Modi's worst nightmare

Modi's nightmare | MikeGhouseforIndia.blogspot.com

Gujarat Riots will continue to be a nightmare for Modi, there are some who believe he is innocent, but yet there are others who believe he is not.  He has offered his head if there were proof and per Zakia Jafri's attorney Mihir Desai, he has gathered mountains of it and pursuing it.

I urge my fellow Indians not to hate the other for their beliefs, but wait for the court proceedings. Belief should not count in the matter, it should be the facts.

India will shine either way; if he is innocent, it assures the 69% of Indians who did not vote for him even though he won the election by landslide that Indian Justice system is reliable, if he is found guilty, the same thing applies.

Whether his supporters believe it or not,  Gujarat massacre is a kalank -stain on India's democracy and it has to be erased, for we owe it to future generations to give them a just and clean India.

As Indians we have to accept and respect our court system, and it must be subjected to scrutiny and not hurry and give a guilty verdict or a clean chit without verifying the documents, this time let it be an open court. Justice must prevail, that is the only solid foundation of a society, without it, people will lose hope in the system. Let dharma be restored.

Mike Ghouse - committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day - his info is listed in 63 links at www.MikeGhouse.net

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Will fresh plea for justice take Gujarat riot probe to Modi’s doorstep?

DARSHAN DESAI — PUBLISHED ABOUT 7 HOURS AGO

WHATSAPP  21 COMMENTS  EMAILhttp://www.dawn.com/news/1201695/print/print  PRINTThe widow of slain Congress MP Ehsan Jafri has sought the rejection of the Special Investigation Team's closure report, letting Prime Minister Modi off the hook.

The widow of slain Congress MP Ehsan Jafri has sought the rejection of the Special Investigation Team's closure report, letting Prime Minister Modi off the hook. —AFP/File 

The quiet steel in Zakia Jafri’s eyes hasn’t dimmed despite her 76 years, nor has her quest for justice. Around 13 years after her husband, former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, and 68 of their neighbours in Ahmedabad’s Gulberg Society were killed by a mob, her legal battle over the massacre continues to haunt Narendra Modi despite his ascendance from chief ministership to prime ministership.

Zakia Jafri is unwilling to give up even after an Ahmedabad metropolitan court’s verdict on December 26, 2013, rejected her protest petition seeking to penalise Modi, who was then the chief minister, and 59 others on charges of state-sponsored criminal conspiracy during the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat that killed over a thousand people, mostly Muslims. She has filed a criminal revision application in the Gujarat High Court. The hearings began on August 4.

The application has sought the court’s directive to reject the closure report of the Special Investigation Team of February 8, 2012. While some have interpreted this to mean that Modi has been given a clean chit, in reality the SIT said it did not have enough evidence against Modi to proceed. Her protest petition in April 2013 is the last criminal case in the 2002 communal carnage in Gujarat in which Modi has been accused.

Elaborate conspiracy

The 540-page criminal revision application offers substantive arguments and a mountain of evidence to reject Metropolitan Magistrate BJ Ganatra’s orders. It accuses the SIT of adopting a “double faced” role after the Supreme Court, which was earlier monitoring the investigation, handed it over to the Ahmedabad Crime Branch.

The crux of the arguments by Zakia’s advocates Mihir Desai, MM Tirmizi and others is that the targeted communal attacks on Muslims after the burning of a train coach in Godhra that killed 59 persons, mostly kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya, on February 27, 2002, was not the result of a natural Hindu outburst but a larger conspiracy hatched at the highest political level in Gujarat.

The advocates say that the manner in which the violence played out for 72 hours, when major massacres occurred in the state, could not have been so neatly organised without an elaborate conspiracy, assignment of roles and the material wherewithal for such killings already being in place. For over two months before this, there had been an incendiary revival of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement in Ayodhya by the Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal.

It was not without reason that the Supreme Court was directly monitoring investigations into nine major massacre cases, including the attack on Gulberg Society. Seven cases have resulted in convictions. The Gulberg Society case and the case of Ahmedabad’s Naroda Gam are the only ones that are still in the courts.

One-sided attacks

Communal riots in Gujarat through the decades have always been triggered by small sparks like complaints of eve-teasing, scuffles over cricket matches, religious processions cutting through mixed neighbourhoods or road accidents. But 2002 was the first time the state government was directly accused of engineering violence.

Given that the violence followed the deaths of 59 persons returning from Ayodhya after participating in a renewed Ramjanmabhoomi agitation, any government would have introduced stricter patrolling at communally sensitive points, which was not the case. In fact, here have been persistent allegations that the police looked the other way when mobs ran amok.

Over the decades, communal riots in Gujarat played out as battles between Hindu and Muslim mobs, where it was often difficult to conclusively say which side started the violence. In 2002, battles were few and far between. Instead, there were organised one-sided attacks against Muslims. The police FIRs would generally start with a common theme: “……. attack as a public reaction to the Godhra case”. As a consequence, the investigations into the violence blindly started on the presumptions that they are a reaction to the Godhra burning.

Building evidence

Zakia Jafri has been backed in her struggle by Teesta Setalvad and her Citizens for Justice and Peace. The court’s decision to hear her plea allows the prosecution the opportunity to press for a fresh inquiry and prosecute Modi and 58 others.

The case is significant because if the court of Justice Sonia Gokani takes serious cognisance of the evidence submitted by Jafri, it will pave the way for a re-investigation and re-trial of the massacre.

Zakia’s team of advocates has put together the case by, yet again, pooling together the SIT’s reports filed in 2010 and 2012, and from messages collected from the State Intelligence Bureau, phone call records, Police Control Room records and various testimonies given to the SIT.

The criminal revision application says there was non-application of mind by the magistrate and blind acceptance of the contentions in the SIT’s closure report. According to the petitioners, the court simply ignored the prima facie evidence put before it against Modi in “serious crimes of conspiracy and abetment of crimes of murder, arson and rape”.

Among many other things, the application speaks of vital records being destroyed by the Chief Minister’s Office and Home Department, blaming the state “for allowing rape, murder and arson to be the weapon through which unlawful acts were allowed and justice subverted”. It says that the court simply did not take proper cognisance of the mountain of evidence in the case.

Plea for further probe

Opposing Zakia Jafri’s petition through the three hearings so far, the SIT’s senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan contended in court that the Supreme Court had all along expressed its satisfaction with the team’s investigations. He stated that the magistrate had upheld the SIT’s closure report and could not have ordered further investigation since it would have been contrary to the Supreme Court’s order.

He emphasised that the apex court “has taken the view that the complainant [Zakia Jafri] has no role to seek further investigation”.

On Jafri’s behalf, Mihir Desai countered that the magistrate wrongly interpreted that he had no powers to treat her petition against the SIT report as a complaint, and it was perfectly in order for him to have ordered a further inquiry.

This article was originally published on Scroll.in and has been reproduced with permission.

30th Anniversary of Sikh Genocide, a survivor writes his story

Survivor of Sikh Genocides writes on 30^th Anniversary.
Published at:

• www.HolocaustandGenocides.com
• http://mikeghouseforIndia.blogspot.com and
• http://foundationforpluralism.blogspot.com  

Dallas, Texas, October 31, 2014.  It’s been 30 years since the Sikh Massacre took place in New Delhi; justice is still not served to the victims and their families. The fanatics among Hindus went on a rampage of killing 3000 Sikhs within a week, just because they were Sikhs and nothing but that. The Moderate Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others have condemned the acts of the fanatics.

As we have been learning about the mind set of criminals regardless of what religious garb they don, invariably they deny – some even say, why bring it up, there is no problem now. They are lying to themselves, the sparks of hatred are potent, and can catch the fire any time.

There is a criminal lurking in each one of us, we need to find him and destroy him before he eats us out from within. If we justify the rapes, murders, killing, massacres or genocides by believing "they asked for it" "they ignited it" or worse "they deserved it", then we have a serious problem and need to find a release.

What is needed is to face the problem squarely, acknowledging the wrong doing, and apologizing to the victims and finding mukti, the Jain Dharma offers a great phrase – Michami Dukadam, that is clean each other’s slates and start afresh.

Injustice is the mother of Adharma – i.e., everything that is wrong in the society stems from injustice, and Martin Luther King said, injustice to one is injustice to all at the end.

I hope one day, India will focus on cleaning up its dirty stains – there are many unfinished items on our plate that prick the nation from time to time. The hatred against the other is part of that mess.

Prime Minister Modi believes that when there is prosperity, most of the nagging things will go away, I hope they do. But I believe until we sit down face to face and acknowledge the evil in each one of us, and commit to go forward dumping the old baggage, we will be limping along. We need to reboot our souls, hearts and minds.

The following write up is from a Sikh Survivor of the 1984 Sikh Massacre.  It is a shame that many a families are still waiting for the whereabouts of their loved ones missing for over 30 years. The Indian Government has a responsibility to take this up, to bring relief to the victims of these massacres. I do hope Mr. Modi, as the Prime Minister of the nation, who claims to be a Hindu, acts like a Hindu and restores Dharma – the righteousness and justice to fellow beings.   

Pritpal Singh has spoken at our Holocaust and Genocides events and I am pleased to share his story with you, please feel free to share wherever you like.

The Foundation for Pluralism and the World Muslim Congress is commemorating Holocaust and Genocides for the last seven years, as a step towards reconciling with each other and learning about each others pain and suffering of each of us humans on this planet.

Wayne Slater of Dallas Morning News wrote, “Ghouse says he hopes attendees will walk out better appreciating the sufferings of others and seeing “the perpetrator in us” as a way of building trust across social and religious lines.

“I called on my friends with the idea of commemorating the event, and thus began this journey,” said Ghouse. “Education is the purpose; we have to learn, acknowledge and reflect upon the terrible things that we humans have inflicted upon each other, and we have to understand that our safety hinges on the safety of all others around us.”

“There is a shameless cruelty in us, either we shy away or refuse to acknowledge the sufferings of others, worrying that it will devalue our own or somehow it amounts to infidelity to our own cause,” he said. “We should be ashamed of ourselves in justifying the massacres by falsely propagating the myth that the victims deserved it, or asked for it.” It shows an absence of intelligence.

Our event is comprised of 3 segments; Holocaust is the anchor event every year, then Genocides and a Massacre. We have been able to address many Genocides around the Globe, as well as the Massacre of Bangladeshis in 1971, Sikhs in New Delhi in 1984 and Muslims in Gujarat in 2002.  

The criminals are still at large and need to be punished to restore peace of mind to the victims and their families. That is the least a head of the state can do for his countrymen and it is good for the psyche of the people.

Mike Ghouse

www.MikeGhouse.net

 

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1984:  My Struggle & Inspiration

According to famous Czech writer Milan Kundera, "the first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory.  Destroy its books, its culture, its history.  Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history.  Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was...  The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."  We are here today to continue that struggle.  Never had the citizens of independent India experienced state sponsored genocide against its own people.

  After the assassination of PM Indira Gandhi, for three days the well-organized mob with explicit instructions from the federal government went to loot, destroy, rape, eliminate every identifiable Sikh on India.  Iron rods, crow bars, kerosene, and firearms were provided to mobs.  Voter lists, ration lists, and school registration lists were used to identify & track Sikhs, Gurdwaras, and Sikh businesses. 

Slogans like "blood for blood" were shown repeatedly on state controlled TV.  Rumors were circulated about the violence against Hindus in Punjab to incite hatred against Sikhs in India.  Sikh soldiers were disarmed and confined to barracks while army was deliberately kept outside Delhi until 11/4.  All this occurred in the presence of police who ignored the violence or at times aided in it.  The police officers who deviated from this order were neutralized and records were manipulated to destroy paper trail and to protect criminals from prosecution.  For the Sikh victims, the police refused to record FIR (First Information Reports) or falsified them.

 According to NY times, there was complete censorship of the press.  The relief measures were inadequate.  VM Tarkunde, retired justice of the Indian Supreme Court, stated "Two lessons can be drawn from the experience of Delhi riots.  One is about the extent of criminalization of our politics and the other about the utter unreliability of our police force in critical situation."  According to government report the number of Sikhs killed in Delhi was 2733; HS Phoolka, Delhi high court lawyer, estimates 4000; Affidavits have been filed for 5015; Madhu Kishwar, editor of Manushi, estimates 10,000.  These   estimates are just in Delhi while the killings occurred throughout India.

 Rajiv Gandhi justified the Sikh murders, rapes, loot & arson by saying, "When a great tree falls, earth trembles."  The result of the violence against an easily identifiable minority was winning 414/533 seats in the parliament for Congress Party of India.  Even the opposition party, Sangh Parivar, stated the Sikhs invited the attacks. 

There have been 11 commissions & inquiries but no high level politician or law enforcement official has been convicted despite eye witness accounts and abundant of evidence.  On the other hand, the perpetrators were awarded cabinet positions, governorships, and party chief positions.  The lack of accountability against the organizers of the Genocide paved the way to the violence against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. 

Pogroms will continue to occur in India unless the State acknowledges and records these violations in a transparent & honest manner, toward cleansing itself of the people and the institutions that perpetrate these crimes and addressing the survivors' rights to knowledge, justice, and reparation.

 I, as a survivor of the Sikh Genocide of 1984, wait for a day when the citizens of India will demand and display the very ideals of unity, justice, and healing as the citizens of America illustrated after the Wisconsin massacre in 2012.  So, my dear brothers & sisters, we cannot forget the killings of innocent people no matter where they occur.  Instead, we ought to remember, revive, and respond like our fathers & mothers did.  They sought Inspiration from within and channeled their energy toward discovering their role in pursuit of Justice.

Pritpal Singh 

Narendra Modi's choices

Narendra Modi is one of the most loved and hated politicians of India. He is the Chief Minister (Equivalent of State Governor in the US) of Gujarat, touted as one of  the most industrialized states of India.  He is loved by those who prospered and became wealthy, and hated by those who cried out for help, but got none.

In the Gujarat Mayhem a decade ago, both the criminals and victims were ethnic Guajarati. A majority of them did not like the death and destruction of fellow Gujaratis. Nearly a thousand of them were killed and several thousand were displaced and still living in the refugee camps.

No decent Gujarati should be offended with the reporting on rampage, it is not about them; it is about the criminals among them, regardless of the religious label they wear. Religion does not permit one to murder others. It is an embarrassment and a dark part of their history.

During the communal riots in Jabalpur in the early sixties, both Muslims and Hindus were killed in the mayhem. I wish every father in India, teaches the following lesson to his kids, as my father taught me. He told us that the "individuals" are responsible for the bloodshed and not the religions; he was very clear. He said, you cannot blame the nebulous understanding of religion and expect justice. The individuals responsible for disturbing the peace should be punished under the law, and a resolution to the conflict must result by serving justice. He said you cannot annihilate, kill, hang or beat a religion, then why bark at it?  It is not the religion, it is the individual bad guys that are the problem.

Crime is always committed by the individuals, and each individual must be brought to justice to restore faith in the society.  When you believe that your rights will be protected by your government, you feel safe and secure and that is how you build cohesive societies.

It is disappointing to see the depletion of humanness among a few vocal fellow Indians. They have no empathy for the pain and anguish of families who were massacred in broad day light in Gujarat.  It is a shame that a few of them even justify it, and a few others believe that the victims deserved it.  Indeed, it is an assault on the sense of morality of all religions.

The long term well being of the individual and the society hinges on the morality of the people and not the wealth and economic prosperity. No nation has ever lasted on the basis of economic prosperity alone, it is the collective morality and adherence to the justice for all that defines the idea of a civilized nation. 

This piece is written in Indian context; hence, a self introspection for the Indians and Indian Americans may be necessary with the following five questions.

1.      Am I communal (sectarian) minded person?
2.     Am I capable of seeing another Indian as Indian without the religious lens?
3.     Do I blame others and not jettison my own share of responsibility?
4.     Do I feel bad, and not speak for fear of offending friends?
5.     Do I have a moral chip in me?

No society attains long term prosperity while oppressing a minority amongst them.

A “few” Hindus have rejoiced the massacre of fellow Gujarati Muslims, shame on their humanity and shame on them to call themselves Hindus. A few Muslims find it difficult to reconcile the situation, shame on them for not listening to their own religion. God declares in Quraan, that the dearest among you, is the one who forgives. It is not easy to do that.  A few Muslims rightfully want nothing but punishment, I wish they rather seek justice.

We have a choice to correct the situation, to begin with, at least in our own hearts.

An appeal to Chief Minister Modi  

Dear Mr. Narendra Modi, 

You have a moral responsibility to the well being of every citizen of Gujarat, whether they personally elected you or not, you still represent them.

Your fellow Gujaratis were massacred under your guardianship, and I hope your humanness is alive to feel their pain and anguish.

Mr. Modi, you have many choices; one among them is repentance, the praischit, and I urge you to seriously consider it. It is the Michami Dukadam of your life, that is seeking forgiveness and forgiving others for any grudge you may harbor against others. Right now, you have a choice to start your spiritual and political life with a clean slate.

This means making good with the people who have suffered under your leadership; it will bring Mukti (salvation) to you. The other choice is to resign and show the strength of your character.

Your moral character in the only sustainable legacy you can leave behind, and not the wealth you create for a few. Gujarat has been around and will always be there with or without you, and I hope you are humble enough to see it.

You may consider working on earning genuine respect from every Gujarati, particularly the downtrodden living in the refugee camps. Uplift their lives. You will be uplifting a huge moral burden of fellow Guajarati and fellow Indians. Your honesty and integrity will be transparent in how you handle the situation.

As a leader of one of the industrially advanced states, you have a duty to establish Gujarat as a state that respects law, where justice will be served to every Gujarati, whether they live in a Jhompdi (Huts) or the castle. Every Indian should feel safe, as the law would take care of the wrong doers. You need to express your courage to speak up and follow dharma, the right path.

You can begin by mustering the courage to apologize to the citizens of Gujarat and restore their lives and bring justice to them.  It will bring peace to every Gujarati and every Indian. It takes a man to do it, and I hope you are man enough to do it and turn things around for the 16000 men and women living in refugee camps.  Do them good, restore their life and earn their goodwill. Once they see the results of restoration of a genuine man, they will forgive you and support you and, they will stand up for you, if you stand up for them.

I am not sure if you are aspiring to run the national ship, or the ones who benefit from it want to prop you up, either way, you have the responsibility to fellow Gujaratis.

Your chamchas may not care if you did not get the visa to the United States, but you may want to remove the ugly stain from your character. The Hindus and Muslims are willing to help you, provided you are willing to do the praischit. The choice is yours.

Mike Ghouse is an Indian American committed to building cohesive societies, in the Indian context he hopes no Indian has to live in apprehension, discomfort or fear of the other. MikeGhouse is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a professional speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, civic affairs, Islam, India, Israel, peace and justice. Mike is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News and regularly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. The blog www.TheGhousediary.com is updated daily. Mike Ghouse is associated with IndianMuslimObserver.com as Foreign Editor. He can be contacted at ghousemike@gmail.com 



Published at: http://www.indianmuslimobserver.com/2012/06/latest-editorial-mr-narendra-modi-you.html


andhttp://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2012/06/narendra-modis-choices.html