DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI reveals the Government machinery’s bias in unilaterally arresting Muslim youth, ruining their life and meting the slumdog treatment out to them.
Has the over-a-billion strong plural Bharat not a single brave soul to stand up and politely thunder: stop these one-sided, unilateral and selective arrests, being made following the serial blasts in Mumbai, which have so far claimed 30 innocent lives? Our heart goes out to the innocent victims, their widows, orphans and parents. May Allah grant peace to their souls!
CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE
Is the draught of moral courage so acute and so rampant that even a dissenting whimper is not heard to stop the avoidable harassment of the principal minority?
Who has gagged the voice of whistle-blowers? Why the level-headed Congressmen are silent? Why Mr. Digvijay Singh is the only honourable exception, who publicly registered his strong cavil against the palpably biased terror policy that has been mindlessly adopted by the men in uniform?
How can we philosophise the conspiracy of silence being executed confidently by the chiefs of NCP, Samajwadi Party, Samta Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Bhartiya Lok Dal, DMK and AIADMK? How would – the other question is – this utterly insensate and indefensible party attitude endear the Muslims to the Congress? Has this question ever occurred to the Prime Minister and the Congress president?
ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY
What is extraordinary in what the senior Congress leader, Mr. Digvijay Singh has averred? What, we feel, makes this ordinary statement, known to every informed Indian, is its unapologetic reiteration at various places and occasions and the unfortunate fact that no other person of status has shown that necessary gumption. The central point of his various pronouncements is: involvement of Hindu, rather Saffron outfits cannot be ruled out in the Mumbai blasts. To quote him exactly: “If I am called (by the courts) whatever information I have, I would love to share with every one under oath.” The Times of India quoted him saying: “The NIA is unveiling the murder of Sunil Joshi. If it is investigated intensely, I think some connection may be established to some in the BJP leadership…. If you see the moment (slain Maharashtra ATS chief) Hemant Karkare arrested Pragya Thakur, Dayanand Pandey, (Lt. Col. Prasad) Purohit, the whole BJP was up in arms. Advani led a delegation to the PM to stop the ATS Maharashtra from investigating. Narendra Modi called Karkare deshdrohi or anti-national. Then again, in the case of (co-accused) Swami Aseemanand, the BJP went overboard to defend him, but kept quiet after his confession. Rajnath Singh met Pragya Thakur. What does it signify, asked Singh.
BOMB FACTORIES
The former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh went to the extent of alleging that the Mother of Saffron is making bomb factories.
The RSS sympathisers have threatened him to call to the courts. The Congress leader, however, is of the view that the RSS attack is coming in the way of fight against terror. His parent body, nevertheless, has preferred to distance itself from Mr. Singh. We do not know how to describe this cowardly attitude. Observers feel if the RSS goes to the courts, the unanswered question “where hundreds of gunpowder trucks have vanished” is likely to be discussed threadbare in the dispensation of justice.
The Human Rights Commission, headed by Mr. Wajahat Habibullah, is yet to find time to look into the too well-known minority grievance regarding selective arrests followed by the alleged torture of the suspect-innocents.
EIGHT ACCUSED
In the meantime, on July 19 to be exact, the public prosecutor for the NIA, Mr. Arjun Ambalapatta, said the charges against the eight accused – Aseemanand, Bharat Rateshwar, Ramji Kalsagra, Sandeep Dangey, Sunil Johshi, Mehul, Bhavesh Patel and Suresh – included murder, attempt to murder, and conspiracy though terrorism was the most serious of them. Aseemanand and Rateshwar are currently in custody while the others have not been arrested. Joshi was murdered in 2008 while the others are absconding. Senior NIA officers have said that sleuths were scouring the country for the absconding suspects. Our investigations, the nation was informed, have led us to believe that Aseemanand, Rateshwar and Sunil Joshi were not only involved in the Ajmer blasts, but also in a series of the blasts across the country, including Mecca Masjid, Samjhota Express and Malegaon blasts. Are you listening, Mr. P. Chidambaram?
The Muslim leadership asks: is it not possible that the activists of the Abhinav Bharat and its allies are behind the recent Mumbai serial blasts? What is wrong with our feeling and the demand of Mr. Digvijay Singh.?
KEY QUESTION
The Muslim leadership is inclined to know whether the powers-that-be have ever focused their attention on the causes of origin and the why and what of the disgruntled elements among the Muslim minority?
At the international level, it is the indefensible defence of the United States and its allies of Israel, their sustained efforts to change uncomfortable leaderships in the Middle East and North Africa and their ultimate aim at capturing Muslim resources in the Arab-Muslim world.
As far as the case of India is concerned, though this attitude of the West led by the US hurts the Muslims, their main grouse and grievance is, and has been, the unfair treatment heavily punctuated with bias, prejudice, double-talk, double-deal and refusal to allow Muslims to lead a dignified life in their own country. Muslims resent this slumdog treatment.
There is no place for physical torture in an objective interrogation. There are clear-cut observations of the Apex Court in this regard. Even the convicts and under-trials enjoy fundamental rights. We feel the authorities know on this subject much more than us.
INNOCENTS’ REACTION
And by the way, have they ever thought over the reaction of the alleged torture of the innocent? As this scribe has also seen the jail atmosphere during the 1975 Emergency, we can say confidently that unjustified incarcerations produce the worst variety of mindsets and criminals.
The inquiries made till date create the impression that the proverbial black cat is being searched in a dark room where she is not. Why not focus on the suspects of other communities whose sections have a past?
Does the July 20 execution of Mark Stowman, who faced the charge of “hate-killing” of an Indian, Mr. Vasudev Patel in the US, not sent a telling message to those who periodically deal with similar upheavals in our country? Can our Union Home Ministry cite a few concrete examples of capital punishments to those who, without sufficient legal and moral grounds, sniffed off Muslim lives in riots?
DEATHS IN POLICE CUSTODY
Confessions obtained through the alleged torture may help the Police in winning a case in a court. But do they know what impact this act casts on the real sharks? You allow the criminals to go scot free. It is really disturbing for a democracy and the peace and tranquillity of the citizenry.
The nadir was touched in Mumbai when one Mr. Faiz Usmani, a grocer, died in police custody. There were no marks on his body. He died of brain haemorrhage and infarction of heart. Obviously, there are ways other than electric shocks and pulling of nails. Perhaps Usmani was subjected to inhuman treatment because his younger brother is in jail on similar suspicion. The point is how far calling a brother of a culprit is justified? It should not go unnoticed that Maharashtra records the highest number of custodial deaths. According to a National Crime Records Bureau Report, of the 59 deaths reported in lock-ups, 18 were in Maharashtra, followed by nine in MP and six in UP.
A CLASSIC CASE OF PREJUDICE
Ignoring the chief Muslim irritant, the bias, the authorities have suspected involvement and violence by the IM, SIMI, LeT, 313 and even Taliban. It is on the basis of this “evidence” which is just “suspicion” the Muslim youths are being allegedly tormented. That the authorities’ logic is flawed and based upon prejudice becomes clearer from a well-argued letter addressed to the Union Home Minister by a group of eminent social activists in February this year. The letter lamented the tendency in special agencies entrusted with the task of investigating crimes of terror to implicate innocent Muslim youths in the act of terrorism. They said the special cell of the Delhi police was particularly afflicted with this syndrome of manufacturing encounters, ISI agents and terrorists.
Referring to a July 2005 case where a Delhi Police Special Team arrested seven young men claiming that they were ISI agents, the letter said five years after the incident, additional session judge Mr. A S Bhatt ruled that they were innocent, sacrificed for awards and promotions. Similarly, the letter also referred to a Central Bureau of Investigation closure report in Al-Badr case that says that the special cell had falsely implicated two Muslim youths who were actually police informers. The CBI then recommended severe punishment for cell officers Ravinder Kumar Tyagi, the recipient of the President’s Gallantry Award and Vinay Tyagi and Subhash Vats in the case, but, sadly enough, no action was taken against them.
The “bloody and shameful” track record of the officers of the special cell raised serious questions over their methods and motives, the letter pointed out. The activists asked the minister as to why your officers do communal witch hunt, fake encounters and branding of innocents as criminals.
The signatories to this letter were the social activist Ms. Shabnam Hashmi, the CPI general secretary, Mr. A.B. Bardhan, Rajya Sabha member, D. Raja, National Advisory Council member, Mr. Harsh Mander, Malika Sarabhai and social activist Ms. Medha Patkar.
IS IT EXAGGERATION?
Do our authorities think this is exaggeration? On the contrary, Muslims feel the bias coupled with prejudice has been institutionalised which, we feel, is harmful for the republic and our integration and national solidarity.
Another important question that the biased and prejudiced need to ask themselves is: what is the rate of conviction of the Muslim youth arrested on fictitious grounds? Recall the case of TADA. Was it not next to negligible? Just 2 per cent, perhaps!
Not long ago, 21 Muslim boys were arrested at random in Hyderabad in 2007. All were freed by the Court after years-long trial. But in the process their careers were ruined.
Is it desirable? Do such less-than-rational tactics strengthen democracy and national solidarity?