Salute to Zakia Jafri

87 year old Zakia Jafri passed away yesterday on 1st February. But our country’s judiciary did not give her justice till the end. Because the heinous incident of Gulbarg Society was not carried out by just a few agitated mob but a very big personality was behind it. This doubt is arising because despite the fact that the police commissioner of Ahmedabad and the local police officers themselves came to Gulbarg Society and assured Ehsan Jafri, this heinous incident took place. And yesterday Zakia Jafri passed away. But she could not get justice frpm our judiciary. That is why I feel very ashamed as a citizen of this country. And also the pain of Zakia Jafri leaving this world without getting justice.

The society in Chamanpura, the central area of ​​Ahmedabad city, was named “Gulbarg Society”. On the very first day of the riots that started in Gujarat after the Godhra incident, on 28 February 2002, from 7-30 am to 4-30 pm, the Chamanpura locality in the central area of ​​Ahmedabad city was surrounded by twenty to twenty-five thousand rioters. The FIR of this was registered by Mr. G. Irda, Senior Inspector of Meghani Nagar Police Station. But the rioters continued to commit incidents of vandalism and arson since morning. During this time, the Police Commissioner of Ahmedabad city, Mr. P.C. Pandey, met Gulbarg Society resident and former MP Mr. Ehsan Jafri at 10-30 am. He went and assured him about his safety. The people living nearby in Gulbarg Society had also taken shelter to save their lives.

But at 10-30 am, Commissioner C.P. Pandey and Congress’s Ward No. 19 General Secretary Ambalal Nadia and Ward No. 20 Kannulal Solanki met Ehsan Jafri and assured him that “we have made all arrangements for your safety.” At 10-35 am, Jhahir Bakery and an autorickshaw in that area were set on fire. Between 11-15 and 11-30, stone pelting began on Gulbarg Society. Between 12-15 and 12-45, large stones began to be thrown from the roof of a non-Muslim neighbor. And around 12-15 pm, acid bulbs and burning balls of cloth continued to be thrown on Gulbarg Society along with stones. In the same commotion, someone named Yusuf was caught and burnt. Around 2:30 to 3:45 people started entering from the gate of Gulbarg Society facing the railway line with shouts of ‘enter’. And someone named Anwar was picked up from the nearby Sansar Bakery and his body was chopped into pieces and burnt.

Around 3-30, Ehsan Jafri was taken out from Gulbarg Society, stripped naked and beaten up badly. He was taken out in a procession. He was asked to chant “Vande Mataram” and “Jai Shri Ram”. All this went on for 45 minutes. First his fingers were chopped off. Then his hands and feet were chopped off, his neck was cut off like a dead animal and thrown into the fire. Along with him, his three brothers and two nephews and a man named Munnavar Sheikh, one of the people who had come to take shelter, were also chopped into pieces and thrown into the fire in the same way. After raping 10-12 women between 3-30 and 4-30, their bodies were also chopped off and thrown into the fire. Around 4-30, 5-00 pm, the police came and kept trying to save some people from the stone pelting till seven o’clock.

If any so-called Hindutva follower is feeling proud of the brutality of this incident, or if someone’s 44 inch chest swells to 56 inches, then I would like to call such a person nothing but a pervert or a psychopath who takes pleasure in sexual lust. And our country’s politics revolves around Hindutva politics and that too during the 75 years of the country’s independence, and the next 25 years of the journey are called Amrit Kaal. So instead of Amrit, I see a poisonous Kaal.

Because instead of solving the day to day problems of our country, everything seems to be revolving around Hindu-Muslim. So in a country of 142 crore population, 40 crore Muslims, and others are raising Khalistan slogans in Punjab recently, so what moral right do we have to stop them from raising Khalistan slogans? This is a chain reaction. And how can those who do politics in the name of any religion tell people of other religions not to do politics on the basis of religion? That is why our constitution makers have said that religion is fine in personal life within the four walls of one’s home. If you bring it on the road and do politics on that basis, then how will you try to stop people of other religions?

For this incident, ten to twelve gas cylinders were used to burn Gulbarg Society. Anyone who saw this with his own eyes, even though the police commissioner C.P. Pandey had met Ehsan Jafri at Gulbarg Society at 10:30 in the morning and assured him that “I guarantee security”, he says after this incident that “what can we do, we did not have enough police force”. The police officers were watching people struggling to save their lives for eight to ten hours, and the police knew very well that there was a huge crowd there, then why was additional police force not deployed? Or is it a matter of letting the Gulbarga Society incident happen on a large scale? This is an incident of Chamanpura locality in the central area of ​​the capital Ahmedabad, it is not about some far-off village.

Ehsan Jafri is a former Congress MP. And from the Commissioner to the Chief Minister, he and the Congress President Sonia Gandhi herself have specially requested the police-administration and mainly the Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi for protection by calling them to save him and more than seventy people who had come to his society for protection. But despite that, more than 70 people, which include men, women and children, were cut into pieces and thrown into the fire.

From 7:30 in the morning to 9:50 in the night in the Chamanpura locality of central Ahmedabad city, more than 70 people, including former Member of Parliament, and small children were set on fire. Manoj Kumar, a neighbor, said that “ten to twelve women were raped and then their bodies were chopped into pieces and burned in the fire. This incident continued till 7 o’clock in the night. The report of this incident has been filed by Mr. K.G. Irda, Senior Inspector of Meghani Nagar Police Station, at 9:50 in the night.”

That means for more than twelve hours, a population of 20-25 thousand rioters, which the police commissioner of Ahmedabad, C.P. Pandey himself saw with his own eyes around 10:30 in the morning. If such a heinous incident happened even after the assurance of deployment of Pandey or his policemen in the intervening seven to eight hours, then it cannot be called a crime committed by only a few rioters. This is an incident of Chamanpura locality in the central area of ​​Ahmedabad city, which was deliberately committed by the police-administration. From the Nanavati Commission to the SIT and recently our Supreme Court, instead of providing justice, put a brave officer like former DGP Gujarat R.B. Sreekumar and Teesta Setalvad in jail. Where will any victim of atrocities in this country go for justice for the atrocities committed against him? To the UNO?

On the morning of 27th February, how many more people would have to be burnt in place of the 59 people killed in the Godhra incident to settle the score of Godhra? Before going to Godhra in the afternoon, Narendra Modi had already spoken about the conspiracy of the Muslim community and Pakistan on Doordarshan. And while addressing the journalists, he said that “the person who carried out this incident will not be spared, and he will be taught such a lesson for life that he will never be able to forget it.”
Who is the Chief Secretary and Home Secretary and K. Chakravarti, the Director General of Police said that “Chief Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing all the senior officers after returning from Godhra, said that during communal violence, the police-administration has to treat the rioters equally, but Narendra Modiji clearly said that now it will not be the same with Hindus and Muslims. Hindus will have to be given complete freedom to express their reaction.” K. Chakravarti said that in that meeting, Ahmedabad Police Commissioner C.P. Pandey, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Ashok Narayan, Acting Chief Secretary Swarnakant Verma, Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Dr. P.K. Mishra (who is currently the Additional Chief Secretary since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister), Home Secretary K. Nityanandam and K. Chakravarti himself were present in that meeting.

And none of them opposed this discriminatory statement of the Chief Minister. K. Chakraborty said that “due to the verbal order of the Chief Minister to take strict action against those who committed communal violence, especially in the Godhra incident, 59 half-burnt bodies were openly placed on trucks and taken around the city of Ahmedabad, which added fuel to the fire. And despite those bodies having no connection with the city of Ahmedabad, what other motive could there have been except to start a terrible riot after handing them over to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and taking them out in the form of a procession?

But this act was not taken cognizance of by either the investigation commission (Justice Nanavati) or the head of the SIT (Dr. R.K. Raghavan) and most importantly, the highest court of our country, the Supreme Court. And that is why how clean is the so-called clean chit really? It has served as fuel to carry out Gulbarg Society, Naroda Patia, Best Bakery and other heinous incidents.

Lieutenant General Zameeruddin Shah has also said that “Was not allowing 3000 Indian Army soldiers from Jodhpur base to come out of Ahmedabad airport for three days on 28 February 2002 in 60 flights a necessary step for the peace and harmony of Gujarat? And from the investigation commission to the SIT, there was no need to take cognizance of this matter? And neither did our Supreme Court.

Despite nine affidavits each to both agencies on these issues after Mr. R.B. Sreekumar, who retired from the top post of Gujarat Police, has deliberately ignored them. R.B. Sreekumar said that I had a feeling “that both (Justice Nanavati and Dr. R.K. Raghavan) have already decided to give a clean chit to Narendra Modi” and are just conducting a formality of investigation.

And finally, the Supreme Court too, while giving its verdict in the Zakia Jafri case, sentencing brave officers like R.B. Sreekumar and Teesta Setalvad to jail is the most surprising decision in the history of Indian judiciary. And this is why the credibility of all constitutional institutions of our country is being questioned across the world. Former Chief Justices spoke very well in their speeches, from the Constitution of our country to fundamental rights. But I do not remember any such important decision taken by them that would make the common man and woman believe in our judiciary.

And the last thing, these days Narendra Modiji is talking about loving the Pasmanda Muslims. Where is this sudden fountain of love for Muslims coming from? Perhaps because of not taking any measures on the increasing unemployment and inflation, he spoke about dreams of good days, but if these are the good days, then we do not want such days, where on one hand rabid Hindutvaists are continuously attacking Muslims and carrying out incidents of killing them somewhere in the country and there is love jihad, and on the other hand if a Muslim is forced to lose his life over incidents like taking a cow from one place to another. And Modiji is talking about love. Is this the explanation of your love? Then keep your love to yourself and really, if the writer of Ramayana Valmiki, who was once a dacoit, is really Valmiki like Valya Koli, then it is definitely welcome.

But Narendra Modiji, it is difficult to trust such statements, considering your political journey of the last twenty-five years. Because he thinks of nothing else except elections 24 hours a day for 12 months. Otherwise, more than two thousand people have died due to the reasons of the man who spread the riots in Gujarat after the Godhra incident. And there has been a loss of billions of rupees. But Narendra Modi has not yet apologized for the Gujarat riots.

Dr Suresh Khairnar is Ex. President of Rashtra Sewa Dal