What has kept you going for 10 years?
The riots and the subsequent denial of justice was leading to the alienation of an entire community. I think that was very dangerous. If the minorities in Gujarat lost faith in the basic democratic system, all of us would lose, not just the minorities. We wanted to remain as the thread between the community and the system. That was one of our primary goals. Though we faced an unresponsive judiciary and hostile administration, we never gave up hope. The only alternative was to remain quiet, be a spectator and watch the deterioration of the system. That was not an option.

A second goal, of course, was to help the victims get due justice, whatever that meant in the circumstances prevailing at the time. Things haven’t changed very qualitatively now either, but we do see some signs of hope, especially in the encounter cases. Till 2007, most people believed those killed to be terrorists; they bought the story dished out by the government. But the intervention of the Supreme Court in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case was the turning point. At one time, the only thing the minorities got were bullets. Now we are getting some faith back.

There was also a big political vacuum in Gujarat. The Congress was not doing anything. On the contrary, when we spoke up strongly against the injustice being meted out to the minorities, we saw them actually cringe and say Modi was going to take advantage of these resistance movements because he would pitch it as an attempt to malign the state. I think that is an extremely short-sighted view. Our own experience shows that there is a large fraction of the majority community that might prefer to remain silent, but given the right type of information, they can also react. That is one of the strong objectives we have. Let us use the democratic institutions we have to try and convince fence-sitters that they are not doing the right thing and must take sides in this battle. Slowly, there have been some breakthroughs.

What would you count as breakthroughs?
There have been some legal breakthroughs, though that alone is not enough. Legal breakthroughs are important primarily for two reasons. One is to restore the faith of the minority in the judiciary; make them feel that they don’t have to look outwards for help. That is always a very dangerous sign. And two, so people realise they can get some relief from the system. Like compensation and rehabilitation. Some of that has begun to happen. The HC has come down heavily on the government and directed it to rehabilitate the places of worship. Then the Sardarpura case. It’s the only major case to have been decided till today. There are quite a number of people who have been convicted for the riots.

That is on the legal front. Are there other breakthroughs?
Yes, there are other signs. Take the vernacular media. Often, the role they played during that period was one of direct instigator. There were papers urging Hindus to take revenge, pitting the killings in one place as a benchmark for another area to rise up to. Such direct instigation and provocation was being published almost every day. When the encounters took place, front pages flashed the news that LeT terrorists Mohammed, etc had come to kill Modi. Common people started believing all that. But now this trend has changed.

The judiciary is also definitely taking a turn for the better. And, to an extent, I see a large fraction of the legal community has now begun to see things more clearly. They don’t automatically assume Muslims are the worst creatures in the state. These are the positive signs. On the other side, of course, certain issues have not been resolved. Primarily, I have not seen much improvement in the state’s attitude towards the administration of justice. It continues to sabotage the system as far as possible.

Have you been changed in anyway by this long struggle?
We have become quite different. I can talk for myself. I come from a very academic background. I came here as a student of Physics, did my PhD. I never thought one day I’d be lawyer and that too involved with such volatile cases. But the journey has taught me a lot. We are much more aware of the kind of life minorities have to lead and are in a better position to communicate with them. We have also learnt better how to communicate with an ordinary Hindu. Because the Congress itself was toeing the soft Hindutva line, there was no one to tell ordinary Hindus that their problems did not lie with Muslims.

Take yesterday’s incident. It was the 10th anniversary of the massacre at Gulberg. We had specifically timed the rally for 5.30 pm, which is when Gulberg Society had been completely burnt. That day, Hindus and Muslims were completely hostile to each other, whereas yesterday there were hundreds of Hindus and Muslims together trying to hold the rally for justice and peace. There was just one common slogan: say no to any communal conflict. Instead of encouraging this effort, the government kept trying to obstruct us. After many caveats, it gave permission to hold the rally and then withdrew it without explanation just three hours before. We could not even communicate with the people. The police picked up hundreds of them, but it was a great day because the police van had both Hindus and Muslims shouting one slogan: “Nahin nahin kabhi nahin… (Never, never, never again)”. It was enormous for us to hear that. Ten years ago, it was exactly the opposite. Dead bodies were going in the police van.

What are some lessons you’d like Indians to take from all this?
First, we must remember history. I don’t like using words like fascist, etc, but we have to look at the type of politics, propaganda and hatred generated inside a movement squarely in the eye. And there are uncanny similarities with what happened in Germany in the 1930s. Second, we have to remember the strengths and weaknesses of a democracy. We have to understand that democracy is ultimately the rule of the majority. But the rule of the majority can easily — and dangerously — be converted into the rule of the majority community. Once that happens, democracy fails. And that is precisely what Modi did. He created a polarisation where the majority was not composed of the ‘majority’ but the majority of a single community. So his electoral victories shouted from the rooftops are actually not democratic victories. That is essentially a sign of a community projecting its communal trait. The third is that we have to learn from the problems of the judiciary and, instead of running away from it, I think we should engage with it.

In what way?
One of the biggest mistakes the NGOs continue to make is to berate the local judiciary all the time and try to talk about going away to other states and using the Supreme Court all the time. I have no problem with that. But the important thing is to lead the judiciary back into proper democratic line. If we can’t do this, the local democratic functioning will totally fail. Ultimately, it is the judiciary that protects our democratic values and rights. And we just can’t run away from that. I agree there are a lot of problems, that people in the local judiciary will get far more influenced by local events. All that is acknowledged. But we have to keep engaging with them.

The fourth point I’d like people to remember is that democratic institutions cannot just be disregarded like the commission was. People said the commission is appointed by the government and we cannot trust it. All commissions are appointed by governments to justify their actions rather than get to the truth. But that does not mean that we can boycott them.

The last point I’d like to make is the grassroots work. That is where the crux lies. We have to bring people together. Ultimately, a society functions on the basis of classes, not communities. What political leaders in Gujarat have been successful in doing is to suppress the class contradictions and highlight the communal ones. We have to reverse this.

Has there been any black moment when you felt like walking away from it?
No, I’m an incorrigible activist. I had a heart attack in October 2002. That set me back for a while. The second moment was a very personal one. My wife, who has been my partner through all the struggles, was diagnosed with cancer in 2005. Now we have overcome it and both of us are back in the struggle. Yesterday was the first time we got arrested together.

Source: Tehelka

Justice Shah heads the monitoring authority of the Special Task Force (STF) appointed by the state government to probe cases of fake encounters. This authority, incidentally, was appointed by the Modi government.

In a bid to prevent fake encounters and avoid human rights violations, the state government had formed the STF to investigate the deaths in police encounters. The government had set up the STF through a notification. The STF was given autonomy to investigate the encounters.

The state government had also formed a monitoring authority headed by Justice M B Shah. The STF and the authority were formed vide government notification of September 16, 2010.

The rationale for having a monitoring authority was to ensure investigation by the STF was independent and moved in the right direction.

However, senior advocate Mukul Sinha had challenged the formation of the STF on the grounds that encounters staged by Gujarat cops could be investigated by Gujarat cops themselves.

The STF was challenged during the Sadiq Jamal case in which the petitioners sought CBI investigation instead of the STF probe.

Sinha challenged not only the constitution of the task force in which police officials from the state would probe the alleged fake encounter carried out by Ahmedabad crime branch officials but also termed the monitoring authority headed by Justice Shah as a non-statutory body. The High Court had rejected the plea of the state government of constituting the STF to probe Jamal’s encounter.

Later, High Court judge M R Shah had handed over the Jamal encounter case to the CBI on April 16, 2011.

Sinha on Thursday dubbed the constitution of the M B Shah Commission as an immoral step by the state government.

‘ABSOLUTELY IMMORAL’

Dr Mukul Sinha claims it is “absolutely immoral” to allow a commission constituted by the state government to probe charges of corruption against the state government.

“The question of corruption cannot be a subject matter of a commission under the Commissions of Inquiry Act.

“The corruption charges are against the state government and it is the prerogative of the state government to accept or reject the report of the commission. If the state government finds the findings to its advantage it will accept the same and if it finds that it does not suit its cause it will reject the report. Such corruption charges should be probed under the Prevention of Corruption Act,” Dr Sinha said.

Source: Ahmedabad Mirror

The information was made public by Justice (retd) Nanavati on Tuesday during the proceedings of the Commission, which is probing into the 2002 riots.

The Commission had summoned two senior officers, Ashok Narayan and K Chakravartty, who were additional chief secretary (home) and DGP during the 2002 riots, respectively.

During the proceedings today, Justice (retd) Nanavati told one of the lawyers appearing before the Commission that the intelligence records of “C” category had been destroyed under a regular process since they were “useless”.

Nanavati said the records related to the log book entries and vehicle movement registers and were not going to prove much as they would merely register the movement of a vehicle and not of the officers travelling in it.

“Logbooks will not prove what you have imagined,” Nanavati said during the proceedings. He added that apart from the ‘C’ category documents, records related to the then state intelligence chief G C Raiger were also not available.

Justice Nanavati, though, added that all relevant intelligence records related to the year 2002 are available and that the Commission is examining the report submitted by the additional DGP (intelligence).

According to Commission’s secretary C G Patel, the report submitted by the additional DGP (intelligence) is “confidential” and nobody except the Commission itself had access to it. He said an application by Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM), a voluntary organisation working for the 2002 riots victims, to have access to the report has also been rejected by the Commission.

Last month, the Commission, on an application by the JSM, had ordered the additional DGP (intelligence) to file a report on the status of intelligence records pertaining to the 2002 riots.

The JSM had cited the “contradictory stands” taken by the state government and its counsel over the existence of crucial 2002 intelligence records and sought clarification.

Senior counsel S B Vakil, who appeared before the Commission on behalf of the state government to question IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, had stated that certain intelligence records related to 2002 riots were destroyed in 2007. Subsequently, however, reports appeared in a section of media that the state government had denied the claim.

Source: Indian Express

So why is Buddhadev shy of his red face?? He absented himself from the politburo meeting of CPM at Delhi and a senior leader had to be sent to Kolkata to pacify him. As a “good communist” he should have known that you cannot run a capitalist shop under a red flag for too long. True, the results of election declared on 13th May was indeed embarrassing by any count. Left Front got just 62 as compared to 226 seats won by Trinamul+. Even the weak Congress got more seats than CPM. Trinamul’s Ma, Mati and Mamata were of course far ahead..

After a considerable period of sulking, Buddhadev did show up in a public meeting on 31st May, 2011 at Kolkata. The first thing he said was that CPM will be keeping a watch over her Government!  Marxism teaches us that it is the class that keeps a tab on Governance of its representative political party. Mr. Bhattacharjee appears to have usurped the role of the capitalist class to keep a tab on Trinamul! His party has apparently completely forgotten that it had chosen the parliamentary path to usher in Socialism and not to supervise the status-quo of the bourgeois parliamentary system. The long stint in the Government has changed the party which wanted to change the system. The Ambanis and Adanis have another option now. The republican-democrat pair. Maa-Mati-Manoosh-Marxists…

(English)

Exploiting the vast anger of the people against the corrupt political leadership, the second freedom struggle of India was conceived, planned and executed within five days. On 9^th April, 2011, the TV channels gave us the Breaking News that India had won its second struggle for Independence! Me, a post-1947 born, tried to feel and relive the moment as I had missed the original one. But somehow, the images flashing in millions of Televisions completely lacked the vision of that slightly stooping figure of Bapu who led the millions for freedom.

Even a perfunctory examination of the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by the protagonist of the present movement would reveal that it is just another rehash of the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Under the section 8 of the proposed Bill, the Lokpal has the power of receiving (a) Complaints where there are allegations of such acts of omission or commission which are punishable under Prevention of Corruption Act against “Public Servants” and (b) Complaints where there are allegations of misconduct by a government servant etc. The complaints received can be in relation to “corruption” that includes any offense punishable under Chapter IX of the Indian Penal Code or under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988;

Thus in case the Lokpal Bill is legislated, the corrupt public servant will now get an extra opportunity to defend under the 18(ii) and (iii) of the proposed Bill, apart from the opportunity to defend as and when the Lokpal initiates proceedings under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Thus instead of a speedy trial of the corrupt, they get an extra innings to delay. All that was perhaps required was to demand the deletion of section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act by which the cognizance of the offense could be taken only if the sanction was granted by the Government. If this hurdle is removed, any citizen can file a case against any corrupt public servant empowering millions of citizens to become the Lokpals themselves instead of looking for the perfect Lokpal!

While on one hand the proposed Lokpal Bill has nothing effective to offer to fight corruption, on the other hand some of the proposed provisions are wholly undemocratic and unconstitutional. The provisions of section 18(vi) and (ix) of the proposed Bill stipulates that where after investigation into a complaint, the Lokpal is satisfied that the complaint against the public servant is substantiated , the Lokpal can pass orders either to transfer/suspend the public servant from that position or even discontinue him from the post.

In case of public servant being a Minister, (except the Prime Minister!) Lokpal shall make such recommendation to the President, who shall decide either to accept such recommendation or reject it within a month of its receipt. If the order is not complied with within the time or in the manner directed, Lokpal may decide to impose a fine on the officials responsible for the non-compliance of its orders. Thus constitutional appointees like the High Court Judges, Supreme Court Judges, Chief Ministers and all Central Ministers can be transferred/suspended or even removed by a statutory authority like a Lokpal (who might be a NGO representative) even before they are proven guilty!!! And if the President of the country refuses to do so, Lokpal can even fine the President! In the proposed Bill, Anna and his colleagues ought to really add a repeal clause, repealing most part of the Constitution itself!

Another glaring omission that stares at our face is the total absence of any provision in the proposed Bill to book the corrupt corporate bosses. The entire anger of the people is diverted and directed against the public servants, Judges and elected members giving a complete freedom given to the corporate world to escape. In fact, in the era of globalization, most of the corruption is indulged by the corporate bosses in connivance with the elected members or the Government servants. The 2G scan was for the benefits of Companies like Swan, Reliance, etc. The public servants merely facilitates the corrupt practice, the substantial benefits always flow to the private person. The great communicators of the talk show on TV channels know this fact quite well. Yet when the media gave a 5 days non-stop support to Anna’s movement, why didn’t any one find it necessary to question the complete omission of any provision to book the corrupt corporate bosses?

‘Corruption’ as is plainly understood is the enrichment without the sanction of law or the encashment of one’s’ power or position or ownership. By this definition, the word ‘corruption’ would exclude legally sanctioned enrichments, however immoral it may be. To illustrate this distinction, we may note that in the State of Karnataka there is no prohibition on the manufacture, sale or consumption of liquor unlike the State of Gujarat where there is total ban. This difference leads to the creation of the rich, respectable liquor baron Vijay Maliya, a Rajyasabha member on one hand and on the other hand, in Gujarat it created Abdul Latif, the richest bootlegger who was ultimately shot dead in an encounter! Just a difference of legal provision! The emphasis on the moral angle of “corruption” should not therefore be overstated to paint the rich and wealthy as angels and tarnish the public servants alone.

Yes, we agree that Corruption is a serious issue; but the media, by using the clean image of a good man and the simmering anger of the people against corruption, cannot be permitted to dilute this struggle by over stating the demand for another law. There are sufficient laws existing. I tried to state this in a public meeting supporting Anna’s movement but was prevented from doing so. Activists controlling the movement protested when I spoke of the refusal of sanction by the Government of Gujarat to prosecute a Minister. What are we therefore fighting for? Some more illusions added to the ones already created by the first struggle of Independence?

Around ten thousand workers and their family members marched through the streets of Ahmedabad on 22nd April, 2010 defying the threat of the Government to invoke ESMA against the striking transport workers of the Ahmadabad Municipal Corporation. The strikers were demanding the implementation of the sixth pay commission’s recommendations which were adopted by the Government and the Corporation for its own employees.

The Gujarat Mazdoor Sabha which was representing the workmen had repeatedly requested the authorities to regularize the services of the temporary drivers and conductors but instead of doing so, the Corporation had adopted an even more exploitative tactics of employing contract conductors for short term periods. Such workmen were paid just Rs. 199/- per day without any guarantee of 26 days of work per month. The uncertainty of another day’s employment led to the spontaneous strike by the contract conductors.

After six days of stoppage of work from 21st April to 26th April, the Management of the Corporation settled the issue after failing to scare the workers with the threat of arrest under ESMA. The daily wage of the temporary drivers and conductors was increased to Rs. 275/- per day instead of Rs. 199/- whereas the wage of the contract conductors was raised to Rs. 225/- per day. All workmen who had been removed or stopped from joining their duties because of their leading role in conducting the strike were taken back on job. A militant action of the workmen finally led to a decent rise of salary with the court cases still being heard for the relief of permanency.

Russian revolutionary and feminist, Alexandra Kollontai, had helped to organise the event in Germany, wrote that it had exceeded all expectations…Germany and Austria were seething and trembling in the sea of women. Meetings were organized everywhere…..in the small towns and even in the villages, halls were packed so full that they had to ask (male) workers to give up their places for the women.
A hundred years after that glorious march of the women, what is the image of the Indian Woman that is being beamed into our living rooms every day? What stories do Santu, Jyoti, Amoli, Anandi, Sia and scores of other women tell us every evening? To be a true Indian woman, you have to accept the traditional rule of the patriarchal hierarchy and completely sacrifice her own wants and desires! Nay, not just wants and desires but her own identity and existence!

Law today emphatically prohibits female infanticide, child marriage and sexual abuse of any woman. But what does Amma do in LAADO? Openly murders the female child and reduces the rebel Sia into a servile maid servant. Anandi, the helpless child bride of BALIKABADHU, is abused harassed and kicked around by Dadidsa who can get away with every type of ill treatment of her Bahus (daughter-in-law). JYOTI allows Shushi to be used as a prostitute to satisfy the material needs of her husband and she herself is kicked out on false charges of adultery with her “loving’ husband turning a “blind eye”. In BANDINI, Santu enjoys her captive role and tolerates the abuse as a “low caste woman” as a good virtue in order to become a role model for all mothers. The worst ofcourse is “Bairi Piya” that for nights together shows the sexual exploits of the “Thakur”(landlord) on Amoli whose own husband is portrayed as the spineless servant who gifts his married wife to his master for his sexual pleasures! One wonders why the different woman’s organization are so silent; does it not concern the National Woman’s Commission when the national channels beam such vulgarity about women?

The two channels that promote such disgusting and loathsome serials are ofcourse making loads of money. NDTV Imagine {Bandini, Jyoti etc} and COLORs {Laado, Balikabadhu, Bairi Piya etc} have increased their TRP substantially and millions watch these serials with bated breath. Both these channels belong to very reputed groups; the former being a part of NDTV and the latter being a part of Viacom 18 that partners with Network 18, the CNN-IBN group. Wonder whether people like Barkha Dutt, Pranob Roy, Rajdeep Sardesai etc ever watch their own group’s productions and deal with such issues in their “We the People” and “Big Fights”!

Be that as it may, on this day of International Woman’s Day, it is a tragedy what we have reduced this day to a ritual, unconcerned about the real state of the woman in this country. The media which can influence a large section of the populations portrays her as a “BANDINI”. Are we going to accept this image?

(English)

(Gujarati)

Chief Justice S J Mukhopadhaya made the oral query to the AG while hearing a petition challenging the order of the Justice G T Nanavati-Justice Akshay Mehta Commission which rejected a plea to summon Modi and six others in September last year.

Appearing on behalf of the State before the Division Bench headed by the Chief Justice, the AG told the court that the Commission passed the order not to summon the seven because it was “premature” at that time.

The Chief Justice then asked when would be a “mature” time to summon them, as the term of the Commission is ending in June this year.

The Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM) had moved the application before the commission to summon Modi and the others for their alleged role in the riots. Apart from Modi, the list included the then home minister Gordhan Zadafia, then health minister (present Speaker) Ashok Bhatt, then DCP of Ahmedabad City R J Savani and three staff members of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) — Omprakash Singh, Tanmay Mehta and Sanjay Bhavsar.

Appearing on behalf of JSM, Mukul Sinha pointed out that since the Terms of Reference of the commisison has provision to summon the Chief Minister and others, it cannot turn down the application to summon them.

The next hearing of the petition has been scheduled for February 15.

Geetha Johri offers to quit SIT

RAJKOT: A week after the Supreme Court pulled up the Gujarat police for improper investigation into the Sohrabuddin encounter case, senior IPS officer Geetha Johri, who is one of the three Gujarat police officers in the SC-appointed Special Investigation Team investigating the cases related to the Godhra riots, offered to quit the SIT on Wednesday. Johri, who currently holds the post of Rajkot Police Commissioner, said: “I am a professional and can do my work. But I cannot handle politics.”

‘Saw Kodnani firing from pistol’

AHMEDABAD: Eyewitness in the Naroda Patiya massacre case, Amina Belif on Wednesday told the special trial court in Ahmedabad that on February 28, 2002, she saw BJP MLA Maya Kodnani at Naroda Patiya. She said Kodnani pointed towards the mosque and the Muslim locality and told the mob to attack it. The mob then threw stones and burning rags at the Muslim houses, Belif said, adding that she also saw Kodnani firing from a pistol.

Belif called up Naroda Police Station where a person introduced himself as (then Senior Police Inspector K K) Mysorewala. She claimed he told her police were on leave and “you all have to die”.

Source: Indian Express

While the poorest in order to survive have to sell the symbol of our republic, the rich are selling the republic itself. The choice of who would be the Chief Guest of the Republic day celebration is also decided not on the stature of our guest but on financial consideration. This year, the President of South Korea  Mr. Lee Myung Bak was invited to preside over the Republic day parade, guess for what reasons? Because the South Koreans are investing the highest amount to establish the gigantic POSCO!

POSCO, is the world’s fourth largest steel producer and one of the most competitive steel companies in the world. POSCO-India’s proposed investment is the highest ever Foreign Direct Investment in India. The company has ambitious expansion plans in India, hoping to invest some $19 billion in the country. For instance, five years ago Posco unveiled plans to build India’s largest steel mill in the city of Orissa on the Bay of Bengal.

Because of local opposition, though, the project has suffered extensive delays and Posco hasn’t even secured a 4,000-acre property promised for the steel plant. For more than four years the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samity (PPSS) has been bravely resisting attempts to displace over 30,000 people in Jagatsinghpur District of Orissa by POSCO, which wants to set up a steel company and a port on their lands. The Korean steelmaker is hoping the visit to New Delhi by South Korean President Lee Myung Bak will clear the way for its $19 billion in proposed investments in India.

The republic which was meant to be of the people by the people and for the people to empower the common man has now become the podium for auction to the highest bidder. May be in the next republic day we find the displaced children of Jagatsighpur of Orissa selling their tricolor flags in your city with  the small prints behind the flags “made in South Korea”!

(English)

(Gujarati)

Sohrabuddin Sheikh was shot and killed in the encounter of 26^th November, 2005 and his wife Kauserbi was injected with Pentothal and apparently burnt in the ilol, the village of Vanzara. Her body was never found. A letter from Rubabuddin, the brother of Sohrabuddin to the Chief Justice of India led to a preliminary enquiry by the CID and later to the filing of the writ petition before the Apex Court. After notice was issued by Supreme Court, the investigation was handed over to DIG Rajnish Rai who did the unbelievable; he arrested D.G.Vanzara in April 2007 alongwith two other IPS officeres, namely Shri Dinesh M.N. from Rajasthan and Rajkumar Pandyan from Gujarat cadre. The arrests of the top Police officer close to the powers shook the foundations at Gandhinagar and Rajnish Rai was removed and the investigation was transferred to IGP Gita Johri.

Few more policemen were arrested, notable amongst them was Dy.SP Shri Narendra Amin, who was accused of murdering Kauserbi. The investigations carried out by Johri revealed that Sohrabuddin, Kauserbi and another person were kidnapped from a bus by the Gujarat Police when these persons were traveling from Hyderabad to Sangli. The third person, who was later identified as Tulsi Prajapati was also killed in another encounter by the same team in December, 2006 near Ambaji. The investigation thereafter started faltering and on behalf of Rubabuddin, the demand for handing over the investigation to CBI was renewed. Ultimately, on 12^th of January, 2010, the Apex Court passed its final Judgment and Order directing the investigation to be handed over to CBI.

The handing over of the investigation of the fake encounter case to CBI can now bring out the required evidence to indict not just some more police higher-ups but also their political masters. It would have been practically impossible for any Police Officer of the Gujarat cadre to dare to look for any evidence that may implicate any of their political bosses but that hurdle is now removed. The manner in which seven “encounters” have been carried in Ahmedabad without the Government not even bothering to institute a single serious inquiry into the genuineness of any of them, raises serious question about the bonafides of the Government. It is difficult to believe that the Government would remain totally aloof despite knowing that in every FIR, the police was alleging that the dead persons had plans to kill the Chief Minister!

The investigation by CBI would help in the investigation from yet another angle. In most of the “encounters” Policemen from more than one State are involved. In the Sohrabuddin case, the Rajasthan Police, Gujarat Police, Maharashtra Police and the Andhra Police are involved. Having a Central agency investigating into the crime would facilitate search for the evidence in the different States and bring out the nexus between the Police of the different States in creating the bogey of “terrorism” to satisfy the political needs of parties.

In the Sohrabuddin case itself, the last encounter in December, 2006, that killed Tulsi Parajapati near Ambaji close to the Rajasthan borders was a clear joint operation on the part of the Rajasthan and Gujarat Police. Tulsi,  who was an accused in another criminal case registered in Gujarat was reportedly brought to Ahmedabad under the guise of producing him before the Ahmedabad Court and while taking him back to Rajasthan where he was lodged in the Udaipur jail, he was apparently shot and killed as he was allegedly escaping from the police custody in the train. An investigation has revealed that at that time Dinesh M.N. IPS was the SP of Udaipur (now under arrest for killing Sohrabuddin) and the two Policemen who accompanied Tulsi to Ahmedabad were working under him and specially assigned to travel with Tulsi!  The Gujarat police ofcourse found him near the Rajasthan border and killed him in self defense! In such inter State conspiracy, CBI alone can be efficacious.

Now that the majesty of law has once again been established by the Apex Court, the country will have high expectation of the capability and impartiality of CBI. Since last seven years, numerous allegations have been flying around the Narendra Modi Government but no one has pinned a single allegation to make it stick. Either they are wholly innocent or they are too smart to catch. We have to now wait and see what the CBI can do.

(English)