A demagogue celebrates contempt
He might pump his chest, but Narendra Modi can't escape either history or the rule of law. The Gujarat carnage will haunt him eternally
Amit Sengupta Delhi Hardnews
A contempt of court plea has been filed against Narendra Modi on Friday. The plea has been filed in the Supreme Court of India by eminent public interest lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who is also amicus curiae of the court in the Gulbarg Society massacre case of February 28, 2002.
Around 39 people were killed in the carnage including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, during the State-sponsored Gujarat genocide in Ahmedabad after the Godhra train killings. Jafri, a highly respected trade unionist and scholar, had given protection to people in his house including women and children of the middle class residential complex, who were escaping from a murderous mob led by VHP/Bajrang Dal hardliners. The sensitive film Parzania, too, refers to the killings in the society - the son of the couple depicted in this film is still missing since that day of horror. And, the devastated parents are still waiting.
Hardnews learnt that Prashant Bhushan has reportedly filed the contempt plea on Modi's rather belligerent response to the Supreme Court's recent order. The order sought a probe into Modi and his government's role as chief minister in the Gulbarg Society massacre, and has also asked for a report in three months time. Since then, in his usual, rather crude demagogue style, Modi has been pumping his chest in Gujarat saying that "he is ready to go to jail, ready to be hanged in public, ready to live and die for Gujarat". Why a PM-in-waiting should be so keen on going to jail or getting publicly hanged, Taliban style, or only live and die for Gujarat in a vast, secular, pluralist and diverse country like India, remains a mystery.
Apparently newspaper ads have also been brought out by the Gujarat BJP on the issue to polarise voters. And, Modi had just about upped his ante before the last two phases of polling, going all about town trumpeting that it is a Congress conspiracy to send him to jail, disclosed 15 days ago, he says, by Kabil Sibal.
This in itself is a clear violation of the Supreme Court's basic protocol and the Election Commission's model code of conduct. But for a man (and a party) who has brazenly violated all constitutional, democratic, administrative, human codes of social conduct and protocol; whose party flaunts the carnage as a work of Hindutva art, or tacitly condones Praveen Togadia's brag that the Gujarat genocide was a "successful experiment", (followed by Karnataka and Kandhamal), this was like routine festivity. Modi pumped his muscles and went about bragging that he is ready to go to jail or be hanged publicly and that this is a Congress conspiracy.
Clearly, the apex court had made no direct observations on Modi or his activities. It was hearing the petition of Jafri's wife, Zakia Jafri, on the Gulbarg Society massacre, and how the entire constitutional structure had given way and collapsed, how the police, administration and government in Ahmedabad refused to fulfill its constitutional responsibility of protecting life and property of its citizens, and how the entire top rung was an active accomplice in these killings. The court, therefore, asked for a probe to be conducted by the Special Investigations Cell (SIT), appointed by the court to investigate the Gujarat killings.
Clearly, Modi had no business to slam this order, because he is then directly questioning the motive of the court, and attributing conspiracy theories, including allegations about how the Congress might have manipulated the order. This in itself is a brazen violation of judicial protocol, unethical and unprincipled, and should, therefore, call for contempt of court.
Besides, the fact is, like the other specific killings, several BJP politicians, cops and others have been named including Narendra Modi. Zakia Jafri has graphically described the massacre which she saw with her own eyes. Her husband, women and children were hacked and burnt to death in front of her eyes, even while Jafri had reportedly called the police machinery and top functionaries (including, reportedly Congress leaders in Ahmedabad and Delhi?), for help. None came.
The then police chief PC Pande, controversial, and widely accused to have been an accomplice by not allowing the police to intervene, was apparently a family friend and he actually came to their house in the morning. She says that he offered to take both of them in his vehicle, but Jaffrey refused saying that there are others who needed to be protected as well. Clearly, the police and the government knew the inevitability and impending fear of the killings, and later, while the mob went about its task, chose to remain absent from the scene.
This is a pattern seen in all the 'massacre spots' in Ahmedabad and elsewhere, even while BJP/VHP/Bajrang Dal leaders and goons went about ethnic cleansing. Mobile phone records are as much pointers as eye-witness accounts. This proves the theory that this was a meticulously organised, State-sponsored enactment, to polarise communities and teach a lesson to minorities by playing the Godhra killing card. There have been reports that a meeting of top functionaries of the government and police was held one day before the carnage and it was categorically instructed that that 'tomorrow is a VHP bandh', so let the VHP/Bajrang Dal do what it does best.
Media reports, citizen's tribunal reports, and around 50 independent reports have meticulously documented the killings and gang rapes in Gujarat. Police officials have been named. Most of the accused are BJP/VHP/Bajrang Dal ringmasters. Even the NHRC and the Editor's Guild have objectively reported on the massacre. And, the fact is that those top cops who refused to allow the killings, were hounded by Modi and his notorious home minister, Gordan Zadaphia, now a Modi-baiter. No wonder some of them have also testified against the Modi regime.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court-constituted Special Investigation Team, probing certain Gujarat cases afresh, on Friday filed a chargesheet in Naroda Gam case in which BJP leader and former state minister Maya Kodnani (in Modi's government) is one of the prime accused. "We have submitted a chargesheet against the accused in a local court here. The charges have been framed under IPC Sections 120 (B) for criminal conspiracy, 302 for murder, 307 for attempt to murder, 395 and 397 for loot and 143 to 147 for rioting," a senior official in the SIT reportedly told agencies.
According to SIT sources, chargesheet has been filed against four accused - Maya Kodnani, VHP leader Jaidip Patel, suspended police officer VS Gohil and one Pankaj Parikh in the case. The chargesheet said Kodnani and Patel had a led a mob during the 2002 killings in Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam areas. Kodnani and Patel are behind bars.
Indeed, he might pump his chest and dream big, but Narendra Modi can't escape either history or the rule of law. The Gujarat carnage will haunt him eternally.
