruit vendor at Dhalgadwad, sat with
his goodies in display in front of a temple. He said,
"Since Monday we have restarted business. The new
policemen are doing a better job. But keeping the city
calm won't help. Hindu aur Muslim bhaiyon ke dilon ko
kaun jorega? (Who will patch up differences between
Hindus and Muslims)."

Asked whether the prevailing peace was transitory or
long-lasting, police commissioner K R Kaushik said,
"It is too early to comment... we will have to wait
and watch, but let me assure you that one thing you
will no longer find lacking in the police is
professionalism." Kaushik said the overtures that the
police was now making was part of the
confidence-building measures. "We should realise that
without the backing of the whole society, mere
policing alone is not going to help."

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights
reserved.

Police fighting shy of netting big fish
LEENA MISRA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2002 12:23:54 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=9902449

AHMEDABAD: Five history-sheeters affiliated to the VHP
and the Bajrang Dal were booked for murder, dacoity
and rioting in connection with the killing of 91
persons in the Naroda Patia and Naroda Gam areas on
March 1. Three months after their names appeared in
the FIR, not one of them has been arrested!

It is not surprising why, if one goes by the
developments in Sabarkantha district on Tuesday. The
VHP declared a bandh on Tuesday in the towns of
Khedbrahma and Poshina after 69 persons were arrested
on Monday night in connection with the communal riots
of February 28. They have been arrested under sections
relating to murder and rioting, police sources in
Khedbrahma revealed.

The protest follows close on the heels of the threat
by the BJP in Panchmahals to organise a 'jail bharo'
agitation to protest against arrest of some of its
leaders. The agitation has since been postponed at the
intervention of BJP national president Jana
Krishnamurthy.

The Naroda case has now changed hands thrice.
Beginning with the Naroda police station, it went to
assistant commissioner of police PN Barot after a
police inspector was named in the FIR, and has now
been transferred to the Crime Branch. And yet, the
real culprits - Babu Bajrangi, Kishan Korani, Harish
Rohera, PJ Rajput and Raju Noble - are still
absconding.

On March 17, another FIR was filed at the same police
station naming Naroda legislator Maya Kodnani and VHP
joint general secretary Jaideep Patel as accused in
rioting incidents in the area. But the police won't
arrest them - because there is no evidence. All this
while continue to thump their chests about the fact
that there have been 3,192 arrests, excluding
preventive detentions, in the city since February 28.

A senior police officer who was involved in the
investigations told TNN, "If we have not been able to
arrest the five notorious elements who have been seen
by the PSI in the riots, where is the question of
arresting Kodnani who has no evidence against her?"

Unlike the Panchmahals, where the police arrested 580
persons - many from the BJP and VHP - on charges off
rioting, in bigger urban centres like Ahmedabad and
Vadodara, the arrests have been slow and far between.

When questioned about Kodnani's arrest, a senior
official in the home department said, "We will not
arrest anyone without evidence, and there is no
substantial evidence to prove that she was there."

Newly appointed police commissioner K R Kaushik
declined to say more than "we will see that action is
taken and that the investigations proceed purely on
professional lines".

In Ahmedabad, the police have thus far gone only to
the extent of arresting a former BJP corporator from
Gomtipur, Jitendra Vaghela, under Pasa for rioting.

In Kheda district too, a small-time BJP worker from
Balasinor, Pappu Pathak, was among the 1,699 persons
arrested; while in Sabarkantha district, a VHP
office-bearer, Kamlesh Thakkar, was among the 952
arrested.

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights
reserved.

Taking revenge in Gujarat
May 15, 2002 Posted: 0818 GMT
Mark Tully for CNN

http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/05/15/tully.gujarat/index.html

AHMEDABAD, India -- In normal times, a visitor to
Ahmedabad would think it was one of the most modern
and prosperous cities in India.

As the commercial capital of Gujarat state, it has
doubled its manufacturing sector every seven years and
achieved a ten percent gross domestic product growth.

Yet Ahmedabad has a history of vicious clashes between
Hindus and Muslims.

In the latest bout of violence, sparked off in
February this year, more than 900 people were killed
in the worst sectarian riots seen in a decade.

This is the first time violence has erupted under a
government of the right wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata
Party or BJP.

And as the government admits, the size of the Hindu
mobs who attacked Muslims in the early days of the
latest clashes were unprecedented.

A senior member of the BJP said that for two days the
party told its cadres "you can settle your account."

By that, he meant take revenge for the attack on a
train by a Muslim mob, which sparked off the violence
in Ahmedabad and elsewhere in the state.

Most of the press reported that the police did nothing
to stop the violence in the early days.

In one of the camps where some of the tens of
thousands of Muslim refugees fleeing from the clashes
were living, refugees said time and time again that
the police had taken part in the rioting.

Some refugees also alleged that BJP legislators had
been involved too.

Police inaction and BJP encouragement might account
for the size of the mobs but it doesn't explain their
barbarity, particularly raping women and burning the
victims.

Nobody had any explanation for that.

No remorse
But although Atal Behari Vajpayee, the BJP Prime
Minister, described the riots as a blot on India, the
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi could barely
bring himself to express remorse.

The editor of one of the English Language papers
described the atmosphere in the city as poisonous.

He said "anyone talking of peace is threatened, and
lampooned."

Volunteers who were working for peace spoke of being
harassed and intimidated. Hoardings calling for peace
were pulled down or blackened.

The chief minister had been maintaining that the
government had not failed in any way. One document
justifying its performance even claimed the government
had fulfilled its responsibilities "in a very nice
manner."

But now the central government has obliged Modi to
accept a senior retired police officer from Delhi as
his security adviser.

Immediately after the adviser arrived, the police
chief of Ahmedabad and some of his senior colleagues
were replaced.

Modi then had a meeting with Muslim leaders and
promised for the first time to take action on some of
their grievances.

All that indicates that the prime minister and his BJP
colleagues in the central government are concerned
about the advantage the opposition has taken of the
Gujarat violence, the bad press for the party, and the
adverse international reaction.

At the same time some senior members of Modi's own
government are now campaigning for his removal on the
grounds he has damaged the party's prospects, and is
now an electoral liability.

The immediate question is whether the security adviser
and the government's more conciliatory attitude will
bring peace to Ahmedabad.

Hindutva 'laboratory'
Looking to the future, the first chance to assess
voters' reaction to the violence will probably be in
Gujarat itself, which the BJP regards as "a
laboratory" for its experiments with Hindutva, or
making India Hindu.

A new State assembly has to be elected by early next
year.

If the election goes the BJP's way, the Hindu hardcore
of the party will claim that Modi, by giving free rein
to the anger of a section of the Hindu community, has
conducted a successful experiment.

Before Gujarat the party leadership had claimed credit
for the lack of communal violence in states it ruled.

If Modi now becomes a BJP hero, Muslims will be
convinced the fears that they cannot have a place of
honor in a state, or indeed an India ruled by that
party, are justified.

© 2002 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
An AOL Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.

Musharraf, not Modi country's real enemy: VHP
rediff.com,
May 15, 2002

http://indiabroad.rediff.com/news/2002/may/15vhp.htm

Asking political parties to realise that the country's
real enemy was Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and
not Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad on Wednesday urged the government to
attack Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and destroy the
terrorist training camps there.
Condemning Tuesday' terrorist attack in Jammu, VHP
international working president Ashok Singhal in a
statement in New Delhi said: "It would be a heinous
crime to force the security forces deployed along the
Indo-Pak border to remain mute spectators in spite of
such incidents."

"The government should direct the armed forces to
attack PoK... to fulfil the much-awaited desire of the
people," he said.

"Pakistan-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his
associates are collecting arms and ammunition in
Africa to create unrest in Gujarat. There are also
many Pakistanis in the Gujarat relief camps who want
to create disturbances. Instead of raising a hue and
cry on the Gujarat issue, the political parties should
become aware of this danger and help in foiling
Pakistan's nefarious designs," the VHP leader said.

PTI

Copyright (c) 2002 rediff.com.

PM refuses to meet women's group
The Hindu,
By Our Special Correspondent

http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2002051502401100.htm

NEW DELHI. MAY 14. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari
Vajpayee, today turned down a meeting with women's
groups, who wanted to discuss the situation of women
who have suffered in the Gujarat violence.

The Prime Minister's office had given an appointment
at one p.m. today to the group of 14 organisations,
including the All India democratic Women's
Association, the YWCA of India, and the Muslim Women's
Forum.

The meeting was cancelled after the PMO ascertained
what specifically the organisations wanted to discuss.

Brinda Karat of AIDWA said: "when we called to confirm
the appointment, they asked us what we wanted to
discuss with the Prime Minister. We told them we had
some specific demands.

``They called us back a few minutes later to say that
the meeting was off.'' The Prime Minister, they were
told, had, called an emergency meeting. Their request
for a later meeting was brushed aside.

A memorandum that the 14 organisations had hoped to
give the Prime Minister said that it was "essential
for the nation to recognise that the violence
including sexual violence against women in Gujarat is
unprecedented in its scale and savagery.''

It said that although there was enough compelling
evidence of rape and sexual violence, only three FIRs
had been filed in all of Gujarat on the charge of
rape.

And those named in the FIRs had not been arrested.

The memorandum demanded that police file FIRs in all
cases of rape and arrest those named as perpetrators.
And, that the Government set up special courts
specifically for cases of violence against women,
"with specific reference to rules of evidence as
medical examinations were not possible and in many
cases women were burnt and killed''.

It drew attention to the plight of women widowed in
the carnage, most of whom had received no
compensation.

It said that thousands of women had been "rendered
heads of families due to the killings of male members
and have to assume responsibility for the surviving
members and children.

``For these women proper rehabilitation is the right
to life itself.''

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Envoy ‘intimidates’ Italian scribe for Gujarat
reportage
Saurabh Shukla
Hindustan Times,
(New Delhi, May 14)

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/150502/detNAT06.asp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In an incident that might further damage India's image
abroad, the Indian mission in Italy has been accused
of intimidating an Italian journalist for reports on
the situation in Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir.
Marina Forti, a special correspondent of Italian
newspaper Il Manifesto, was in India recently. Upset
by her despatches from the troubled states of Gujarat
and Jammu and Kashmir, the deputy chief of the Indian
mission in Rome, Yogesh Gupta, allegedly accused her
of biased reporting.

"You have sided with terrorists in your stories," he
reportedly charged at a meeting with the journalist.

According to Forti, she felt humiliated by Gupta's
intimidatory tone. The diplomat questioned her account
of the Gujarat situation despite being told that her
reports were no different from those carried by the
Indian media.

Even the National Human Rights Commission of India has
made similar observations, the Italian journalist told
him.

But Gupta was less than diplomatic when he retorted:
"How dare you say this... are you the Indian Human
Rights Commission?"

After her encounter with Gupta, Forti reported the
matter in writing to Himachal Som, the Indian
Ambassador to Italy. "I have always appreciated India
as a great democracy... that is why I was surprised at
being accused of being unbalanced, provocative and
siding with the terrorists. I hope you realise that
these terms are an insult to a professional
journalist," she wrote.

The journalist said: "The facts and opinion I reported
were widely published by the Indian media and the
international press... this is the first time I have
been summoned by a top diplomat of a democratic
country to be told that my articles do not fall in
line with the point of view of his government."

However, the Indian mission in Rome downplayed the
matter as a routine affair. When contacted on phone by
the Hindustan Times, Gupta denied having intimidated
Forti.

"Despite her provocative articles on Jammu and Kashmir
and Gujarat, I only sought to persuade her to see the
other viewpoint... her critical coverage of Jammu and
Kashmir and Gujarat is an isolated act and not broadly
representative of the Italian media," he claimed.

Diplomatic sources said that the usual practice, if
the government or the foreign mission is not happy
with a newspaper report, is to send a letter to the
editor or contact the senior editorial staff of the
organisation concerned.

©Hindustan Times Ltd. 1997.

More arrests in rape, murder cases likely
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

[ WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2002 12:24:52 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=9902516

AHMEDABAD: After the first arrest in the Kausar Bano
case following the uproar in Parliament, the crime
branch is expected to arrests some more persons in
connection with rape and murder during the riots.

Sources said the arrest of a bus driver in the
infamous case of Kausar Bano's rape and murder was
just the beginning. Four other cases with rape and
murder charges have also been registered by the city's
crime branch against the accused named in various FIRs
lodged by riot-victims. "Offences have been recorded
after investigations have proved that those accused
had instigated the mob, were on the spot and had even
taken lead in the rape, murder and loot," said
sources.

The prime accused in the Kausar Bano case, which was
part of the Naroda-Patia massacre, Ratilal Rathod
alias Bhavani Singh, was arrested by the city crime
branch late on Monday night. Rathod is 50 years old
and works with the Ahmedabad Municipal Transport
Service as a driver. This is the first riot-arrest
made in the city on charges of rape and murder.

On Monday, Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote a
letter to Prime Minister Vajpayee stating that a
separate FIR be filed in this case and the
investigations be done by the CBI. She had also taken
objection to the remark of union defence minister
George Fernandes in parliament in which he had
allegedly tried to trivialise the rape cases as
"nothing unusual."

The arrest of Rathod comes 11 weeks after the incident
shook the city. The arrest was based on the incident's
sole eye-witness, Jannatbibi Kalubhai Hidubhai Shaikh,
who claimed to have seen the eight-month pregnant
Kausar Bano being raped and murdered.

Shaikh's complaint was included in the same FIR
100/2002 of Naroda-Patia only on May 2 and section 376
(rape) was roped in. Eighty-six persons had been
hacked and then burnt alive during the Naroda-Patia
slaughter.

Rathod's son is a lawyer and they reside in the
Gangotri society's first house located just where
Jawannagar ends. Kausar Bano lived in Jawannagar in
Naroda-Patia.

"I had approached the police time and again but leave
alone lodging an FIR, the investigating officer did
not even wish to take note of my narration," Jannat
bibi is heard as having said. Sources said the matter
was hastened after Sonia Gandhi's letter to Vajpayee.

For over two months after the incident occurred on
February 28, a police inquiry, headed by an additional
police commissioner of the city, had remained
inconclusive. The Naroda-Patia, an area which houses
around 800 residential quarters, case had later drawn
in no less than 756 FIRs of which 598 were registered
by eye-witnesses and riot-victims sheltered in
different relief camps like those at Shah-e-Alam Roza
and Dariakhan Ghummat.

Sonia, during her visit to Ahmedabad and Godhra soon
after riots along with an all-party delegation on a
fact-finding mission, was not allowed to visit the
relief camp at Shah-e-Alam Roza lest such matters get
"blown out of proportion."

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights
reserved.

Collapse of Indian state: Human rights team
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2002 9:10:53 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=9938460

AHMEDABAD: A fact-finding team of human rights
organisations from Maharashtra, West Bengal and Andhra
Pradesh has opined in its interim report that "Gujarat
events were not only the breakdown of law and order
alone but that of the Indian state and human
civilisation itself."

A panel of 14 activists visited Godhra, Ahmedabad,
Vadodara, Anand, Mehsana, Dahod and Sabarkantha and
most relief camps in the state. The visit ended on
Sunday.

The members hailed from Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties
committee (APCLC), Associations for Protection of
Democratic Rights, West Bengal (APDR), Committee for
Protection of Democratic Rights, Mumbai (CPDR), Human
Rights Forum, Andhra Pradesh (HRF) and Lokshahi Hakk
Sanghatana, Maharashtra (LHS).

A signed joint statement averred that 'the events in
Gujarat clearly show that the Indian state,
legislature, executive and judiciary abdicated their
constitutional and civilisational obligations, and the
Indian state stood a silent spectator as the very
values of human civilisation, cultivated over
millennium were assaulted'.

It concentrated on the victims' relief and
rehabilitation, the response of the judiciary, police
investigation. It severely criticised the government
for its constant pressure on the Muslims that it would
disband the camps and send refugees back to their
burnt houses. The team also deplored that members of
the Sangh Parivar outfits, were not detained though
they were named in the complaints . "Till today they
were freely roaming around, sometimes in police
vehicles", the team noted.

The team demanded among other things not to stop
relief camps or reduce the number of inmates, arrest
of all those named in the complaints and protection
from land grabbers and safety of the house-site of the
displaced persons, whether in rural or urban areas .

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights
reserved.

Kausar Bano case sees some action
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2002 12:42:26 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=9903735

AHMEDABAD: After the Kausar Bano case rocked
Parliament, the prime accused in the case, a part of
the Naroda-Patia massacre, Ratilal Rathod alias
Bhavani Singh, was arrested by the city crime branch
late on Monday.

Rathod (50) works with the Ahmedabad Municipal
Transport Service as a driver. This is the first
riot-arrest effected in the city on charges of rape
and murder.

Interestingly, on Monday, Congress president Sonia
Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Vajpayee stating that a
separate FIR be filed in this case and investigations
be carried out by the CBI.

The arrest comes 11 weeks after the incident shook the
city with its gory details being repeated over and
over again at the Shah-e-Alam relief camp. The
incident's sole eyewitness, Jannatbibi Kalubhai
Hidubhai Shaikh, claimed to have seen the eight-month
pregnant Kausar Bano's stomach being ripped open by a
sword, the foetus removed, flung around and then
burnt. Shaikh also claimed that the woman was first
raped.

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited.

`EDITORIAL`

To build or not to build? Cracks appear in the
Ramjanambhoomi Nyas
Statesman News service.

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.editorial.php3?id=9580&theme=A

Fissures are visible in the Ramjanambhoomi Nyas, the
trust set up by the VHP to build the Ram temple on the
site where the Babari Masjid once stood. The chief
trustee has accused the VHP of drawing political
mileage from the movement and misappropriating funds.
His criticism cannot be faulted but coming from an
insider it is that much more embarrassing. This is not
the first time that members of the Sadhu samaj have
accused the VHP of hijacking the movement, or of
dictating terms to them. The VHP is hoist with its own
petard or if they prefer it their own trishul; they
have always regarded the Samaj as the only body
competent to talk on the subject. The chief trustee
has gone so far as to say that the trust should be
dissolved as it can serve no purpose after the Rao
government’s notice in 1993 saying no land would ever
be handed over to it. The moat familiar face of the
Nyas has been the convenor Paramhans Ramchandra Das
who was last seen donating a pillar to the special
representative of the PMO on 15 March in Ayodhya
during the much-hyped shiladan ceremony. Paramhans
claims to have seen Ram in a dream in which he is said
to have insisted that his rightful place was inside
the Babari Masjid, and hence he and two other sadhus
surreptitiously placed Ram idols inside the mosque in
1948. However, the chief trustee describes Paramhans
as a “history sheeter” — an allegation which must be
looked into. How can such a man then be given charge
of a movement which the VHP constantly parrots to be a
matter of utmost importance to millions of Hindus
around the world.
Other sadhus and sants are brought into play and
withdrawn to serve the purposes of the VHP. They were
needed to give the movement a religious flavour. Many
sadhus and mahants who lived around the Babari Masjid
were co-opted and they donated their land for the Ram
temple. But these holy men were only the front, real
power, was always retained by the VHP. Now one of
their own is calling the movement political and
accusing the VHP of being the culprit. The trustee has
also talked of misappropriation of funds by the VHP,
an organisation with no published list of members and
no accounting of the huge funds it receives from India
and abroad. Perhaps the chief trustee can throw some
light on this matter also. If, as he says, the Rs 2
crore withdrawn in March by the VHP was not used for
building the temple, and we know that there is no
temple, where did the money go? Could it have been
transferred to Gujarat on the premise that before you
construct you must destruct! Can we hear from the VHP
please?

Copyright (c) 2002 The Statesman.

Trampling on India
A.G. Noorani
Hindustan Times,
May 15, 2002.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/150502/detpla01.asp

Narendra Modi has not once used the words ‘gruesome
killings’ for the Gujarat carnage. He has not
denounced the perpetrators either. His words fall
neatly into a pattern of wilful wrong.

Clearly, some in the administration actively assisted
in the perpetration of crimes. Who provided the mobs
with the voters’ lists to target Muslim houses and
businesses?

It may be recalled that on February 2, 1999, the then
Director of Police (Intelligence), P.B. Upadhyaya,
sent a confidential circular ordering police
commissioners and district police officers to provide
inter alia “the details of persons (Muslims) involved
in communal riots…. During the last five years”; “the
details of existing Muslim organisations in your
district with their address and who are (sic) the
leaders working for their organisation, their names,
addresses, total numbers, telephone numbers, etc.” The
circular, and a similar one for Christians, was
withdrawn when challenged in the high court. The data
filtered through, nonetheless.

The NHRC’s interim report refers to “widespread
reports and allegations of groups of well-organised
persons, armed with mobile telephones and addresses,
singling out certain homes and properties for death
and destruction in certain districts, sometime within
view of police stations and personnel”. It asks
pointedly “who the players were in the situations that
went out of control”. The 28 NGOs which united as a
‘citizens’ initiative’ told the National Minorities
Commission: “Attacks were organised by the VHP and
Bajrang Dal who had earlier gathered information on
minority houses, shops, etc. The attacks were planned
accordingly, with first looting, and then burning of
shops and establishments along with brutal violence,
stabbing and battering of people; besides burning them
alive with kerosene, petrol and diesel; they also
alleged sexual assault on women and gang-rapes in the
presence of their relations. The victims were then
killed and burnt.”

Gujarat’s VHP chief K.S. Shastri claims that “the list
of shops owned by Muslims in Ahmedabad was prepared in
the morning of February 28”. The sources of the data
were not disclosed. Tens of thousands of homes and
businesses were affected. It could not have been
compiled in a day. This was a planned, organised
effort to demoralise Muslims by widespread killings
and rapes; cripple them economically and destroy as
much as possible the vestiges of their identity.

One case among many alone testifies to the
malevolence. Wali Mohammed Wali was born in Aurangabad
in 1667 and died in Ahmedabad in 1707 and was buried
there. As K.C. Kanda writes, it was his visit to Delhi
which provided “a stimulus to the growth of the ghazal
in Delhi and earned for him a place among the pioneers
of Urdu poetry”. The Minorities Commission found
Modi’s claim that he got Wali’s grave rebuilt after
removing a Hindu temple put up by the RSS to be a lie.
The commission found a road at the very spot. The
saffron flag was removed, but the grave was
obliterated and a tar road built on it, right opposite
the police commissioner’s office.

The aftermath reported in the media falls into this
grisly pattern. Transfers of IPS officers who did
their duty — Vivek Srivastava, Rahul Sharma, Praveen
Gondia, Himanshu Bhatt, and Manoj Antane. A
responsible correspondent cites eight Muslim senior
IPS officers and 57 out of 59 Muslim inspectors in
desk jobs.

There is not even a pretence of rehabilitation or
accountability. The scandal about the FIRs is well
documented. The guilty will assumedly go scot-free.
The commission of inquiry is a cruel joke. Such bodies
depend on police investigation anyway. Justice K.G.
Shah was censured by the Supreme Court for sentencing
to death persons accused of murder in the 1988 riots
on evidence palpably false.

What, then, can the Supreme Court do in such a
situation? It can, to begin with, issue a writ of
mandamus enjoining the Union of India to perform the
duty imposed on it by Article 355 of the Constitution:
“It shall be the duty of the Union to protect every
state against external aggression and internal
disturbance and to ensure that the government of every
state is carried on in accordance with the provisions
of this Constitution.”

There is a constitutional breakdown in Gujarat.
Governor S.S. Bhandari, Modi and senior ministers are
RSS men who have forfeited the public trust. The
services are a wreck. Once central forces are deployed
in aid of civil power, law and order ceases to be an
exclusively state matter. Gujarat has witnessed a
pogrom beyond the dimensions of ‘internal
disturbance’. Involved here are the fundamental rights
to equality and to the equal protection of the laws
(Art. 14) as well as the right to life (Art. 21). The
Supreme Court has construed it to mean civilised
existence — free from fear, not mere survival in
hovels.

These rights can be enforced by writs to the Union and
the state requiring them to take steps to protect life
and property; secure from it return of the victims to
their homes; restitution in their businesses; to
formulate schemes of rehabilitation; repairs of
mosques and shrines, and related steps. The court’s
past rulings provide ample basis for these reliefs. It
has taken cognisance of reports of the NHRC and the
Minorities Commission, of private inquiries and even
those filed by correspondents of repute. It can also
appoint commissions to ascertain the facts.

The Supreme Court can admonish and censure and, thus,
educate public opinion. All Union and state ministers,
the PM and CM included, take an oath to “do right to
all manner of people in accordance with the
Constitution and the law, without fear of favour,
affection or ill-will”. The Supreme Court will, no
doubt, dispense justice. In the final analysis, it is
left to “the contemplation and judgment of their
fellowmen” to determine which of the players in the
Gujarat respected his oath of office.

©Hindustan Times Ltd. 1997.

`OPINION`

Disunited Indian Family
VIDYA SUBRAHMANIAM
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2002 2:12:15 AM ]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=9909445

Dear members of my extended family,

Over the past month, I’ve been corresponding with you
in an attempt to view from your perspective the
Gujarat developments, as well as the issue of
minority-majority rights which has once again become
the talking point in households like ours. Indeed,
many of my friends have families that echo your
feelings.

Your case is broadly as follows. One, in
Hindu-majority India, secularism has become a tool to
justify the wrongs done by the minorities: Islamic
terrorism is glossed over, while Muslim obscurantism
is encouraged, often by the state, as in the Shah Bano
case.

As a result, Muslims obsessively cling to tradition,
refuse to modernise and almost never condemn
atrocities committed by fellow Muslims. Worse, most of
them harbour trans-national loyalties. Two, the
pseudo-secularist media indulges the minorities almost
to the point of being anti-Hindu. It dismissed the
plight of the Kashmiri Pandits and the burning alive
of Hindus in Godhra, but was outraged by the
retaliatory attacks on Muslims.

Unfortunately, my efforts to tackle these points have
elicited the same response. At the humdrum level: But
Muslims marry four times, they breed to outnumber us,
they are zealous converts, they identify with
Pakistan. At a more sophisticated level: Minority
appeasement by the secularists has delivered the soft
Hindu middle-class to the Hindutva crowd.

Before I go further, I would draw your attention to
the October 31, 1992 issue of India Today, which ran a
riveting cover story on the changes being forced in
the Muslim community by its youth. Titled ‘Young
Muslims: Forging a New Identity’, the story captured
the aspirations of a generation for whom Pakistan held
no meaning, that wanted to chart a path far away from
the clergy.

The young people it profiled were not khandani
mussalman, but from middle-class homes. Like Sameena
Usmani, an engineering student at Aligarh Muslim
University, who proudly posed in her riding breeches.
Like Uzma, who challenged the maulanas to “stop the
change” that had set in. Like Ayesha Shabnam, daughter
of an illiterate housekeeper, who taught biology at
the Humdard institute. Like Mohammad Yaseen, reader at
AMU, who bristled at the mullahs: “The biggest
disservice ever done by the mullahs was to oppose the
Shah Bano judgment”.

The story further spoke of Muslim ulema conducting
mass literacy drives and criss-crossing the country,
highlighting the social evils that had crept into
Muslim society. It spotted the beginnings of a
movement against practices like triple talaq and jahez
(dowry). It quoted Babri Masjid Action Committee
leader, Jawed Habeeb, as vouching for the safety of
Muslims in secular India.

Two months later, there was another cover story on
Muslims. This time in Sunday magazine. The title was,
‘Indian Muslims: A time of grief, insecurity and
doubt’. The accompanying photograph was of a
frightened skull-cap wearing Muslim. What happened
between the two cover stories was a momentous event.
The demolition of the Babri masjid on December 6,
1992.

Could it be that this outright attack on their
religion had driven back the modernisation process
that had started in the community? While travelling in
UP recently, I stayed one night with the family of a
Maulvi. The Maulvi’s daughter had married into a
family in Ahmedabad. Oh, how proud she was of
Ahmedabad: It was modern, and it allowed conservative
Muslim girls like her the choice of combining regular
school with madrassa education.

My heart sinks at the thought of what Sameena, Uzma,
Ayesha and Yaseen would say today. I wonder if the
Maulvi’s daughter will still be proud of Ahmedabad.
There are hundreds of other modern Muslims, now forced
into ghettos. Mr Bandookwala’s heart-rending story has
been told. But there is M H Jowhar, management
professional, visiting faculty at IIM-Ahmedabad and
founder of the Society for the Promotion of Rational
Thinking. Mr Jowhar, who was proudly secular and who
took on the fundamentalist forces, today seeks safety
and solace within his own wounded community.

Then there are the Muslims of Godhra, not those who
burnt coach 6 of Sabarmati Express, but those who
condemned the outrage, even apologised on behalf of
their community (source: Jyoti Punwani). But the local
Gujarati press refused to publish their statements.
Pakistan never mattered to these Muslims. But if today
some of them should think of it as an option, can we
blame them?

Talking of trans-national loyalties, how would you
describe the thousands of American-Indians who last
year welcomed Atal Bihari Vajpayee to cries of: Desh
ka neta kaisa ho? Atal Bihari jaisa ho? Which nation,
pray, were they talking about? Are you confident that
the anti-immigrant mood that is currently sweeping
Europe, will not one day target our overseas
relatives?

Don’t the NRIs cling to tradition and custom? Should
you not recognise this as a special need of all
minority groups, whether they are the NRIs, the
African-Americans, Indian Muslims or the Kashmiri
Pandits? The Pandits certainly deserve better, both
from the media and the BJP government. But yes, I
wouldn’t say that since they were once the ruling
class, it is right for them to suffer today.

I should and I have always condemned terrorism. But
last week, I watched a peculiar development on TV. The
clip showed perfectly respectable Tamils attending a
pro-Prabhakaran meeting in Chennai. Now, Prabhakaran
is a proclaimed terrorist whose LTTE is banned by the
US and India. Prabhakaran killed Rajiv Gandhi, who
held a constitutional office. Can you imagine the
consequences if Prabhakaran had assassinated a former
American president?

By now, our American family members would have gone
through several rounds of racial profiling. Had
Prabhakaran been Muslim, the Indian government would
have arrested you and me under POTA. And yet, the
Tamils openly felicitate him without any of us coming
to the slightest harm. Is terrorism by Tamils okay?

I can go on. You are wrong about the four wives. Of
all Indian communities, polygamy is lowest among
Muslims. They are also almost invisible on the job
market. The appeasement was of the mullahs, just as
today the appeasement is of the VHP (three of the
accused in the Babri case are ministers).

By the way, have you ever wondered at the ease with
which Mr Karunanidhi flaunts his three wives in
public? Equally, have you wondered at the predominance
of Hindu symbolism in Indian public life? The lighting
of diyas, the breaking of coconuts. Finally, I wish
you would react as angrily when the media buries dowry
deaths on page 13 and ignores the public stripping of
Dalit women, not to mention young lovers hanged to
death by village panchayats because one of them was
Dalit. Maybe we should turn some of the anger inward?

Yours Vidya

Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights
reserved.

For Gujarat, we must all act
Indian Express,
Suman Sinha,
May 15, 2002.

http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=2735

I think I speak on behalf of all professional
managers. We are shocked, horrified, anguished and
frustrated at the events in Gujarat as all
right-thinking Indians must be.

We were taught to be fair and transparent, never to
distinguish on the basis of gender, caste, religion or
region, to be always committed to being Indians first.
We grew up admiring the great leaders who framed the
Indian Constitution — Pandit Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel,
Maulana Azad and Gobind Ballabh Pant. Leaders who
believed in a secular India, for all Indians.

We admired and loved the forefathers of professional
management — P.L. Tandon, Vasant Rayadhyaksha, Ajit
Huxar, K.S. Basu, and in more recent times, Wagul,
Thomas, Ashok Ganguly, Azim Premji and Narayanamurthy,
who believed in and practiced the principle of
equality.

Gujarat has greatly pained us. Why must a Gujarat
happen in the 21st century? Why do we tolerate this
phenomenon? I question myself, and probably many
professionals do so too, whether it is enough to feel
pained or anguished, or even angry and frustrated.

Why can’t we as a group not raise our voice against
the guilty in Gujarat, or even those like George
Fernandes who justify the wrongdoings on the basis of
history? Have we become so impotent that we cannot
challenge a few misguided power seekers? It is said in
the New World, economic power is more significant then
political power. Can we in the commercial world apply
our own sanctions against the guilty?

It is sad we in the commercial world do not wish to
combine for this cause. Kargil did excite the
nationalist emotions of industry, FICCI organised a
‘shraddhanjali’ to express support for our brave
soldiers.

The Gujarat earthquake propelled many companies to
alleviate the suffering of victims. In its annual
meeting, CII did conduct a session on Gujarat. But the
government reacted adversely. The debate remained only
a talking shop. Tragically, no chamber has come out
strongly against the recent happenings in Gujarat,
leave alone combining the ‘corporate might’ to do
something to help the victims. On one cause, and one
cause alone, we have combined well, and that is to
fight for the rights of Indian industry. Can we not
combine as professionals in the world of commerce, and
raise our voice against a small group of people who
support the ‘powers that be’ in Gujrat?

The crimes continue unabated in Gujarat. The right
thinking Indian impatiently awaits action, while
parliamentarians engage in long debates, and the
people in the state live in fear. Do we really expect
the Gujarat government, which has failed so far to
control the crime, to effect genuine relief and
rehabilitation?

It is only appropriate that professionals from every
walk of life devote their time and contribute
generously to the rehabilitation programme.
Professionals from the world of commerce can and must
take the lead.

I suggest the following action plan. A rehabilitation
council for Gujarat must be formed, which should have
no more than 10 council members. The council will
elect its chairman and vice-chairman. Council members
should be volunteers from the management, journalism,
law, medicine, engineering, bureaucracy, and
right-thinking politicians.

The council should invite volunteers who will devote
their time in the rehabilitation projects, drawn from
NGOs, construction companies, and other specialists.
The council should seek donations from Indians and
NRIs. The government may consider donating to the
rehabilitation projects as well. A well-known firm of
auditors should be asked to audit the funds.

A media group can help to invite the volunteers and
have the council set up within 30 days. I believe the
work of this rehabilitation group will go towards
reviving the confidence of those suffering in Gujarat,
and may even help control the crime in the state.

May be this project will reduce the anguish of Indians
who are truly feeling the pain, and who feel
frustrated at not being able to do anything. May be
this will help mitigate a little of the shame we all
feel as Indians.

The writer is a senior management consultant

© 2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All
rights reserved throughout the world.