IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – August 9th, 2010

by Publisher on August 9, 2010

In this issue

Communal Harmony

News Headlines

Opinions & Editorials

Communal Harmony

Call to promote communal amity (Aug 4, 2010, The Hindu)

Catholicos Baselius Mar Thoma Didymos I, supreme head of the

Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, has called upon the Church to take the

initiative in forming associations that would maintain communal harmony

in the nation.

He was speaking during the managing committee meeting of the Church at the old seminary here on Tuesday.

In

his presidential address, the Catholicos said the formation of such

groups, which should comprise leaders of various religious beliefs,

assumed importance in rooting out the growing evil of religious

extremism and terrorism. …

http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/04/stories/2010080451190200.htm

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News Headlines

Former BJP MLA arrested in Dipda Darwaja case of 2002 riots (Aug 3, 2010, Yahoo)

A former BJP MLA, accused in a 2002 post-Godhra riot case, today

surrendered before a court here and was arrested. Prahlad Gosa, ex-MLA

Visnagar, and former member of Visnagar Taluka Panchayat Dahyabhai

Patel, today surrendered before special judge S C Srivastava hearing the

case who sent them to judicial custody.

Gosa, who was the then

MLA of Visnagar in Mehsana district, and Patel, are facing charges of

instigating the riots in Dipda Darwaja locality of Visnagar town where

11 people of the minority community were burnt to death by a mob in

February 2002. In February this year, a special court, set up following

the Supreme Court order to conduct trial in some of the cases probed by

the special investigation team (SIT), had ordered that Gosa and Patel be

arraigned as accused in the Dipda Darwaja case.

The order was

issued after an eye witness Mohamad Iqbal Baloch requested the court to

arraign the duo as accused in the case as they had allegedly instigated

the mob against minority community members. The duo had challenged the

special court’s order in the Gujarat High Court which rejected their

plea.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20100803/1416/tnl-former-bjp-mla-arrested-in-dipda-dar_1.html

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Sohrabuddin case: CBI continues to interrogate Amit Shah (Aug 8, 2010, Times of India)

Former Gujarat minister Amit Shah continued to be quizzed by CBI

officials here Sunday, a day after he was grilled for nine hours in

connection with the 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a staged

shootout. The former minister of state for home was at the Central

Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office here in the morning for the final

day of questioning. His two-day period of CBI remand ends Sunday night.

Though Shah has been lodged in Sabarmati jail after his arrest July 25

and judicial remand thereafter, he spent Saturday night in the CBI

lock-up in it’s regional office in Sector-10 here.

In the

morning, he was brought to the CBI camp office in the old secretariat

here for further questioning. Sources in the CBI said the minister faced

over 300 questions over the length of the day Saturday. His lawyers who

were present, though at a visual distance, said they had no complaints

in relation to the questioning. According to the source, Shah has been

less than cooperative in answering questions. On Saturday, he was in the

custody of the CBI from almost 10 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. The questioning

began around 10.a.m. Sunday again. He has answered largely in

monosyllables or at best with “I don’t remember”.

The former

minister has been asked searching questions about the orders he issued

in relation to the transfer of key police officers who are now

co-accused and his phone conversations – 32 times with Deputy

Superintendent of Police N.K. Amin on the day Sohrabuddin’s wife

Kauserbi is suspected to have been killed, the source said. The Gujarat

Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has been accused of killing Sheikh in a

staged shootout Nov 26, 2005, in Ahmedabad. His wife Kauserbi is

suspected to have been killed at a farm near here two days later.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6274667.cms

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Prajapati encounter: 4 Rajasthan cops arrested (Aug 6, 2010, Rediff)

Four Rajasthan Police personnel, accused in the death of Tulsiram

Prajapati, a key witness in the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh,

were arrested after they surrendered in the Danta court in Gujarat’s

Banaskantha district on Friday. ASI Narayansingh Chauhan, constables

Dalpatsingh Rathod, Kartarsingh Jat and Yuddhveersingh Rajput, posted at

Udaipur were sent to judicial custody by chief judicial magistrate S S

Joshi. According to deputy SP R K Patel, investigating officer in the

Prajapati encounter case, the four men were shown as absconding accused

in the case in the charge sheet filed last month by the state CID

probing the case. Their remand would be sought at a later stage, he

said, adding with their arrest total number of accused arrested in the

case has reached 13.

Gujarat Police allegedly killed Prajapati in

an encounter near Ambaji in Danta taluka in Banaskantha when he tried to

escape from custody while being shifted from Rajasthan in December

2006. The key accused in the case include IPS officers D G Vanzara,

Rajkumar Pandiyan, Dinesh M N and Vipul Agarwal, along with five lower

ranking cops, who are facing charges of criminal conspiracy, murder,

kidnapping, destruction of evidence and forgery. The charge sheet said

Vanzara, range DIG at that time, and Dinesh, who was SP of Udaipur, had

conspired to kill Prajapati but it does not throw light on the motive

behind the conspiracy. Vanzara, Dinesh and Pandiyan are also accused in

the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin and murder of his wife Kausar Bi.

For

interrogation, the CID had got transfer warrant of Vanzara and Dinesh M

N, who were lodged in the Sabarmati central jail in Ahmedabad, however,

they are yet to take custody of Pandiyan. According to the charge sheet

filed last month, ASI Narayansingh and constable Yuddhaveersingh from

Udaipur took Prajapati to Ahmedabad in connection with a criminal case

on December 26, 2005. On the same day after the court proceedings were

over, they departed along with Prajapti back for Udaipur about 11 pm by

Udaipur Mail from Ahmedabad, it said.

As per plan the escorting

cops filed a fake complaint with the railway police station outpost in

Himmatnagar in the wee hours on December 27, 2005, which said that two

unidentified persons had on gun-point managed to escape with Prajapati

near Raygadh railway station, it said. Later Prajapati was imprisoned at

some unidentified location before he was taken to Chhapri village near

Ambaji with his hands tied on December 28, 2005, in a private car.

Another accused, the then ASI Ashish Pandya who was present there shot

from an unlicensed pistol on the bonnet of jeep and later shot himself

in the arm to establish that Prajapati had opened fire, the charge sheet

said.

Meanwhile, Narayansingh and Yuddhaveersingh fired at

Tulsiram who died on the spot. Later a report of firing for self

protection was filed with Ambaji police station at 8.15 am the same day.

The charge sheet said all the while from December 25 to 28 Vanzara,

Pandiyan, Aggarawal and Dinesh were in contact with each other on mobile

phones.

http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/aug/06/prajapati-encounter-4-rajasthan-cops-arrested.htm

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Sohrabuddin case: CBI grills former CID chief for nine hours (Aug 5, 2010, IBN)

Retired IPS officer O P Mathur, who had headed the probe into the

Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case as chief of Gujarat CID, was

today grilled by CBI for nearly nine hours. Mathur, now in-charge of the

state-run Rasksha Shakti University, appeared before CBI at its office

at Block 11 of Old Secretariat campus in Gandhinagar after being

summoned by the agency. According to sources in the CBI, investigation

in the case was on and Mathur, if required, will be called again.

Mathur, however, declined to comment, when asked about the matter after

he came out from the CBI office.

The CBI has also summoned former

investigation officer in the case Geetha Johri, and ex-DGP P C Pandey

who have been asked to appear before the agency by August 10 and

11.Mathur was the head of state CID which investigated the encounter of

Sohrabuddin and the murder of his wife Kausar Bi in November 2005,

before the probe was transfered to CBI by the Supreme Court in

January.He was earlier summoned by CBI in May but his statement was not

recorded at that time.

The CBI has already recorded the statement

of another retired IPS officer G C Raigar, who had also headed the state

CID when it was probing the fake encounter case. He was called in as a

witness. On July 25, the central agency has arrested former Gujarat

minister of state for home Amit Shah on charges of criminal conspiracy,

murder, kidnapping and extortion. After taking over the investigation in

the case, CBI also arrested IPS officer Abhay Chudasama, a key

conspirator in the case.

It has also recorded statements of

Rajneesh Rai, who had arrested three IPS officers D G Vanzara, Rajkumar

Pandian and Dinesh M N, alleged to be the conspirators behind the

encounter. IPS officer G L Singhal, now with Gujarat Anti- Terrorist

Squad (ATS) has also being questioned. Singhal was Gandhinagar SP when

the encounter took place. The earlier probe by CID had lead to the

arrest of 14 policemen including Vanzara, Pandian of Gujarat cadre and

Dinesh M N of Rajasthan cadre.

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/sohrabuddin-case-cbi-grills-former-cid-chief-for-nine-hours/206695.html

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Dara encounter case: BJP in for more trouble? (Aug 6, 2010, Times of India)

While the political atmosphere is hot with rumours of possible arrest

of two BJP leaders from Rajasthan in Sohrabuddin fake encounter case,

yet another such case is likely to add to the woes of the state BJP

leadership. Next in line of fire are a former minister of Raje

government and a few IPS officers in connection with the fake encounter

of the notorious criminal Dara Singh who was gunned down by a special

operations group (SOG) on October 23, 2006.

Sources said the CBI,

which started the probe into the encounter after a Supreme Court (SC)

order on April 9, is moving slowly, but steadily and has reportedly laid

its hand on some clinching evidence which can land the prominent BJP

leader and a few IPS officers in trouble. Sources said that the CBI has

collected call details of the policemen involved in the encounter and

the BJP leader. The IPS officers had reportedly spoken to the BJP leader

over phone just before the encounter took place. The agency is also

likely to interrogate former DGP of Rajasthan AS Gill to ascertain who

gave approval to the encounter. The cops had claimed that they had to

open fire at Dara Singh as the latter had fired a bullet at the police

jeep while he was being chased.

The CBI is likely to interrogate

14 policemen, including the former BJP minister, then ADG (crime) A K

Jain, then DIG (SOG) Ponnuchami, ASP Arshad Ali and others. The CBI is

also likely to interrogate a prominent liquor contractor from Rajasthan

for whom Dara Singh used to work. Even an administrative enquiry

conducted by IAS officer Rohit Kumar Singh found the encounter fake.

Rohit Kumar had recently sent its report to the state home department.

Sources said the CBI has found some evidence suggesting that the former

BJP minister pressurised the Jhunjhunu district police to frame Dara

Singh in a murder case. Sources said that the CBI has seized some

documents from Malsisar police station in Jhunjhunu district. They have

also seized the case diary which reportedly indicate the former BJP

minister pressurised the CO of Rajgarh, Pratap Singh Sevda.

The

minister had allegedly called Sevda and asked him to change the

direction of investigation in a loot-cum-murder case. In the

loot-cum-murder case, a businessman had been shot to death and robbed of

Rs 38,000 in which the Rajgarh police was looking for Dara and his

accomplices, including Veer Singh and Rajia alias Raju. Singh, a native

of Munditaal village under Rajgarh police station in Churu district was

killed in a police encounter on the Jaipur-Ajmer Highway on the

outskirts of Jaipur on October 23, 2006. Singh’s wife Sushila Devi

lodged an FIR with Mansarovar police station under Sections 307, 332,

353 of IPC and Section 3/25 of the Arms Act against four police

officials and one other, that she had named five persons, including four

policemen, for fake encounter killing of Dara Singh.

She had

raised eight points before chief judicial magistrate (CJM) who found the

encounter fake. The court ordered filing of a report against the

policemen, including ADG A K Jain, ASP Arshad Ali and others, on April

2007. On the day of incident, ASP Arshad Ali got a tip-off from an

informer about two dacoits travelling on Ajmer-bound bus. Police found

two suspects and made them to come down from the bus but they allegedly

tried to escape. When the police challenged them, one of them reportedly

fired on the police party and fled. Police team then hunted them down

and while they were hiding behind Rajendra Nagar LPG godown. Dara Singh

was killed while the other person escaped. Police claimed to have found a

country-made pistol in his possession.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6263345.cms

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Madgaon blast: Hindu group member arrested (Aug 2, 2010, IBN)

Maharashtra ATS has arrested a key accused in the Madgaon blast case.

The arrested man has been identified as Prashant Juvekar of the Sanatan

Sanstha and he is accused of conspiracy and training people to carry

out the attack. Juvekar was arrested at the Bhusawal railway station of

Maharashtra on July 31. “We arrested Prashant Juvekar outside Bhusawal

station at around 9:45 PM on July 31. He is a conspirator in the blast,”

said Maharashtra ATS chief Rakesh Maria.

Police also claim to

have recovered a 7.65 mm pistol from him. Juvekar was produced in a

Nashik court on Monday that sent him on police remand till August 3. He

had so far evaded the police and was one of the four absconding accused

in Madgaon blast case. A scooter planted with explosives exploded

killing its two occupants. Both the victims – Malgonda Patil and Yogesh

Naik – belonged to Sanatan Sanstha. The investigation into the case was

handed over to the NIA, which filed a chargesheet on May 17, 2010 and

named 11 accused in it.

Five Santahan Sanstha activists were

arrested earlier, in connection with the blast that took place on

October 16, 2009. With the arrest of Juvekar now six of the 11 accused

have been arrested. Two of the accused are dead and three are still

absconding. Those arrested earlier in the case include Vinayak Patil,

Dhananjay Ashtekar, Prashant Ashtekar, Dilip Mandgaonkar and Vinay

Talekar. Those absconding are Jaypraksh alias Anna, Saran Akolkar and

Rudra Patil.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/madgaon-blast-hindu-group-member-arrested/128049-3.html

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RSS design is to divide society (Aug 2, 2010, Times of India)

Congress has accused RSS of trying to put a ‘smokescreen’ on the role

of Hindutva outfits in acts of terrorism by seeking to either play down

their offence or dissociating itself from such activists. “The RSS is

trying to cut its losses to the extent they can now that they are

feeling the heat,” party spokesman Manish Tiwari said on Sunday.

He

added that RSS was scurrying for cover knowing that revelations of the

involvement of its functionaries in terror incidents had not gone down

well. “The RSS wants everyone to believe that only some hotheads in its

ranks have gone rogue, but it is possible that they did all that with

the blessings of the bosses,” Tiwari said.

Another Congress

spokesman Mohan Prakash asked the outfit to explain how a number of its

activists had died while making bombs at different points of time.

“Their design is to divide society,” Prakash said. He claimed the timing

of some of the incidents were a clear pointer to an attempt to create

disaffection among communities.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6245878.cms

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SC awards life sentence to 3 in honour killing, says they deserved death (Aug 4, 2010, Times of India)

The Supreme Court has awarded life sentence to three persons in an

honour killing case, in which six members of a family were gunned down,

but said the accused deserved capital punishment. The apex court

however, refrained from awarding death penalty to Master Krishna, Ram

Sewak and Kishori as the incident was two decades old and slammed the

High Court for acquitting them by rejecting the testimonies of a child

and another witness.

“There is no manner of doubt that killing

six persons and wiping out almost the whole family on the flimsy ground

of saving the honour of the family would fall within the rarest of rare

case evolved by this court and, therefore, the trial court was perfectly

justified in imposing capital punishment on the respondents.

“However,

this court also notices that the incident had roughly taken place

before 20 years, i.e., on August 10/11, 1991. Further, the High Court

had acquitted the respondents by a judgment dated April 12, 2002. After

April 12, 2002 till this date, nothing adverse against any of the

respondents is reported to this Court,” a Bench of Justices H S Bedi and

J M Panchal said in a judgement.

The apex court said that to

sentence the trio “to death after their acquittal in the year 2002 would

not be justified on the facts and in the circumstances of the case,”

and hence it imposed life sentence on them. Six members of Gulzari’s

family–his wife Ramwati, brother Baburam and the couple’s three sons

Rajesh, Umesh and Dharmendra–were shot dead by Krishna and the other

two in Uttar Pradesh’s Farukhabad district. Gulzari’s son Madan, who was

six years old at that time, was a witness to the killing along with a

neighbour Jhabbulal.

The incident was a sequel to Krishna’s

daughter Sontara eloping with Amar Singh, son of Jhabulal. The trio

committed the murder of Gulzari’s family as they suspected that Ramwati

helped them elope. Though the sessions court awarded them death

sentence, the Allahabad High Court acquitted them after disbelieving the

testimonies, after which the UP government appealed in the apex court.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6257691.cms

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Dantewada massacre: Probe blames 4 officers (Aug 3, 2010, Indian Express)

An internal inquiry by the CRPF into the massacre of 75 of its men by

Naxalites in Dantewada on April 6 has held four of its officers guilty

of several lapses, including the fact that the ill-fated operation was

planned in a hurry and without adequate assessment of the threats and

dangers. The report of the Court of Inquiry, instituted by the CRPF to

probe into the role of these four officers, is learnt to have found

fault with the manner in which the three-day-long area domination

exercise by the CRPF had been planned by DIG Nalin Prabhat just three

days after taking charge of his office in Dantewada. The report has

noted that the decision to go in for such an exercise was taken by

Prabhat during a meeting he had with Chhattisgarh Police IG in Bastar on

April 1. Prabhat had taken charge on March 29. The operation -

codenamed ‘Operation Khanjar’ by Prabhat – began on the night of April 3

and 4.

“Such a large-scale operation involving 38 teams covering

all over the jurisdiction (of the DIG), just within a week of taking

over the charge, apparently did not give adequate time to Nalin Prabhat,

DIG, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of his troops. His

statement that he had three and a half years experience in CRPF in south

Kashmir, undertaking operations through his troops cannot be treated as

sufficient enough in operating with another group of troops in a

totally different kind of operational area,” the report is understood to

have said.

Incidentally, Prabhat has a reputation of being tough

on Naxalites and his performance as SP in Naxal-affected Karimnagar and

Warrangal districts of Andhra Pradesh have been widely appreciated,

which has been taken note of by the Court as well. The other officers,

whose role was probed by the Court of Inquiry, were the then IG (Special

Sector), Ramesh Chandra (now retired), the commandant of the ill-fated

battalion, Vimal Kumar Bisht, and Inspector Sanjeev Bagri who led the

reinforcement team after hearing of the attack. The report has concluded

that Ramesh Chandra was not diligent enough in exercising control over

officers who had planned the operation.

Bisht has escaped with a

minor reprimand relating to the charge that he had not paid sufficient

attention in planning the operation. But Bagri has been indicted for his

failure to lead the reinforcement to the spot in time. The Court of

Inquiry submitted its report to the Director General of CRPF Vikram

Srivastava on June 30. The report is awaiting further action from the

DG.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/655356/

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Seven held guilty for lynching five Dalits in Haryana (Aug 7, 2010, Thaindian.com)

A district court here Saturday held seven people guilty and acquitted

19 others in a case relating to the 2002 lynching of five Dalits in

this Haryana district. The punishment for the convicts will be announced

Monday. All the seven people held guilty were sent to judicial custody

by Additional District and Sessions Judge A.K. Jain Saturday.

Those

convicted are Om Prakash Kablana (head of Gaushala village), Shishu Pal

Malik, Ranbir Malhan, Jagbir Malhan, Satbir Singh Rathi, Ramesh Surha

and Sube Singh, all residents of Kaloi village in this district. Haryana

Police registered a case against 28 people following the lynching of

the Dalit men at Dulina village Oct 15, 2002.

The victims, who

hailed from Mewat area of Haryana, were taking a cow with them on a

vehicle. Some villagers saw them and took them to a police post in

Dulina village. After a while, residents of nearby villages gathered at

Dulina and the mob then started demanding that the five men be punished.

Police and district officials from Gurgaon (Jhajjar earlier was not a

district) reached the place but the mob pulled the five men out of the

police post and beat them to death on the road. The court took eight

years to decide the case. During this period, two of the 28 accused

died.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/seven-held-guilty-for-lynching-five-dalits-in-haryana_100408788.html

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Opinions and Editorials

Hindutva Terror Must Be Defeated – Editorial (Aug 8, 2010, Peoples Democracy)

The net of terror spread by the Hindutva terrorist groups continues

to widen posing a very serious threat to the unity and integrity of the

secular-democratic modern India. Presenting his ministry’s report card

for July, the union home minister announced that the National

Investigation Agency (NIA) will probe the terrorist attacks on the

Samjhauta Express and examine the entire conspiracy behind the attack,

including the links of the accused in terrorist attacks at Malegaon

(September 8, 2008), Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad (May 18, 2007) and at the

Dargah in Ajmer (October 11, 2007). 68 people were killed when bombs

exploded in two coaches of Delhi-Lahore Samjhauta Express around mid

night of February 18, 2007. A few weeks after the Malegaon bomb blast,

the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested 11 people including a

sadhvi and a former army officer, commandant of the Bhonsala Military

School, Nashik. This was the first instance in recent times, of arrests

of people belonging to Hindutva rightwing organisations on charges of

anti-national terrorist activities. These investigations subsequently

led to similar developments with the other two incidents which are in

advanced state of investigation by the CBI and the Rajasthan ATS. These

links are now been extended to the Samjhauta Express.

Even prior

to the revelations of such investigations, the CPI(M) had been drawing

the attention of the central government to various reports linking some

RSS affiliates with incidents of bomb blasts across the country. At a

meeting of the National Integration Council on October 13, 2008, the

CPI(M) in its submission stated: “Police investigations in the past few

years have noted the involvement of Bajrang Dal or other RSS

organisations in various bomb blasts across the country – in 2003, in

Parbani, Jalna and Jalgaon districts of Maharashtra; in 2005, in Mau

district of Uttar Pradesh; in 2006, in Nanded; in January 2008, at the

RSS office in Tenkasi, Tirunelveli; in August 2008, in Kanpur etc etc.”

Rattled by such exposures in the ongoing investigations, the RSS has

reacted in its typical fashion of saying that all those arrested are no

longer members of RSS or any of its affiliates. The All India Prachar

Pramukh of the RSS, Manmohan Vaidya, has recently told the media, “They

might have drawn their inspiration from the Sangh ideology but they were

not active Sangh members.” This is nothing original. This is

precisely what was said about Nathuram Godse following the assassination

of Mahatma Gandhi. Godse’s brother, however, is on record in an

interview to the media, saying that all the brothers in the family were

members of the RSS. Some others hold that fringe elements of Hindu

fundamentalism, impatient with the political tactics of compromising on

core Hindutva issues, are resorting to such terrorist activities. In a

similar vein, some other RSS leaders admit to the media that a few

‘deviant elements’ might have turned to violence and terror but insist

that the organisation as a whole cannot be dubbed terrorist. Again, a

replication of the RSS stand during the trial of Mahatma Gandhi’s

murder.

However, the history of the RSS and its methodology of

functioning belies such theories of a differentiation between the ‘core’

and the ‘fringe’. The issue of imparting militant training to the

Hindus and using violence as a political weapon by the RSS has a long

history. It was Savarkar who gave the slogan “Hinduise all politics and

militarise Hindudom”. Inspired by this, Dr B S Moonje, mentor of RSS

founder Dr Hegdewar, traveled to Italy to meet the fascist dictator,

Mussolini. The meeting took place on March 19, 1931. His personal

diary notes of March 20 reveal his fascination and admiration of the

manner in which Italian fascism was training its youth (read

storm-troopers) militarily. Upon return to India, Dr Moonje established

the Central Hindu Military Education Society at Nasik in 1935, the

precursor to the Bhonsala Military School (now charged with imparting

training to Hindutva terror) established in 1937. Golwalkar, in 1939,

exults Hitler’s purging of the Jews under Nazi fascism and says that it

is “a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by”. More

recently, following the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the RSS

tentacles, VHP and Bajrang Dal, had publicly prided themselves at the

training imparted to ‘kar sevaks’. The then BJP chief minister of

Uttar Pradesh publicly stated that he was proud of the kar sevaks who

accomplished the job of demolishing the Babri Masjid more speedily and

efficiently than any professional contractor would or could have done.

In

fact, it is these deep ideological links that roused the wrath of the

RSS when it mounted a violent attack, indulging in large-scale vandalism

and destruction, on the office of a national television news channel

which, on the previous night, had aired audio/video footage showing the

involvement of Hindu rightwing leaders in terror blasts at various

places in the country. These exposures included audio clips of

conversations plotting to kill the vice president of India, Hamid

Ansari. Such intolerance, reminiscent of fascist storm troopers,

leading to violent attacks reinforces the ideological foundations that

fan such terrorist violence.

The RSS chief questions the term

‘Hindu terrorism’ asking, “How can you club an entire community with the

concept of terrorism?” He proceeds further to state, “Coining such

terms is the conspiracy to defame the Sangh. It is a political

conspiracy to defeat and defame Hindutva forces.” Very cleverly, the

terms ‘Hindutva’ and ‘Hindu’ are used synonymously. What we are

speaking about is Hindutva terror, not Hindu terror. Clearly, no

religious community, as a whole, can be held responsible for the

terrorist activities of individuals embracing that religion. Same

yardstick, however, should apply to other religions as well. However,

not according to the RSS. In the meeting of its karyakarani mandali

baitak in October 2008, just before the Malegaon blast arrests, the RSS

adopted a resolution titled, “curb Islamic terrorism with an iron hand”.

This is not merely an expression of double standards. It reflects the

ideological roots of converting the modern secular democratic republic

of India into the RSS version of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ based on rabid

religious intolerance. In these columns, we continue to maintain that

terrorism has no religion. It is simply anti-national and, hence, the

country should display zero tolerance. Further, terrorism of all

varieties only feed and strengthen each other, seeking to destroy the

very unity and integrity of our country. To safeguard and strengthen

modern India’s secular democratic foundations, it is imperative that

such pernicious ideological methods of using terror for realising a

political objective needs to be decisively defeated.

http://pd.cpim.org/2010/0808_pd/08082010_1.html

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Maut ka Saudagar And His World! – By Mustafa Khan (Aug 6, 2010, Countercurrents)

Satan and his rebellion against the almighty gave birth to sin and

death. Sin was born to him and he also cohabited with it and brought

death in the world. When he wanted to leave hell to go to heaven Satan

saw sin and death with dogs begotten by unnatural coupling of sin and

death guarding the gate of hell. If there is any image that can capture

the horrors of Gujarat since 2002 it is this that comes to the mind. The

arrest trail of the holygrail that is Swami Asimanand in the Dangs and

the rigmarole over the bail of Babu Bajrangi, and Abhay Chaudasma’s

claim that he had saved Sohrabuddin from getting mired into Haren Pandya

murder show new evidence that the parent body of the sangh family RSS

has birthed so many. RSS does not hold even the Hindu women anywhere

equal to men. Kauserbi like many other of her coreligionists was a

victim of a much wider campaign. RSS and VHP had distributed a pamphlet

in the Bajrang Dal training camps for three months leading to the Godhra

accident and the pogrom subsequent to it. They had exhorted Hindus not

to hesitate raping and killing Muslim women following how VD Savarkar

had chided Hindu kings for not raping Muslim women when they conquered

their enemy.

Irrespective of the ‘cultural nationalism’ espoused

by RSS, Kauser was a truly Indian woman. She stiffly resisted the police

when they were arresting her husband Sohrabuddin. She told them “main

apne shauhar bina nahin gina chaheti” (I do not want to live without my

husband.) They contacted Amit Shah Gujarat Minister of State for Home

under the Home Minister Narendra Modi who ordered them to arrest her as

well. Her husband was killed on November 26, 2005. Why did the police

take two more days to finish her? They had raped her in the meantime.

During this they also took her to Rajasthan police to take charge of

her. When the Rajasthan cops refused Vanzara contacted Shah who told

them to kill her as well. Vanzara made such an elaborate arrangement to

have her cremated in his palace like farm house in Ilol and then

disposed off the ashes. There are two versions. According to the first

her ashes were thrown into the well of the farm house and a slab of

concrete built over it. The other is that the ashes were taken to

Narmada River and thrown into it. Abhay Chaudasma found all this very

bizarre. This falls in line with what had transpired at the time of the

pogroms of which the fake encounters are an adjunct: “women seared,

fetuses displayed, children watching rapes, the killing of raped women

and then the burning of the dead bodies so that evidence was destroyed.”

The method in this madness was the systematic training that was on in

the state.

Much afterward Amit Shah casually remarked in the

presence of top police officers of Gujaat that Kauser must have run away

with someone to Pakistan. This was an innuendo showing the scant regard

for women the same training has inculcated in the cadres. So it is not

the chicks but the broiler the investigators should go after and

ultimately the original broiler. That leads to the murder of Haren

Pandya and his father Vithalbhai’s screaming claim that it was a

political murder. RSS is believed to have killed Sunil Joshi in order to

destroy trail of conspiracy and terror hatched by its top pracharaks.

It is now well known that Haren Pandya had revealed to the Citizens for

Justice and Peace what had transpired in the meeting at the house of

Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the night of February 27, 2002. His day

light murder shortly after this on March 26 2002 needs to be examined in

the light of this “politics of terror” Modi was playing. Like Ishrat

Jehan murder there was no blood or bullet mark on the seat of his car.

This is what his widow has said. The poor woman’s disbelief at the way

things happen and investigations carried on is shared by Kavita Karkarer

and Vinita Kamte. But what status has the women howsoever wives of the

killed in the society created by the right wing Hindutva?

Like

John Milton’s description of hell above crime begets crime and when

everyone concerned is a product no one is above or beyond the murky

hell. Deputy Commissioner of Police Chaudasma a creator/creature of this

hell like his ultimate boss Modi put it this way to Azam Khan witness

no 4 of CBI: “main Sohrabuddin ka bahut achha dost tha aur maine hi usko

Haren Pandya murder case mein ulajhne se bachaya tha”. (I was a good

friend of Sohrabuddin and had saved him from getting stuck in the Haren

Pandya murder case). What are the antecedents of the gory tale of Kauser

and Pandya? Going by what has been revealed it is quite clear that the

police like their counterparts in the rest of the country are long

entrenched in corruption. Hafta or installments paid regularly is

preferable. They find out the source like extortion money collected from

marble and textile traders. They employ people like Sohrabuddin and

Tulsiram Prajapati. But they also have spring fall of supari or contract

to kill and double cross their agents. So it could be that some very

powerful person gave supari to Sohrabuddin to kill Pandya. Who that

person could be is as mysterious as who is the one who got Sunil Joshi

killed.

http://www.countercurrents.org/mkhan060810.htm

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Uncertain Future for Modi-fied BJP – By Praful Bidwai (Aug 4, 2010, Nav Hind Times)

The Bharatiya Janata Party periodically behaves as if it had come

unhinged. This typically happens on trademark issues of faith, which pit

it against the rest of the political spectrum barring the Shiv Sena.

Examples are the Babri Masjid–where it insisted, despite lack of

historical evidence, that a temple was destroyed–making Saraswati

vandana compulsory in schools; rewriting textbooks along communal lines;

and defending Mr Narendra Modi for the 2002 anti-Muslim violence in

Gujarat. Now, the BJP has come unhinged on another issue: governance in

“Hindutva laboratory” Gujarat. It’s shielding junior home minister Mr

Amit Shah for plotting the 2005 murder of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, a petty

criminal, his wife Kauserbi, and eyewitness Tulsidas Prajapati. Mr Shah

brazenly evaded arrest for two days after the Central Bureau of

Investigation charged him last week. The BJP claims the “partisan” CBI

framed Mr Shah at the Centre’s behest. But the BJP has often demanded

CBI investigations into recent scams. Besides, the Gujarat government

has admitted to the Supreme Court that Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake

encounter. It’s the Supreme Court, not the CBI, which initiated the

Sohrabuddin investigation.

The CBI used evidence from the Gujarat

police to conclude that Mr Shah plotted the killings. After the

chargesheet was filed, Mr Shah should have faced arrest and trial. He

was tasked with defending the rule of law, but brazenly violated it and

defied Constitutional legality. No party barring the Shiv Sena has

stooped as low as the BJP in shielding a gravely indicted leader. Mr

Shah’s defences are expected to be demolished by “encounter specialist”

and former Deputy SP NK Amin–who witnessed the crimes in question–and is

turning approver. Consider the bare facts. In November 2005, the

Gujarat police abducted Sohrabuddin–a small-time extortionist and money

collector for Mr Shah and Vanzara. They called him a Lashkar-e-Toiba

operative who planned to assassinate Mr Modi. Gujarat DIG and

“encounter specialist” DG Vanzara and SP Rajkumar Pandian killed

Sohrabuddin in cold blood because he had become inconvenient for

Vanzara’s extortion racket. Branding him a terrorist would help glorify

Mr Modi. Eyewitnesses Kauserbi and Prajapati were killed later. The CBI

says it has unimpeachable evidence of Mr Shah’s complicity in these

killings, including records of his cellphone conversations with Vanzara.

The charges against Mr Shah may be inaccurate, even false. That can

only be established in his trial. But it’s indisputable that he

organised the transfer of Vanzara and other policemen to stage

“encounters” and ran a large-scale extortion racket with Vanzara and

Company.

According to the CBI, many people paid them millions in

bribes to stage fake encounters or get trumped-up charges dropped. Mr

Shah also covered up the ’1,030-crore Madhavpura Bank fraud by a

notorious stockmarket scamster, Ketan Parekh. Gujarat’s Criminal

Investigation Department had found that Mr Shah helped Parekh jump bail

for a ‘ 2.5 crore-bribe. It recommended a CBI investigation. The BJP’s

hysterical pro-Shah campaign has again proven it the Odd Man Out of

Indian politics. Its Hindutva project is uniquely sectarian; it rejects

India’s multi-religious, plural and secular character; and it

unreasonably claims it’s a victim of the system. The BJP’s appetite for

contrived victimhood is limitless. When faced with reasoned criticism

from secularists writing in the English-language press, the BJP for

decades accused it of visceral hostility. It nurtures victimhood even

when unleashing violence or calumny against the religious minorities,

which it terms invaders and aggressors. There’s an intimate connection

between manufactured victimhood and violence, seen as “well-deserved”

retribution. That’s why the BJP defends “Sadhvi” Pragya Singh Thakur,

Lt-Col Shrikant Purohit and Abhinav Bharat activists, all involved in

the Hindutva-inspired terrorist network responsible for explosions in

mosques/dargahs in Hyderabad and Ajmer (2007), Malegaon (2008), and

possibly, the Samjhauta Express (2007). At the heart of this

well-ramified network are current and former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

members committed to a Hindu rashtra, including Ramchandra Kalsangra,

Sunil Joshi, Pravin Mutalik and Dayanand Pandey. They made, transported

and planted explosives targeting ordinary Muslims.

The CBI

believes the network murdered Mhow-based RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi in

2007 just when investigators were closing in on him. This network is

more dangerous than the jehadi outfits that killed innocent people in

“retaliation” for the persecution of Muslims since the 1993 Mumbai

blasts–because of its Hindu-majoritarianism and infiltration into the

police. This network must be ruthlessly punished. The BJP, RSS and their

cohorts defend it and obstruct its prosecution. This defence is as

condemnable as the BJP’s pro-Shah campaign. The BJP knows the case

against Mr Shah would eventually implicate Mr Modi. It’s Mr Modi who

executed the police transfers that Mr Shah recommended. Mr Modi is

indispensable to the BJP. He’s its longest-serving Chief Minister and

the Number One leader after Mr Advani. Astonishingly, BJP chief

spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad and senior leaders Mr Arun Jaitley and

Ms Sushma Swaraj rant that Sohrabuddin was a terrorist. Even if this is

true, it can’t justify his non-judicial execution. Civilised societies

put criminals on trial, they don’t summarily kill them.

Justifying

non-judicial killings in “extreme” or “exceptional” cases is a slippery

slope. It means granting the police impunity and condoning murder. No

citizen can be safe in such a society. The BJP must answer if that’s the

kind of society it wants. Deep at work here is the BJP’s notion of

democracy as a mere instrument of power, to be used through elections.

This view undermines the content of democracy–rule of law, human rights

and Constitutional freedoms–and is incompatible with a civilised social

order. The BJP is increasingly isolating itself from the aspirations and

concerns of the Indian people, including the middle class, its sole

(and shrinking) constituency. As it gets ‘Modi-fied’, the BJP forfeits

its claim to being a party which abides by the law of the land and the

ground-rules of democracy. Such a party can only have a bleak future.

http://www.navhindtimes.in/opinion/uncertain-future-modi-fied-bjp

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The Dispossession And Criminalisation Of The Adivasis Of Central India – By Stan Swamy (Aug 5, 2010, Countercurrents)

The sad story of impoverishment of the Adivasi: A few examples will

suffice. Gladson Dungdung is a young human rights activist and writer.

His family had 20 acres of fertile land in Simdega district, Jharkhand.

It was forcibly acquired by the govt for the construction of a dam at a

terribly low rate. The compensation for the 20 acres fertile land the

family got was Rs. 11,000. Even by minimal standards, it should have

been at least Rs. 20 lakhs. This is just one example among many many

such deprivations. Is this not deliberate impoverishment of a people?

The Suvernrekha Project in Chandil, Jharkhand, displaced 120 villages

and alienated 43,500 acres of land from the Adivasi, Moolvasi

communities. A rehabilitation package was worked out 27 years ago. But

it has not been implemented in about half of the villages. Yet people of

these villages have lost every thing they had. To add insult to injury,

the project management wants to close the radial gates of the dam which

will inundate 44 villages awaiting rehabilitation Is this not a

deliberate act of deprivation of a people?

Heavy Electricals

Company (HEC) in Ranchi displaced 12,990 families and alienated 9,200

acres of land from Adivasi, Moolvasi communities. Of this, about 2000

acres of acquired land has been lying idle during half a century. This

surplus land should as per law be returned to the original land owners.

But the govt is giving it for real estate housing for the well-to-do. Is

this not a deliberate violation of the legal rights of a people? During

the past five decades, about 17 lakh of Adivasis & Moolvasis have

been displaced and about 24 lakh acres of their land has been alienated

from them at minimal compensation. Of the displaced, only 25% have been

resettled. The remaining 75% have been neatly forgotten. This whole

process of dispossession took place without any rehabilitation policy in

place. Is this not a deliberate dispossession of a people? The sad

story of annihilation of the Adivasi: Now big giants in the form of

national & multinational companies are landing in Jharkhand,

Chattisgarh, Orissa like devouring lions to capture huge tracts of

Adivasi /Moolvasi land in view of looting the mineral riches. Over 100

MoUs between the govt and respective companies have been signed in

Jharkhand alone, threatening the take over of 1,04,000 acres of land.

There is no estimate of how many hundreds of villages, how many

thousands of families, how many lakhs of persons will be displaced. All

this is done without any reference to the gram sabhas which is a

requirement as per the PESA Act. Is this not a calculated move by the

ruling capitalist class to further impoverish the Adivasi / Moolvasi

people 0

Having been pushed to the wall during all these decades,

the Adivasi/ Moolvasi people have reached a stage when they cannot be

pushed any more. They have decided to take their life back into their

hands. Clear Resistance Movements are emerging through which they have

begun to tell one and all that they will not part with any of their land

to any company. Consequently, big companies demanding big chunks of

land have not been able to open shop in Jharkhand. A clear assertion of

people’s power. And this is what the capitalist ruling class, the Indian

govt, the corporate houses, the urban middle class, the bureaucracy

cannot tolerate. They cannot understand how and why the poor Adivasi /

Moolvasi farmers can defy the mighty power of the state and the powerful

corporate houses. So they have compelled the Indian Govt to declare

Operation Green Hunt against the Adivasi and the Moolvasi. It is

actually a hunt for the green fields and green forests of the tribal

region of central India, because it is beneath the green fields and

green forests lay a treasure of minerals of all kinds. And the

corporates want to loot them by all means. This is the last straw on the

camel’s back, after which the tribals of central India will be wiped

out of existence. Is this not a malicious move against the Indigenous

People of India?

Now, how to go about doing this act of

annihilation? It has to be done in a cleverly manipulated way so that

the general usually unthinking majority of the population can be carried

along so that the act of extermination does seem justified. Terrorism,

extremism, Maoism, Naxalism and the urgent need to counter them is

continuously splashed in electronic & print media and the general

unthinking public accepts the state’s action of annihilation as

legitimate. The stage is now set for the drama of finishing off the

extremists by pouring in thousands of para-military forces equipped with

sophisticated weapons especially in those areas where there is an

abundant stock of minerals. The villages inside jungles or adjoining

jungles are occupied by these mercenary forces. School buildings are

occupied thus putting an end to rural children’s education and by the

same action stopping the mid-day meal to the children for most of whom

that is the only full meal they get to eat. All the young men in these

villages become suspects; they are picked up, abused, tortured, arrested

in the garb of being ‘naxalites’. Young women wearing salwar-kamiz

clothes are abused as being aides of naxalites and ordered to wear

saries or school uniform. Grown up men are also beaten up because they

do not give the expected answer to the queries of the occupying forces.

People are not allowed to have small meetings by themselves as also not

allowed to travel out of their villages. Women and children are

prevented from going into the jungle to collect minor forest produce.

For the first time in tribal history, the village bazaars are closing

down because people cannot bring forest produce to buy and sell. The

whole village is tense and a sense of fear prevails.

How long will

the people live in such an atmosphere? The sad fact is that poverty is

deepening in rural tribal areas. Added to this is the fact that monsoon

has failed last two years, and a people who survive on mono-monsoon-crop

have nothing to eat. Hunger and malnutrition is a stark reality. The

Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) done recently by Oxford University

points out that the eight central Indian states have more poor people

than all the sub-saharan African countries put together. Its estimate of

poverty in India is: 81% of Scheduled Tribes, 66% of Scheduled Castes,

58% of Other Backward Castes are poor as per the measures of MPI. Why

doesn’t the govt do some thing about this rather than hunting the hungry

Adivasi people in the name of ‘naxalites’? Finally, the police and CRPF

are indiscriminately using The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act

(UAPA) picking up young men from inside buses, from inside their houses,

from village bazaars. Most often one does not know where these young

men are taken and what happens to them. The judicial process of

producing arrested persons before a magistrate within 24 hours has been

dispensed with. The tribal areas of Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Orissa wear

the look of ‘police state’. The electronic and press media are playing

to tune of the govt. A frightful situation indeed. At the same time, the

laws which are in favour of the Adivasi/ Moolvasi, such as The

Panchayats (extension to Scheduled Areas) 1996, The Forest Rights of

Scheduled Castes and other traditional forest dwellers Act, 2006, are

not implemented. So the principle seems to be “starve them, shoot them

and finish them”! What is awaiting the Adivasi and Moolvasi People of

central India in the near and distant future is difficult to predict.

One thing is certain: the corporates, the capitalist ruling class, the

Indian State, the urban middle class want to see the end of the

Indigenous People of India.

http://www.countercurrents.org/swamy050810.htm

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Because Khairlanji Is Not Just Another Murder Story! – By Avinash Pandey Samar (Jul 29, 2010, Countercurrents)

The recent verdict of the Bombay High Court in the Khairlanji

massacre case convicting all the accused to life imprisonment could have

been a welcome one and gone a long way in restoring ordinary people’s

faith in the country’s justice system and its rule of law framework. It

could have marked a historic juncture in the life of the nation

announcing that the rule of law have firmly established itself despite

all the inadequacies country’s justice system demonstrates both in crime

investigation and in trial. It could have ensured that Dalits and the

other underprivileged groups will face no discrimination at least within

the judicial system. For these reasons, the verdict was long awaited.

And in its final coming, it proved highly inadequate and farcical,

rightfully outraging the civil society. The outrage, though, is highly

misplaced. The failure of justice is not rooted in the commuting of the

death sentence of six convicts into life terms for twenty-five years, as

capital punishment is unacceptable in any civilised society. It is

indeed painful to see some of the most genuine civil society members

decrying the commuting and demanding for death sentence to the accused.

Retributive

justice is no justice and no studies have confirmed any ‘deterrence

effect’ of capital punishment. Rather any statics bears out the fact

that it is used mostly against the poorest and the weakest sections of

the society. In that it emerges as an official version of mob-lynching

with the poorest of the Indian society often being the worst victims.

For the same reason, the death sentence announced by the session’s court

in this case was no victory for social justice. The judge has held the

case as ‘revenge murder’ and citing the same, had refused to invoke the

provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of

Atrocities) Act, 1989. The judge, seemingly, was convinced by the

prosecution’s poor case augmented by shoddy investigation with arguments

to pass off the case as one of mere revenge killing. The travesty of

justice lies here. The 2006 massacre was not just another among 32481

reported cases of murder tucked in the pages of the statistical records

of the National Crime Records Bureau. Nor was it just one of 19348

reported cases of rape (though the charges of rape were not invoked by

the court). The gravity of the case did not lie in its being a gory

instance of a mob bludgeoning a full family to death while also raping

women and mutilating their bodies.

It was a massacre to uphold

the feudal values in a modern, democratic India. The perpetrators had

not massacred the family in a fit of rage. Their anger was not

momentary. It did not emanate from any personal enmity. The family had

not done anything to provoke or to tick them off. The only ‘crime’ the

Bhotmanges had committed was making efforts to escape the low social

status ascribed to their earlier untouchable caste. The fact that they

were trying to come out of the dehumanised existence Dalits have been

condemned to for centuries was a provocation enough for the killers

belonging to the dominant castes. That the prosecution tried its best to

destroy the evidences concerning caste based atrocities and did not

press the PoA Act shows the systematic and institutionalised nature of

casteism. Further, the fact that the massacre took place in full public

view and yet there was no opposition to the killings shows how deeply

ingrained the ideology of caste is.

Further not bringing these

spectators, complicit in the crime by acts of omission at least if not

commission, to books show how state institutions tolerate caste-based

atrocities or actually are conduit with them. The case proves that it is

in fact the pre-modern, barbaric and regressive social structure of

caste that rules under the democratic facade of the Indian nation and

that the idea of modernity is a mere superimposition upon this primitive

mode of social organisation. It reminds us that Indians are decades, if

not centuries, away from achieving the goals we had set for ourselves

on the night we made a tryst with destiny, the goal of becoming a

sovereign, secular, socialist and democratic republic. In this sense,

Khairlanji is a negation of the very idea of India and its democracy. It

is an assault on the basic principles the country is based upon. It

shows what kind of a decayed and deficient democracy we have evolved

into. Unfortunately, Khairlanji is no isolated case of some rogue

elements in Indian society going insane. Rather it is just one among

many like Jhajjar, Haryana where five Dalits were lynched on the

suspicion of trading in cows to Patan, Gujrat where a Dalit girl was

gang raped and put into submission in the teacher’s training school.

But

then, till now the response of the Indian state and its civil society

too has remained the same. Of getting outraged, making lot of noises and

then forgetting the issue till another such gory incident occurs. And

precisely because of that, Khairlanji should shake us out of the deep

slumber and make us introspect, and act, to put an immediate end to

caste based atrocities. By dealing not only with the perpetrators, but

also silent spectators approving the incident, cracking down on illegal

institutions like Khap panchayats legitimising caste. That would serve

as a bigger deterrence than death sentence, as the caste communities

will get to know that all of them would be punished and not only the

‘heroes’ carrying out their dictats! Killing the demon of caste was the

primary wish and clarion call of Dr BabaSaheb Ambedkar, the father of

our Constitution, lest we forget.

http://www.countercurrents.org/samar290710.htm

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Related posts:

  1. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – August 2nd, 2010
  2. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – August 16th, 2010
  3. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – August 23rd, 2010
  4. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – August 30th, 2010
  5. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – August 31st, 2009

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