The claims of the Government of Gujarat are hollow and the Corporate houses and the media owned by them have put up this “Development” mantra as a façade to hide the real face of the fascist ideology of Mr. Modi and Co., observes SAQUIB AHMAD
Under the title “Monkey Salvation for a Fish” Anthony de Mello narrates:
“What on earth are you doing?” said I to the monkey when I saw him lift a fish out of the water and place it on the branch of a tree.
“I am saving the fish from drowning,” replied the monkey.
The majority community sometimes has this similar perspective for the minorities. This is exemplified in their oft repeated invitation to the Muslims to vote for Mr. Modi, more particularly after a Local Court in Ahmedabad has given “Clean Chit” to him in one of the riot related cases of 2002. From the moment, BJP, the right-wing extremist party of India, declared Mr. Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate, and the Corporate houses and the media owned by them have been working overtime, using dubious tactics and bending backwards to portray Mr. Narendra Modi, currently the Chief Minister of Gujarat, as a leader who has moved away from his earlier right-wing extremist exclusivist ideology.
Coupled with this, the audacious and obnoxious cacophony created by these media houses about the “able leadership”, “good governance”, “development for all” and “clean chit” and further putting blame on the Muslims for blindly voting for “pseudo-secularist parties” and “only out of fear” raises several questions as to who really Mr. Modi is and what the minorities, Muslims in particular and other weaker sections of the Society can expect of him in the future.
And yet amidst these audacious and obnoxious cacophonies, several revealing insights can be seen and these can be of revelatory nature. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), headed by the former Chief Justice of India and two other retired Judges of the Supreme Court as its members, in their report on the 2002 Gujarat Pogrom observed that the response of Mr. Modi’s Government in controlling the violence was abysmal or even non-existent, pointing to gross negligence and complicity of the Administration. While holding Mr. Modi’s Government responsible for the violence, the NHRC in its report further states:
“The tragic events in Gujarat starting with the Godhra incident and continuing with the violence that rocked the State for over two months have greatly saddened the nation. There is no doubt, in the opinion of this Commission, that there was a comprehensive failure on the part of the State Government to control the persistent violation of the rights to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the people of the State.”
Mr. Modi’s Government never disputed these findings and conclusions of the NHRC and even though the Government was statutorily bound to present the Proceedings and Reports of NHRC before the State Legislative Assembly, Mr. Modi chose not to table the report before the Legislative Assembly, not even after it sworn an Affidavit before the High Court of Gujarat to do so. The acceptance of the conclusion and findings of NHRC coupled with no or inadequate response on the part of the Government of Gujarat, which ultimately led to conclusion of comprehensive failure by NHRC, is subsequently reiterated by the High Court of Gujarat and also severely castigated by the Supreme Court. While transferring the trial of the Best Bakery case to Mumbai, the Supreme Court observed:
“Those who are responsible for protecting life and properties and ensuring that investigation is fair and proper seem to have shown no real anxiety. Large number of people had lost their lives. Whether the accused persons were really assailants or not could have been established by a fair and impartial investigation. The modern day ‘Neros’ were looking elsewhere when Best Bakery and innocent children and helpless women were burning, and were probably deliberating how the perpetrators of the crime can be saved or protected. Law and justice become flies in the hands of these “wanton boys”. When fences start to swallow the crops, no scope will be left for survival of law and order or truth and justice. Public order as well as public interest becomes martyrs and monuments.”
Further, the failure on the part of Mr. Modi’s Government to protect fundamental rights pertaining to damage, destruction and desecration of more than 500 places of worship is also concluded and recorded by the High Court of Gujarat in its Judgment as follows:
“35. Failure on the part of the police intelligence to gather such general reaction in time and to take appropriate timely action definitely comes within the expression “negligence of the State” even if we for the sake of argument accept the defence of the State that the cause of riot was the “general reaction from the incident of Sabarmati Express”. Similarly, the fact that the riot continued for several days itself suggests lack of appropriate action or adequate action, if not inaction, on the part of the State in handling the situation.
“36. Moreover, the fact that the annual report of National Human Rights Commission on this serious incident of violation of human right has not been placed before State Legislative Assembly for discussion is not in dispute. Such inaction is a grave defiance on the part of the State Government of the provisions contained in Section 20 of the Protection of the Human Rights Act, 1993 which is couched in mandatory form. The State Government has not given any explanation in its affidavits as to why the said report was not placed in the State Legislative Assembly in spite of the fact that the same was received at least in the early part of the year 2005.”
In view of the aforesaid findings and conclusions by the Supreme Court, the High Court and the National Human Rights Commission, the boosting of “clean chit” from Magisterial Court of Ahmedabad by the BJP, Mr. Modi in particular, is clearly an attempt to shove the aforesaid findings and conclusions of “comprehensive failure and complicity of the Administration” under the carpet and stifle out the judicial proceedings of the Courts of Law.
After the Gujarat riots, to further rub salt on the injuries of the Muslim community, and to harass and encumber them in their fight for justice against the perpetrators of Gujarat riots, the Gujarat Police started arresting Muslim youths on numerous flimsy and fabricated grounds of conspiracies so as to put the whole community on defence and in a state of self-apathy and deter them from getting any justice whatsoever in the riot related cases and also to polarise the voters along communal lines.
The Gujarat police, particularly the notorious Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), rounded up several youths and framed numerous cases against Muslims under various sections of Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC) for alleged conspiracy. The arrest of innocent Muslims becomes more frequent at the time of election and recently the Gujarat Police has arrested Maulana Abdul Qavi, a prominent Muslim scholar from Hyderabad, in some odd 10-year old cases.
In almost all such cases, the police comes up with identical list of political persons who were supposed to be targeted by these so-called “conspirators and terrorists”. The list includes the name of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, BJP member Mayaben Kodnani, Bajrang Dal member Babu Bajrangi, VHP members Jaydeep Patel and Pravin Togadia and others. The revenge theory is used to the best as all these political persons have played major roles in the Gujarat riots of 2002. Ironically, many among them like Mayaben Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi have been convicted for their roles in the 2002 riots. Further accusations made against these arrested persons include that they received training in Pakistan and are members of terrorist organisations like, HuJI, LeT, ISI and others. In a majority of these cases, no evidence is provided even to base these accusations and the prosecution has failed rather miserably before the Court of Law to establish these forged and fabricated cases resulting in acquittal in almost all such cases.
To appease their political master, Mr. Modi, ATS went one step ahead in fabricating cases and used encounter as the means to give some credence to these fragile conspiracy theories. After the encounters, the police would report fabricated stories to the media that the accused were on a mission to kill Modi. This vilified the murdered as a monster and vitiated the atmosphere to such an extent that even questioning the encounter was looked down upon. The Gujarat government itself accepted that the encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauserbi, Tulsi Prajapati, and Ishrat Jahan and three others were not encounters but they were murdered in cold blood by the police. After the recent Supreme Court judgment, all the encounters since 2002 are now under investigation. The letter by DIG Mr. Vanzara, who is currently under detention for various encounter killings, leaves nothing for imagination about such encounter killings.
Insofar as the claim of “Development for All” is concerned, the less said about it, the better. First, Mr. Modi’s Government did not adequately compensate for the losses to the victims of the communal violence. The compensation that was offered by Mr. Modi’s Government was unjust, inadequate and humiliating. To alleviate this problem of unfair compensation, the Central Government by its directive dated 27-04-2007 enhanced the amount of compensation for the loss of livelihood to 10 times and an additional compensation of 3,50,000/- was awarded for the loss of life. The Modi’s Government avoided disbursement of the enhanced compensation and only after the directions of the High Court the amount of compensation was disbursed. Furthermore, the Government of Gujarat has not paid any compensation for places of worship, though it had “in principle” agreed to the said recommendations before NHRC. Thereafter, though Judgment for payment of the same has been passed by the High Court of Gujarat, the same is challenged before the Supreme Court as dilatory tactic.
Shockingly but as expected, the “most developed, empowered and advanced State” under the “able leadership” and “good governance” of Mr. Modi has refused and wilfully and deliberately avoided to pay adequate compensation to the victims of the violence, whereas, an under-developed and poor State “Odisha” has paid much more compensation with much lesser hassles to the victims of Kandhamal riots. Also the State of Gujarat is the only State which has opposed the implementation of pre-matric scholarships for Minorities in which it is required to share 25% of the expenditure, whereas all other States including those ruled by BJP have implemented the Scheme.
This non-payment of adequate compensation to the victims of communal violence and non-payment of any compensation for damaged places of worship and non- implementation of welfare schemes for Minorities unequivocally and unambiguously establishes that Mr. Modi’s Government is deliberately avoiding, opposing and blocking adequate compensation and the beneficial developmental schemes for Muslims. Therefore the claims of “Development for All” and also the claim of “Able Leadership” and “Good Governance” are proved to be hollow claims propagated and orchestrated with gross falsehood and lies, particularly when the Government of the so-called “most developed and advanced” State, Gujarat, cannot spare meagre funds to provide the benefits for poor students, who need educational scholarships.
Apart from denying the basic fundamental rights and denying the benefit of welfare schemes, Modi’s Government has gone further and illegally and in a planned manner usurped the Waqf Properties one after another. The Dargah and Qabrastan in Unjha, District Mehsana, which was desecrated and destroyed during the 2002 pogrom, has now been allotted to some Ambedkar Society. The Qabrastan land at Pavagadh, District Panchmahal has been acquired for “developmental purposes”. The Qabrastan land at Damnagar, District Amreli has been forcefully handed over to some Swaminarayan Trust. And a Mamlatdar’s Office is being constructed on the land of Qabrastan at Dhanduka, District Ahmedabad. These are just a few reported examples where the issue of such illegal misappropriation of Waqf Properties is before the High Court.
The shamelessness and audacity of Modi’s government reaches pinnacle as even today, it has not carried out any survey of the Internally Displaced People, the riot victims who were never able to return to their native homes. By any conservative standards, more than 35000 families never returned to their homes after the 2002 pogrom. There is no survey or record as to the status of their homes, shops and agricultural lands which they had to leave behind in order to save their life. Neither these families are granted the status of “Internally Displaced People” which entitles them for the welfare schemes or benefits meant specifically for them and they are left to fend for themselves.
Modi’s Government has denied Muslims their rightful share in the development or any benefit of the welfare schemes, more particularly to the victims of the communal violence. Further, it has done everything in its power to vilify the Muslims by persistent violation of the rights to life, liberty, equality and dignity and has cornered them by resorting to coercive means like illegal arrest and detention, fabrication of false terror cases, fake encounter and misappropriating and illegally grabbing Waqf Properties. The Muslims in Gujarat, on the other hand, have to fight lengthy legal battles even for their basic fundamental rights and to get basic amenities from the Administration like clean water, schools and health services. To Muslims it’s a struggle to survive with dignity in the State of Gujarat and they are fighting for it day after day against a very hostile administration with a fascist ideology.
The question is now open to the entire Nation to decide if the Nation would, without using its wisdom and understanding, beguiled by the grossly misleading and untruthful statements orchestrated and propagated by BJP and its Prime Ministerial candidate, would opt for him. Even though, it may be at the cost of ignoring the fear and apprehensions of Muslims, denial of equal protection to Muslims and thereby leave Muslims, further alienated from the general masses, with feelings of injustice and prejudicial treatment. Particularly when the hatred of Mr. Modi for Muslims is indicated clearly in the fact that BJP under his leadership does not find even one Muslim candidate to contest from UP, the State with reasonably large Muslim population.
The writing is there on the wall for all to see and acknowledge and which Mr. Modi’s supporters want to obfuscate, i.e. Muslims (at least 20% population of this Country) are to be ignored, side-lined and also overpowered, by communal polarisation, as in Gujarat or under the camouflage of non-existent “Able Leadership”, “Good Governance”, “Clean Chit” and “Development for All”, in the rest of the Country. The claims of the Government of Gujarat are hollow and the Corporate houses and the media owned by them have put up this “Development” mantra as a façade to hide the real face of the fascist ideology of Mr. Modi and Co.
[The writer is Advocate, High Court of Gujarat]