The Telegraph, 3 February 2014
Riot-hit Muslims find solace in Hindu village
IMRAN AHMED SIDDIQUI
Ram Singh (left), the community elder, speaks at Palda in Muzaffarnagar on Saturday. Picture by Prem Singh
Palda (Muzaffarnagar), Feb. 2: Mehndi Hasan, Roshan Ali and Mohammed Rasheed call Palda a “terrain of peace”.
Theirs are among 450 riot-hit Muslim families that have each bought a small plot in this predominantly Hindu village, looking to settle down among its “kind and generous” people.
Hasan, 45, had fled his home in Qutba, just 3km away, with his wife, five children and parents after rioters ran amok, killing and burning, in the Muslim village on September 7. But the Hindus of Jat-dominated Palda provided shelter to them and another 100-odd Muslim refugees for weeks and months.
“They fought off their own community members who wanted to attack us,” Rasheed said.
After the word spread, and the government’s riot compensation began trickling in, hundreds of Muslims from several relief camps began buying small slices of farmland here — about 150 to 200 square yards each — to build houses.
“We welcome them with open arms,” village elder Ram Singh, 60, told The Telegraph on Saturday.
About 100 of Palda’s 500 households were Muslims; now its population will double and Hindus may lose their majority — something that should have no bearing on everyday life unless someone plays mischief.
“We want to send a strong message to political parties that are trying to divide people for votes,” Ram Singh said, drawing claps from the Hindus and Muslims sharing a charpoy with him.
But Palda should not be simplified as a feel-good story. The village stands out in a belt blighted by fear and suspicion since the September violence, which killed over 50 people in the neighbouring districts of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli.
Palda’s experience till now suggests integrated neighbourhoods, not ghettoised compartments, are the best protection for both communities.
But Palda’s solitary status underscores the challenge before integration. Of the 50,000 riot-displaced, at least 15,000 are still too afraid to leave the relief camps. Of the rest, at least half have relocated to relatives’ villages or other Muslim-dominated settlements, often with help from minority organisations, leaving the region largely ghettoised.
“But Palda has become a riot-free terrain of peace (danga-mukt shanti kshetra) for us. The Hindus here are very nice and, thanks to them, many Muslim families are alive today,” said Rasheed, a former inmate of the Shahpur relief camp, 3km away, who bought his piece of Palda a month ago.
He has now pitched a tent and lives in it with his family. “We feel very safe here,” he said. “My new neighbours have been offering us food for the past one month. I’ll soon begin building my house.”
Willy-nilly, strife has become an economic factor, too.
Most of the 450 families of settlers, whom Ram Singh calls the village’s “guests”, are among the 1,000-odd households that have received the Rs 5 lakh compensation announced by the state government. Thousands more are still waitlisted in what critics cite as the latest example of the Akhilesh Yadav government’s poor handling of the tragedy.
“I bought a small plot in Palda paying Rs 3.5 lakh out of the Rs 5 lakh I got from the government,” said Roshan Ali. “I shall build a small house and live here with my family for the rest of my life.”
A municipal official in Shahpur said these plots were sold at rates up to three times the prices that prevailed before the demand from the riot-displaced rose. He added that this was true also of the towns and Muslim-dominated villages where some of the victims have relocated.
Like most Muslims in the region, the new settlers in Palda were mainly landless farm labourers in their native villages and now plan to work in their Jat neighbours’ fields. The rest — masons and blacksmiths — hope to continue in their earlier professions.
Palda is conscious and proud of its newfound fame. Every evening, a group of young villagers assemble at Singh’s home to provide bulletins on the day’s events in the deeply divided neighbourhood.
On Saturday, the discussions centred on Narendra Modi’s Sunday rally in Meerut, about 45km from Muzaffarnagar.
“We’ll go to the rally; some of our Muslim brothers too have decided to accompany us. We’ll submit a memorandum to Modi asking him to intervene and do something for the common people in the area,” said Raj Kumar Singh.
Those who had gone to the rally hadn’t returned home by late Sunday evening; so it remained unclear whether they had been able to hand the memorandum over.
The mood in villages even a couple of kilometres away throw the bonhomie in Palda into sharp relief.
Biram Singh, an elderly villager in Qutbi, which adjoins Qutba where Hasan and fellow residents were attacked, nurses bitter feelings towards his former Muslim neighbours.
“Some Muslims took loans of several lakhs from many people in our village and fled on the pretext of riots. No Hindu from our village attacked Muslims. We asked them not to leave but they did not heed us and even lodged FIRs against some of us,” Biram said.
“The trust between the two communities is gone,” acknowledged Shabana, 40, a widow who is building a single-room house near the Shahpur relief camp with her government compensation.
She has four children, including a 14-year-old son who has not been to school the past five months.
Shabana said the riot had left behind a legacy of hate among the children and youths of both communities. “We don’t know when the scars will heal and people will start living together again,” the Class IV dropout said.
|
Showing posts with label victims. Show all posts
Showing posts with label victims. Show all posts
January 21, 2014
India: The displaced of Muzaffarnagar | Urvashi Sarkar
Daily News and Analysis, Jan 21, 2014
Poverty and sickness stalk riot victims as they grapple with survival issues.
Don’t mention the word cancer,” cautions Liaqat Sheikh as he leads the way to a small tent in Joula camp where his wife Bina is bedridden. It is pitch dark inside. There is electricity only at night. Bina lies tucked under blankets, and struggles to sit up, her face gaunt. Though her family has kept the tent clean, the surrounding squalor and dirt of the camp defeat the purpose.
“The doctors suspect cancer. This can only be confirmed after tests are done in Delhi,” says Liaqat, who belongs to Hasanpur village. Liaqat fled with his family, including six children, during the Muzaffarnagar riots of September 2013 and found refuge at a camp in Joula in Muzaffarnagar.
Bina requires proper medical care, but Liaqat is unable to proceed with treatment since he has lost his source of livelihood. The family sold their buffalo for her diagnosis which cost them Rs35,000-40,000. Doctors have asked them to shift Bina to a hospitals in Dehradun or Chandigarh, where the cost of treatment is beyond their reach. “My house was burnt down. I have incurred losses worth Rs4-5 lakh. The expenses for my wife’s treatment have so far come from my brothers, loans on interest and imdad (relief),” says Liaqat, his tone a mix of resignation and anger. Compensation is remote since the Uttar Pradesh government has not yet recognised Hasanpur village as riot-affected, though it is part of the Lisadhi gram panchayat, which was recognized as riot-hit.
Liaqat’s plight is not a stray affair. There is misery all around in the camp. According to Ghulam Mohammed Joula of the Bharatiya Kisan Mazdoor Manch, 90,000 to 1 lakh people were rendered without livelihoods following the riots. “They have lost their homes and jobs and are surviving on aid. People were initially engaged as labourers, drivers and carpenters, but now they have no source of income.” Poverty has induced existing illnesses to fester and encouraged fresh ones to take root.
Close to Bina’s tent, lives Afsana who suffers from tuberculosis and visits Mehrauli every fortnight to receive treatment. Neither she nor her husband have any source of income. There is also Mohammed Qasim, worried about his nine-year-old son Umar. While rolling up the boy’s sleeves, Qasim draws attention to a bone jutting out, which must be set. “His hand was plastered but it didn’t help.”
Thirty five-year-old Sanjeeda, mother of four, has been suffering from a staggering range of illnesses, including tuberculosis, jaundice and typhoid. She has lost all but her voice and even then struggles to speak. Her husband earns Rs300 a day, which is spent for her treatment.
Nasima, who lost her son in the wake of the riots has been experiencing fits, but her husband Raisuddin cannot afford her treatment. Mohammed Salim’s wife Husno suffers from nerve blockage after an operation. Akhleem’s daughter Najma has developed a septic condition after giving birth.
Government doctors occasionally visit Joula on request. According to Askari Naqvi, a lawyer with the Joint Citizen’s Initiative, though the state government has been involved in some relief work, when it comes to health care, its track record has been dismal. “There is little in terms of health infrastructure. The health sub-centre at Loi has a bunch of incompetent staff. The camps aren’t prepared to deal with pregnant and lactating women and newborns. It is mostly the NGOs who got doctors to the camp.” Askari has also written to UP Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani with the details of 140 ailing people, but, hasn’t received any response. Askari recalls instances when ambulance drivers had to be begged to carry the sick, and government doctors who visited camps in vehicles, chose to stay inside the vehicles and asked people to come to them instead.
Muzaffarnagar District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said the state government funded Bina’s — the woman suspected with cancer — initial tests. “We also paid for another woman’s operation. At Loi, we have opened a permanent health sub-centre where people from Joula visit.
The Samajwadi Party government is providing relief not only in camps, but also for those scattered in villages.” When asked about the dismantling of the camps, he claimed that no camp had been forcibly shut. “We merely want people to move out of the open to safer closed spaces.”
According to the UP government, many individuals lodged in camps were not riot-affected but came seeking free land and doles. But talk to the people of villages like Hasanpur, and they recall the horrors of September, which forced them to flee.
A pregnant Gulshana lost her twin babies in the riots. She is from Karonda Mahajan which lies between Lakh and Phugana villages — the last two were declared as riot-affected but Karonda Mahajan was not. Her father Mohammad Isaq says that though their property is intact, they are scared to return. “My daughter was hit and fell to the ground. We heard screams and gunshots.
How can we return?”
The state is yet to grant compensation to villagers from Karonda Mahajan, Hasanpur, Kuraba, Dulhaira, Kheri-Patti, Dhindhavli, Kinoni, Haroli, Bhajju, Bhaura-Kalan and several others who had suffered during the riots. Only nine villages from Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts have been identified for compensation. In cases where the victim received compensation of Rs5 lakh, a substantial chunk has gone into buying land for building homes. The precious little that remained is being spent on survival. Additionally, they are required to forsake the right to return to their villages.
A visit to Kandhla, Malakpur and Joula camps reveals that some relief had reached through civil society’s efforts. The victims, at least, had a single layer (though flimsy) of warm clothing. They are grateful for the clothes and food but mention the need for housing. At Malakpur camp, brick structures have emerged, though most people still continue to live in tents. One also sees goats and bullocks. This was not the case in September when, after the riots broke out, these camps witnessed poverty and starvation. Imran Mohammed of Malakpur camp has opened a small provisions store where he sells sweets. A few have started selling vegetables. At Kandhla camp, Nafedi Babu says that he has sent two sons to Haryana to work in the garments business. But men finding work are exceptions. The displaced of Muzaffarnagar are grappling with issues that determine their survival — health, livelihood and homes, even as the SP looks the other way.
The author is a freelance journalist and works in the development sector. Views expressed are personal
Poverty and sickness stalk riot victims as they grapple with survival issues.
Don’t mention the word cancer,” cautions Liaqat Sheikh as he leads the way to a small tent in Joula camp where his wife Bina is bedridden. It is pitch dark inside. There is electricity only at night. Bina lies tucked under blankets, and struggles to sit up, her face gaunt. Though her family has kept the tent clean, the surrounding squalor and dirt of the camp defeat the purpose.
“The doctors suspect cancer. This can only be confirmed after tests are done in Delhi,” says Liaqat, who belongs to Hasanpur village. Liaqat fled with his family, including six children, during the Muzaffarnagar riots of September 2013 and found refuge at a camp in Joula in Muzaffarnagar.
Bina requires proper medical care, but Liaqat is unable to proceed with treatment since he has lost his source of livelihood. The family sold their buffalo for her diagnosis which cost them Rs35,000-40,000. Doctors have asked them to shift Bina to a hospitals in Dehradun or Chandigarh, where the cost of treatment is beyond their reach. “My house was burnt down. I have incurred losses worth Rs4-5 lakh. The expenses for my wife’s treatment have so far come from my brothers, loans on interest and imdad (relief),” says Liaqat, his tone a mix of resignation and anger. Compensation is remote since the Uttar Pradesh government has not yet recognised Hasanpur village as riot-affected, though it is part of the Lisadhi gram panchayat, which was recognized as riot-hit.
Liaqat’s plight is not a stray affair. There is misery all around in the camp. According to Ghulam Mohammed Joula of the Bharatiya Kisan Mazdoor Manch, 90,000 to 1 lakh people were rendered without livelihoods following the riots. “They have lost their homes and jobs and are surviving on aid. People were initially engaged as labourers, drivers and carpenters, but now they have no source of income.” Poverty has induced existing illnesses to fester and encouraged fresh ones to take root.
Close to Bina’s tent, lives Afsana who suffers from tuberculosis and visits Mehrauli every fortnight to receive treatment. Neither she nor her husband have any source of income. There is also Mohammed Qasim, worried about his nine-year-old son Umar. While rolling up the boy’s sleeves, Qasim draws attention to a bone jutting out, which must be set. “His hand was plastered but it didn’t help.”
Thirty five-year-old Sanjeeda, mother of four, has been suffering from a staggering range of illnesses, including tuberculosis, jaundice and typhoid. She has lost all but her voice and even then struggles to speak. Her husband earns Rs300 a day, which is spent for her treatment.
Nasima, who lost her son in the wake of the riots has been experiencing fits, but her husband Raisuddin cannot afford her treatment. Mohammed Salim’s wife Husno suffers from nerve blockage after an operation. Akhleem’s daughter Najma has developed a septic condition after giving birth.
Government doctors occasionally visit Joula on request. According to Askari Naqvi, a lawyer with the Joint Citizen’s Initiative, though the state government has been involved in some relief work, when it comes to health care, its track record has been dismal. “There is little in terms of health infrastructure. The health sub-centre at Loi has a bunch of incompetent staff. The camps aren’t prepared to deal with pregnant and lactating women and newborns. It is mostly the NGOs who got doctors to the camp.” Askari has also written to UP Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani with the details of 140 ailing people, but, hasn’t received any response. Askari recalls instances when ambulance drivers had to be begged to carry the sick, and government doctors who visited camps in vehicles, chose to stay inside the vehicles and asked people to come to them instead.
Muzaffarnagar District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said the state government funded Bina’s — the woman suspected with cancer — initial tests. “We also paid for another woman’s operation. At Loi, we have opened a permanent health sub-centre where people from Joula visit.
The Samajwadi Party government is providing relief not only in camps, but also for those scattered in villages.” When asked about the dismantling of the camps, he claimed that no camp had been forcibly shut. “We merely want people to move out of the open to safer closed spaces.”
According to the UP government, many individuals lodged in camps were not riot-affected but came seeking free land and doles. But talk to the people of villages like Hasanpur, and they recall the horrors of September, which forced them to flee.
A pregnant Gulshana lost her twin babies in the riots. She is from Karonda Mahajan which lies between Lakh and Phugana villages — the last two were declared as riot-affected but Karonda Mahajan was not. Her father Mohammad Isaq says that though their property is intact, they are scared to return. “My daughter was hit and fell to the ground. We heard screams and gunshots.
How can we return?”
The state is yet to grant compensation to villagers from Karonda Mahajan, Hasanpur, Kuraba, Dulhaira, Kheri-Patti, Dhindhavli, Kinoni, Haroli, Bhajju, Bhaura-Kalan and several others who had suffered during the riots. Only nine villages from Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts have been identified for compensation. In cases where the victim received compensation of Rs5 lakh, a substantial chunk has gone into buying land for building homes. The precious little that remained is being spent on survival. Additionally, they are required to forsake the right to return to their villages.
A visit to Kandhla, Malakpur and Joula camps reveals that some relief had reached through civil society’s efforts. The victims, at least, had a single layer (though flimsy) of warm clothing. They are grateful for the clothes and food but mention the need for housing. At Malakpur camp, brick structures have emerged, though most people still continue to live in tents. One also sees goats and bullocks. This was not the case in September when, after the riots broke out, these camps witnessed poverty and starvation. Imran Mohammed of Malakpur camp has opened a small provisions store where he sells sweets. A few have started selling vegetables. At Kandhla camp, Nafedi Babu says that he has sent two sons to Haryana to work in the garments business. But men finding work are exceptions. The displaced of Muzaffarnagar are grappling with issues that determine their survival — health, livelihood and homes, even as the SP looks the other way.
The author is a freelance journalist and works in the development sector. Views expressed are personal
December 28, 2013
India: Muzaffarnagar riot victim kidnapped by police - Video Interview
Muzaffrnagar riot victim kidnapped by police
December 25, 2013
November 27, 2013
After Supreme Court rap, UP issues fresh notification on Muzaffarnagar relief
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/after-supreme-court-rap-up-issues-fresh-notification-on-muzaffarnagar-relief/articleshow/26425511.cms
After Supreme Court rap, UP issues fresh notification on Muzaffarnagar relief
By PTI | 26 Nov, 2013, 07.34PM IST
LUCKNOW: Following a Supreme Court directive, the Uttar Pradesh government today recalled its controversial notification issuing a grant of Rs 5 lakh for rehabilitation of "Muslim displaced families" in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts after the recent communal clashes.
The government, however, issued a fresh notification changing "Muslim displaced families" to all "displaced families" as eligible beneficiaries for the Rs 5 lakh compensation, an official said here.
The new notification also states that if any family is willing to return to its village, it would have to return the compensation amount.
On November 21, a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Ranjan Gogoi had said, "All victims are eligible and equal. Better you (UP government) withdraw the notification (issued on October 26)."
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for the state government, had said that no person would be denied relocation and rehabilitation (on the ground of religion) and it should not have gone into the notification the way it had gone. "We will recall it and issue a fresh one," he had said.
The state government had given an undertaking before the court that it would "recall" the October 26 notification and said that in the fresh notification it would be clearly mentioned that the concerned authority will take care of each and every affected person and relief and rehabilitation measures would be applied "universally".
Communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas of western UP in September claimed over 60 persons and rendered thousands homeless.
After Supreme Court rap, UP issues fresh notification on Muzaffarnagar relief
By PTI | 26 Nov, 2013, 07.34PM IST
LUCKNOW: Following a Supreme Court directive, the Uttar Pradesh government today recalled its controversial notification issuing a grant of Rs 5 lakh for rehabilitation of "Muslim displaced families" in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts after the recent communal clashes.
The government, however, issued a fresh notification changing "Muslim displaced families" to all "displaced families" as eligible beneficiaries for the Rs 5 lakh compensation, an official said here.
The new notification also states that if any family is willing to return to its village, it would have to return the compensation amount.
On November 21, a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Ranjan Gogoi had said, "All victims are eligible and equal. Better you (UP government) withdraw the notification (issued on October 26)."
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for the state government, had said that no person would be denied relocation and rehabilitation (on the ground of religion) and it should not have gone into the notification the way it had gone. "We will recall it and issue a fresh one," he had said.
The state government had given an undertaking before the court that it would "recall" the October 26 notification and said that in the fresh notification it would be clearly mentioned that the concerned authority will take care of each and every affected person and relief and rehabilitation measures would be applied "universally".
Communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas of western UP in September claimed over 60 persons and rendered thousands homeless.
October 28, 2013
Jamiat Colony, 100-house colony in Khampur village in Muzaffarnagar being built for riot-hit ; paid for by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind
Indian Express
Their homes lost, riot-hit victims unite to rebuild lives on their own
Apurva : Muzaffarnagar, Sun Oct 27 2013
MuzaffarnagarRiot victims who fled their homes work to build a new, 100-house colony in Khampur village in Muzaffarnagar. (IE Photo: Gajendra Yadav)
As the Congress and BJP continue to play their game of political football with the riot-hit people of Muzaffarnagar, the victims of the communal violence have begun to quietly rebuild their lives-on their own.
Ten kilometres away from the district headquarters town, in a place called Khampur, a cluster of brick buildings is coming up on land donated by local Muslims-the new home for families who fled from their villages as clashes broke out over a swathe of western UP early last month.
At least 130 men, all refugees who escaped with their families, have been toiling hard at the site every day since October 6. Once completed in a few months' time, this settlement of 100 houses will be the first permanent colony of the victims and survivors of the riots in the district. Similar colonies are in the pipeline in Bassikalan, Kamkheda and Khedi Firozabad.
"I fled from Badal village with my family on September 9 and lived in the Budhana refugee camp until early this month," Imamuddin Hassan (46), said. "We were then offered a house, free of cost, in Khampur as long as we helped build it, and we readily agreed. I have nothing left in Badal, and I never want to go back."
The driving force behind the Khampur settlement is the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, which is bearing the cost. Boards at the site announce the 'Jamiat Colony, Khampur'. Nazar Mohammed, president of Jamiat's Muzaffarnagar unit, said the organisation was forced to step in after the government failed to provide relief.
"The government has refused to help for two months now and we could not wait any longer. We spread the word to all villages and Khampur led the way," Nazar Mohammed said.
"We spent days trying to persuade families to return to their villages, but each and every victim refused. So we came up with this plan. They are too scared to return. In many cases their houses have been reduced to ashes," Nazar Mohammed said.
He said labour was not difficult to find. "Most of the villagers who had had to flee were construction workers, carpenters, blacksmiths and electricians. In this colony they work together to build their homes. They are given food and clothing. Their families are presently in the refugee camps," Nazar Mohammed said.
The idea of the settlement took concrete shape after Saeed-ul-Zama, a zilla panchayat member from Khampur, donated his land for the victims.
"I had some extra land in the village and decided to give it away for a permanent settlement. Soon, several other residents of the village came forward, and by the end, we had 17 bighas of land," Saeed-ul-Zama said. He said the size of the donations ranged from half a bigha to 2 bighas.
Nazar Mohammed explained that getting the plot had involved cooperation of many villagers. "People in Khampur agreed to a fair exchange. They sold parts of their land and gave us the money, which we used to buy enough land for the colony. This colony can house 100 families. Within a few months we hope to be able to give all survivors a home," he said.
Among those who will live in Khampur are victims from Lisarh, Lakh, Bhavdi, Kutba and Kutbi — the worst affected villages in the region. "We begged the government for help whenever they visited us in the camps. We told them we had lost everything and were desperately needed help for a fresh start. When the government failed, all we had left was community support," said Imaduddin Hassan.
Their homes lost, riot-hit victims unite to rebuild lives on their own
Apurva : Muzaffarnagar, Sun Oct 27 2013
MuzaffarnagarRiot victims who fled their homes work to build a new, 100-house colony in Khampur village in Muzaffarnagar. (IE Photo: Gajendra Yadav)
As the Congress and BJP continue to play their game of political football with the riot-hit people of Muzaffarnagar, the victims of the communal violence have begun to quietly rebuild their lives-on their own.
Ten kilometres away from the district headquarters town, in a place called Khampur, a cluster of brick buildings is coming up on land donated by local Muslims-the new home for families who fled from their villages as clashes broke out over a swathe of western UP early last month.
At least 130 men, all refugees who escaped with their families, have been toiling hard at the site every day since October 6. Once completed in a few months' time, this settlement of 100 houses will be the first permanent colony of the victims and survivors of the riots in the district. Similar colonies are in the pipeline in Bassikalan, Kamkheda and Khedi Firozabad.
"I fled from Badal village with my family on September 9 and lived in the Budhana refugee camp until early this month," Imamuddin Hassan (46), said. "We were then offered a house, free of cost, in Khampur as long as we helped build it, and we readily agreed. I have nothing left in Badal, and I never want to go back."
The driving force behind the Khampur settlement is the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, which is bearing the cost. Boards at the site announce the 'Jamiat Colony, Khampur'. Nazar Mohammed, president of Jamiat's Muzaffarnagar unit, said the organisation was forced to step in after the government failed to provide relief.
"The government has refused to help for two months now and we could not wait any longer. We spread the word to all villages and Khampur led the way," Nazar Mohammed said.
"We spent days trying to persuade families to return to their villages, but each and every victim refused. So we came up with this plan. They are too scared to return. In many cases their houses have been reduced to ashes," Nazar Mohammed said.
He said labour was not difficult to find. "Most of the villagers who had had to flee were construction workers, carpenters, blacksmiths and electricians. In this colony they work together to build their homes. They are given food and clothing. Their families are presently in the refugee camps," Nazar Mohammed said.
The idea of the settlement took concrete shape after Saeed-ul-Zama, a zilla panchayat member from Khampur, donated his land for the victims.
"I had some extra land in the village and decided to give it away for a permanent settlement. Soon, several other residents of the village came forward, and by the end, we had 17 bighas of land," Saeed-ul-Zama said. He said the size of the donations ranged from half a bigha to 2 bighas.
Nazar Mohammed explained that getting the plot had involved cooperation of many villagers. "People in Khampur agreed to a fair exchange. They sold parts of their land and gave us the money, which we used to buy enough land for the colony. This colony can house 100 families. Within a few months we hope to be able to give all survivors a home," he said.
Among those who will live in Khampur are victims from Lisarh, Lakh, Bhavdi, Kutba and Kutbi — the worst affected villages in the region. "We begged the government for help whenever they visited us in the camps. We told them we had lost everything and were desperately needed help for a fresh start. When the government failed, all we had left was community support," said Imaduddin Hassan.
October 24, 2013
Shocked at the attitude of the UP govt towards the victims of Muzaffarnagar communal Carnage: stament by Shabnam Hashmi
Media Statement
Shocked at the attitude of the UP govt towards the victims of Muzaffarnagar communal Carnage.
No ration has been sent to Jola (4500), Jogia Kheda ( 700 people), Loi ( approx 4000) , Malakpur (1200 familes)- - Kandala (2000)- for over 15 days. Same stories are coming in from all sides. Extreme pressure is being built on camp organisers and victims to close down camps. There are efforts to either threaten those who have filed cases or lure them with money. False cases are being slapped on the community leaders who are coming forward to help the victims. In the repetition of the Gujarat Modi model there are efforts to buy off some of the vulnerable victims and make them sign affidavites that the community leaders asked them to file cases. Also heard that one lakh is the going rate for removal of each name from the FIR.
Shabnam Hashmi,
Muzaffarnagar
[24 October 2013]
Shocked at the attitude of the UP govt towards the victims of Muzaffarnagar communal Carnage.
No ration has been sent to Jola (4500), Jogia Kheda ( 700 people), Loi ( approx 4000) , Malakpur (1200 familes)- - Kandala (2000)- for over 15 days. Same stories are coming in from all sides. Extreme pressure is being built on camp organisers and victims to close down camps. There are efforts to either threaten those who have filed cases or lure them with money. False cases are being slapped on the community leaders who are coming forward to help the victims. In the repetition of the Gujarat Modi model there are efforts to buy off some of the vulnerable victims and make them sign affidavites that the community leaders asked them to file cases. Also heard that one lakh is the going rate for removal of each name from the FIR.
Shabnam Hashmi,
Muzaffarnagar
[24 October 2013]
September 18, 2013
India: The chilling familiarity of Muzaffarnagar [and a deathly silence on a draft bill to fix accountability for communal violence] Farah Naqvi
The Hindu, September 18, 2013
The chilling familiarity of Muzaffarnagar
by Farah Naqvi
Riot follows riot with sickening regularity but there is only a deathly silence on a draft bill to fix accountability for communal violence and guarantee justice and compensation to victims
In communal politics, facts matter less than fiction. The spin and narrative are what make “riots” unique — violence sought to be justified, even warranted, then forgotten. “Riots” are always about the blame-game that follows; the action-reaction theory; the rationalisation for what is indefensible — the taking of human life, the rendering homeless of innocents, and the inevitable polarisation benefiting political parties. With social media, mobile apps, and image morphing software a flick of a button away, the ammunition of spin is handy. But though technology is new, the narrative is frighteningly familiar. Women as commodities (of a piece with land and cattle), and women’s bodies as repositories of patriarchal honour are once again at the epicentre of this narrative.
On the ground
This belt of western Uttar Pradesh is the home turf of the “dis-honor” killings, where the sex ratio is among India’s lowest (Muzaffarnagar has a child sex ratio of 863 in the 2011 census); where the narrative of “women’s honour” can be stirred so easily into the communal cauldron. Even the recent national outrage over increasing violence against women has been appropriated and deployed. One headline in a prominent internet news site screamed “Stalker’s death triggered Muzaffarnagar conflagration,” implicitly justifying the murder of someone the reporter decided to call a “stalker,” though there was no evidence or charge of stalking (a serious crime after the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013) in the incident of August 27. The story opened with, Two brothers kill a man stalking their sister [….] The actions by “the brothers” were in this and many other variations normalised, even tacitly valorised. For that is what “real men” do when family honour is on the line. It is precisely the mindset that applauds the death penalty for rape, knowing it will solve nothing systemic. But who cares, for it satisfies the blood lust.
The mahapanchayat on September 7, in violation of prohibitory orders, is variously reported as Beti Bachao Bahu Bachao mahapanchayat or Beti Bahu Izzat Bachao mahapanchayat. “Izzat (honour”) and “Bachao (protect”) are scary words in the macho lexicon of western U.P. Here, women’s sexuality is a tool to be deployed only in service to community and patriarchy. Sexual autonomy is a threat to the entire edifice, and opposing intercommunity relationships (signalling choice and sexual autonomy) has long been a favourite pastime for the khaps that rule the roost. Many such intercommunity relationships, ending in murder, have been inter-caste. Now with inter-religious romance labelled “love jihad” under the Vishwa Hindu Parishad scanner, we need to be worried and watchful, as this game of izzat plays itself out. The “love jihad” construct of the Hindu right in one stroke raises the spectre of the “violent, enemy other, seducing by force” (Muslim jihadist) and condemns personal choice (i.e. “love”). And when protection and control over “our” women’s bodies are placed at the centre of any blood feud, one must fear the ground that communalists of all hues are preparing in the fertile soil of western U.P.
Gujarat and U.P.
The comparisons between the “narratives” of Gujarat and Muzaffarnagar are telling. In Muzaffarnagar, an alleged attack by the “other community” on the izzat of two brothers (by harassing their sister) turns out to be fake (NDTV, September 14). But it still leads to a mahapanchayat called to protect “the honour of women.” This then spurs the violence (with inflammatory speeches, incendiary video, death and displacement, police inaction, omnibus FIRs, and truckloads of scared people fleeing their homes).
We saw a similar narrative structure in Gujarat 2002, and it was written about in two reports by women’s rights activists — Survivors Speak and Threatened Existence. In addition to the train burning at Godhra, there was a false news report on February 28 in Sandesh (a leading Gujarati daily), saying that Hindu women were dragged from a railway compartment by a fanatic mob. A fake follow-up on March 1, said some women’s bodies were found with breasts cut off. A retraction, published much later by Sandesh, lay buried in a corner of the paper, while the fake news spread like wildfire, and became the justificatory rallying cry for what followed (Survivors Speak, pp 10-11). All of this — from Gujarat to Muzaffarnagar — is of a piece with the existing stock repertoire of the Hindu right — stories and myths about Muslim marauders, raping and defiling Hindu women, and by conflation, attacking the “izzat” of Mother India herself, provide eternal justification for “honorable” retaliation by Hindu men and the Hindu nation (Threatened Existence, p.39).
Protecting rights
Thus far, Muzaffarnagar has taken lives, devastated livelihoods and displaced at last count over 55,000 people. Thus far, women’s bodies are at the centre of the narrative, not the centre of the violence that has been reported. But, at the time of writing, unconfirmed stories are coming in, and fact-finding teams are still digging up “the truth.” So let us not be lulled. It is alarming when the Home Minister says that only 410 communal incidents occurred in the country last year, but this year, already 451 incidents have taken place. What world do we live in where 410 incidents big and small are an “only”? An acceptable number? And yet, amid the pro forma condemnations, calls for peace and the Prime Minister’s announcement of Rs.2 lakh for the next of kin of those killed, there is a deathly silence on the one piece of legislation promised in the United Progressive Alliance’s manifesto — the Communal Violence Bill. A draft Bill, crafted from the experience of victims and survivors of many communal carnages, sits on the back-burner, while we watch one communal incident after another. We hear pleas from survivors. We rail helplessly at loopholes in our statutory frameworks that allow state inaction and dereliction at the cost of lives; that make displaced and violated citizens plead and grovel for justice and compensation from state authorities. So much would have been citizens’ rights by law if such a bill were in place today.
Or, is the intent to simply allow things to go on as they are? One incident to the next, with no learning, with no dent in impunity; no movement towards an architecture of rights for innocents routinely hurt by this violence, and by the threats that women face? Can we afford to persist with this state of denial — imagining that communal violence is a thing of the past; that an aspirational India has moved beyond identity fault-lines? Let us remind ourselves of fearful people running from their homes and confront the reality that they may languish in camps of one kind or another in perpetuity, like scores of victims of communal carnages before them, with no justiciable framework of rights, no justice.
While there is silence on a law to challenge impunity, new slogans of communalism are being crafted everyday, embellishing the core of the “honour” narrative. The latest from Muzaffarnagar according to one news report (HT, Lucknow, September 13), throws cow slaughter and, perhaps predictably, Modi into the fray — “desh, bahu aur gai ko bachana hai toh Narendra Modi ko lana hai.”
(Farah Naqvi, a writer and activist, is a member of the National Advisory Council. The views expressed are personal. E-mail: farah.naqvi64@yahoo.com)
The chilling familiarity of Muzaffarnagar
by Farah Naqvi
Riot follows riot with sickening regularity but there is only a deathly silence on a draft bill to fix accountability for communal violence and guarantee justice and compensation to victims
In communal politics, facts matter less than fiction. The spin and narrative are what make “riots” unique — violence sought to be justified, even warranted, then forgotten. “Riots” are always about the blame-game that follows; the action-reaction theory; the rationalisation for what is indefensible — the taking of human life, the rendering homeless of innocents, and the inevitable polarisation benefiting political parties. With social media, mobile apps, and image morphing software a flick of a button away, the ammunition of spin is handy. But though technology is new, the narrative is frighteningly familiar. Women as commodities (of a piece with land and cattle), and women’s bodies as repositories of patriarchal honour are once again at the epicentre of this narrative.
On the ground
This belt of western Uttar Pradesh is the home turf of the “dis-honor” killings, where the sex ratio is among India’s lowest (Muzaffarnagar has a child sex ratio of 863 in the 2011 census); where the narrative of “women’s honour” can be stirred so easily into the communal cauldron. Even the recent national outrage over increasing violence against women has been appropriated and deployed. One headline in a prominent internet news site screamed “Stalker’s death triggered Muzaffarnagar conflagration,” implicitly justifying the murder of someone the reporter decided to call a “stalker,” though there was no evidence or charge of stalking (a serious crime after the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013) in the incident of August 27. The story opened with, Two brothers kill a man stalking their sister [….] The actions by “the brothers” were in this and many other variations normalised, even tacitly valorised. For that is what “real men” do when family honour is on the line. It is precisely the mindset that applauds the death penalty for rape, knowing it will solve nothing systemic. But who cares, for it satisfies the blood lust.
The mahapanchayat on September 7, in violation of prohibitory orders, is variously reported as Beti Bachao Bahu Bachao mahapanchayat or Beti Bahu Izzat Bachao mahapanchayat. “Izzat (honour”) and “Bachao (protect”) are scary words in the macho lexicon of western U.P. Here, women’s sexuality is a tool to be deployed only in service to community and patriarchy. Sexual autonomy is a threat to the entire edifice, and opposing intercommunity relationships (signalling choice and sexual autonomy) has long been a favourite pastime for the khaps that rule the roost. Many such intercommunity relationships, ending in murder, have been inter-caste. Now with inter-religious romance labelled “love jihad” under the Vishwa Hindu Parishad scanner, we need to be worried and watchful, as this game of izzat plays itself out. The “love jihad” construct of the Hindu right in one stroke raises the spectre of the “violent, enemy other, seducing by force” (Muslim jihadist) and condemns personal choice (i.e. “love”). And when protection and control over “our” women’s bodies are placed at the centre of any blood feud, one must fear the ground that communalists of all hues are preparing in the fertile soil of western U.P.
Gujarat and U.P.
The comparisons between the “narratives” of Gujarat and Muzaffarnagar are telling. In Muzaffarnagar, an alleged attack by the “other community” on the izzat of two brothers (by harassing their sister) turns out to be fake (NDTV, September 14). But it still leads to a mahapanchayat called to protect “the honour of women.” This then spurs the violence (with inflammatory speeches, incendiary video, death and displacement, police inaction, omnibus FIRs, and truckloads of scared people fleeing their homes).
We saw a similar narrative structure in Gujarat 2002, and it was written about in two reports by women’s rights activists — Survivors Speak and Threatened Existence. In addition to the train burning at Godhra, there was a false news report on February 28 in Sandesh (a leading Gujarati daily), saying that Hindu women were dragged from a railway compartment by a fanatic mob. A fake follow-up on March 1, said some women’s bodies were found with breasts cut off. A retraction, published much later by Sandesh, lay buried in a corner of the paper, while the fake news spread like wildfire, and became the justificatory rallying cry for what followed (Survivors Speak, pp 10-11). All of this — from Gujarat to Muzaffarnagar — is of a piece with the existing stock repertoire of the Hindu right — stories and myths about Muslim marauders, raping and defiling Hindu women, and by conflation, attacking the “izzat” of Mother India herself, provide eternal justification for “honorable” retaliation by Hindu men and the Hindu nation (Threatened Existence, p.39).
Protecting rights
Thus far, Muzaffarnagar has taken lives, devastated livelihoods and displaced at last count over 55,000 people. Thus far, women’s bodies are at the centre of the narrative, not the centre of the violence that has been reported. But, at the time of writing, unconfirmed stories are coming in, and fact-finding teams are still digging up “the truth.” So let us not be lulled. It is alarming when the Home Minister says that only 410 communal incidents occurred in the country last year, but this year, already 451 incidents have taken place. What world do we live in where 410 incidents big and small are an “only”? An acceptable number? And yet, amid the pro forma condemnations, calls for peace and the Prime Minister’s announcement of Rs.2 lakh for the next of kin of those killed, there is a deathly silence on the one piece of legislation promised in the United Progressive Alliance’s manifesto — the Communal Violence Bill. A draft Bill, crafted from the experience of victims and survivors of many communal carnages, sits on the back-burner, while we watch one communal incident after another. We hear pleas from survivors. We rail helplessly at loopholes in our statutory frameworks that allow state inaction and dereliction at the cost of lives; that make displaced and violated citizens plead and grovel for justice and compensation from state authorities. So much would have been citizens’ rights by law if such a bill were in place today.
Or, is the intent to simply allow things to go on as they are? One incident to the next, with no learning, with no dent in impunity; no movement towards an architecture of rights for innocents routinely hurt by this violence, and by the threats that women face? Can we afford to persist with this state of denial — imagining that communal violence is a thing of the past; that an aspirational India has moved beyond identity fault-lines? Let us remind ourselves of fearful people running from their homes and confront the reality that they may languish in camps of one kind or another in perpetuity, like scores of victims of communal carnages before them, with no justiciable framework of rights, no justice.
While there is silence on a law to challenge impunity, new slogans of communalism are being crafted everyday, embellishing the core of the “honour” narrative. The latest from Muzaffarnagar according to one news report (HT, Lucknow, September 13), throws cow slaughter and, perhaps predictably, Modi into the fray — “desh, bahu aur gai ko bachana hai toh Narendra Modi ko lana hai.”
(Farah Naqvi, a writer and activist, is a member of the National Advisory Council. The views expressed are personal. E-mail: farah.naqvi64@yahoo.com)
September 10, 2013
India: Muzaffarnagar Riot victims recount (Report in The Hindu)
Report in The Hindu
MUZAFFARNAGAR,
September 9, 2013
Updated: September 10, 2013 04:24 IST
Riot victims recount tales of terror
- PTI Muslims take refuge in Julla village following riots in Muzaffarnagar on Monday.
- PTI Police personnel arrest miscreants during the curfew in violence-hit Muzaffarnagar on Monday. “The death toll in the violence in Muzaffarnagar and other areas has climbed to 31,” the Principal Secretary Home R.M. Srivastava said in Lucknow.
- PTI Army personnel and the police patrol during the curfew in violence-hit Muzaffarnagar on Monday. Concerned over the incidents, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and assured him of all help from the Centre to deal with the situation.
- AP Policemen walk on a road scattered with bricks and stones thrown during a communal clash in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, on Monday. RLD chief Ajit Singh, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad and two BJP MPs were on Monday detained by the police after they attempted to visit the violence-hit district.
But one woman narrates how some members of the Jat community came forward to protect those under threat
“Armed with sickles and countrymade weapons, they broke into a house
where over two dozen members of our community were holed-up hoping to
escape the wrath of rioters. The assailants opened fire at us
indiscriminately, slashed people with sharp weapons and burnt down our
houses,” recounted 35-year-old Harunisha, a resident of Bhauri village
in Fugana that witnessed a series of communal clashes on Sunday.
“ As a precautionary measure I had already sent seven of my 10 children
to Kairana along with my sister after the riots broke out in
Muzaffarnagar. As the situation continued to deteriorate, about 25 of us
from the community decided to move into one building hoping the
violence would subside soon. However, on Sunday afternoon my
brother-in-law Irshad came rushing, asking us to close the main door as a
group of armed men had entered the locality,” she said.
The mob soon started pelting stones. “They broke the main door, forced
their way in and fired several rounds at us, seriously injuring Dilshad.
His 11-year-old daughter Ikra was hit in the eye, which completely
disfigured her face. She immediately collapsed on the floor. The
assailants also shot our family friend Liyakat. My daughter Aksa and I
sustained splinter injuries in the face and other parts of the body.
They did not even spare my 10-year-old daughter Ajra, inflicting deep
cuts on her with sickles. The rioters also set ablaze the two adjoining
houses of my sisters. Dilshad, his daughter and Liyakat soon succumbed
to their injuries,” said Harunisha, comforting Aksa who writhed in pain.
The riot victims were rescued by security forces and taken to Shamli,
where they were referred to the Muzaffarnagar city hospital on Monday.
Harunisha’s husband Aas Mohammad, a cloth trader, was away on a business
tour to Maharashtra when the violence broke out.
Among the injured lodged in the ophthalmology ward of the city hospital
was Akhtari, a resident of Nakh in Fugana. “We knew all along that we
will be targeted as they had on September 7 (after the “mahapanchayat”
at Kawal village) threatened to eliminate us. But then a few members of
the dominant Jat community came forward to provide us protection. They
spent the entire night guarding our houses and left the next morning
thinking that normality in the area had been restored. However, some
unruly elements turned violent, raising slogans. They ransacked our
house and set ablaze our belongings. In the melee, my husband jumped off
the terrace and broke his leg. My 70-year-old mother-in-law also
sustained injuries,” she said.
Avanesh, who is yet to regain consciousness, was with his friends on his
way back from the “mahapanchayat” when they were ambushed by a group
near Purbalyan near Mansurpur. “As curfew was imposed by the district
administration, we could not take him to hospital the same day,” said
his relative.
Among the injured was also 26-year-old Shah Faizal, a medical
practitioner from Soram, whose friends alleged that he was attacked by
security personnel on Sunday. “Some miscreants opened fire in the
neighbourhood, following which security forces reached there. They beat
us black and blue,” alleged Faizal’s friend Shah Azam, who also
sustained minor injuries.
March 30, 2013
[1993 Mumbai] Two decades on, the inconvenient truth
The Hindu, March 30, 2013
Two decades on, the inconvenient truth
Meena Menon
The less privileged survivors of the 1993 Mumbai riots should not be deprived of justice on the grounds that old wounds will be reopened
It is 20 years since two cataclysmic events shook Bombay now Mumbai. If there is recollection now of the first — the communal carnage spread over two months and which killed over 900 people — it is called the reopening old wounds. On the other hand, if you speak about the second, the serial blasts of March 12, 1993, it’s about terror coming home to the city and claiming innocent lives.
Even the State makes a clear demarcation — a judicial commission of inquiry for communal riots, and a designated court under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) for a terror strike. While the judicial commission’s recommendations are not binding on the government, a designated or special court has complete legal sanction. When carnage in Bombay post the Babri Masjid demolition had somewhat abated, then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao constituted a judicial commission of inquiry. It was to probe the over two-month long violence on January 25, 1993, one and a half months before the city would be shaken and stirred by a series of bomb blasts. While the judicial commission on riots headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna was conducting its hearing, Maharashtra was claimed by a saffron coalition of the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The new government changed the terms of reference of the Srikrishna inquiry to probe the circumstances and the immediate causes of the serial bomb blasts. Then, all of a sudden, on January 23, 1996, the State government disbanded the commission of inquiry on the grounds that it was taking too much time and that it would reopen old wounds. Finally, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee intervened to revive the commission by May 1996. For five years, the commission examined 2,125 affidavits, recorded 502 testimonies and gathered 9,655 pages of evidence and 2,903 documents. Twenty-six police stations were covered by the commission but its report was rejected by the State government which said it was biased.
Commission’s stance
The Srikrishna Commission says that the Shiv Sena-BJP government desired that it go into certain aspects of the serial bomb blasts which occurred on March 12, 1993 and expanded its terms of reference which included finding out the circumstances and the immediate causes of the incidents, commonly known as the serial bomb blasts, whether the riots and the blasts were linked, and whether they were part of a common design.
In its final report, the commission said the riots appeared to have been a causative factor for the bomb blasts. “There is no material placed before the commission indicating that the riots during December 1992 and January 1993 and the serial blasts were a part of a common design. In fact this situation has been accepted by Mahesh Narain Singh who was heading the team of investigators into the serial bomb blasts case. He also emphasizes that the serial bomb blasts were a reaction to the totality of events at Ayodhya and Bombay in December 1992 and January 1993 and the commission is inclined to agree with him.”
Recurrent theme
While rejecting the Commission’s report, the government berated it for not paying enough attention to the blasts while devoting over 600 pages to the riots. With these words, the Shiv Sena-BJP had laid the foundation for erasing the memory of the riots and layering it with a sharp and unforgettable image of the serial blasts.
The theme of reopening old wounds recurred again in a High Court judgment which acquitted the late Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray, in 2007 after the State government appealed in two cases of acquittals of Mr. Thackeray by lower courts. The High Court observed that no ends of justice would be served by digging up the old cases after the expiry of seven years and that they would only revive communal tension. Time has already passed. In a review of these circumstances, it is difficult to find fault with the impugned order passed by the additional chief metropolitan magistrate terminating the proceedings in the two cases, the High Court said.
By 2007, after the designated TADA court sentenced 100 people for their roles in the March 12 serial bomb blasts case, there was uproar from civil rights groups and riot victims. The State government agreed to set up four special courts to expedite 16 of the 253 pending cases. Many important pending cases were not dealt with by these courts though some convictions were handed out. While both the Congress and its ally, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), promised to implement the Srikrishna Commission report in their election manifesto, they did nothing. When special courts were being set up to speed up old riot cases, there was a chorus that this would reopen old wounds.
Yet, when the Supreme Court disposed of appeals by death row convicts and actor Sanjay Dutt in the March 12, 1993 serial blasts case on March 21, 2013, everyone revelled in the reopening of those old wounds. Bollywood was dismayed, people spoke in one voice saying that poor Sanjay Dutt must be forgiven. Hadn’t he spread Mahatma’s Gandhi’s ideals. For people convicted under TADA for disposing of Dutt’s weapons or storing them, there was no reprieve. While they were convicted and sentenced for an act of terror, Dutt got away unstained by the terror tag and with a sentence commuted to five years under the Arms Act. If that didn’t reopen old wounds for his co-accused in the case, nothing will. People also recalled fondly how Dutt’s father, the late Congress leader, Sunil Dutt, had to beseech Bal Thackeray to intervene so that the courts could grant his Sanjay bail after a stint in jail.
The survivors of the riots continue to despair. They can’t even get cases registered against culprits if they happen to be policemen. The Special Investigation Team, formed soon after the riots, closed more cases than it reopened. They have to approach the High Court for registering first information reports or demanding Central Bureau of Investigation inquiries. They have no choice but to reopen old wounds.
meena.menon@thehindu.co.in
Two decades on, the inconvenient truth
Meena Menon
The less privileged survivors of the 1993 Mumbai riots should not be deprived of justice on the grounds that old wounds will be reopened
It is 20 years since two cataclysmic events shook Bombay now Mumbai. If there is recollection now of the first — the communal carnage spread over two months and which killed over 900 people — it is called the reopening old wounds. On the other hand, if you speak about the second, the serial blasts of March 12, 1993, it’s about terror coming home to the city and claiming innocent lives.
Even the State makes a clear demarcation — a judicial commission of inquiry for communal riots, and a designated court under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) for a terror strike. While the judicial commission’s recommendations are not binding on the government, a designated or special court has complete legal sanction. When carnage in Bombay post the Babri Masjid demolition had somewhat abated, then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao constituted a judicial commission of inquiry. It was to probe the over two-month long violence on January 25, 1993, one and a half months before the city would be shaken and stirred by a series of bomb blasts. While the judicial commission on riots headed by Justice B.N. Srikrishna was conducting its hearing, Maharashtra was claimed by a saffron coalition of the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The new government changed the terms of reference of the Srikrishna inquiry to probe the circumstances and the immediate causes of the serial bomb blasts. Then, all of a sudden, on January 23, 1996, the State government disbanded the commission of inquiry on the grounds that it was taking too much time and that it would reopen old wounds. Finally, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee intervened to revive the commission by May 1996. For five years, the commission examined 2,125 affidavits, recorded 502 testimonies and gathered 9,655 pages of evidence and 2,903 documents. Twenty-six police stations were covered by the commission but its report was rejected by the State government which said it was biased.
Commission’s stance
The Srikrishna Commission says that the Shiv Sena-BJP government desired that it go into certain aspects of the serial bomb blasts which occurred on March 12, 1993 and expanded its terms of reference which included finding out the circumstances and the immediate causes of the incidents, commonly known as the serial bomb blasts, whether the riots and the blasts were linked, and whether they were part of a common design.
In its final report, the commission said the riots appeared to have been a causative factor for the bomb blasts. “There is no material placed before the commission indicating that the riots during December 1992 and January 1993 and the serial blasts were a part of a common design. In fact this situation has been accepted by Mahesh Narain Singh who was heading the team of investigators into the serial bomb blasts case. He also emphasizes that the serial bomb blasts were a reaction to the totality of events at Ayodhya and Bombay in December 1992 and January 1993 and the commission is inclined to agree with him.”
Recurrent theme
While rejecting the Commission’s report, the government berated it for not paying enough attention to the blasts while devoting over 600 pages to the riots. With these words, the Shiv Sena-BJP had laid the foundation for erasing the memory of the riots and layering it with a sharp and unforgettable image of the serial blasts.
The theme of reopening old wounds recurred again in a High Court judgment which acquitted the late Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray, in 2007 after the State government appealed in two cases of acquittals of Mr. Thackeray by lower courts. The High Court observed that no ends of justice would be served by digging up the old cases after the expiry of seven years and that they would only revive communal tension. Time has already passed. In a review of these circumstances, it is difficult to find fault with the impugned order passed by the additional chief metropolitan magistrate terminating the proceedings in the two cases, the High Court said.
By 2007, after the designated TADA court sentenced 100 people for their roles in the March 12 serial bomb blasts case, there was uproar from civil rights groups and riot victims. The State government agreed to set up four special courts to expedite 16 of the 253 pending cases. Many important pending cases were not dealt with by these courts though some convictions were handed out. While both the Congress and its ally, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), promised to implement the Srikrishna Commission report in their election manifesto, they did nothing. When special courts were being set up to speed up old riot cases, there was a chorus that this would reopen old wounds.
Yet, when the Supreme Court disposed of appeals by death row convicts and actor Sanjay Dutt in the March 12, 1993 serial blasts case on March 21, 2013, everyone revelled in the reopening of those old wounds. Bollywood was dismayed, people spoke in one voice saying that poor Sanjay Dutt must be forgiven. Hadn’t he spread Mahatma’s Gandhi’s ideals. For people convicted under TADA for disposing of Dutt’s weapons or storing them, there was no reprieve. While they were convicted and sentenced for an act of terror, Dutt got away unstained by the terror tag and with a sentence commuted to five years under the Arms Act. If that didn’t reopen old wounds for his co-accused in the case, nothing will. People also recalled fondly how Dutt’s father, the late Congress leader, Sunil Dutt, had to beseech Bal Thackeray to intervene so that the courts could grant his Sanjay bail after a stint in jail.
The survivors of the riots continue to despair. They can’t even get cases registered against culprits if they happen to be policemen. The Special Investigation Team, formed soon after the riots, closed more cases than it reopened. They have to approach the High Court for registering first information reports or demanding Central Bureau of Investigation inquiries. They have no choice but to reopen old wounds.
meena.menon@thehindu.co.in
January 28, 2013
Dhule Victims And Anhad Files A PIL in Supreme Court Demanding SIT and Compensation
PRESS RELEASE
28 January 2013
A Writ Petition (PIL), under Article 32 of the Constitution of India was filed today by Mohammad G. Naseer, who is the father of the deceased Asim Ahmad aged 24 years, Asif Ali who is the elder brother of deceased Imran Ali aged 23 years and Anhad which reputed NGO working on issues relating to secularism and communal violence. This petition was filed in respect of the communal attack on Muslims at Dhule, Maharashtra on 6.1.2013 in which the police themselves participated in smashing the vehicles of the Muslim community, in setting fire to their shops and houses and in firing in such a manner that 6 persons were killed and 42 injured, all from the Muslim community. 35 houses were burnt to the ground and many shops were also burnt. After that the police registered FIRs against the Muslim community and it is only much later when the minority community raised a protest that complaints are being accepted by the police, but no FIR is being registered behalf of the Muslim community till date.
The PIL is seeking a direction from this Court for the establishment of an SIT investigate this incident in respect of the facts set out in the petition and prosecute the criminal offenders including police personnel and government officials in accordance with law and to pass an order directing the respondent to immediately pay Rs.25 lakhs to the next of the kin of the deceased, Rs. 15 lakhs to those disabled, Rs. 10 Lakhs to those injured with Police Bullets and suitable compensation to those whose houses, shops were burnt, looted and destroyed.
In support of the PIL, petitioner has annexed a citizen’s fact finding report which was released in January 2013. The fact finding committee consisted of Shabnam Hashmi from Anhad one of the Petitioner organization, Prof. Ram Punyani of the All India Secular Forum, Prof. Apoorvanand of Delhi University, Advocate Nihalsing B. Rathore and others. All of them are eminent names from the social fraternity. This report was prepared after the fact finding committee visited the area and met social, religious and political activists, government officials, the District Magistrate, the victims including the families of the deceased and injured, and people from different walks of life. The Committee members also visited the hospital and saw the records and visited the areas where the houses were burnt.
A minor skirmish which could easily have been handled by the police had they been sensitive escalated into a full-fledged attack on the minority community. The testimonies reveal that not only did the police not intervene but they told the people to settle scores directly and actively instigated the attacks on the minority community.
Then without making a preliminary effort to disperse the crowd using the public address system or tear gas or by resorting to a lathi charge, the police resorted to indiscriminate firing that lasted for more than 2 hours. This firing was resorted to not to disperse the mob but rather to cause fatal injury to members of the minority community. The actions of the police show that they were elements within the force who acted in a communal manner. This is evident from the video clipping showing policemen using their lathis to damage the scooters and other properties of the Muslim community and showing policemen throwing stones at the minority community and standing by watching members of the majority community throwing stones. Video footage showing policemen setting fire to the houses of the minority community and above mentioned incidents have been submitted to the Supreme Court.
For queries talk to: Tariq Adeeb- 93106 77131 / shabnam hashmi-9811807558
28 January 2013
A Writ Petition (PIL), under Article 32 of the Constitution of India was filed today by Mohammad G. Naseer, who is the father of the deceased Asim Ahmad aged 24 years, Asif Ali who is the elder brother of deceased Imran Ali aged 23 years and Anhad which reputed NGO working on issues relating to secularism and communal violence. This petition was filed in respect of the communal attack on Muslims at Dhule, Maharashtra on 6.1.2013 in which the police themselves participated in smashing the vehicles of the Muslim community, in setting fire to their shops and houses and in firing in such a manner that 6 persons were killed and 42 injured, all from the Muslim community. 35 houses were burnt to the ground and many shops were also burnt. After that the police registered FIRs against the Muslim community and it is only much later when the minority community raised a protest that complaints are being accepted by the police, but no FIR is being registered behalf of the Muslim community till date.
The PIL is seeking a direction from this Court for the establishment of an SIT investigate this incident in respect of the facts set out in the petition and prosecute the criminal offenders including police personnel and government officials in accordance with law and to pass an order directing the respondent to immediately pay Rs.25 lakhs to the next of the kin of the deceased, Rs. 15 lakhs to those disabled, Rs. 10 Lakhs to those injured with Police Bullets and suitable compensation to those whose houses, shops were burnt, looted and destroyed.
In support of the PIL, petitioner has annexed a citizen’s fact finding report which was released in January 2013. The fact finding committee consisted of Shabnam Hashmi from Anhad one of the Petitioner organization, Prof. Ram Punyani of the All India Secular Forum, Prof. Apoorvanand of Delhi University, Advocate Nihalsing B. Rathore and others. All of them are eminent names from the social fraternity. This report was prepared after the fact finding committee visited the area and met social, religious and political activists, government officials, the District Magistrate, the victims including the families of the deceased and injured, and people from different walks of life. The Committee members also visited the hospital and saw the records and visited the areas where the houses were burnt.
A minor skirmish which could easily have been handled by the police had they been sensitive escalated into a full-fledged attack on the minority community. The testimonies reveal that not only did the police not intervene but they told the people to settle scores directly and actively instigated the attacks on the minority community.
Then without making a preliminary effort to disperse the crowd using the public address system or tear gas or by resorting to a lathi charge, the police resorted to indiscriminate firing that lasted for more than 2 hours. This firing was resorted to not to disperse the mob but rather to cause fatal injury to members of the minority community. The actions of the police show that they were elements within the force who acted in a communal manner. This is evident from the video clipping showing policemen using their lathis to damage the scooters and other properties of the Muslim community and showing policemen throwing stones at the minority community and standing by watching members of the majority community throwing stones. Video footage showing policemen setting fire to the houses of the minority community and above mentioned incidents have been submitted to the Supreme Court.
For queries talk to: Tariq Adeeb- 93106 77131 / shabnam hashmi-9811807558
October 10, 2012
When is forgiveness right? (Martha Nussbaum)
From: Indian Express, Oct 09 2012
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. His truth is marching on.” Reading the verdicts in the Naroda Patiya case, I found these words of the US Civil War anti-slavery anthem coming to mind. Truth is indeed marching on, even in Gujarat, thanks to the timely intervention of the Supreme Court and the fine work of its Special Investigation Team. Almost incredibly, given so many past failures to convict perpetrators of communal violence in so many other cases, and 10 years after the horrendous events, former minister Maya Kodnani and 30 others have been convicted and sentenced, many to life terms. Particularly welcome is the conviction of Babu Bajrangi of the Bajrang Dal, who boasted of his gruesome crimes on hidden camera. And welcome, too, was the recognition of the central role of violence against women in the Gujarat pogrom. Best of all, perhaps, was the fact that a criminal conspiracy was found, giving prosecutors a valuable weapon to use in future trials. As the US anthem continued (in 1861, well before victory over slavery could be a solid reality): “He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat./ He has sifted out the hearts of men before his judgement seat.” And now the Gujarat assembly elections are at hand, scheduled for December, with Narendra Modi campaigning, already, on an alleged record of economic success. The verdicts could not be a more timely reminder that Gujarat’s government has had a violent communal face.
But what next? Discussions of the verdicts have already raised many pertinent questions. Will they facilitate other prosecutions stemming from the riots? (Almost certainly.) Will they deter others from perpetrating communal violence in the future? (Quite possibly, particularly in light of the conspiracy convictions.) Will they undermine the career of Narendra Modi as he tries for national leadership? (Let us ardently hope so.) Now, however, we need at least to begin discussing a larger question: What after that? Is there a role here for forgiveness and reconciliation? Nations all over the world have been discussing these concepts, and experimenting with institutions that might realise them. What room exists for such ideas in Gujarat?
I call as my witness the late Sir Peter Strawson (1919-2006), distinguished British philosopher and ardent friend of India. In a justly famous article entitled “Freedom and Resentment”, Strawson argued that the “reactive attitudes”, prominently including resentment for wrongdoing, are part and parcel of our freedom as human beings, and central to our social interactions. When we deal with others, we must expect of them a reasonable degree of “good will or regard.” Otherwise, social interaction is impossible. Resentment is appropriate when someone violates those conditions. But when resentment is appropriate, forgiveness is not — unless and until the wrongdoers first acknowledge that their conduct was such as to be rightly resented and repudiate such conduct for the future. “To forgive is to accept the repudiation and to forswear the resentment,” Strawson concludes. In contrast, then, to those who (whether for religious or secular reasons) favour unconditional forgiveness, Strawson sees forgiveness as right only when conditions for the restoration of due regard and decent social reciprocity have been fulfilled by the wrongdoer’s own apology and repudiation.
After the US Civil War, the need for reconciliation was so acute that Abraham Lincoln rushed ahead precipitately, violating Strawson’s condition. “Let us judge not that we be not judged,’” he said in his famous Second Inaugural, urging both sides to “bind up the nation’s wounds.” But they were not bound up, not really. The south was defeated, not changed. It has taken more than a hundred years of further struggle before racial justice and equality have even begun to be done, and even today one still sees the Confederate flag proudly flying in some establishments in the south — until recently atop one state capitol building. Forgiveness was inappropriate in the aftermath of the formal ending of slavery, because there was no apology and no real change. What was appropriate, as the US gradually and painfully learned, was a long tough struggle for more and more justice, and more and more truth. A great deal of this justice was secured in the courts, through the work of courageous, skilled, and patient lawyers and increasingly open-minded judges.
What about Gujarat, then? Should the victims and those who care about them strive, now, for forgiveness? Many think this the morally superior attitude, and they have Gandhi on their side. But I would argue for a less exalted and more Strawsonian response. Forgiveness, as Strawson shows, is a relationship, not something the wronged unilaterally bestows. It requires an antecedent statement on the part of the wrongdoer. None of these wrongdoers is making such a statement.
Sometimes a perpetrator of racial or ethnic hatred will undergo a sudden change of heart and make that “repudiation”. US politician George Wallace, who stood at the door of an Alabama schoolhouse to prevent desegregation in 1963, offered a truly heartfelt apology in 1979, and subsequently went on to a further term as governor in which he sincerely sought racial justice. (The trauma of near-death by attempted murder and subsequent physical paralysis catalysed introspection.) Such conversions, however, are rare, and are hardly to be expected from Narendra Modi and his close associates — particularly when their “base” demands continued communalism. For Wallace, forgiveness was appropriate; for the perpetrators, abettors, and toleraters of communal violence in Gujarat, it is not. Certainly not yet, and perhaps, for those individuals, not ever.
What about an imperfect apology, such as a public statement of goodwill whose deeper sincerity is questionable? Well, that is certainly progress. Many US segregationists have bid for forgiveness in that way, and the BJP is so plastic that we can easily imagine a time when its public face might wear, similarly, an apologetic expression. Is this enough to make forgiveness right? Philosopher Adrienne Martin of the University of Pennsylvania has argued that in such cases the apology does not meet the conditions for forgiveness, but that it still might give us a reason to go on dealing with the person or people in normal social interactions. I agree with her — although in the case of both US racism and the BJP in India, we had better keep a very close eye on the people’s future statements and conduct.
For now, however, resentment is what the victims and those who share their outrage should continue to feel and express. And more and more justice, more and more truth, is what they should pursue.
The writer is a professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago and author of ‘The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence and India’s Future’, express@expressindia.com
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. His truth is marching on.” Reading the verdicts in the Naroda Patiya case, I found these words of the US Civil War anti-slavery anthem coming to mind. Truth is indeed marching on, even in Gujarat, thanks to the timely intervention of the Supreme Court and the fine work of its Special Investigation Team. Almost incredibly, given so many past failures to convict perpetrators of communal violence in so many other cases, and 10 years after the horrendous events, former minister Maya Kodnani and 30 others have been convicted and sentenced, many to life terms. Particularly welcome is the conviction of Babu Bajrangi of the Bajrang Dal, who boasted of his gruesome crimes on hidden camera. And welcome, too, was the recognition of the central role of violence against women in the Gujarat pogrom. Best of all, perhaps, was the fact that a criminal conspiracy was found, giving prosecutors a valuable weapon to use in future trials. As the US anthem continued (in 1861, well before victory over slavery could be a solid reality): “He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat./ He has sifted out the hearts of men before his judgement seat.” And now the Gujarat assembly elections are at hand, scheduled for December, with Narendra Modi campaigning, already, on an alleged record of economic success. The verdicts could not be a more timely reminder that Gujarat’s government has had a violent communal face.
But what next? Discussions of the verdicts have already raised many pertinent questions. Will they facilitate other prosecutions stemming from the riots? (Almost certainly.) Will they deter others from perpetrating communal violence in the future? (Quite possibly, particularly in light of the conspiracy convictions.) Will they undermine the career of Narendra Modi as he tries for national leadership? (Let us ardently hope so.) Now, however, we need at least to begin discussing a larger question: What after that? Is there a role here for forgiveness and reconciliation? Nations all over the world have been discussing these concepts, and experimenting with institutions that might realise them. What room exists for such ideas in Gujarat?
I call as my witness the late Sir Peter Strawson (1919-2006), distinguished British philosopher and ardent friend of India. In a justly famous article entitled “Freedom and Resentment”, Strawson argued that the “reactive attitudes”, prominently including resentment for wrongdoing, are part and parcel of our freedom as human beings, and central to our social interactions. When we deal with others, we must expect of them a reasonable degree of “good will or regard.” Otherwise, social interaction is impossible. Resentment is appropriate when someone violates those conditions. But when resentment is appropriate, forgiveness is not — unless and until the wrongdoers first acknowledge that their conduct was such as to be rightly resented and repudiate such conduct for the future. “To forgive is to accept the repudiation and to forswear the resentment,” Strawson concludes. In contrast, then, to those who (whether for religious or secular reasons) favour unconditional forgiveness, Strawson sees forgiveness as right only when conditions for the restoration of due regard and decent social reciprocity have been fulfilled by the wrongdoer’s own apology and repudiation.
After the US Civil War, the need for reconciliation was so acute that Abraham Lincoln rushed ahead precipitately, violating Strawson’s condition. “Let us judge not that we be not judged,’” he said in his famous Second Inaugural, urging both sides to “bind up the nation’s wounds.” But they were not bound up, not really. The south was defeated, not changed. It has taken more than a hundred years of further struggle before racial justice and equality have even begun to be done, and even today one still sees the Confederate flag proudly flying in some establishments in the south — until recently atop one state capitol building. Forgiveness was inappropriate in the aftermath of the formal ending of slavery, because there was no apology and no real change. What was appropriate, as the US gradually and painfully learned, was a long tough struggle for more and more justice, and more and more truth. A great deal of this justice was secured in the courts, through the work of courageous, skilled, and patient lawyers and increasingly open-minded judges.
What about Gujarat, then? Should the victims and those who care about them strive, now, for forgiveness? Many think this the morally superior attitude, and they have Gandhi on their side. But I would argue for a less exalted and more Strawsonian response. Forgiveness, as Strawson shows, is a relationship, not something the wronged unilaterally bestows. It requires an antecedent statement on the part of the wrongdoer. None of these wrongdoers is making such a statement.
Sometimes a perpetrator of racial or ethnic hatred will undergo a sudden change of heart and make that “repudiation”. US politician George Wallace, who stood at the door of an Alabama schoolhouse to prevent desegregation in 1963, offered a truly heartfelt apology in 1979, and subsequently went on to a further term as governor in which he sincerely sought racial justice. (The trauma of near-death by attempted murder and subsequent physical paralysis catalysed introspection.) Such conversions, however, are rare, and are hardly to be expected from Narendra Modi and his close associates — particularly when their “base” demands continued communalism. For Wallace, forgiveness was appropriate; for the perpetrators, abettors, and toleraters of communal violence in Gujarat, it is not. Certainly not yet, and perhaps, for those individuals, not ever.
What about an imperfect apology, such as a public statement of goodwill whose deeper sincerity is questionable? Well, that is certainly progress. Many US segregationists have bid for forgiveness in that way, and the BJP is so plastic that we can easily imagine a time when its public face might wear, similarly, an apologetic expression. Is this enough to make forgiveness right? Philosopher Adrienne Martin of the University of Pennsylvania has argued that in such cases the apology does not meet the conditions for forgiveness, but that it still might give us a reason to go on dealing with the person or people in normal social interactions. I agree with her — although in the case of both US racism and the BJP in India, we had better keep a very close eye on the people’s future statements and conduct.
For now, however, resentment is what the victims and those who share their outrage should continue to feel and express. And more and more justice, more and more truth, is what they should pursue.
The writer is a professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago and author of ‘The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence and India’s Future’, express@expressindia.com
September 08, 2012
Striving for Justice: Case of Naroda Patia
Striving for Just Society
Ram Puniyani
The verdict of magistrate Dr. Jyotsna Yagnik, sentencing Dr. Maya Kodnani, Babu Bajrangi and others to long imprisonment (31 August, 2012) has come as a big relief to the victims of Naroda Patiya, for whom it was like return of Eid to their houses. Naroda Patiya had witnessed horrific carnage and acts of rape in 2002 and this judgment will give a solace to the victims and their near and dear ones’. This judgment came as a culmination of the mammoth efforts of the human rights activists, the victims, the witnesses and the team of legal activists who stood all the opposition form every conceivable quarter to ensure that justice is done in the case. The adage that ‘there can’t be peace without justice’ has been redeemed with this court judgment.
This judgment also puts right various misconceptions deliberately propagated by communal forces. First and foremost was that the Gujarat violence was a reaction to the Godhra train burning. By now this is believed by most of the sections of society, more so by the communalized sections of society all over and more so in Gujarat. The judge made it clear that “thousands of persons…attacked weaponless and frightened victims with intention, pre planning while sharing common objects”. It was not a spontaneous reaction to burning of train in Godhra. Rather Godhra train burning was used subtly as a justification for the preplanned pogrom. Communal forces tried to pass it off as ‘natural anger’ which the state could not control. Contrary to this perception, now court has ruled that it was a deliberately planned carnage, using the Godhra incident as a mere pretext to consolidate communal polarization in the state of Gujarat.
India has witnessed so many communal riots, acts of violence. Lately these riots have been assuming the form of well organized pogroms. This finding of Human Rights groups and the report of Citizens for Justice and peace gets validated through this judgment, for sure. So far the trend has been that the innocents have been killed in the violence and the perpetrators of violence have gone scot free. Now it seems that with the human rights defenders tightening their belts can set right the adverse trend, where guilty were getting away without any punishment. In this case human rights defenders have put in all the efforts to reverse the prevalent trend due to which the perpetrators of crime were more or less sure that they can get away with their crimes and consolidate their politics.
For once the message is loud and clear that the automatic mechanisms of justice delivery system are not effective and a super human efforts by dedicated human rights defenders like Teesta Setalvad, Gagan Sethi, Harsh Mander, Yusuf Muchala, Mukul Sinha, Govind Parmar and many others like them, working through different angles, supplementing each other’s efforts can ensure that justice is done. They had to plug the leaks in the system to ensure that victims are protected, witnesses are protected, the complaints, FIRs are properly recorded, and to see that all the hurdles to justice are overcome.
The first question which comes to mind is, will this state of affairs continue like this where nothing short of super human efforts, protecting-sustaining the victims and witnesses against heavy odds will be needed for getting justice. Society and the nation needs to plug the loopholes in the policing system, in the bureaucratic apparatus and in the attitude of political leadership so that the justice delivery becomes a matter of routine rather than an exception. Victims of so many riots, pogroms are still awaiting justice, Bhagalpur, Delhi and Mumbai to name the few, still have not got the justice.
This brings to our attention another aspect of the violence, those who led it. Dr. Maya Kodnani came up through Rashtra Sevikasamiti, an organization subordinate to Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, RSS. One notes incidentally that in RSS worldview, women don’t have a swayam (Self) as is manifest in the name of Rashtra Sevikasamiti. Also that Maya Kodnani was sitting MLA, and after the pogrom and her role in it, inciting the mob, distributing fuel and armaments, she was promoted to the level of minister and once she was charged with the role in violence, she was dumped from the ministry and disowned by the state Government. Section of RSS followers in VHP etc. are protesting against the judgment. As such the standard technique for RSS stable is that, once its members-followers undertake the crime, murder of Gandhi, burning of Pastor Stains, or play their part in terror attack, they are declared not to be having any association with the parent organization, whose ideology they are living and breathing through their actions. Kodnani for certain reasons did say that she was victim of politics! What does this mean? While this statement is a mystery, one hopes the meaning of this victimhood comes out one of the days in future.
Babu Bajrangi is another character, whose revelations in Tehelka were nothing less than shocking. He said they have been given time for three days, and that his team-associates are playing not the test cricket but one day match, where high score is to made in short time. And that after killing the hapless Muslims he felt like Rana Pratap. One wishes he knew that Rana Pratap was not killing in the name of religion, he was fighting other kings for power and that in his army there were Muslims soldiers as well. One of the his army generals who died while fighting for Rana Pratap was Hakim Khan Sur, whose tomb is there in the Haldi Ghati even now. How distortions of medieval history are done deliberately to incite hate becomes clear again.
And what is happening to the conscience of Narendra Modi, who has been the major beneficiary of the carnage of 2002? Any remorse, any tears for at least those who were reporting to him during the carnage, whom he promoted for their role in the violence and now are being punished by the due process of law?
One hopes that we recast our laws and system to ensure that the violence is punished in due course and that this punishment acts as a deterrent and ensures that in future such inhuman dastardly acts don’t repeat themselves. This welcome judgment also leaves a few questions, what about those who faulted in the discharge of their duties to protect the innocents, to register their legitimate complains, and to nail the guilty as a matter of their assigned duty? We do need to work towards a system where to begin with such hate crimes don’t take place, and if by chance such a tragedy is engineered by some political forces, we have the system in place which can check it right away and punish those who are either conspiring, or executing or are not controlling those dastardly acts. One hopes that the human rights defenders will be on their tip toes to come forward with such yeomen efforts to have a society with justice and peace.
August 31, 2012
Naroda Patiya not a victory for secular democracy but victory of resilience, of the survivors’ and activsts (Farah Naqvi)
From Farah Naqvi, Member, National Advisory Council
Date: Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 8:09 PM
Friends – while absorbing the news about Maya Kodnani, MLA of Gujarat my mind went back 10 years ago, and I guess I just wanted to share with friends on this list serve a sobering record (attached) of the meeting some of us (myself, Syeda Hameed, Sheba George, Ruth Manorama, Malini Ghose, Mari Thekaekara) had with Kodnani in her home in Ahmedabad on March 29, 2002, in the aftermath of the carnage, during our all-women’s fact-finding for what became the Survivors Speak report. Back then, though already named in the charge-sheet, Kodnani was arrogant and eerily complacent, barely disguising an overwhelming sense of her impunity. We had left the meeting angry and shaken. So, this huge conviction (for murder and criminal conspiracy!), this denting of the impunity enjoyed by the political class, feels truly wonderous and long overdue.
But to me this does not represent a victory (or vindication) of the criminal justice system or even a victory for ‘secular democracy’, as many public commentators are claiming. Everyone was cheerfully saying the same thing in January 2008 when Bilkis Bano’s truth was vindicated by 12 convictions (for gang rape and murder) in a Mumbai sessions court, and I publicly said the same thing then that I say now - responsive laws and a fair justice system should not need 10 years of an active, army of survivors and activists to make it deliver! – certainly not for the kind of unspeakable crimes that took place here. A functioning secular democracy should not have to make its religious minorities work so hard to snatch bits of justice here and there. 1983 (Nellie), 1984 (Delhi), and so many others still remain utterly out of reach.
This is, to me, a victory of resilience, of the survivors’ deep hunger for justice, the moral courage of witnesses, and the single-minded perseverance of human rights activists and organizations.
My salute to all.
Farah
Date: Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 8:09 PM
Friends – while absorbing the news about Maya Kodnani, MLA of Gujarat my mind went back 10 years ago, and I guess I just wanted to share with friends on this list serve a sobering record (attached) of the meeting some of us (myself, Syeda Hameed, Sheba George, Ruth Manorama, Malini Ghose, Mari Thekaekara) had with Kodnani in her home in Ahmedabad on March 29, 2002, in the aftermath of the carnage, during our all-women’s fact-finding for what became the Survivors Speak report. Back then, though already named in the charge-sheet, Kodnani was arrogant and eerily complacent, barely disguising an overwhelming sense of her impunity. We had left the meeting angry and shaken. So, this huge conviction (for murder and criminal conspiracy!), this denting of the impunity enjoyed by the political class, feels truly wonderous and long overdue.
But to me this does not represent a victory (or vindication) of the criminal justice system or even a victory for ‘secular democracy’, as many public commentators are claiming. Everyone was cheerfully saying the same thing in January 2008 when Bilkis Bano’s truth was vindicated by 12 convictions (for gang rape and murder) in a Mumbai sessions court, and I publicly said the same thing then that I say now - responsive laws and a fair justice system should not need 10 years of an active, army of survivors and activists to make it deliver! – certainly not for the kind of unspeakable crimes that took place here. A functioning secular democracy should not have to make its religious minorities work so hard to snatch bits of justice here and there. 1983 (Nellie), 1984 (Delhi), and so many others still remain utterly out of reach.
This is, to me, a victory of resilience, of the survivors’ deep hunger for justice, the moral courage of witnesses, and the single-minded perseverance of human rights activists and organizations.
My salute to all.
Farah
August 30, 2012
Editorials welcome the Naroda Patiya case verdict
[Editorials from The Hindu and The Indian Express are posted below]
The Hindu, August 30, 2012
A stunning verdict
The conviction by a Gujarat court of BJP legislator Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi along with 30 others for their role in the Naroda Patia massacre is the strongest judicial affirmation yet that large-scale communal violence is almost always a product of pre-meditated political planning and calculation. An estimated 95 Muslims, many of them hapless women and children, were hacked to death in Naroda, a minority neighbourhood in Ahmedabad targeted by armed mobs under the indulgent gaze of the Gujarat government in the wake of the February 27, 2002 Godhra train carnage. The verdict is a landmark one. It is for the first time that an Indian court has convicted a sitting MLA — Ms Kodnani was also a minister in the Narendra Modi government from 2007 to 2009 — for mob aggression against members of a religious community. Secondly, the court has not only upheld the charge of criminal conspiracy against the 32 individuals convicted, it has also found one of them guilty of rape and sexual harassment.
The establishment of conspiracy augurs well for the future of communal violence prosecutions, where the judicial trend so far has been to uphold murder but not conspiracy. It is a victory particularly for the Special Investigation Team that was brought into the picture by the Supreme Court following the failure of the State police to properly prosecute the post-Godhra riots cases. For the families of the Naroda victims, who identified the aggressors braving threats and intimidation and who were able to come forward to some extent because of the protection offered by the apex court, there cannot be a greater vindication than the trial court finding evidence of rape and molestation. It has been their plaintive cry that the violence was orchestrated and targeted against women, who were subjected to gang rape and worse before being slaughtered. Violence against women is a pattern established over and over in anti-minority pogroms, and the judgment has done yeoman service in foregrounding this fact. Needless to say, the conviction is a huge setback to the Gujarat Chief Minister personally. The fact that Ms Kodnani led the Naroda killings was common knowledge, yet Mr. Modi made her a minister, even putting her in charge of ‘women and child development’ as if to thumb his nose at the victims. A bigger worry for Mr. Modi ought to be the establishment of conspiracy. The Chief Minister has maintained all along that the “riots” were a spontaneous act by crowds enraged by Godhra. It stretches credulity that Ms Kodnani could enter into a conspiracy with her co-accused without the government getting a whiff of the group’s criminal intentions and conduct, before, during and after the killing.
o o o
The Indian Express
Where law wins out
Aug 30 2012
The arc of history may finally be bending towards justice for the victims of communal violence that gripped Gujarat in 2002. Thirty-two people, including Maya Kodnani, formerly women and child development minister in the Narendra Modi government, and Babu Bajrangi, a Bajrang Dal leader, were convicted by a special court in Gujarat for their roles in the Naroda Patiya massacre in Ahmedabad.
This is the first time, after exhaustive investigations, that convictions have touched Gujarat’s powerful. In April, the special court convicted 23 in the Ode case, another flashpoint in the 2002 violence. The Supreme Court has gone to great lengths to insulate the legal process from powerful vested interests — setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in 2008 at the request of Zakia Jafri and the NHRC to examine nine of the most critical cases, and also sending amicus curiae, Raju Ramachandran, to conduct independent investigations. The divergences in those two reports point to the complexity of assigning culpability in these cases. Kodnani, in fact, had been arrested by the SIT in 2009. This is a moment to admire the judicial system that has wrested some resolution for the trauma of Naroda Patiya.
And yet, it must be asked why justice and reparation are still missing for another scar in recent history — the 1984 riots in Delhi, in which Sikhs bore the brunt of the violence as retaliation for Indira Gandhi’s assassination, under the watch of the Congress government. The police and administration were co-opted in similar ways; prominent Congress leaders were implicated in the violence. However, no powerful figure has been convicted yet. While the 1984 riots and the 2002 riots have become rhetorical tit-for-tats between political forces, the fact remains that one is inching towards answers and the other has been treated as a matter best forgotten and transcended. What, also, of the Nellie massacre, which is not even invoked as a political talking point? In 1983, Muslim settlers were killed and injured in an ethnic clash during the Assam agitation — the All Assam Students Union and other activists had whipped up sentiment against “foreign nationals”. But the investigation reached nowhere, legal proceedings were soon dropped, not a single person has faced trial. As the legal process unfolds in Gujarat, bringing at least a partial justice for the events of 2002, it also casts a sidelight on these other sites of violence, still painfully unaddressed.
The Hindu, August 30, 2012
A stunning verdict
The conviction by a Gujarat court of BJP legislator Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi along with 30 others for their role in the Naroda Patia massacre is the strongest judicial affirmation yet that large-scale communal violence is almost always a product of pre-meditated political planning and calculation. An estimated 95 Muslims, many of them hapless women and children, were hacked to death in Naroda, a minority neighbourhood in Ahmedabad targeted by armed mobs under the indulgent gaze of the Gujarat government in the wake of the February 27, 2002 Godhra train carnage. The verdict is a landmark one. It is for the first time that an Indian court has convicted a sitting MLA — Ms Kodnani was also a minister in the Narendra Modi government from 2007 to 2009 — for mob aggression against members of a religious community. Secondly, the court has not only upheld the charge of criminal conspiracy against the 32 individuals convicted, it has also found one of them guilty of rape and sexual harassment.
The establishment of conspiracy augurs well for the future of communal violence prosecutions, where the judicial trend so far has been to uphold murder but not conspiracy. It is a victory particularly for the Special Investigation Team that was brought into the picture by the Supreme Court following the failure of the State police to properly prosecute the post-Godhra riots cases. For the families of the Naroda victims, who identified the aggressors braving threats and intimidation and who were able to come forward to some extent because of the protection offered by the apex court, there cannot be a greater vindication than the trial court finding evidence of rape and molestation. It has been their plaintive cry that the violence was orchestrated and targeted against women, who were subjected to gang rape and worse before being slaughtered. Violence against women is a pattern established over and over in anti-minority pogroms, and the judgment has done yeoman service in foregrounding this fact. Needless to say, the conviction is a huge setback to the Gujarat Chief Minister personally. The fact that Ms Kodnani led the Naroda killings was common knowledge, yet Mr. Modi made her a minister, even putting her in charge of ‘women and child development’ as if to thumb his nose at the victims. A bigger worry for Mr. Modi ought to be the establishment of conspiracy. The Chief Minister has maintained all along that the “riots” were a spontaneous act by crowds enraged by Godhra. It stretches credulity that Ms Kodnani could enter into a conspiracy with her co-accused without the government getting a whiff of the group’s criminal intentions and conduct, before, during and after the killing.
o o o
The Indian Express
Where law wins out
Aug 30 2012
The arc of history may finally be bending towards justice for the victims of communal violence that gripped Gujarat in 2002. Thirty-two people, including Maya Kodnani, formerly women and child development minister in the Narendra Modi government, and Babu Bajrangi, a Bajrang Dal leader, were convicted by a special court in Gujarat for their roles in the Naroda Patiya massacre in Ahmedabad.
This is the first time, after exhaustive investigations, that convictions have touched Gujarat’s powerful. In April, the special court convicted 23 in the Ode case, another flashpoint in the 2002 violence. The Supreme Court has gone to great lengths to insulate the legal process from powerful vested interests — setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in 2008 at the request of Zakia Jafri and the NHRC to examine nine of the most critical cases, and also sending amicus curiae, Raju Ramachandran, to conduct independent investigations. The divergences in those two reports point to the complexity of assigning culpability in these cases. Kodnani, in fact, had been arrested by the SIT in 2009. This is a moment to admire the judicial system that has wrested some resolution for the trauma of Naroda Patiya.
And yet, it must be asked why justice and reparation are still missing for another scar in recent history — the 1984 riots in Delhi, in which Sikhs bore the brunt of the violence as retaliation for Indira Gandhi’s assassination, under the watch of the Congress government. The police and administration were co-opted in similar ways; prominent Congress leaders were implicated in the violence. However, no powerful figure has been convicted yet. While the 1984 riots and the 2002 riots have become rhetorical tit-for-tats between political forces, the fact remains that one is inching towards answers and the other has been treated as a matter best forgotten and transcended. What, also, of the Nellie massacre, which is not even invoked as a political talking point? In 1983, Muslim settlers were killed and injured in an ethnic clash during the Assam agitation — the All Assam Students Union and other activists had whipped up sentiment against “foreign nationals”. But the investigation reached nowhere, legal proceedings were soon dropped, not a single person has faced trial. As the legal process unfolds in Gujarat, bringing at least a partial justice for the events of 2002, it also casts a sidelight on these other sites of violence, still painfully unaddressed.
Victim Survivors and CJP welcome the historic verdict in the Naroda Patiya mass murder case
Hailing the historic verdict in the Naroda Patiya mass murder case
delivered by Judge Jyotsnanbehn Yagnik. Special Sessions Judge in
Ahmedabad today by which one senior politician and several conspirators
and ring leaders have been convicted, Victim Survivors and CJP welcomed
the verdict. In all 32 persons have been convicted including former BJP
MLA and minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet, Smt Maya Kodnani, Babu
Bajrangi, Bipin Panchal, Ashok Sindhi and Kishan Korani (sitting
corporator, accused No 20) have been convicted.
FULL TEXT HERE: http://www.sacw.net/article2807.html
FULL TEXT HERE: http://www.sacw.net/article2807.html
April 05, 2012
Victims of Hate and division not yet broken in spirit
(Hindustan Times)
Not broken in spirit
Harsh Mander
During the 1989 communal carnage in Bhagalpur, 65 people in Chanderi village were murdered by their neighbours. Having promised them safe passage, they suddenly fell upon them and hacked them to death. Mallika Begum, then 16, is the sole survivor and witness to the slaughter. The killers sliced off her leg, and thinking she was dead, threw her with the bodies of all her loved ones into a pond, and covered her with weeds. She survived, rescued by an army convoy. Over the years, she withstood repeated threats to her life to bring the killers to justice. Steadfast in her statements before the judges, her testimony ensured that 16 people are today serving a life sentence.
Aman Biradari, a collective devoted to secularism, justice and peace, recently invited women and men who had lived through pogroms that targeted persons because of their religious identity in the last three decades. Survivors were invited from the forgotten massacre of Bengali Muslims in Nellie in Assam in 1983, the Sikh widows of Tilak Vihar, Delhi of 1984, Bhagalpur in 1989 and Gujarat in 2002, and the Christian minorities of Kandhamal, Odisha of 2008.
In their moving dialogues in Delhi and Ahmedabad, they shared their pain, struggles and hopes. The occasion was the tenth anniversary of the carnage in Gujarat. The blood-letting and hate unleashed at that time - of women, men and children killed because of their religious faith, abetted by state authorities — continue to raise painful questions about the perilous breaches in our collective defence of secular democracy, and the threats to India’s pluralist legacy. The most important voices to hear and heed were those of the survivors of targeted hate violence, from far corners of this land.
Their stories, recounted with dignity and restraint, showed that the suffering of survivors does not abate or pass, even after decades have elapsed and the rest of us have forgotten and moved on. Time freezes for those who lost their loved ones, were sexually humiliated, or watched their homes and livelihoods destroyed, betrayed and assaulted often by their neighbours. Many spoke as though what they suffered happened just yesterday, not years or decades earlier. Their suffering is a legacy passed across generations. The widows of Tilak Vihar, Delhi talked of sons raised without fathers, now battling drug addiction and the demons in their minds. Young men and women from every site of carnage described how hard it was to grow up without parents, with only memories of their gruesome slaying.
Ruptures persist in the social fabric of communities long after the violence has ended. People in Nellie feel devalued and secluded in a homeland that labels them as foreigners. The Tilak Vihar widows are isolated from their own community in their suffering and struggles. In Gujarat, and even Bhagalpur, survivors continue to live in fear and segregation. In Kandhamal, few victims can return to their villages without trepidation.
Only in Nellie has not a single person even been tried for the 1983 massacre, because the State itself has withdrawn all criminal charges against every person charged with the mass crimes. In every other site of massacre, broken people soldier on for justice against colossal odds. They explained why justice is precious to them. It is not revenge that they seek. If this was what they wanted, there were easier, more direct ways to extract vengeance. Many explained that the fight for justice in courts was their duty to their children, and their country. Unpunished, the hate rioters would be emboldened to repeat the slaughter. It was only if people are punished for their crimes that they will learn never to target innocents.
They talked to us of partisan State authorities who failed to quell the rioting, revenue officials who paid them a pittance as compensation, policemen who refused to record the names and investigate those who led the butchery and arson, and magistrates who allowed their tormentors to walk free with impunity. And yet, even as they spoke of the many ways the people and institutions charged with protecting them and securing justice had let them down, it was extraordinary how each of them insisted that they had not lost faith in India’s secular democracy. They derived solace and hope from the people of other faiths who saved their lives, shared their pain, and helped them in their battles for justice. They believed that however grave are the assaults mounted on secular India, the ancient traditions of people of different faiths living together with peace and respect would endure. They were convinced that the institutions of our democracy would in the end prevail over campaigns of hate and division.
Harsh Mander is a member of the National Advisory Council
The views expressed by the author are personal
Not broken in spirit
Harsh Mander
During the 1989 communal carnage in Bhagalpur, 65 people in Chanderi village were murdered by their neighbours. Having promised them safe passage, they suddenly fell upon them and hacked them to death. Mallika Begum, then 16, is the sole survivor and witness to the slaughter. The killers sliced off her leg, and thinking she was dead, threw her with the bodies of all her loved ones into a pond, and covered her with weeds. She survived, rescued by an army convoy. Over the years, she withstood repeated threats to her life to bring the killers to justice. Steadfast in her statements before the judges, her testimony ensured that 16 people are today serving a life sentence.
Aman Biradari, a collective devoted to secularism, justice and peace, recently invited women and men who had lived through pogroms that targeted persons because of their religious identity in the last three decades. Survivors were invited from the forgotten massacre of Bengali Muslims in Nellie in Assam in 1983, the Sikh widows of Tilak Vihar, Delhi of 1984, Bhagalpur in 1989 and Gujarat in 2002, and the Christian minorities of Kandhamal, Odisha of 2008.
In their moving dialogues in Delhi and Ahmedabad, they shared their pain, struggles and hopes. The occasion was the tenth anniversary of the carnage in Gujarat. The blood-letting and hate unleashed at that time - of women, men and children killed because of their religious faith, abetted by state authorities — continue to raise painful questions about the perilous breaches in our collective defence of secular democracy, and the threats to India’s pluralist legacy. The most important voices to hear and heed were those of the survivors of targeted hate violence, from far corners of this land.
Their stories, recounted with dignity and restraint, showed that the suffering of survivors does not abate or pass, even after decades have elapsed and the rest of us have forgotten and moved on. Time freezes for those who lost their loved ones, were sexually humiliated, or watched their homes and livelihoods destroyed, betrayed and assaulted often by their neighbours. Many spoke as though what they suffered happened just yesterday, not years or decades earlier. Their suffering is a legacy passed across generations. The widows of Tilak Vihar, Delhi talked of sons raised without fathers, now battling drug addiction and the demons in their minds. Young men and women from every site of carnage described how hard it was to grow up without parents, with only memories of their gruesome slaying.
Ruptures persist in the social fabric of communities long after the violence has ended. People in Nellie feel devalued and secluded in a homeland that labels them as foreigners. The Tilak Vihar widows are isolated from their own community in their suffering and struggles. In Gujarat, and even Bhagalpur, survivors continue to live in fear and segregation. In Kandhamal, few victims can return to their villages without trepidation.
Only in Nellie has not a single person even been tried for the 1983 massacre, because the State itself has withdrawn all criminal charges against every person charged with the mass crimes. In every other site of massacre, broken people soldier on for justice against colossal odds. They explained why justice is precious to them. It is not revenge that they seek. If this was what they wanted, there were easier, more direct ways to extract vengeance. Many explained that the fight for justice in courts was their duty to their children, and their country. Unpunished, the hate rioters would be emboldened to repeat the slaughter. It was only if people are punished for their crimes that they will learn never to target innocents.
They talked to us of partisan State authorities who failed to quell the rioting, revenue officials who paid them a pittance as compensation, policemen who refused to record the names and investigate those who led the butchery and arson, and magistrates who allowed their tormentors to walk free with impunity. And yet, even as they spoke of the many ways the people and institutions charged with protecting them and securing justice had let them down, it was extraordinary how each of them insisted that they had not lost faith in India’s secular democracy. They derived solace and hope from the people of other faiths who saved their lives, shared their pain, and helped them in their battles for justice. They believed that however grave are the assaults mounted on secular India, the ancient traditions of people of different faiths living together with peace and respect would endure. They were convinced that the institutions of our democracy would in the end prevail over campaigns of hate and division.
Harsh Mander is a member of the National Advisory Council
The views expressed by the author are personal
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
