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Mailtoday
13SEP2012
OPED
by Najeeb Jung
I AM
encouraged to write this open letter to you deriving inspiration from Sanjiv
Bhatt’s letter to the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
Communal
violence has been our bane but normally those participating in it are the
lumpen of society. But, you are an educated professional, a gynaecologist, a
mother and a loving wife, so your willing participation in the gruesome large
scale murders at Naroda Patiya stunned us.
What struck
me was that through years of your practice as a gynaecologist you have given
life and birth to our species.
You have
looked after sick women and children who may otherwise not have survived. Then
what happened?
Message
But now I am
sure you will reflect on your actions. Hatred can get us nowhere, and the only
way to stop such gruesome behaviour as perpetuated by you and your friends is
to bury the politics of so called grievance. This can be done either through
individual restraint or where that restraint is absent through the
dispassionate and swift action of the law in imposing sanctions on the violent.
Therefore I
salute Judge Jyotsana Yagnik. Too often in India, the powerful and the
politically connected have been allowed to get away with murder. By sentencing
you for nearly 30 years in prison Judge Yagnik sent out two very important
messages. First, that the history of impunity that has scarred this republic,
where men have killed in full public view without punishment, is not something
people should take for granted. Judge Yagnik has proved that when judges and
courts commit themselves to measured justice, the impunity that makes this
violence possible vanishes.
The second
very notable thought that comes through the judgment is that Judge Yagnik
refrained from exacting the death penalty on you and your comrades even though
Naroda Patiya met the criterion of “ the rarest of rare” crimes: because she
was opposed to the death penalty. This judgment was about due process and
punishment, not blood vengeance. The concept of an eye for an eye would make us
all blind and that is the significant difference between you Mayaben and Judge
Yagnik. Overtaken by naked ambition and hatred for other humans you betrayed
professional modernity and your medical oath for barbarism, while the judge
tempered justice with mercy.
I do not
wish to make a point on, and I presume no one in India wants to revisit the
details of the gruesome story of Naroda Patiya and the events in Gujarat of 2002.
We loath the likes of Bajrangi who wallowed in pleasure while describing his
actions during those dark days. In contrast the man whose pregnant wife was
savagely killed refuses to talk about it. As do so many others who relive the
nightmare every day of their lives, their tragedy evident in their eyes.
Justice
We wish to
purge ourselves of the prison of this memory by confronting it, by bringing the
guilty to book, by doing what the South Africans did, by walking the path of
truth and reconciliation. To quote Nelson Mandela, “ As I walked out of the
door toward my freedom I knew that if I did not leave all the anger, hatred and
bitterness behind I would still be in prison”. But truth first: no real
reconciliation can come from the sort of willed nostalgia that the apologists
for Gujarat government wish to inflict upon us.
Through this
open letter to you Mayaben, I also wish to address the champions of Indian
Industry who hailed Gujarat as a modern miracle. It’s really sad that these
champions, for 30 pieces of silver and a few acres of land, wish to forgive
mass murder of a kind that makes humanity hang its head in shame. I would
expect no responsible human being to be encouraging us to “ move on” from
Naroda Patiya and the Gujarat killings without justice being done.
Atonement
It’s also
amazing how with your record of actions in 2002 you continued to receive
patronage from the highest in your party. Despite your obvious involvement, and
now proven guilt, you were made a minister. But then yours is not an individual
case and the fact represents two things, one the never- ending violence of
bigotry and two the belief of the criminal and the powerful that they will get
away with anything. The Naroda Patiya verdict is a reminder that this belief is
misplaced.
I also take
this opportunity to address all those so- called educated young men and women —
the young professionals ( now coming from all religions and faiths) who
recently have been found indulging in plans to perpetrate terrorist violence.
Let them transform their thinking. Let them seek out love and hope that like
the monsoon rain will nourish our beloved land and banish the angry vicious
heat of mutual disrespect and dislike. It is not religious pride or the
construction of mosques, temples and churches that is important. Nor are
notions of persecution, and jehad but the fact that we as a nation need now to
seek out a fresh dimension to our lives.
Targeting
government installations, killing prominent people of other faiths or flinging
bombs here and there will not build India but scar all of us.
Frankly,
Mayaben, I feel for you as I feel for all those families who suffered by your
actions as also for those families whose loved ones are now in jail, misled by
the likes of you and your ideologues.
So there is
only one ‘ praischit’ for you.
You must
reveal the names of your handlers, those mysterious men who planned these riots
and inspired you to such madness. While Judge Yagnik may have punished you
under law, the Lord will forgive you only if you reveal the full truth.
The writer
is the Vice Chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia convict
