On 19 April, 2013John Kerry, US Secretary of State released a report on human rights entitled, ”Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2012”, as mandated by the US Congress, confirming the fact that investigative reports issued by human rights groups in India showed bias in favour of Gujarat’s Chief MinisterNarendra Modi.
“Civil society activists continued to express concern about the Gujarat government’s failure to protect the population or arrest those responsible for communal violence in 2002 that resulted in the killing of more than 1,200 persons, the majority of whom were Muslims, although there was progress made in several court cases,” said the report.
Narendra Modi is continuing to advance himself as a dynamic and visionary politician and a development candidate; he has already placed his hat in the political arena to become the next Prime Minister. The reality of his politics does not corroborate his claim. His politics is a two-edged sword. It is based on caste politics and politics of religion. His party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is essentially a caste-based party and Modi looks at the caste of the politicians whom he inducts in his cabinet to increase his vote bank. In Gujarat; it is the Patel community. In Modi’s previous cabinet four out of nine and three out of seven in his current one are Patels.
The politics of religion practitioners constantly reminds his supporters that he is going to be tough on Muslims and if any one of his cabinet ministers slips, he would not back off from supporting him or her. Maya Kodnani was involved in the killing of 97 Gujarati Muslims in NarodaPatiya area in anti-Muslim riots of 2002. Modi first gave her a ticket to contest the election and when she won the election he made her a minister in his cabinet. She was convicted in 2012 of murder, attempt to murder and conspiracy with the judge naming her as “a kingpin of riots”. She was given 28 years in jail for her involvement in the killing of these 97 Gujarati Muslims. When Amit Shah, Deputy Minister in Modi’s cabinet was jailed after he was charged for his involvement in killing of a Muslim man and his wife wrongfully, Modibacked and supported him. In fact, he promoted him to the post of general secretary of BJP.
Talking about BJP, let us look at what the Government of India has discovered which the Muslims of India had known all along for the last 65 years. At the All India Congress Committee’s meeting in January 2013 Indian Union Home Minister SushilkumarShinde claimed that BJP and its ideological mentor, RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS), were conducting training camps to spread terrorism.The Home Minister further said BJP and RSS were behind the blasts aboard the Pakistan-bound Samjhauta Express, bomb blasts in Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid and the Malegaon mosque in Maharashtra. But both BJPand RSS had blamed Muslims for these crimes. The Congress leaders defended the HomeMinister and said right-wing terrorism was a reality in the country. Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, former Union Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, and Union Minister Rajeev ShukladefendedShinde, saying there was enough evidence of RSS-backed terrorism.
Look at what Late Asghar AliEngineer of Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai said in a report dated March 16-31, 2002:
“The middle castes are extremely conservative and unhesitatingly align themselves with BJP and most of the Non-Resident Indians living in UK and USA, and belonging to these castes help the SanghParivar generously. The Non-Resident Indians’ (NRI) money has greatly helped the Sangh Parivarfinancially. They have really helped make Gujarat the laboratory of Hindutva. Also, every communal-carnage that took place has furthered the cause of BJP and its political agenda. And it is for this reason that it found it easy to come to power in Gujarat unaligned with any other political party.”
BJP is conducting terror training camps and Narendra Modi wants validation and recognition of his anti-Muslim policies even by the United States. He has been denied visa since 2005 by the US over the issue of 2002 Anti-Muslim riots. Recently, in May 2013, Victoria Nuland, State Department spokesperson said, “The US made it clear that there was no change in its stand of not granting visa to Gujarat Chief Minister NarendraModi.”
Modi would not give up this easily. He badly needs US recognition and to get this recognition he is entering US through backdoor, sneaking into the US via satellite to speak to the Gujaratis living in the United States and Canada. He spoke to them in a live broadcast on 12 May, 2013.
“He sent a warning to leaders and the people that in today’s globalised state, even the smallest events in India are now observed and noticed by the whole world and what they do should be with the greatest thought and attention to prevent negative messages from going out and to promote the positive trends in the country. In the crisis that the country now faces, Modi reiterated the need of the hour is to regain the Trust of the people which would propel the country to greater heights.”(India Journal, California, 17 May, 2013)
Modi is a self-serving man who is engaged in self-promotion. In his speech, he kept on talking about ‘Bharosa’ meaning Trust. He wants Gujaratis living in the US and Canada to continue to help and support him, hide and avoid talking about his anti-Muslims policies, prevent details from going out of Gujarat, and place their Trust in him.
The events of 2002 anti-Muslim riots tell the chilling story. Modi does not want Gujaratis to talk about the following chilling facts:
“Hindus set fire to homes in a shantytown in western India’s Gujarat state today, killing at least 27 Muslims as they slept, police said. The blaze brought the death toll from a series of attacks at least 158. At least 76 Muslims died in attacks Thursday when Hindu rioters torched a Muslim neighborhood. Homes were set ablaze, and rioters kept firefighters away for hours. In today’s attack inNaroda, on the outskirt of Ahmedabad, about 300 Hindus set fire to a Muslim-dominated shantytown in an industrial area about 2 a.m., Deputy Police Commissioner P.B.Gondya said. On Thursday, police had appeared unwilling to act to quell what appeared to be the worst rioting to hit the country in nearly a decade. The officers stood in bunches, watching as groups of Hindus wielding iron rods and cans of gasoline or kerosene roamed Ahmedabad attacking Muslims in their homes shops and vehicles. In Thursday’s worst attack, 38 Muslims, including 12 children, died when about 2,000 Hindus set fire to six homes in an affluent Muslim neighborhood. A former lawmaker, EhsanJafry fired at the rioters when they tried to enter his house, but he was dragged out and burned alive. Elsewhere inAhmedabad, rioters pulled a Muslim truck driver out of his vehicle and killed him at the roadblock, police said. Other Hindus made bonfires with goods looted from shops, and 20 men tore down a small mosque.”(Los Angeles Times, 1 March, 2002)
“Rampaging mobs of Hindus have killed more than 500 people since Wednesday, when Muslims set fire to a train carrying Hindu nationalists. The attack killed 58 people, 14 of them children, and sparked India’s worst communal violence in a decade.
“But several reports quoting witnesses have said the Hindu activists stirred up trouble by chanting offensive slogans and refusing to pay for food bought from Muslim women. Just hours after the Godhramassacre, India Prime Minister AtalBehariVajpayee said, based on preliminary report, that, ‘it appears that the train was stopped , maybe because slogans were being shouted in the train.’
“KADI, India – People know their neighbors well in a small town, and with about 50 copies of the Koran [Qur’ān] reduced to ashes in the Mosque here, Muslims have a good idea who committed the sacrilege. Abbas Pathan, a criminal lawyer and a Muslim community leader, blames town councillor RameshPatel and other supporters of the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) party for a string of arson incidents in western India since mob violence erupted last week.
“Ramesh and the party deny that had anything to do with any of these attacks. But Girish Patel, a Harvard law graduate and one of India’s leading human rights lawyers, has no doubt that theVHP orchestrated murderous violence across Gujarat state – with the complicity of government officials.” ‘From various sources, I know there were instructions not to take any action,’ lawyer Patel said in an interview Sunday in Ahmedabad, the state’s commercial capital.
“In Ahmedabad, looting and arson attacks on Muslims were so systematic last week that they must have been organized, said Patel, the human rights lawyer.” They carefully selected Muslims’ property and destroyed it,” he said. Among evidence of that arsonists and looters somehow knew that such buildings as a local hotel, part of a U.S chain, and a single shop in an upscale mall were owned by Muslims.”
“Ahsan Jaffrey, a former member of Parliament, wasn’t so fortunate. He died that night with 19 relatives in the flames of his own house. He had tried to chase the crowd off by firing his rifle into the air.”(Los Angeles Times, 4 March, 2002)
“Groups of Hindus attacked Muslims on Monday as religious violence that killed hundreds in western India continued to smolder. Roaming mobs returned to Panvad, where 30 shops were burned Sunday by about 2000 Hindu tribesmen who surrounded the village, deputy Police Supt. B.L.Parmar said.”(Los Angeles Times, 12 March, 2002)
Los Angeles Times said in an editorial “Internal Test for India”on 14 March 2002:
“Religious violence is India’s shame and one of its biggest internal threats. A ruling Wednesday by that nation’s Supreme Court gives the government a chance to atone for the abysmal failure of state and local authorities to stop Hindus for slaughtering of Muslims this month. The court barred Hindus from holding a prayer ceremony planned for Friday in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya until a lower court rules whether the site should be given to Muslims or Hindus. For centuries a mosque stood on the site, but in 1992 Hindu fundamentalists destroyed it, saying it was the birthplace of the god Rama and they would build a temple of their religion there….”
This is a changed world. The events of 11 September, 2001 have shown beyond any shadow of doubt, that the twin towers of evil in this world are racism and terrorism. The Sangh Parivar volunteers have been terrorising openly since the demolition of Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in December 1992. The Gujarati Hindus have been travelling from Gujarat to Ayodhya by train and always harassed Muslim vendors at railway stations in several cities in Gujarat including the railway station at Godhra. They were encouraged by the victory of the BJP that was able to form the central government in New Delhi with AtalBehariVajpayee as Prime Minister. L.K.Advani, MurliManohar Joshi and Uma Bharati, who were allegedly involved in the demolition of Babri Masjid, became ministers in AtalBehariVajpayee’s cabinet. Hindutvwadi volunteers think that they can commit acts of terror, burn Muslims alive, destroy their houses, shops and businesses and nobody would touch them or prosecute them.This has been going on for the last five decades. They had nothing to worry because they knew that not a single volunteer would be arrested or prosecuted.
BJP emphasises its own brand of Hinduism called Hindutva. The NRIs have been importing racism, caste system and apartheid in the United States, as per research study made by Asghar Ali Engineer. TheseNRIs fill the bank accounts of BJP and RSS. Those who received these funds in India are engaging in hate crimes, intolerance, prejudice, bias and terrorism. The Hindutva volunteers are engineering riots and carrying out vicious attacks, hurting Muslims and other minorities in India. Their philosophy is to do it and deny it.
Modi is in the process of catapulting himself into the national political arena by three political moves: by increasing contributions and donations made by Gujarati NRIs to his campaign, BJP and RSS, by becoming a national figure, by taking out full page advertisements in India newspapers in the US like, India West, India Journal, India Tribune and others, and by becoming a keynote speaker at the “GUJARAT DAY ” celebrations in the United States, via satellite and electronic media, seeking validation of development of Gujarat as his personal achievement. The above mentioned newspapers in the US have been publishing full page advertisements on a regular basis about developments in Gujarat. These advertisements openly and subliminally send the message that Modi is responsible for developments in Gujarat.
We would like to express our profound thanks to John Kerry, Secretary of State, for issuing the above referenced investigative report and are requesting the State Department to keep track, as part of war on terror, of NRIs who are using money and the democratic system of the US to help Hindutwawadis engage in terrorism.
[MOHAMMAD YACOOB is former National Chairman of Consultative Committee of Indian Muslims in North America, Chicago, Illinois, USA]