The Supreme Court yesterday ordered a special probe panel to investigate the role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and top state officials in the 2002 communal riots and submit a report within three months. A bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly also ordered the Raghavan Committee panel, headed by former [...]
The Gujarat government could be on a sticky ground while seeking extension for the police officers with controversial track record in the 2002 riots investigations. After the Centre turned down the request for extension of P C Pande and O P Mathur, who retired on March 31, the government has now sought permission of the [...]
STATUTORY PREVARICATION COMMISSION OR OMMISSION? (Mukul Sinha) Prologue: Six months back, when I was asked by Lassnet to send the summary of what I would be presenting in January, 2008, I had said that the Commission of Inquiries Act, as implemented in the present days, provided a convenient machinery for prevarication. I had even [...]
The Double Helix of Violence (Mukul Sinha) 8.12.2008 THE FIRST HELIX The arrest of Pragya Singh Thakur by the Mumbai ATS Chief Hemant Karkare for the 29thSeptember,2008 Malegaon bomb blast had cracked the very foundation of the propaganda regarding “islamic terrorism” that the Hindu rightist forces were building [...]
The Nanavati Commission’s findings on Godhra said that 140 litres of petrol were poured into the S6 compartment of Sabarmati Express to set it on fire at the Godhra railway station. However, official injury reports of 70 survivors of the coach S6 fire show that most burn injuries were above the waist. So could the [...]
THE DERAILED REPORT OF SABARMATI EXPRESS (Please click on the below link for the complete text of Jan Sangharsh Manch’s Report on the burning of Sabarmati Express in Godhra) ON THE RIGHT TRACK TO GODHRA BY JAN SANGHARSH MANCH PREAMBLE: 1. On 28th February 2002, the news dailies of Gujarat were carrying [...]
P . O . T . A Production of Terrorist Act, Gujarat. How does one declare a war on terrorism if there are no terrorists around? In Gujarat, this logical hurdle is easily surmounted. Create them first and then declare war on them so that the "hapless citizens" can vote you to power as [...]
An NGO today came out with its own report on the burning of the Sabarmati Express in 2002 and claimed that the incident was "not a pre-planned conspiracy", contradicting findings of the Nanavati Commission that inquired into the case. The S6 coach of the train burned due to flash fire that followed an initial ignition, [...]
OMISSIONS AND COMMISSIONS (Mukul Sinha) The spectre of “Terrorism” seems to have finally captured the sensibility of the entire nation. All spaces, be that in the print media or the electronic media, be it in a public place or in a private drawing room, are fully occupied by this spectre; a sterile nation incapable of [...]
Fabricating Systematic Lies (Mukul Sinha, Jan Sangharsh Manch) When the S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express had reduced to ashes near the Godhra railway station on 27th February, 2002, few had imagined that this event would forever change the politics of this country. Use of communal politics is not alien to the political culture of [...]
