Godhra

[acharya]

Thursday, Feb 28, 2002

Front Page

VHP seeks resignation of Central, Gujarat Govts

NEW DELHI, FEB. 27. The senior VHP leader, Mahant Naval Kishor Das, today demanded the resignation of the Central and Gujarat Governments over the killing of ``Ram sevaks'' at Godhra even as the RSS appealed to the people to exercise restraint.

``The Central and State Governments should own up moral responsibility and resign,'' Mr. Das told PTI.

Condemning the incident, he also asked human rights organisations, which had raised hue and cry over the killing of Australian missionary, Graham Staines in Orissa, to take up the issue without any double standards.

- PTI

[acharya]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
‘Gujarat Genocide’, ‘State-sponsored Pogrom’, Modi-promoted Terrorism, cried the Pseudo-Secular Mafia of English Media on 1 March 2002.  This was the worst form of anti-fact and anti-truth propaganda in the truly ‘Goebblesian’ sense.  Only the local Gujarati Press gave a factual and truthful account of each day’s happenings at that time.  The common people of Gujarat knew the facts about the ground level realities.  The darkest day in the history of Indian Judiciary was reached when the Supreme Court allowed itself the privilege of being emotionally overwhelmed by the most organised form of Goebblesian propaganda by the English Print and Electronic media and burst out into the following observation in the Best Bakery Case: ‘The modern day NEROS were looking elsewhere when Best Bakery and innocent children and helpless women were burning ...........’. The Supreme Court had made this observation without even taking care to verify as to what measures had been taken by Government of Gujarat in this case.  The simple fact is the Supreme Court lost its sense of judicial balance and restraint.


<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[acharya]

Thursday, Feb 28, 2002
Business
Attack on Sabarmati Express triggers selling
MUMBAI FEB. 27. Equities lost their early gains and majority of them even ended with losses pushing the Sensex in the negative territory at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange today on heavy selling, triggered by attack on Sabarmati Express at Godhra in Gujarat.

Market sources said speculators and retail investors resorted to profit selling after rumours of riots following reports that some unidentified persons attacked the train, setting fire to four of its bogies.

After a strong upsurge to the intra-day high at 3758.11, the BSE benchmark 30-share index took a downturn within a short time after resumption of trading and dipped below 3700-level to the day's low of 3677.62 before closing at 3705.66 against yesterday close of 3712.74, a net fall of 7.08 points. The broad-based BSE-100 index also dropped by 8.31 points to finish at 1780.33 against 1788.54.

In the specified group, 113 including 17 index-based counters registered moderate falls while 55 others closed with marked to modest gains.
PTI

[Guest]

reports from 2002: good find Acharya.

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><span style='color:red'>Who killed 254 Hindus in Gujarat?</span>
Arvind Lavakare
Friday, 16 November , 2007, 11:58

Even as a prominent TV channel, Aaj Tak, repeatedly aired its
sponsored Tehelka tapes "exposing" Chief Minister Narendra Modi and
his Gujarat government as Neros and mass murderers in the post-Godhra
tragedy of 2002, B.P. Singhal, former IPS and ex-Rajya Sabha member,
sent out to a newspaper his signed article that contained a nugget
deserving entry in the cartoon panels of Robert Ripley's Believe It Or
Not!

Below is that item in Singhal's own words:

"Aaj Tak harped on the same old refrain that 'Modi did not call
the Army until three days had passed'. When the TV channel
contacted me on phone to get my response, I told the anchor that
the Godhra carnage took place on February 27, 2002, that the Hindu
backlash commenced on February 28 and the Army was doing flag
march on the forenoon of March 1… He cut me short by saying that
'This is exactly what we had said, no action was taken by Modi on
29th, 30th and 31st thus giving three clear days to the
murderers…' I had to cut him short by reminding him that the date
28th was 28th of February 2002 and there were no 29th, 30th or
31st in that month. The phone was of course disconnected. "

Singhal writes that he was "outraged" at the TV channel's above
attitude. But as an old BJP man, he should have known better. After
all, our "secular" media is known to hate the BJP's --or anybody
else's-- Hindutva, and has scant regard for the truth when it comes to
Narendra Modi or any other politician upholding the Hindus' point of
view.

Just see the latest "spins" of Tehelka. "Since the police were in
control all over Gujarat, Modi instructed them to side with the
Hindus, giving the rioters a free hand for three days until pressure
from higher quarters necessitated the calling in of the army,"
(emphasis mine) it avers. The fact is that "Shoot at sight" orders to
all officers of the rank of sub-inspectors and above were given by
2.30 pm on 28 February. In fact, the state government had also
requested armed police reinforcements from neighbouring states,
besides calling for the Army. On that very day, 10 Hindus had been
shot dead and 16 Hindus had been wounded --- all by police bullets.

In their over-anxiety to nail Modi and his alleged "pogrom", these
"secularists" have totally forgotten what some of their own, but rare,
conscientious colleagues had reported.

Thus, in its issue of April 28, 2002, The Times of India reporter,
Sanjay Pandey, told us that of the 726 people who had been killed by
then in the post-Godhra riots, 168 were Hindus. In its issue of June
24, 2002, The India Today magazine carried an article saying that the
official figure of all people killed in Gujarat was 800 in the three
months following the massacre at Godhra station of 58 Sri Ram's kar
sevaks in the Sabarmati Express; of these 800, a quarter were Hindus,
wrote the weekly.

And there's that ultimate statistic: in 2005, the Minister of State
for Home of the UPA coalition (comprising the 'secular' friends of
Muslims) made a written statement in Parliament that 254 Hindus and
790 Muslims were killed in those riots. Yes, groups of Hindus in
revengeful lunacy caused by the 58 charred kar sevaks did kill and
rape Muslims, but who killed the 254 Hindus? Was it Narendra Modi and
his government or was it the lunatic Hindus themselves or was it the…?

Tehelka's latest "sting" shown on TV provides at least two more
instances of this refusal by "secularists" to look at the truth.

They said that Modi congratulated one Babu Bajrangi at Naroda Patiya
for his deeds against the Muslims. Again, Modi is said to have gone to
the site of the Naroda Patiya massacre and acknowledged the efforts of
the Chhara tribe who were key participants in the carnage there. The
fact is Narendra Modi did not visit Naroda Patiya at that time!

In order to play up the horror of some of the ghastly deeds of those
post-Godhra riots, Aaj Tak mixed the Tehelka tapes with clips from the
movie Parzania that told a story around those riots.

Sadly, there is such fear in our institutions of these "secular
exposes" that they will promptly jump into them, lies and all. Thus,
the Nanavati Commission probing the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat
quickly announced that it would examine the footage of Tehelka's
latest "sting". Not to be outdone, the National Human Rights
Commission announced that the CBI should investigate the tapes and, if
needed thereafter, take necessary action.

All this because, unlike in the US and Europe where there are codes
and regulations governing "sting" operations, our country has no
statute or rule of any kind to control them. With our Supreme Court
giving the widest possible latitude to "freedom of expression" under
Article 19(1)(a), the state cannot impose any prior restraint on the
freedom of the press on the grounds that the publication concerned
would offend the privacy of any individual. No remedy will lie before
publication.

That is why, in the Operation West End alleging corruption in defence
procurements, while leading lawyers and journalists criticised the
portal for using prostitutes to trap defence officials in a videotape,
the support for Tehelka came from the Press Council of India. Its then
Chairman, Justice P.B. Sawant, gave a clean chit to Tehelka saying the
undercover operation was done in public interest. Hence, fabricating
rascals and prevaricating rogues like Tehelka have a free run in our
land with their scriptwriters and secret cameras. They are the ones
who provide all the sadistic excitement to the Hindu-hating
"secularists" of Hindu majority India.

This situation suits our media perfectly. They can pillory those
perceived as evil without restraint. Thus, for five years now, our
"secular" media has gone hammer and tongs after Narendra Modi and his
government for the Godhra tragedy without even once alluding to the
report of April 26, 2002 prepared by eminent private citizens headed
by Justice Tewaria --- a report that indicted the role of the minority
community in Godhra and the media for what had happened in
Gujarat. (Readers who wish to obtain that report by e-mail should
contact neelu@hathway. com)

Our media has, in fact, become so arrogant that it revolted against
the draft Bill prepared earlier this year by the Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting. The draft of the content regulation,
prepared by a sub-panel of a thirty-member committee overseen by I&B
Secretary, hinted at stringent content regulation, particularly for
news channels. However, when it came to regulating sting operations,
it did not step beyond existing law. But our cocky media called it
"draconian" among other epithets.

This time around, however, at least one individual has shown courage
in taking on Tehelka's latest "tamasha".

Arvind Pandya, the state government's counsel in the Nanavati-Shah
Commission, was shown in the Tehelka-Aaj Tak tapes casting aspersions
on its two judges. According to what he says on the Tehelka tapes,
Nanavati is after money and Shah is sympathetic to the government.

By the same author: Uncle Sam's nuclear hardsell

On October 27, he announced at a press conference that he had resigned
as government counsel, and had filed criminal cases against Dhimant
Purohit, correspondent of Aaj Tak, charging them with cheating,
criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, fraud, trespass and breach of
communal harmony. He contended that Purohit had offered him a role in
a serial which the TV channel was purportedly producing and that he
was captured on a hidden camera when he was reading from what had been
given to him as a script for an audition test. The immediate result of
Pandya's legal action was that Purohit sought anticipatory bail!

What ultimately happens to Pandya's cases should, it's suggested, be
closely covered and followed up by all the media that cares for truth
and decency in investigative journalism.

Such media, if they exist at all, should also ascertain why the usual
bunch of social and human rights activists are not going to the
highest judiciary and generally raising hell --- if not a
"sting"---over the recent tragedy at Nandigram in Communist Bengal.

Our government's Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Priyaranjan
Dasmunsi, called the Nandigram killings as a "state-sponsored
terrorism". Then why is Teesta Setalvad mum? Why are she and the rest
of the usual suspects so tongue-tied now, when for the minutest
reason, they rant and rave against the RSS, the VHP, the BJP, the
Bajrang Dal and the sadhus and saints of Hinduism? Are they
counterfeits or communists? Or both? Or are they the real communalists
who are plain anti-Hindus?

You tell me.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

Hi

ITI has researched the Godhra incident and found out the following:

1) The train was burnt not on the floor level but on the roof level. If petrol was poured as BJP dreams, the floor level would be burnt as petrol lands on to the coach floor.

2) Secondly, it was impossible to tear the vestibule rubber with a knife as BJP dreams because the rubber is reinforced with steel wire.

Hence the fire was due to beedi or cigarette.

The hindu fanats used this opportunity to create a story and kill innocent muslims.

[Bharatvarsh]

"Hence the fire was due to beedi or cigarette.

The hindu fanats used this opportunity to create a story and kill innocent muslims."

From what I heard, there were never any deaths in the riots, Muslims deliberately set themselves on fire (it comes easy after all that suicide bombing culture) to make Hindus look bad.

[Guest]

rachel,

Who is saying there was any riot in Gujarat?
It was Muslim Shia's who were practicing for Moharam. I think they went overboard during rehearsal along with Bora and Sunnis. As usual Indian media is blaming Hindus.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-rachel+Nov 18 2007, 07:01 AM-->QUOTE(rachel @ Nov 18 2007, 07:01 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->ITI has researched the Godhra incident
[right][snapback]75348[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Folks what is ITI? I know of two: Indian Telephone Industries Ltd, using which Sukhram made his millions, and the other Industrial Training Institute which gives diplomas for skills.

[Guest]

<b>Who killed 254 Hindus in Gujarat?</b>
Last updated : Friday, 16 November , 2007, 17:01


Arvind Lavakare may be 71, but the fire in his belly burns stronger than in many people half his age. The economics post-graduate worked with the Reserve Bank of India and several private and public sector companies before retiring in 1997. His first love, however, remains sports. An accredited cricket umpire in Mumbai, he has reported and commented on cricket matches for newspapers, Doordarshan and AIR. Lavakare has also been regularly writing on politics since 1997, and published a monograph, The Truth About Article 370, in 2005.

Even as a prominent TV channel, Aaj Tak, repeatedly aired its sponsored Tehelka tapes “exposing” Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his Gujarat government as Neros and mass murderers in the post-Godhra tragedy of 2002, B.P. Singhal, former IPS and ex-Rajya Sabha member, sent out to a newspaper his signed article that contained a nugget deserving entry in the cartoon panels of Robert Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!

Below is that item in Singhal’s own words:

“Aaj Tak harped on the same old refrain that ‘Modi did not call the Army until three days had passed’. When the TV channel contacted me on phone to get my response, I told the anchor that the Godhra carnage took place on February 27, 2002, that the Hindu backlash commenced on February 28 and the Army was doing flag march on the forenoon of March 1… He cut me short by saying that ‘This is exactly what we had said, no action was taken by Modi on 29th, 30th and 31st thus giving three clear days to the murderers…’ I had to cut him short by reminding him that the date 28th was 28th of February 2002 and there were no 29th, 30th or 31st in that month. The phone was of course disconnected.”

Singhal writes that he was “outraged” at the TV channel’s above attitude. But as an old BJP man, he should have known better. After all, our “secular” media is known to hate the BJP’s --or anybody else’s-- Hindutva, and has scant regard for the truth when it comes to Narendra Modi or any other politician upholding the Hindus’ point of view.

Just see the latest “spins” of Tehelka. “Since the police were in control all over Gujarat, Modi instructed them to side with the Hindus, giving the rioters a free hand for three days until pressure from higher quarters necessitated the calling in of the army,” (emphasis mine) it avers. The fact is that "Shoot at sight” orders to all officers of the rank of sub-inspectors and above were given by 2.30 pm on 28 February. In fact, the state government had also requested armed police reinforcements from neighbouring states, besides calling for the Army. On that very day, 10 Hindus had been shot dead and 16 Hindus had been wounded --- all by police bullets.

In their over-anxiety to nail Modi and his alleged “pogrom”, these “secularists” have totally forgotten what some of their own, but rare, conscientious colleagues had reported.

Thus, in its issue of April 28, 2002 , The Times of India reporter, Sanjay Pandey, told us that of the 726 people who had been killed by then in the post-Godhra riots, 168 were Hindus. In its issue of June 24, 2002, The India Today magazine carried an article saying that the official figure of all people killed in Gujarat was 800 in the three months following the massacre at Godhra station of 58 Sri Ram’s kar sevaks in the Sabarmati Express; of these 800, a quarter were Hindus, wrote the weekly.

And there’s that ultimate statistic: in 2005, the Minister of State for Home of the UPA coalition (comprising the 'secular' friends of Muslims) made a written statement in Parliament that 254 Hindus and 790 Muslims were killed in those riots. Yes, groups of Hindus in revengeful lunacy caused by the 58 charred kar sevaks did kill and rape Muslims, but who killed the 254 Hindus? Was it Narendra Modi and his government or was it the lunatic Hindus themselves or was it the…?

Tehelka’s latest “sting” shown on TV provides at least two more instances of this refusal by “secularists” to look at the truth.

They said that Modi congratulated one Babu Bajrangi at Naroda Patiya for his deeds against the Muslims. Again, Modi is said to have gone to the site of the Naroda Patiya massacre and acknowledged the efforts of the Chhara tribe who were key participants in the carnage there. The fact is Narendra Modi did not visit Naroda Patiya at that time!

In order to play up the horror of some of the ghastly deeds of those post-Godhra riots, Aaj Tak mixed the Tehelka tapes with clips from the movie Parzania that told a story around those riots.

Sadly, there is such fear in our institutions of these “secular exposes” that they will promptly jump into them, lies and all. Thus, the Nanavati Commission probing the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat quickly announced that it would examine the footage of Tehelka’s latest “sting”. Not to be outdone, the National Human Rights Commission announced that the CBI should investigate the tapes and, if needed thereafter, take necessary action.

All this because, unlike in the US and Europe where there are codes and regulations governing “sting” operations, our country has no statute or rule of any kind to control them. With our Supreme Court giving the widest possible latitude to “freedom of expression” under Article 19(1)(a), the state cannot impose any prior restraint on the freedom of the press on the grounds that the publication concerned would offend the privacy of any individual. No remedy will lie before publication.

That is why, in the Operation West End alleging corruption in defence procurements, while leading lawyers and journalists criticised the portal for using prostitutes to trap defence officials in a videotape, the support for Tehelka came from the Press Council of India. Its then Chairman, Justice P.B. Sawant, gave a clean chit to Tehelka saying the undercover operation was done in public interest. Hence, fabricating rascals and prevaricating rogues like Tehelka have a free run in our land with their scriptwriters and secret cameras. They are the ones who provide all the sadistic excitement to the Hindu-hating “secularists” of Hindu majority India .

This situation suits our media perfectly. They can pillory those perceived as evil without restraint. Thus, for five years now, our “secular” media has gone hammer and tongs after Narendra Modi and his government for the Godhra tragedy without even once alluding to the report of April 26, 2002 prepared by eminent private citizens headed by Justice Tewaria --- a report that indicted the role of the minority community in Godhra and the media for what had happened in Gujarat. (Readers who wish to obtain that report by e-mail should contact neelu@...)

Our media has, in fact, become so arrogant that it revolted against the draft Bill prepared earlier this year by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The draft of the content regulation, prepared by a sub-panel of a thirty-member committee overseen by I&B Secretary, hinted at stringent content regulation, particularly for news channels. However, when it came to regulating sting operations, it did not step beyond existing law. But our cocky media called it “draconian” among other epithets.

This time around, however, at least one individual has shown courage in taking on Tehelka’s latest “tamasha”.

Arvind Pandya, the state government’s counsel in the Nanavati-Shah Commission, was shown in the Tehelka-Aaj Tak tapes casting aspersions on its two judges. According to what he says on the Tehelka tapes, Nanavati is after money and Shah is sympathetic to the government.

On October 27, he announced at a press conference that he had resigned as government counsel, and had filed criminal cases against Dhimant Purohit, correspondent of Aaj Tak, charging them with cheating, criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, fraud, trespass and breach of communal harmony. He contended that Purohit had offered him a role in a serial which the TV channel was purportedly producing and that he was captured on a hidden camera when he was reading from what had been given to him as a script for an audition test. The immediate result of Pandya’s legal action was that Purohit sought anticipatory bail!

What ultimately happens to Pandya’s cases should, it’s suggested, be closely covered and followed up by all the media that cares for truth and decency in investigative journalism.

Such media, if they exist at all, should also ascertain why the usual bunch of social and human rights activists are not going to the highest judiciary and generally raising hell --- if not a “sting”---over the recent tragedy at Nandigram in Communist Bengal.

Our government’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, called the Nandigram killings as a “state-sponsored terrorism”. Then why is Teesta Setalvad mum? Why are she and the rest of the usual suspects so tongue-tied now, when for the minutest reason, they rant and rave against the RSS, the VHP, the BJP, the Bajrang Dal and the sadhus and saints of Hinduism? Are they counterfeits or communists? Or both? Or are they the real communalists who are plain anti-Hindus?

You tell me.

<i>The views expressed in the article are the author’s </i>

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Folks what is ITI? I<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Bodhiji, a typo only yaar. Please forgive. She was off by one character as she meant 'S' and not 'T'. I'm only guessing here since the only logical conclusion to infer from Rachel's list of points is that the investigation was conducted by I<b>S</b>I and not I<b>T</b>I. And when I say ISI, I'm not refering to the Bureau of India Standards which benchmark quality of products.

Anyway, dear Rachel, what you have posted contradicts even what the Nanavati commission and Justice Banerjee commission have put forth on the subject (though I doubt you are even familiar with the names). If you wish to be taken seriously here, please spend some time here, go through couple hundred posts on the subject. Let me put it to you nicely, there are forums out there on internet where juvenile postings might earn a few kudos and pat on backs. Not here please. Though, you can lurk and learn from here.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Teesta's attack leaves SC fuming </b>
Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
The Supreme Court on Tuesday warned it would not hear any of the pending Godhra riot cases if social activist Teesta Setalvad represented the petitioners. The court was outraged over its criticism by Setalvad for delay in providing justice to the riot victims. Setalvad had attacked the judiciary in a recent write-up published in leading newspapers.

In 2003, the Supreme Court had stayed trial in a dozen cases relating to the Godhra riots and shifted the Best Bakery trial outside Gujarat. In this backdrop, such brazen criticism was the least the court had expected from Setalvad, whose NGO -- Citizen for Justice and Peace -- is one of the petitioners before the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan decried Setalvad's write-up as "shameful" and "in bad taste".

While hearing a bail petition of a riot accused, the Bench headed by Chief Justice referred to the write-up and expressed disgust over her comments alleging the Godhra matters are being "fixed" in court.

"There are 60,000 cases in the Supreme Court. Nobody fixes the cases manually. It is done by the computer," a visibly upset Bench said. "We see so many articles in the media, sometimes they are educative and sometimes we ignore it. But this article is simply not in good taste," it added.

The Bench commented the article appeared in several publications, including a Malayalam weekly.

So annoyed was the Bench it went to the extent to suggest, "If she (Teesta) is representing these petitioners, we do not want to hear it." Senior advocate Harish Salve, who was present in the court asked the court to treat the matter with contempt and let go off the case.

Incidentally, Salve is the amicus curiae in the matter concerning the shifting of trial outside Gujarat, where Teesta's NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) is pressing for trial of a dozen cases to be shifted outside State. Setalvad, who is the secretary of the NGO, was also involved in the Best Bakery and Bilkis Bano cases and is pursuing a PIL to remove Gujarat Police chief PC Pandey stating he was recruited at the behest of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Ironically, at the time the Bench was raining fury on Teesta, a separate Bench of the apex court was hearing the petition filed by the CJP along with the batch petitions filed by National Human Rights Commission in the Godhra trial. The matter is expected to come up for hearing in March next.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Reinvestigate Gujarat riots: SC </b>
 

New Delhi/Ahmedabad, March 25: Dissatisfied with the investigations into the Gujarat riots, the Supreme Court on Tuesday <b>upheld  the plea of the National Human Rights Commission and agreed to set up a five-member special investigation team </b>to reinvestigate cases of communal carnage that rocked Gujarat for close to three months in 2002. Over 2,000 people, most of them Muslims, had lost their lives in these riots.

The riots, however, consolidated the position of the state’s BJP Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, as “Hindu Hriday Samrat” and bought him impressive victories in Assembly elections. Reopening of the investigations into the riot cases are likely to bring out several skeletons. The SIT has been directed to submit its report within three months.

The Narendra Modi government is happy with the setting up of an SIT primarily because it feared that the investigation might be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, over which it would have no control. Pushed on to the back foot, the Modi government did not argue much in the court and readily agreed to an SIT investigation. The five-member SIT will comprise three senior IPS officers from Gujarat — Ms Geeta Johri, Mr Sivananad Jha and Mr Ashish Bhatia — and two others: the former CBI director, Mr R.K. Raghavan, now retired, and Mr C.V. Satpathy, an Uttar Pradesh cadre IPS officer.

Human rights activists in Gujarat allege that the SIT members from Gujarat are individuals whose names had been forwarded by the Modi government. “The Modi government was fearing a more stern investigation. The IPS officers from Gujarat in the SIT have been suggested by the Gujarat government itself. Instead of these names, it would be better if there are unbiased officers in the SIT,” an activist said.

It must be noted that all the three Gujarat IPS officers who figure in the SIT enjoy the reputation of being close to the Modi government, specially after he romped to victory with an impressive majority in the December elections. While Ms Geeta Johri had come to national attention with her probe into fake encounters, it must be recalled that there were no high-profile political figures involved in that case.

It is alleged in Gujarat that the involvement of politicians in fake encounters was hushed up under political pressure. Human rights activists would have preferred IPS officers like Rajnish Rai, Rahul Sharma, Satish Verma or Atul Karwal to be a part of the SIT. These officers are known for their unbiased stand and many of them have testified at citizens’ tribunals and independent inquiries.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Nanavati panel submits first part of report to Modi </b>
Pioneer.com
RK Misra | Gandhinagar
The Nanavati judicial commission on Thursday submitted the first part of its report on 2002 Godhra train carnage to Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar. 

The report was presented to the Chief Minister by Justice GT Nanavati and Justice Akshay Mehta in the presence of Minister of State for Home Amit Shah.

Though the contents of the report are confidential, the first part of the report deals with the Godhra train carnage that left 59 people dead.

In the aftermath of the carnage and violence, the State Government had appointed a judicial commission headed by a retired judge, Justice KG Shah, to probe the incident in March 2002. Subsequently on May 21, 2002, the ambit of the probe was enlarged to cover the entire affair and Justice GT Nanavati, retired judge of the Supreme Court, was also appointed. However, following the death of Justice Shah, Justice Akshay Kumar Mehta, also a retired judge of the HC, had replaced him on the probe on April 6, 2008. During the six-year-long-probe, the commission examined over 40,000 applications and over 1,000 witnesses, besides hearing representatives of political parties, religious organisations as well as NGOs through their lawyers.

<b>Speculation is rife that the report may figure in the three-day monsoon session of the State Assembly which begins here on September 25.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

Time to buy stock in companies that produce heartburn medication such as Mallox, Pepto Bismol etc..

Here's why:

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Godhra report gives Modi gets a clean chit

Nanavati Commission Report) also added that there was no evidence of them having not been able to provide protection, relief or rehabilitation to any riot victim

<b>The report also said that 140 liters of petrol was purchased as the part of conspiracy to burn the bogey.
</b>

<b>The report says Raza Kurkur and Salim Panwala had purchased petrol on the night of February 26 to be used in burning the bogey of Sabarmati Express.
</b>
The conspiracy was hatched at Aman guest house and meant to spread terror in the area, the report adds.

Doors of S-6 and S-7 bogey were forcibly opened and a person called Hassan Lalu threw objects which were burning inside the bogey, according to the report. It also said that Molvi Umarji planned the entire conspiracy.

Others named in the conspiracy are Shaukat Lalu, Imran Sheri, Rafique Batuck, Salim Zarda, Jabbir, Sheraj Bala.

As the report was being tabled, Congress legislators staged a walkout in the Assembly.

Meanwhile, spokesperson of Gujarat government and also the Health Minister of the state Jai Narayan Vyas said, "The report has clearly gone into details, analysed all the evidences and has come to the conclusion that there was no failure of machinery as far as maintenance of law and order is concerned."

"It had been conclusively established that Nanavati Commission was a commission, UC Banerjee Committee was just a committee not a commission," he added.

UC Banerjee, who had headed the Godhra probe, which was ordered by Railways Minister Lalu Prasad, reacted by saying, "I had examined witnesses and had found that there were no traces of petrol found. If there is any contradictory report nothing cannot be said about it, my analysis was based on the witnesses account."

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/nanavati-commi...di/74309-3.html



According to the report, the vestibule between two coaches was cut by two men to pour 140 litres of petrol. Accused Hassan Lala threw burning rags into the coach to set it on fire and the coach was stoned from outside to prevent passengers from stepping out.

<b>The conspiracy was hatched at the house of Moulvi Umerji and executed by two men. Petrol was obtained from a petrol pump in Godhra a day before, says the Nanavati report..
</b>


http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story...%203:22:00%20PM



Nanavati commission gives clean chit to Modi



2008-09-25 14:56:48

Gujarat Global News Network, Gandhinagar

The Nanavati Commission set up to probe the burning of S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express and post Godhra riots has concluded that it was not an accident but a conspiracy. The commission set up by the state government has also given a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi and has categorically stated that there was no involvement of Modi or his any minister or officer in the post Godhra riots.

The report was tabled in the State Assembly today amidst protest from the opposition Congress which staged a walk out. The report states that there was heavy stone throwing for 10 to 20 minutes at the S-6 and S-7 coaches preventing people to come out. One Hasan Lalu had thrown burning rags at the coaches which led to the fire in which 56 people were killed.

According to the report the conspiracy to burn the coach number S-6 of the Sabarmati Express in which karsevakas were traveling was hatched by Maulvi Umarji along with six others. The plan was given shape at the Aman guest house where all of them stayed the whole night.

Two people- Razak Kurkur and Salim Panwala purchased 140 litres of petrol on February 26, 2002 and took them in containers. Besides these two Shaukat Lalu, Imran Sheri, Rafiq, Salim Zarda, Zabeer and Siraj Bala were involved in the burning of the train, the report says.

Justice Nanavati while giving clean chit to Modi and his government said that there was no evidence of involvement of Modi or any police officer in the post Godhra riots. On the contrary the state government had provided protection and relief to the affected people. There was no flaw in the implementation of the human rights commission laws, the report claims.

The two member inquiry commission was set up by the state government in 2002. After six years it has submitted its report. During the course one of the members Justice K G Shah expired and the government appointed retired Justice Akshay Mehta.

http://www.gujaratglobal.com/nextSub.php...atype=NEWS



Nanavati Commission report tabled in Gujarat Assembly: Burning of S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was planned conspiracy

Godhra Commission report gives clean chit to Modi


September 25, 2008 | 15:10 IST

The incident of burning S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, which triggered off violent riots in Gujarat, was a pre-planned conspiracy and not an accident, according to the first part of the Godhra Commission report.

The report was tabled in the Gujarat Assembly on Thursday.

The Gujarat Riots Homepage

The commission gave a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, stating that no evidence was found against him.

Protesting the findings of the report, the Opposition Congress staged a walkout from the assembly.

The two-member commission headed by Justice G T Nanavati was appointed by the Narendra Modi-led government after the riots.

The commission examined more than 1,000 witnesses during the period of six years.

Further details are awaited.
http://www.rediff.com///news/2008/sep/25modi.htm
Judicial inquiry ordered into Sabarmati Express attack

The Gujarat government has ordered a judicial inquiry into Wednesday's attack on passengers of Sabarmati Express train at Godhra station, Chief Minister Narendra Modi announced on Thursday.

The probe has been ordered under the Commission of Inquiry Act.

Modi said it would be wrong to give the tragedy a communal colour as it was a 'pre-planned attack'.

He termed the incident as 'unfortunate and shameful for the civil society' and said the deceased included a large number of women and children.

"The charred bodies which I saw at Godhra railway station testified the black deed of terrorism," Modi said.

He said the state government has taken the incident very seriously and would take strict action against the culprits and ensure that such incidents do not recur.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/feb/28train7.htm


Fifty-eight killed in attack on Sabarmati Express

At least 58 people, most of them kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya, were killed and 43 injured when miscreants attacked the Sabarmati Express and set afire four of its coaches at Godhra railway station in Gujarat on Wednesday.

Following the incident, large-scale violence and stabbings were reported from Godhra town, Ahmedabad and Baroda.

The dead included women and children, a senior railway official said.

When the train from Faizabad arrived at Godhra railway station at around 8.30 am (IST), the kar sevaks travelling on it and some locals on the platform started shouting slogans.

As the train started moving, someone pulled the emergency chain and it came to a halt near the signal point, where a mob attacked the coaches with petrol and acid bombs, setting them on fire, the official said.

Some passengers were trapped inside the coaches and burned to death, he said.

Mahant Devendradasji, the head priest of a temple in Ahmedabad, who was in the train, said: "A few people began stoning the train without any provocation. As a reaction, people inside the coaches downed shutters."

The mahant said the attackers numbered over 2,000.

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee appealed to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to postpone its plan for constructing a temple in Ayodhya. But the VHP said it had no authority to do so and was determined to go ahead with the construction as directed by religious leaders.

The outfit also called for a Gujarat bandh on Thursday to protest against the attack.

Indefinite curfew was clamped in Godhra immediately after the incident, as large-scale violence erupted. Police opened fire at many places to disperse rioting mobs.

In Ahmedabad, a bus was set afire by a mob in Bapunagar, while some passengers of a community were injured in an attack by a group of people, the police said.

In Baroda, one person was stabbed to death and five were injured after a mob attacked them at the waiting hall of Baroda railway station, the police said.

The governments of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal have sounded a high alert and instructed district authorities to ensure law and order in communally sensitive areas.

Among the injured in the attack on the train were 31 men, nine women and three children. Of them, 20 passengers who sustained serious burns were admitted to a hospital at Godhra.

One of the coaches of the 18-bogie train was completely gutted, official sources said.

The passengers stranded at Godhra were brought to Ahmedabad by state transport and private buses.

Two coaches were detached at the Godhra station, while the train with the rest of the coaches arrived at Ahmedabad, railway sources said.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi announced a probe into the incident and an ex- gratia of Rs 200,000 to the kin of those killed.

PTI

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/feb/27train2.htm
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[Shambhu]

Email intercepted by the Shambhu Psec Detecting Network



<b>Memorandum: </b>

New names to be added to the List of Rabid Hindoo Fundoos ™ maintained by the Teesta-Romilla Trust.

1. Justice GT Nanavati
2. Justice Akshay Mehta

cc: FOIL, Sabrang, SIMI, Kancha Ilaiah, Slobo Rajo, Cedric Prakash, Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Suhasini Haidar, Karan Thapar..[snip]

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->...maintained by the Teesta-Romilla Trust.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nice prediction Shambuji.. here's
Teesta getting testy here..
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"We can be hopeful that the Supreme Court will restrain the Chief Minister from the misuse of this report," she added.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Only Teesta has right to use/misuse reports. How dare anyone else?

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Insulting Justice Nanavati </b>
Pioneer.com
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Trashing a judicial report is not done
In rejecting the Justice GT Nanavati Commission report that inquired into the Sabarmati Express fire at Godhra and the violence that followed in Gujarat in February-March 2002, the Congress and its UPA allies, as also the Left, have acted with expected cussedness.<b> The Congress has described the report as a "murder of democracy". The CPI(M) has called it "piecemeal". Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has termed the report untrue and compared its findings with those of the Justice UC Banerjee Committee, set up as an in-house panel by the Ministry of Railways. The Banerjee report had concluded that the Godhra fire had begun inside compartment S-6 of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002</b>. The Nanavati report has, on the other hand, gone along with the findings of the police and eyewitness accounts that have held that the compartment was set on fire by a frenzied mob that had gathered on the platform and, in fact, attempted to set fire to other coaches as well. Without going into an analysis of the Nanavati report, it is worth commenting on the perverse responses it has drawn from those politically opposed to the Gujarat Chief Minister.

Not bothering to so much as study a report written by a former judge of the Supreme Court, not caring to go into specific arguments and pointing out logical inconsistencies or flaws, the Congress-UPA and Left leaderships have trashed Justice Nanavati's assessment. They have questioned the honesty and credibility of Justice Nanavati, but offered no reasons for doing so. Such hit-and-run tactics could be expected from the familiar bunch of left-liberal activists who have made a career of Gujarat bashing -- and who have, indeed, said that Justice Nanavati has not "inspired much confidence". That it comes from mainstream parties that are running the Union Government is alarming. Consider the hypocrisy<b>. The same Justice Nanavati inquired into the anti-Sikh violence following the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1984. On the basis of that Nanavati report, two Congress leaders, Mr Sajjan Kumar and Mr Jagadish Tytler, were put in the dock. Mr Tytler was even forced to resign from the Union Government</b>. The Congress accepted the report, as did the UPA allies and the Left. The cabal of professional civil rights activists hailed Justice Nanavati's dogged pursuit of the truth. In Delhi, he was a heroic judge; in Gujarat, he is an untrustworthy charlatan!

There was a time in India when a judicial Commission of Inquiry had a certain sanctity. It was left free of politics and its findings were debated, discussed, disputed and disagreed with -- but not debunked wholesale. Even Justice MC Jain's somewhat exaggerative study of the background conspiracy while going into Rajiv Gandhi's assassination was taken seriously enough for the Congress to withdraw support to the United Front Government and force the country into an election barely 18 months after the previous one. Today, for the same party to ridicule a judicial inquiry and refuse to point out specifically which sections it disagrees with, what evidence it feels has not been consulted and why it is flawed, is simply not on. The Congress-UPA and the Left cannot denounce and reject a report simply because it doesn't suit their political ends or doesn't deliver the verdict they would have wanted it to. Tomorrow the BJP-NDA could play this game; and Indian jurisprudence would be the poorer for it.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

<b>Modi wants apology on Godhra</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->AHMEDABAD: Those who had spread lies to save the killers of the Godhra train carnage should apologise, Chief Minister Narendra Modi said after part of the report of the Nanavati Commission which enquired into the Gujarat violence of 2002 was made public.

Modi said these people were now too ashamed to show their face. If they value truth and justice, they should apologise to the people of Gujarat, he said. He was speaking Thursday evening after dedicating the Pandit Deen Dayal Road at the Kankaria area.
..........


"The bogus secular forces were shouting hoarse against us. Yet we kept our silence in the hope that the truth will come out one day and the secular mask will be ripped off the faces of these men," Modi said.

He said the formation and empanelling of the judges was done under the direction of the Supreme Court and neither he nor his government had any role to play.

<b>"If you have any evidence against me or my ministers then come out with it," </b>Modi said, adding the Nanavati panel report had proved where the truth lay. He also said vote bank politics was being played over the Godhra issue.

<b>"When there is an authorised commission inquiring into the riots how can the Congress appoint the U.C. Banerjee Commission?" Modi asked adding Congress was more concerned with its vote bank politics. "They wanted 'behn' to be happy,'"</b> Modi said in an apparent reference to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

The U.C. Banerjee Commission had said the Godhra incident was an accident contrary to the first part of the Nanavati Commission report, tabled in the assembly Thursday, which said it was a pre-planned conspiracy and not an accident.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan today lashed out at social activists, particularly Teesta Setalvad

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan today lashed out at social activists, particularly Teesta Setalvad, for accusing the apex court of deliberately “delaying” trial in the Gujarat riot cases.</b>

“It is shameful… not in good taste,” Balakrishnan said, minutes after a bench, headed by the CJI, convened to hear the bail petitions of several Muslims who have been charged under the defunct anti-terror act (Pota) and are languishing in jail.

A section of the media had quoted Setalvad and other social activists as saying the cases were being “adjourned” repeatedly and shunted from one bench to another since 2004 to delay their hearing.

The Gujarat government has charged at least 89 people under the anti-terror act, although a committee reviewing the law had given them a clean chit. They have been behind bars ever since the apex court stayed their trial in 2003. The Supreme Court had said the stay would be vacated once it had taken a decision on transferring the case outside Gujarat. The decision is still pending.

The court specifically voiced its displeasure over remarks attributed to Setalvad, whose NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace, has been at the forefront of the fight for justice in the Gujarat riots cases.

“Who is this Teesta Setalvad? Is she a spokesperson of these persons or petitioners?” the bench asked. “If she is representing these persons (those seeking bail), we do not want to hear them.”

The lawyers for the bail seekers, Harish Salve and Colin Gonsalves, stepped in to pacify the judges. “You should treat it with contempt and ignore it,” Salve said.

The court then resumed hearing the bail petitions.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Lest Teesta and her gaggle accuse K G Balakrishna of being some 'Hindutva plant', let it be noted he's from Harijan community.

[Husky]

http://www.vigilonline.com/index.php?optio...ask=view&id=970
<b>SCORING AGAINST PAGANISM: Untangling the Manderweb</b>
- Krishen Kak

Article over 11 pages, starts with:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->“O what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive” – Walter Scott (Marmion, 6.532-533)

“But my how we improve the score, as we practise more and more”– John Henderson (http://www.billmon.org/)

<b>1. On representative characterisation</b>
On March 20, 2002, The Times of India published on its centrepage a piece titled ‘Hindustan Hamara’ that at once propelled its author Harsh Mander into the very front rank of our country’s conscience-keepers. Mr Mander’s claims about the communal violence that earlier that year had rocked Gujarat (after a Muslim mob incinerated 58 Hindu children, women and men in a train leaving Godhra station) acquired unimpeachable authority because he made them as a senior member of the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS), and ‘Hindustan Hamara’ was rapidly broadcast over the USA, the UK and the Darul Islam as an eye-witness account of the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat.

Mr Mander then himself personally followed his account to the West (expenses paid mainly by Islamic and Christian organisations) and waxed in choking eloquence—he imitates the manner of the late MK Gandhi - his ‘anguish’ for the Muslims (and Muslims only) who’d died. Subsequently, and more than once, he declared he’d resigned from the IAS on moral grounds, because of his ‘anguish’ at the communal violence, and to separate himself from an administration that he declared had sponsored the violence against Muslims. The national English-language Nehruvian-secular media made a hero of him, he was lionised especially on Muslim websites, Muslim organisations hosted and sponsored him all over the USA, and he publicly declared - over the BBC—his Muslimselective bias.

Figures in the thousands of Muslims killed were bandied about (even from a United Nations office in Delhi), together with the unrestrained use of words such as ‘pogrom’, ‘genocide’ and ‘communal fascism’, and the mainstream English-language media in India promoted Mr Mander as a man of conscience, principles, and secularism.

This polemical essay1 establishes that Mr Mander was and is none of the three. Mr Mander is a cynical, coldly calculating, amoral, self-aggrandizing careerist, consciously using and allowing himself to be used by anti-India and anti-Hindu forces. His country – the ‘Hindustan Hamara’ that he publicly declared no longer for him is pride of place – is merely an expedience to badmouth as he strives to seek further recognition from those parts of the world for which his heart beats and his pocket stretches – the USA, the UK, and the Darul Islam.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Rest can be read via the given link