HC directive to govt in fund misuse case

The Gujarat high court on Friday asked the state government to inform what steps it intended to take in connection with the alleged financial fraud involving BJP MLA from Radhanpur, Shankar Chaudhary.
    In this case, Chaudhary was asked by the HC two years ago to cough up Rs 21 lakh, which was siphoned off by the legislator from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) for the purpose of building a school damaged in the 2001 earthquake.
    Chaudhary was accused of spending the amount for construction of his own private school. The court had asked him to pay the money back with 10% interest. The court had also ordered an inquiry against the erring officials and observed that if need be, there should be an investigation by CID (crime). Following these directions, the government set up a committee to look into the roles of government officials in this alleged scam.
    After nearly two years, petitioner-complainant Farsu Goklani approached the HC again complaining against government’s inaction. The state government on Friday submitted an affidavit stating that the panel might require six more months to probe roles of government officials.

Incredible impunity

Of all the potential and credible contenders to be the next prime minister, the one least deserving is Narendra Modi

Here There Everywhere | Salil Tripathi

Posted: Wed, Feb 29 2012. 8:27 PM IST

Of all the reasons given to counter charges that Narendra Modi failed to protect the lives and property of thousands of Gujaratis (a large majority of them being Muslims) in the 2002 riots that followed the burning of a train compartment in Godhra in which 58 Hindus died, the most despicable is to equate those riots with the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 in northern India. It is despicable because it suggests a bizarre parity: if Congress supporters can target Sikhs after two bodyguards (who happened to be Sikh) assassinated Indira Gandhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can also act with impunity.

Of all the explanations of Modi’s mismanagement of those riots, the least convincing is the defence that Modi had just assumed power and was new to his job at that time. Rajiv Gandhi was certainly new to his job on 31 October, as he was made prime minister soon after his mother was murdered, and presumably he had other things on his mind (like grief) than planning a pogrom. The day of the Godhra incident, Modi had been chief minister for over four months, and he was not a novice.

Of all the rationales of Modi’s conduct then, the least persuasive is that he acted quickly, ordering preventive arrests and restoring law and order. While initial rioting stopped in four days, it resurfaced about 10 days later, and went on for months, where mosques were razed, property destroyed, people uprooted and killed, with the last embers of fire subsiding only in June, a full four months after the initial spark.

Of all the hype surrounding Modi, the oddest are some of the claims concerning the state’s economic performance. Gujarat has done well in recent years, but it lost ground soon after the riots, picking up pace only later.

In the five years between 2004-05 and 2009-10, Gujarat’s per capita income nearly doubled from Rs32,021 to Rs63,961. In the same period its neighbour Maharashtra, the perceived languishing laggard, saw its per capita income grow from Rs35,915 to Rs74,027. Several states besides Gujarat have shown triple digit growth in their gross domestic product (the value of goods and services produced in a year) in recent years, and Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh have bigger economies. Gujarat now runs a revenue deficit—it spends more than it earns—and its surplus has disappeared. Several other states have improved their fiscal positions meanwhile. Reforms? Five states passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act before Gujarat did in 2005, and 20 states preceded Gujarat in implementing value-added tax. Surplus power? Several states, including some in the North-East, have that. Agricultural growth? And did the Narmada project, which preceded Modi, have nothing to do with it?

Of all the reasons given excusing Modi’s role in 2002, the least dignified is the idea that Gujarat’s economic growth offsets and, therefore, somehow compensates for the butchery of those months. To cite a good deed to mitigate the effects of a bad one is often irrelevant and such reasoning is contemptible.

Of all the achievements ascribed to Modi, the most tenuous credits Gujarati entrepreneurship to Modi’s leadership. Gujarati businesses have thrived in hostile business climate in different parts of the world. Remove controls and streamline procedures, and Gujarati traders will do even better. To claim credit for that is like a Kashmiri chief minister claiming credit for the beauty of his state.

Of all the justifications for Modi, unusual is the characterization of the special investigation team’s (SIT) reported “clean chit” to exonerate him, as if it paves the way for his path to the office of the prime minister. That assumes there are no other rivals within the BJP, and that he will be acceptable to allies in spite of the taints. SIT’s report, not yet public, appears to suggest that a case implicating Modi in the Ehsan Jafri murder may be difficult. Threshold for evidence in criminal trials is understandably high, and proving complicity is not easy. But Jafri’s was one of nearly 1,000 deaths in Gujarat at that time (going strictly by the official count). If not Modi, who was responsible for that colossal and systemic failure of law and order in those months? To suggest that the victims’ loved ones and the survivors should move on and let bygones be bygones, insults the survivors tenaciously seeking justice. Time heals wounds, but impunity and denial of justice revives pain.

Of all the assertions about Modi’s Gujarat, the least convincing is the way those cases are being handled. Victims have found it hard to get local lawyers in Gujarat. Witnesses have faced intimidation. The Supreme Court has had to transfer cases out of the state, and judges have chastised the state for using its powers to prosecute the victims’ rights activist Teesta Setalvad.

And so, of all the potential and credible contenders to be the next prime minister, the least deserving candidate is Narendra Modi.

NHRC notice to Gujarat on branding of children

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notice to the Gujarat government on alleged branding of children with hot metals in Kutch and Rajkot districts.

The notice came after NHRC took suo motu cognisance of a media report alleging that children in Vagad region of Kutch district and some remote parts of Rajkot district in Gujarat were branded with iron rods, heated nails, wires and incense sticks in the belief that this would cure them of their afflictions and diseases.

Most of the victims of this practice are children up to 15, the NHRC said quoting reports.

The Commission observed that the contents of the press report, if, true, raised a serious issue of violation of human rights of children.

Report sought

“A notice has been issued to the Chief Secretary, the government of Gujarat calling for a report. He has been asked to inform where such inhuman custom is prevalent in the State and what remedial steps have been taken by the administration to stop it,” an NHRC spokesperson said.

According to the media report, the spokesperson said, “this inhuman and cruel medieval custom of branding a child is prevalent in this region for ages.”

‘Permanent scars'

“A child already suffering from ailments is subjected to branding more than once which only increases its pain. This practice leaves permanent physical and psychological scars on their young minds,” he added. — PTI

State wakes up to fire safety alarm

State government to form a task force which will carry out a fire safety audit at all hospitals across the state

Ahmedabad Mirror Bureau amfeedback@indiatimes.com

In the wake of the fire at AMRI hospital in Kolkata, the state government has decided to constitute a task force which will conduct a fire safety check at all hospitals across Gujarat. The task force will be formed in a week, the government announced after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

“State has no fire safety act but it has become a necessity today. The task force will also provide suggestion on the act. Currently, fire safety norms are covered under building laws. It becomes difficult to punish offender in absence of a specific act,” said Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas.

The state has about 10,000 hospitals. Of these 385 are government, 960 are managed by trusts with the help from state’s Cheeranjivi Yojana and 9,195 are private.

The task force will complete the inspection of all hospitals in six months and submit its report to the government. Health Department and state disaster management authority will oversee the inspection and audit process, a source in the department said.

ROGUE COP FINDS IT ‘ MANLY’ TO BE IN JAIL

FIVE years of incarceration and a post graduation diploma in value education and spirituality seem to have truly bolstered the conviction of the alleged killer cop of Gujarat — D. G. Vanzara. In the process, he has developed a new definition of manhood. The trigger happy cop — who landed behind bars for his alleged role in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and is now a suspect in the murder of Mumbra- based teenager Ishrat Jahan and three others — said that people land up behind bars after doing something worthy of a ‘ man’. Vanzara was delivering a speech at Sabarmati Jail during the convocation where he, along with SIMI ideologue Safdar Nagori, were awarded their PG diploma in “ value education and spirituality” by the Annamalai University.

“ We are here as we have done something manly ( mardonwali),” Vanzara said, adding that a ‘ complete’ man is he who is happy in any condition — whether in jail or in a palace. While he also spoke on meditation and spiritual aspects of life, his definition of being ‘ manly’ made it clear that the IPS officer sees valour in killing unarmed women and doesn’t shy away from wearing his pride in his sleeves.

Modi meets his match from within the BJP

OPPOSING political currents are meeting, and their interaction is steadily raising the temperature along coastal Gujarat.

As the two principal political forces in Gujarat clashed in Bhavnagar, about 80 kilometers away from the famous ship breaking yard of Alang during Narendra Modi’s Sadbhavana fast last Saturday, the chief minister was challenged by a third force. Quietly in the same town, the discontent of the dispossessed and displaced found its voice — a leader who had emanated from the same cradle as Narendra Modi and his ilk.

Modi sat, stood and waved from an elevated dais fortified with fierce gun- toting security men and the state machinery put in every effort to mobilise a jingoistic crowd. But it was BJP MLA Kanu Kalsaria, who sat on a parallel Samvedana Parv a few kilometers away, who got the people talking.

Dr Kalsaria, who has been elected three times consecutively from Mahuva, has for all practical purposes emerged as the face of rural Gujarat’s discontent against Modi regime. And the otherwise authoritarian Gujarat BJP appears helpless before this lean 57 year old surgeon. Despite Kalsaria’s tirade against Narendra Modi, the BJP can only hope that he would one day resign from the party on his own. Contrast this with the treatment the party had meted out to the heavyweights like Keshubhai Patel, Kashiram Rana, Suresh Mehta and several others and the predicament that Gujarat BJP finds itself in with respect to Kalsaria becomes only more evident.

MODI sat in a royal tent, with all the amenities to take the heat off him as devotees queued up for a darshan. The main Opposition party — the Congress — did stage a routine counter fast at a pandal erected a few kilometers away, by the Bor Talav, a dying lake that was once the centre of the town. If Modi’s fast was a show of the state’s arrogance and opulence, Congress betrayed the monotony of routine opposition. On the other side of the lake, in the scorching afternoon sun, Kalsaria and his motley crowd sat unguarded.

The surgeon did not really speak, it was for the people to say what they wanted to and their anger was for all to hear — be it Ibrahim Illiyas, the fisherman from Mundra in Kutch, or the ten- yearold farmer boy who only managed to say “ nobody listens to us, no one,” before vanishing into the crowd. It was, however, their earnestness and steely resolve that signified the fuming amber of discontent in rural Gujarat, which is waiting for someone to stoke it properly. Gujarat’s ‘ Development’ story has certainly not reached these people so far.

Kalsaria took on Modi about two- and- a- half years back, when he resisted the corporate giant Nirma which was setting up a multi- crore cement plant in his constituency Mahuva. The proposed plant threatened to destroy the fertile agricultural land that had been developed by the local people over the years.

Despite having the state government’s support, the company had to retrace its footsteps.

Kalsaria, who had spearheaded a people’s movement, emerged as the man who delivered.

While the BJP initially ignored him, his support grew and soon enough the unassuming doctor became a rallying point for Gandhians, activists and farmers, who were getting the rough end of Modi’s development stick. Today, Kalsaria is the face of the farmer’s struggle for their land across Gujarat.

His strategy has been simple.

While movement against land acquisition is on at various pockets in Gujarat, Kalsaria never has tried to usurp the leadership anywhere, but has not shied away from lending his support to their cause either.

“ I don’t know what these movements will lead to, but at this point it is important that I do what is right and that’s what I am doing,” he says. The steel of his resolve shines through his bright smile. One is more than tempted to believe in him and his constituency does. “ I am not against anyone, I am only standing up for the farmers who are suffering,” he says. “ But they ( the BJP) think I am against them,” he adds with a smile. The dichotomy is for the BJP to resolve.

Modi meets his match from within the BJP

OPPOSING political currents are meeting, and their interaction is steadily raising the temperature along coastal Gujarat.

As the two principal political forces in Gujarat clashed in Bhavnagar, about 80 kilometers away from the famous ship breaking yard of Alang during Narendra Modi’s Sadbhavana fast last Saturday, the chief minister was challenged by a third force. Quietly in the same town, the discontent of the dispossessed and displaced found its voice — a leader who had emanated from the same cradle as Narendra Modi and his ilk.

Modi sat, stood and waved from an elevated dais fortified with fierce gun- toting security men and the state machinery put in every effort to mobilise a jingoistic crowd. But it was BJP MLA Kanu Kalsaria, who sat on a parallel Samvedana Parv a few kilometers away, who got the people talking.

Dr Kalsaria, who has been elected three times consecutively from Mahuva, has for all practical purposes emerged as the face of rural Gujarat’s discontent against Modi regime. And the otherwise authoritarian Gujarat BJP appears helpless before this lean 57 year old surgeon. Despite Kalsaria’s tirade against Narendra Modi, the BJP can only hope that he would one day resign from the party on his own. Contrast this with the treatment the party had meted out to the heavyweights like Keshubhai Patel, Kashiram Rana, Suresh Mehta and several others and the predicament that Gujarat BJP finds itself in with respect to Kalsaria becomes only more evident.

MODI sat in a royal tent, with all the amenities to take the heat off him as devotees queued up for a darshan. The main Opposition party — the Congress — did stage a routine counter fast at a pandal erected a few kilometers away, by the Bor Talav, a dying lake that was once the centre of the town. If Modi’s fast was a show of the state’s arrogance and opulence, Congress betrayed the monotony of routine opposition. On the other side of the lake, in the scorching afternoon sun, Kalsaria and his motley crowd sat unguarded.

The surgeon did not really speak, it was for the people to say what they wanted to and their anger was for all to hear — be it Ibrahim Illiyas, the fisherman from Mundra in Kutch, or the ten- yearold farmer boy who only managed to say “ nobody listens to us, no one,” before vanishing into the crowd. It was, however, their earnestness and steely resolve that signified the fuming amber of discontent in rural Gujarat, which is waiting for someone to stoke it properly. Gujarat’s ‘ Development’ story has certainly not reached these people so far.

Kalsaria took on Modi about two- and- a- half years back, when he resisted the corporate giant Nirma which was setting up a multi- crore cement plant in his constituency Mahuva. The proposed plant threatened to destroy the fertile agricultural land that had been developed by the local people over the years.

Despite having the state government’s support, the company had to retrace its footsteps.

Kalsaria, who had spearheaded a people’s movement, emerged as the man who delivered.

While the BJP initially ignored him, his support grew and soon enough the unassuming doctor became a rallying point for Gandhians, activists and farmers, who were getting the rough end of Modi’s development stick. Today, Kalsaria is the face of the farmer’s struggle for their land across Gujarat.

His strategy has been simple.

While movement against land acquisition is on at various pockets in Gujarat, Kalsaria never has tried to usurp the leadership anywhere, but has not shied away from lending his support to their cause either.

“ I don’t know what these movements will lead to, but at this point it is important that I do what is right and that’s what I am doing,” he says. The steel of his resolve shines through his bright smile. One is more than tempted to believe in him and his constituency does. “ I am not against anyone, I am only standing up for the farmers who are suffering,” he says. “ But they ( the BJP) think I am against them,” he adds with a smile. The dichotomy is for the BJP to resolve.

‘Denied’ major venues, Congress will take on Modi from Karanpara

Rajkot: With the district administration reportedly rejecting its applications for open grounds in Rajkot, the Congress has decided to hold its day-long Satkarma fast — to counter Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s Sadbhavana Mission fast — at a small ground in busy and congested Karanpara on December 17.

Rajkot Congress MP Kunvarji Bavalia, who will lead the Satkarma fast, said, “(The fact) that major grounds have been booked in the name of organisations affiliated to the BJP on same date shows the BJP is quite fearful of the Congress here.”

According to the Congress, the district administration rejected their four applications for an open space citing non-availability. Party leaders said they could not get Lal Bahadur Shahtri ground, the oldest and the biggest in old Rajkot, as it is booked for a religious function, so is Chaudhar School ground.

They said the administration also expressed inability to allot them Viran Science School ground, saying it is booked by a Leo Group, promoted by local BJP leader Kashup Shukla.

The Congress was also reportedly denied permission to organise fast on the Rashtriya Shala Campus, an educational institute established by Mahatma Gandhi. The trust-run campus has been mired into a controversy for commercialisation of trust properties by renting those out to private groups.

In contrast, Modi will be holding his fast programme at the spacious Race Course Ground.

Over 20 committees have been formed to take care of different departments related to Mod’’s fast, including chair arrangement, stage decoration, security, light and sound, recording, live webcast and allotting cards to those going to fast with the CM.

As it has been made a government function, the district collector and Rajkot municipal commissioner will supervise the preparations.

Rajkot is politically important for both the parties. While it has been a BJP bastion since the Jansangh days, the Congress recently made inroads, first by capturing rural areas like Jasdan and Dhoraji, and then by wresting a Lok Sabha seat from the BJP in the last general elections.

Senior IAS officer H N Chibber booked day before retirement

Rajiv Topno, currently with the Prime Minister’s Office, also gets the chargesheet in a decade old case; they had unearthed mining scam involving former BJP minister Babu Bokhiria

It is not just the IPS officers, daring to challenge the regime, who get chargesheeted in Gujarat. In a surprise move, two senior IAS officers of Gujarat have found themselves in the “bad books” of the Modi government. H N Chhiber and Rajiv Topno have been chargesheeted in an old case. Incidentally, Topno is the only IAS officer from Gujarat serving in the PMO at present.

Mirror has confirmed information that just a day before he retired on November 30, Chhiber who was serving as additional commissioner in rural development department, and Topno, a director in the Prime Minister’s Office, have been served a chargesheet in a 10-year-old case.

The case pertains to debris removal in the post-earthquake phase in Kutch when both officers were posted there. “The government perhaps wanted to target Chhiber since he had unearthed a major scam involving a top BJP politician in Porbandar. They tried hard to pin him down but he continued his tirade and extensively damaged BJP’s reputation by exposing the mining mafia who were enjoying BJP’s patronage. The only case they could fish out against Chhiber was an old matter of Kutch,” the source said.

“However since both Chhiber and Topno were posted in Kutch, Chhiber perhaps could not be singled out and hence they have been chargesheeted together,” the source added.

The General Administration Department (GAD) issued the charge sheet on November 29, a day before Chhiber retired. “The government chargesheeted Chhiber and Topno in an old matter in Kutch. I don’t recall the details of the case,” a top bureaucrat in the government confirmed to Mirror without sharing the details and nature of the case.

As a result of the charge sheet, Chhiber will have to wait for his retirement dues till he is exonerated in the inquiry while Topno, very bright and only officer working in the PMO, may not be promoted to secretary level along with his 1996 batchmates.

“This is total pettiness on the part of the government. This is just meant to play with the officers’ career,” said a senior secretary in the government, deploring the government decision.

A massive investigation by the Porbandar district administration and the state mines and mineral department had revealed that powerful local politicians, goons and petty operators had illegally mined 1.50 crore tonnes of limestone worth Rs 500 crore over the past decade in the district.

The alleged main operators in the racket were all big-time politicians — former BJP minister Babu Bokhiria, a local gangster Bhima Dula (brother of BJP MLA Karsan Dula), his son Laxman Bhima and former Congress MP Bharat Odedra. The operation came to light in 2006, when the then district collector Chibber and the police chief raided a big mine near Porbandar and caught several labourers illicitly excavating limestone.

Bokhiria and his relatives are the main accused in the case. Due to illegal mining of limestone from the government land and supply of the mineral without payment of government royalty, the state exchequer had lost close to Rs 600 crore, as per the report Chhiber had prepared then.

An arch-rival of Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modhvadia, Bokhiria was also arrested in connection with the scam and is out on bail. Bhima Dula is right now in jail in a murder case. He is also alleged to have played a crucial role in the assassination of senior BJP leader and former minister Haren Pandya.

After he exposed the scam and launched a drive to stop mining in government lands, Chhiber was transferred and given insignificant assignment as additional commissioner, rural development.

Because of Chhiber’s interest in exposing BJP leaders involved in the scam, the local police had registered over 12 FIRs in various illegal mining cases.

“Any official who has discharged his professional duty in accordance with the law and has angered the regime has been harassed in some way or the other. Be they IPS officers like Rahul Sharma, R B Shreekumar, Rajnish Rai, Sanjiv Bhatt, Satish Verma or Kuldip Sharma or IAS officers like J S Rana, Pradeep Sharma, H N Chhiber or Rajiv Topno, all are being targeted,” the source claimed.

PROMOTION PROCESS ON

The Gujarat government has initiated the process to promote 1987 batch IAS officers from secretary to principal secretary level. There are five officials in this batch who are likely to be elevated. They include Civil Supplies Secretary Rajkumar, Gujarat State Road Transport Corporations MD Raj Gopal, Primary Education Secretary R P Gupta, Secretary Expenditure in finance department L Chuango and Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation MD V S Gadhvi. Besides this, the government has also initiated the process to elevate 1996 batch officers to secretary level. These include urban development Additional Secretary Mona Khandhar, her husband and IndextB Managing Director Mukesh Kumar, AUDA CEO Mamta Verma, revenue department Additional Secretary T Natarajan, Director in PMO Rajiv Topno, Madhya Gujarat Vij Company MD A N Khatri and Registrar of Cooperatives D K Rawal.

Modi govt ready with plans to clip Guv’s wings

Locked in a bitter feud with the Governor over several issues, particularly the appointment of a new Lokayukta without consulting it, the state government is set to strike back with a plan to strip the Raj Bhawan of powers to appoint vice-chancellors of the state-run universities.

Governor Kamla Beniwal, who is the ex-officio chancellor of over a dozen state-run universities, had ignored the state government’s advice while appointing a number of vice-chancellors a few months ago.

Now, the state government plans to amend its Universities Act to curb the Governor’s powers to interfere in the educational matters.

Sources close to Chief Minister Narendra Modi said the proposed amendment will rely heavily on Justice Punchhi Commission’s report on Centre-State relations, which is said to have recommended that the Governors should be restrained from meddling into educational matters of the state.

The Punchhi Commission, appointed by the UPA government in 2007 and headed by former Chief Justice of India Justice (retired) Madan Mohan Punchhi, submitted its report in March 2010.

“The government is very annoyed with the Governor’s move to appoint the pro-Congress Dr DR Korat as Bhavnagar University’s V-C last month and Hemakshi Rao as North Gujarat University’s V-C a few months ago without consulting the state government,” sources said.

After legal consultations, the state’s Education Department has submitted a proposal to amend all the state universities Acts to remove the provision of Governor’s role as chancellor of universities and do away with powers of the Governor to appoint V-Cs.

The department is also planning to write to the University Grants Commission to amend the model university act as per Justice Punchhi Commission’s recommendations.

Sources confirmed the state Education Department has submitted the report to the General Administration Department (GAD) of the state government to put it before CM Narendra Modi and the Cabinet for a final decision.

The proposed amendment is likely to be tabled in upcoming budget session in February-March next year.

The Punchhi Commission, in its report, has questioned the practice of appointing Governors as Chancellors in state universities. “Although there have been no judicial pronouncements that deal with the implications of vesting this sort of powers with the Governor, there have been cases that posit that in his capacity as a Chancellor of a university, the Governor acts in his discretion and not on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers,” it has said.

University acts in the states generally provide that the Governor shall be the ex-officio Chancellor of the state-run universities and be vested with powers such as appointing vice-chancellors.

“The question is whether the Governor’s functions as Chancellor of a university fall within the purview of Article 163(1), because this would imply that a Governor is bound to act on the aid and advice of his Council of Ministers in the discharge of his functions as Chancellor. There have been instances where, in selecting vice-chancellors, Governors as chancellors have acted in their discretion, overruling the advice of the Council of Ministers,” the Commission noted in its report.

The Commission also noted that “making the Governor the Chancellor of the universities and thereby conferring powers on him which may have had some relevance historically has ceased to be so with change of times and circumstances”.

“The Council of Ministers will naturally be interested in regulating university education and there is no need to perpetuate a situation where there would be a clash of functions and powers. The Commission is also of the view that Governor should not be assigned functions casually under any statute. His role should be confined to the Constitutional provisions only,” the report said.

Sources close to the development said the state government is also considering the possibility of incorporating other recommendations made by the Punchhi Commission to limit Governor’s role in state administration, including “impeachment by the state Legislature like the provision of President’s impeachment by the Parliament.”

Lawyer and constitutional expert Girish Patel says that as per the Constitution, there is no role for Governor in non-constitutional matters of the state, like acting as Chancellor of universities. “In Gujarat, according to various university acts, there are different provisions. For instance, in MS University, a member of the former royal family of Baroda acts as Chancellor and the Governor has no role to play there.”

KapilDave

Hope, a way of life for Gujarat riot victims

With the Sardarpura verdict out last week sentencing 31 people to life imprisonment, hope and expectation has been rekindled amongst hundreds of riot victims, who lost their near and dear ones in some of the worst massacres in Gujarat.

Sardarpura was one of the nine riot cases which were reinvestigated by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT). The remaining are still at different stages of trial.

The Gulbarg society massacre is among the more gruesome of these cases. Sixty-nine people died in this carnage when a rioting mob cordoned off the society, a day after the Godhra train burning, and attacked it. Amongst the dead was former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was burnt alive.

The initial investigations and the trial process has seen several twists and turns with the SC eventually ordering constitution of an SIT in 2008 following a complaint filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of Ehsan Jafri. The SIT, headed by R K Raghavan, a former head of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), reopened the nine crucial riot cases.

Inspiration for film

The Gulbarg society also, with most of the houses damaged or burnt, was later abandoned. Of the 18 houses which were burnt, only one has been repaired, though none of the families returned, while some of them congregate each year on the anniversary of the incident and offer prayers. This incident also inspired filmmaker Rahul Dholakia to direct an award winning film called Parzania, based on the Parsi family which resided in the society and whose son, Azhar, went missing.

Apart from the riot cases, the SC had also ordered the SIT to look into a complaint filed by Zakia seeking filing of FIRs against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others, including several ministers, alleging a larger conspiracy. The complaint included VHP leaders Praveen Togadia and Jaideep Patel, and then DGP of the State P C Pande, for abetting the riots.

During the Gulbarg trial, some witnesses, including Roopa Modi and Imtiyaz Pathan, have testified that despite desperate attempt for help from the Chief Minister by the former Congress MP, the police had acted as mute spectators. The SC has recently ordered the SIT to hand over its final report on Zakia’s complaint to the magistrate's court.

As far as the trial is concerned, a special court in Ahmedabad is hearing the case. Trial against 66 are currently on. Importantly, of the accused, 57 are out on bail.

Naroda Patiya

The other most talked about riot case of Gujarat, Naroda Patiya, which witnessed appalling violence, including the rape of a pregnant woman, saw the death of 95 people from the area. Once handed over to the apex court-appointed SIT, the case saw some arrests of high profile leaders like the BJP MLA from the area and minister, Maya Kodnani.

This case, which was substantiated by call records, also saw an inquiry being instituted against IPS officer Rahul Sharma, who claimed to have maintained the call records during the riots. Sixty-two stand trial in the case. Even in this case, 49 accused are out on bail.

Battle on

In the remaining cases, including Dipda Darwaza in North Gujarat and Ode in Central Gujarat, the trial is currently on at the special court. With already a decade lost, victims point out as long as the verdict is not pronounced and accused not punished, they cannot rest in peace. Says Iqbal, a crucial witness in the Dipda Darwaja case, “Our battle will be on till the verdict is not delivered and the accused are not punished for the massacre.’’ He, however, said that the Sardarpura verdict has brought some hope to the families of riot victims in this case as well.

Swati Bhan

Sardarpura lesson: Gullible go to jail, not mastermind

Gujarat EDN

DNA 21 NOV 2011

I know I am a person who is easily moved. Perhaps this is why I could not keep my eyes from filling up with tears when I saw the photos of the kin of people killed in the Sardarpura massacre of 2002, as also of the relatives of convicts jailed for life in the case.
I do not overlook the important difference between the two groups - relatives of innocent victims against kin of people found guilty in the case - but the plight of their families is the same. What is far more important is that the real culprits behind the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 are still free and in power.
These people could have prevented or controlled the communal riots but deliberately did not do so. It was these people and their storm-troopers who created murderous frenzy in the name of cultural nationalism and poisoned the minds of ordinary people with hatred, intolerance and violence. These people are still free and they continue to enjoy temporal power and "religious" blessings.
Given this state of affairs, one question continues to haunt the mind: who really gets justice in our society?
The trial court simply decided who was or was not proved to be guilty of specific crimes - and nothing else. What about the communal carnage of 2002 in its totality? What is the real truth behind it? Who and what led to the communal frenzy and large-scale violence that resulted in the killing and uprooting thousands of people, not to talk of the destruction of their properties worth crores of rupees?
The suffering of the people does not just end with the conviction of the guilty and acquittal of the innocent. On the contrary, the judgement in Sardarpura case that came after nine years of the incident reopens old wounds among the victims and rekindles the feeling of enmity and bitterness among the convicted. Further, acquittal cannot compensate those acquitted for the years they had to stay in jail or for the ignominy of criminal proceedings. Moreover, the matter does not end here for there are many more years of appeals to go.
What type of criminal justice system do we have that allows inflicting of pain on innocent victims and their families and also on the kith and kin of the indoctrinated and almost insane wrongdoers? What is this criminal justice system which neither deters nor prevents nor delivers retributive justice in time?
The Nanavati enquiry commission which was appointed in 2002 to investigate the riots is not able to find out the truth even after nine years and expenditure of Rs 6crore. Can truth be so complex and expensive? What is the purpose of such enquiry commissions? Everyone in Gujarat knows the truth about the 2002 pogrom but it is strange that only the learned judges find it difficult to discover it.
Our experience with the working of a large number of such commissions of enquiry in India during the last 50 years has shown that such commissions are actually intended to delay the discovery of truth. The delay helps higher-ups in power or in command to avoid answering for their culpability besides creating general amnesia among the people.
Why fool the people and why waste so much money? Why the need to accommodate or oblige retired judges when that undermines the status, authority and independence of the judiciary? Why mystify the truth? It is far better to stop this charade of justice and truth.
The real question which troubles me is why have we failed to create a humane society and loving, caring and sharing human beings even after thousands of years of civilization, religions, saints and mahatmas? Why is it that philosophers and scholars, scientific inventions and technological advances have all failed in making human beings truly human?

Girish Patel

Jadeja: Zadaphia told me to hold fort at DGP office

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: Former state urban development minister and senior BJP leader, I K Jadeja, has claimed that he took instructions from his junior minister and stayed in the DGP office for better co-ordination in order to quell the riots on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra carnage.
In his deposition before the Nanavati-Mehta Commission, which took place in-camera on November 8, the former minister revealed that he was present in DGP K Chakravarthi’s office at the instance of then state home minister Gordhan Zadaphia.
“Ministers in a government work like a team whenever there is any emergency situation. I asked then state home minister whether he required any help. He told me to remain at DGP Chakravarthi’s office and bring to the notice of DGP and the home minister (Narendra Modi) if there were any suggestions or messages to suppress the riots,” Jadeja said in reply to a question by the probe panel if there was any specific evidence that he was present in the DGP office on the particular day.
Former DGP R B Sreekumar, in his fourth affidavit filed before the commission, revealed Jadeja was at the DGP’s office and was instructing cops from the DGP’s phone. Sreekumar has also mentioned that Chakravarthi had even expressed displeasure with the minister’s presence and complained that it was hampering his work.
However, when asked by the commission, Jadeja denied of having issued any instruction to the cops. “I do not know any incident of violence in Ahmedabad while I was in the DGP office,” Jadeja said.
On the other hand, Zadaphia told SIT that he was not involved by chief minister Modi in any decision-making process.

A LOAD-SHEDDING OF JUSTICE

"Things won't subside. As long as there are two brave lawyers and three shrill but fearless NGO activists, truth will out, as the Sardarpura case indicates. When that happens, the time for apologies will be long past and the planners of the massacre will have no place left to go, perhaps not even China. "

A LOAD-SHEDDING OF JUSTICE - The Sardarpura verdict is the beginning of a long story

THE THIN EDGE: Ruchir Joshi

Last January, I found myself looking at the ugly, concrete makeover of the 'riverside' that has buried the banks of the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad. Standing next to me was a wealthy Amdavadi. When I asked him about Narendra Modi and the state's much-trumpeted progress, his answer was dismissive: "Look, this is Gujarat. We were always pretty hard-working, always good at business. The whole country's had a boost and this state was anyway well placed to reap the benefits. Emha Modi noe kai bahu mohtto haath chhey evhu nathi. It's not as if Modi has had a lot to do with it. Modi is just very good at taking credit for work others have done." I remembered this when I read about the Sardarpura verdict. On the face of it, there is reason to be happy. Thirty-one murderers have been sentenced to life imprisonment. The court was in Mehsana, and not in those dens of secularism, Mumbai or Delhi. The police investigation that resulted in the convictions was also largely local, under the supervision of the special investigation team. Despite huge threats, witnesses came through in the heart of Gujarat. The work of the NGOs and lawyers working in isolation and under great abuse paid off, and the law — after much delay — delivered justice. There is some disappointment that the court chose to ignore the building blocks, the preceding rallies by people connected to powers that be that incited local farmers to butcher the very labourers who were working for them. But over all, there seemed to be reason for optimism until I called a few people in Gujarat. Their reaction was anything but positive. "This is good, yes, but it doesn't connect directly to Modi. In fact, he might even have encouraged it. A few more verdicts like this and he will take credit for bringing rioters to justice, while distancing himself even further from the crimes." Maybe, maybe not. The evidence of conspiracy to carry out mass murder and ethnic cleansing will grow, coalesce and crystallize when it does. In the meantime, Narendra Modi's cohorts in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and their English-speaking Goebbelsguptas will now find it increasingly difficult to peel away their man from the responsibility for the murders, the rapes, the arson, the uprooting of families and the shameless cover-up that followed. This verdict is only among the first strands but, perhaps, along with the testimonies of the police officers, R.B. Shreekumar, Sanjeev Bhatt and others, it signals the ultimate unravelling of the whole carpet of vicious lies under which the Hindutwats have been trying to shove their 2002 pogrom. It's important that this verdict arrives at a time when a huge campaign is under way to efface Narendra Modi's crimes and propel him forward as the future prime minister. Even as his cheerleaders shout on about his incorruptible efficiency, the true nature of the Modi-raj is now ever more openly on display. If you're a Gujarati who was involved in attacking Muslims in 2002, till recently you could count on the Namo machinery doing everything possible to protect you from punishment. However, if you were a Gujarati who was a victim of rape or violence in March-April 2002, you had to learn to live under an energetically enforced load-shedding of justice. Around and under this evil darkness, things have shifted over the last decade. PR touts in Delhi once bragged at cocktail parties about having had the courage to call Modi a mass-murderer. These same power-pimps now proudly tell everyone the exact dates on which they met the 'great' man and the 'pro-business' gems he dropped. Until two years or so after the killings you could find traces of apologetic sheepishness among the wealthy Amdavadis — they knew a huge mistake had been made and they didn't quite know what was coming in retribution. Now, visiting the city, you can see a 'naaga-panu', a brazen nakedness, among the rich, the politicians and many of the tame administration. "Whatever happened, happened, but you can't touch us. This is Modi's Gujarat." The local middle-class took to dismissing the killings as 'chhamakla', tiny fire-crackers, stressing instead what Namo, their 'Annadata', was doing for them, as if a rocketing GDP for the top 20 per cent of the state could wipe out mass slaughter. Some of the older Muslim leaders — people earlier demanding full justice — are now willing to settle for an apology from Modi. Many Muslim businessmen who've benefited from the economic surge in the state also want to draw a line under the killings. While money has flowed in from the Gulf to repair Muslim businesses, other things have also seeped into Garvi Gujarat because of 2002. For example, Kutch, famous for the openness of its people, its villages famous for fantastic textiles and jewellery, is now increasingly coming under new Wahabi edicts. The most beautiful and independent of Muslim cultures is now being pushed under the full burkha, with young men standing around growling, "You're not allowed to photograph our women!" Spending time in Gujarat, it becomes clear that Modi is no Nitish Kumar who has turned around a failing administration. Many clear-eyed people will privately tell you he is an unscrupulous operator who has piggy-backed on to a 'success story'. Others will point out that balanced against all the new Gujarati millionaires there are lakhs of people still under the BPL, balanced against the popularity of Modi among the Indian oligarchies such as the Tatas and the Ambanis, there is the environment that has been pawned to rampant SEZs, balanced against 'the phenomenal speed at which business can be done' there are many, many accusations of government corruption — too much smoke, people say, for there not to be a couple of big fires sizzling quietly somewhere. Whether he's due the credit or not, Modi likes to lap it up whenever he can. And, like all big-time megalomaniacs from Hitler to Gaddafi, he likes to dress up when he's cornering the publicity. In this, Modi has apparently taken to a local photographer who he thinks makes him look particularly good. The story goes, 10 years ago this man used to drive an old scooter and quietly go about his photo-stringer's job. He is now the proud owner of a new bungalow and a nice car. But now his life isn't worth living: he's constantly at Namosaheb's beck and call. A call could come at the crack of dawn: "Narendra Bhai has received some new jhabbas (kurtas), please come now." Namo may not have a visa for America but he certainly has a cowboy hat that he puts on when he wants to impress NRIs. Perhaps he took the hat along with his gold Rolex when he recently went to hobnob with the Fascist-bandhu in China. Shiny surfaces and loud bravado are hardly a monopoly of this Anti-Gandhi who rules Gandhinagar, but he and his team are masters of deploying them. One of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party spin-meisters was on national TV not too long ago. Clearly sent to Delhi because he was quite articulate in his typical Gujarati English, this man made the point that no other 'riots', Delhi '84, Bhagalpur before that, others, none of them have thrown up any justice for the victims, so why expect Gujarat to do so? Borrowing shamelessly from that other Gujarati-fascist manque, Donald Rumsfeld, basically he was saying: "Stuff happens. So what?" The thing is, even as Modi revels in images of himself in his emperor's new clothes, it's the new technology he so loves that could be his undoing. From the beginning, the deliberate, preplanned brutality of what happened between February and April 2002 was witnessed by journalists who could get the news out quickly via the internet and mobile phones. None of India's earlier riots or killings were as well documented. These reports and the few telling images won't go away. It's partly this witnessing by the hateful 'leftist' media that may prove to be Modi's namosis. "There are two or three people," as Modi said to Karan Thapar on TV, "who keep bringing this up again and again." After which, Narendra Namosevic aborted the interview. Why? Because Thapar had the temerity to politely ask Modi why he wouldn't even consider apologizing to the Muslims of Gujarat for his inability to protect them. Looking back after the verdict from Mehsana it's probably a very good thing that Narendra Modisevic has steadfastly refused to 'say sorry'. An apology, however insincere, would have meant only an admission of temporary ineptitude and perhaps provided him with a patli gali of escape. The fact is, "the two or three people" of Naruammar Modaffi's spin delusion are present in far larger numbers. One of the man's favourite campaign slogans was, "Narendra Modi khhato nathi aney khaava deto nathi." NM doesn't eat (bribes) nor does he let anyone else eat. What is being repeatedly proven is that Narakendra Modisevic presided over the long cannibalistic orgy in Gujarat where nearly 2,000 people were eaten. To what extent he and others close to him also gave the hunting and roasting instructions and wrote up the menu remains to be proven. Things won't subside. As long as there are two brave lawyers and three shrill but fearless NGO activists, truth will out, as the Sardarpura case indicates. When that happens, the time for apologies will be long past and the planners of the massacre will have no place left to go, perhaps not even China.

ARE WITNESSES SAFE IN GUJARAT ?????

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