10-03-2006, 06:39 PM
from email
The credibility of Teesta Setalwad of the Citizens for Justice & Peace and members of the CJP as regards their honesty, integrity and sense for justice is very low.
In justification of my statement I submit as follows:
(a)Teesta Setalvad's magazine " Communalism Combat " has very small circulation. The magazine is not visible in public libraries and stalls in public places. The NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace has miniscule membership; it has not held any public meetings with large attendance; it holds, perhaps, only closed door meetings.There are doubts and suspicion regarding the sources of the huge funds required for activities of Teesta setalvad and her NGO,CJP.
(b)Teesta Setalwad had joined Asghar Ali Engineer and Archbishop Evan Dias in blaming Hindutvavadi leaders, the BJP, the RSS etcetera in the St. Michael's Church at Mahim on a Sunday, according to news in the Times of India of Sunday October 18, 1998 in the wake of rape of 3 nuns on September 22, 1998 in Zabua in Madhya Pradesh. Later on after the investigation it was found that the rapists were a gang, which included 12 Christians and a congressman, but no RSS men as alleged.
The criminals are undergoing imprisonment now but Teesta Setalvad has no courtesy to apologise for making false allegation and maligning Hindu organisations. Teesta Setalvad is not a Christian and had no routine business to go to the church with Asghar Ali Engineer, another Muslim. The October 1998 issue of "Communal Combat", edited by Teesta Setalvad has given news about the rape and blamed the Hindu organization for that. It is curious and very much suggestive that the concerned article about the incident is missing from the archives of the magazine and is not sent to me by e-mail as promised by concerned authorities of the magazine, despite reminder.
The rape incident was used in subsequent elections in MP, Rajasthan and Delhi to malign Hindu organizations and the BJP. Christian schools had declared "bandh" in Mumbai and a Morcha of School children from Don Bosco school was taken. One should think whether school children should be used to protest rape. After the police investigation was completed and the Christian rapists were arrested, the media ignored the news about the rapists completely. This one incident, alone, is a concrete proof to show that Teesta Setalvad is an anti-Hindu activist and an anti-BJP politician and not a human rights activist as claimed.
( c )Teesta Setalvad wrote a book for teachers of the Don Bosco School, Borivli, Mumbai, and circulated it in the school, in which she criticized Shivaji Maharaj in many ways and referred to his caste. This was in September 2001.The fact is that Shivaji Maharaj is known and highly revered throughout the country and particularly in Maharashtra for fighting Moghal ruler, Aurangzeb, who had imposed Jiziya tax only on Hindus, and not for his cast. As a result, teachers and parents of the school children protested and the school authorities had to withdraw the controversial book intended to poison the minds of young children to fulfil her heinous design. Astonishingly, Teesta Setalvad had not got the names of the publishers and the printers of the book printed on the book to escape from the clutches of the law. Teesta had not taken permission of the education department to publish the book. Unfortunately no NGO came forward to take Teesta Setalvad to task for violating rules.
( d )In the article, THE POLITICS OF TEXTBOOK( the Times of India â 24-10-1999), Teesta Setalvad is reported to have said: "Textbooks in Gujarat call Muslims, Christians and Parsis foreigners. They detail the ills of Christianity, the greed of the Pope and the sensual pleasures enjoyed by the Catholic clergy." All the above allegations of Teesta Setalvad are false.
<b>( e ) When Laloo Prasad Yadav ordered an enquiry into the burning of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra, and when contacted by the ToI, Teesta Setalwad of Citizens for Justice and Peace said, "The railway ministry had earlier abdicated its responsibility of independently investigating the incident which was warranted under the Railways Act." She stated that this inquiry was "long overdue". (ToI- 3-9-2004). According to the article, "Godhra probe:Lalu is wrong", by Arabinda Ghose in the weekly Organiser( 26-9-2004), it is clear that the probe ordered by the railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was illegal and politically motivated.
One term of reference is to find our whether the karsevaks were traveling without ticket. This type of enquiry is never made,when accidents take place. The fact is that Laloo announced an enquiry into the train burning with a view to showing that the victims had burned themselves. Laloo and the media were trying to impress upon the people that since petrol was poured from inside the compartment and fire started from inside, the Karsevaks burned themselves. These persons do not realize that a few outsiders out of the mob of 2000 rioters could force their entry into the compartment and do the misdeed.
( f ) Teesta Setalvad,Javed Akhtar,Alec Padamsee,Anil Dharker and the NGO Citizens for Peace and Justice met relatives of those killed in the coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express on 27 February 2002 after 20 months on 5-10-2003, pretended that they were the victims' sympathizers, brought them to Mumbai, arranged a press conference in Mumbai and provoked them to speak against the BJP, the VHP and other Hindu organizations and yatras organized by these organisations. The Godhra victims were also used to demand ban on future Yatras in general and the proposed Yatra of March 15, 2003 to Ayodhya, in particular by Hindu organizations.
That the yatra turned out to be peaceful proved that Teesta Setalvad's demand was just an attempt to malign Hindu organization.
In an appeal to UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and Dy. Prime Minister L.K. Advani, the CJP demanded ban on the October 15 Ratha Yatra alleging outbreak of communal violence and insecurity among the minority community ( FPJ â 14-10-2003).
It must be noted that the VHP Yatra was very peaceful, despite provocation by organizations like the CJP. The ToI reported it as "flop".
( g )Teesta Setalvad and her NGO, CJP were using the Gujarat riots to spew venom against the RSS, the VHP and the BJP by using a section of the media in their favour, though it is reported that some Congressmen, the ISI of Pakistan and some Islamic fundamentalists were also involved in the riots. This is clear from a few of the following news reports:
( h )The Godhra train carnage on February 27, 2002 was an " act of terrorism planned at the behest of Pakistan to foment communal riots all over the country", according to a study report. The study, conducted by a five-member team led by Justice D S Tewatia, former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, for the Council of International Affairs and Human rights, released in New Delhi described the Godhra incident as an act of international terrorism planned and executed in connivance with the jehadi forces. Haji Bilal, Mohammad Husain Abdul Rahim Kalota and a few more Congresmen were involved in the plan to burn the Sabarmati Express at Godhra ( FPJ- 27-4-2002, Navabharat, Hindi daily- 30-5-2002, Loksatta-27-4-2002).
( ii )According to Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind most Congress corporators actively participated in the riots. JUH secretary Farooqi has a list of 25 Congress leaders
from Gujarat which included former Congress minister, a sitting MLA and a former MP. Farroqi acused Congress workers of committing sins of commission and omission during the riots.( ToI â 10-8-2003).
( iii )Teesta Setalvad herself had said in March 2002 that in the attack on former MP Ehsan Jaffery's house, a Congress member was among the mob ( FPJ â 30-3-2002).
(iv) The fact that Congress governments in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Punjab refused to send police force to Gujarat, to control riots, though the Gijarat government was ready to spend full money for their deployment, shows that the congress was not interested in curbing the riots, but was interested only in making a political capital out of riots.
( i ) According to the editorial in the Free Press Journal Teesta Setalvad had come to access crores of rupees in the 1998 general election. In the editorial of the Free Press Journal dated November 5, 2004 again a reference to the suspicious sources of funding for multi-crore advertisements against the BJP in newspapers is made pointing out a finger to Teesta Setalvad.
( j ) Teesta Setalwad approached DCP, G.D.Pol in zone 5, Dadar, Mumbai and asked him to file FIR against VHP general secretary Praveen Togadia under sections 153A, 153B, 295A,298 and 505 for his alleged inflammatory speech at a meeting of the Rashtriya Vichar Manch at Nardulla Tank Maidan on March 16. ( ToI- 14-5-2003 ). The speech was not as alleged by Teesta and no untoward incidents took place after the speech.
( k ) Javed Akhtar and Alyque Padamsee and Vijay Tendulkar, all members of the CJP had congratulated Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan, through a letter (IE-May 10,2003), for banning trishul and not allowing Togadia to enter Rajasthan though Court had allowed him to enter. According to a news (ToI- May 9, 2003), Additional district and sessions judge Ajay Kumar Jain, trident is not a weapon; and so he granted anticipatory bail to VHP activists accused of displaying trishuls, banned in Rajasthan under Arms Act.
Thus the venom spit by above members of the CJP is an attempt to malign Hindus, their leaders and their organizations. It must be noted that these persons had never criticized " Lathi rally" of Laloo Prasad Yadav in Bihar. (12-5-3-Indian Express ), the rally with bows and arrows of more than 1000 activists of Communist
Party of India (Maoists) in Kolkata ( FPJ- 16-12-2004) and rifle rallies of Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh.</b>
( l )Alyque Padamsee, an activist of the CJP, had said recently that he does not know Mumbai, but knows Bombay. He has no objection for renaming Calcutta as Kolkata, Madras as Chennai and Trivendram as Thiruanathapuram.
( m ) Vijay Tendulkar, an activist of the CJP, had said at a speech in Pune and then in Dapoli in Maharashtra in November 2003, that if he is given a gun, he would shoot Narendra Modi. This reveals the bonafides of the organization CJP.
(n) At a press conference in Mumbai in February 2004, Asghar Ali Engineer, member of the NGO, Citizens for Defending Constitutional Democracy and Secularism, at a press conference, said in Mumbai " BJP has polarized the country and came to power by attacking minorities, secularism and Indian pluralism" ( FPJ â February 26, 2004). All such utterances of members of the CJP reveal that it is an anti-Hindu, anti-BJP organization.
( o ) One can have freedom to have his views and have an organization, but to form an organization and pretend that it is citizen's organization, a non-political and that also for peace and justice is certainly deception and cheating. I am to add that this organization is not registered under any act and its membership is not open for citizens though the word "citizen" is therein. I allege that it does not have any Constitution of its own. I pray the Supreme Court to take this into consideration and decide the bonafides of the organization " Citizens for Justice and Peace".
The credibility of Teesta Setalwad of the Citizens for Justice & Peace and members of the CJP as regards their honesty, integrity and sense for justice is very low.
In justification of my statement I submit as follows:
(a)Teesta Setalvad's magazine " Communalism Combat " has very small circulation. The magazine is not visible in public libraries and stalls in public places. The NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace has miniscule membership; it has not held any public meetings with large attendance; it holds, perhaps, only closed door meetings.There are doubts and suspicion regarding the sources of the huge funds required for activities of Teesta setalvad and her NGO,CJP.
(b)Teesta Setalwad had joined Asghar Ali Engineer and Archbishop Evan Dias in blaming Hindutvavadi leaders, the BJP, the RSS etcetera in the St. Michael's Church at Mahim on a Sunday, according to news in the Times of India of Sunday October 18, 1998 in the wake of rape of 3 nuns on September 22, 1998 in Zabua in Madhya Pradesh. Later on after the investigation it was found that the rapists were a gang, which included 12 Christians and a congressman, but no RSS men as alleged.
The criminals are undergoing imprisonment now but Teesta Setalvad has no courtesy to apologise for making false allegation and maligning Hindu organisations. Teesta Setalvad is not a Christian and had no routine business to go to the church with Asghar Ali Engineer, another Muslim. The October 1998 issue of "Communal Combat", edited by Teesta Setalvad has given news about the rape and blamed the Hindu organization for that. It is curious and very much suggestive that the concerned article about the incident is missing from the archives of the magazine and is not sent to me by e-mail as promised by concerned authorities of the magazine, despite reminder.
The rape incident was used in subsequent elections in MP, Rajasthan and Delhi to malign Hindu organizations and the BJP. Christian schools had declared "bandh" in Mumbai and a Morcha of School children from Don Bosco school was taken. One should think whether school children should be used to protest rape. After the police investigation was completed and the Christian rapists were arrested, the media ignored the news about the rapists completely. This one incident, alone, is a concrete proof to show that Teesta Setalvad is an anti-Hindu activist and an anti-BJP politician and not a human rights activist as claimed.
( c )Teesta Setalvad wrote a book for teachers of the Don Bosco School, Borivli, Mumbai, and circulated it in the school, in which she criticized Shivaji Maharaj in many ways and referred to his caste. This was in September 2001.The fact is that Shivaji Maharaj is known and highly revered throughout the country and particularly in Maharashtra for fighting Moghal ruler, Aurangzeb, who had imposed Jiziya tax only on Hindus, and not for his cast. As a result, teachers and parents of the school children protested and the school authorities had to withdraw the controversial book intended to poison the minds of young children to fulfil her heinous design. Astonishingly, Teesta Setalvad had not got the names of the publishers and the printers of the book printed on the book to escape from the clutches of the law. Teesta had not taken permission of the education department to publish the book. Unfortunately no NGO came forward to take Teesta Setalvad to task for violating rules.
( d )In the article, THE POLITICS OF TEXTBOOK( the Times of India â 24-10-1999), Teesta Setalvad is reported to have said: "Textbooks in Gujarat call Muslims, Christians and Parsis foreigners. They detail the ills of Christianity, the greed of the Pope and the sensual pleasures enjoyed by the Catholic clergy." All the above allegations of Teesta Setalvad are false.
<b>( e ) When Laloo Prasad Yadav ordered an enquiry into the burning of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra, and when contacted by the ToI, Teesta Setalwad of Citizens for Justice and Peace said, "The railway ministry had earlier abdicated its responsibility of independently investigating the incident which was warranted under the Railways Act." She stated that this inquiry was "long overdue". (ToI- 3-9-2004). According to the article, "Godhra probe:Lalu is wrong", by Arabinda Ghose in the weekly Organiser( 26-9-2004), it is clear that the probe ordered by the railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was illegal and politically motivated.
One term of reference is to find our whether the karsevaks were traveling without ticket. This type of enquiry is never made,when accidents take place. The fact is that Laloo announced an enquiry into the train burning with a view to showing that the victims had burned themselves. Laloo and the media were trying to impress upon the people that since petrol was poured from inside the compartment and fire started from inside, the Karsevaks burned themselves. These persons do not realize that a few outsiders out of the mob of 2000 rioters could force their entry into the compartment and do the misdeed.
( f ) Teesta Setalvad,Javed Akhtar,Alec Padamsee,Anil Dharker and the NGO Citizens for Peace and Justice met relatives of those killed in the coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express on 27 February 2002 after 20 months on 5-10-2003, pretended that they were the victims' sympathizers, brought them to Mumbai, arranged a press conference in Mumbai and provoked them to speak against the BJP, the VHP and other Hindu organizations and yatras organized by these organisations. The Godhra victims were also used to demand ban on future Yatras in general and the proposed Yatra of March 15, 2003 to Ayodhya, in particular by Hindu organizations.
That the yatra turned out to be peaceful proved that Teesta Setalvad's demand was just an attempt to malign Hindu organization.
In an appeal to UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and Dy. Prime Minister L.K. Advani, the CJP demanded ban on the October 15 Ratha Yatra alleging outbreak of communal violence and insecurity among the minority community ( FPJ â 14-10-2003).
It must be noted that the VHP Yatra was very peaceful, despite provocation by organizations like the CJP. The ToI reported it as "flop".
( g )Teesta Setalvad and her NGO, CJP were using the Gujarat riots to spew venom against the RSS, the VHP and the BJP by using a section of the media in their favour, though it is reported that some Congressmen, the ISI of Pakistan and some Islamic fundamentalists were also involved in the riots. This is clear from a few of the following news reports:
( h )The Godhra train carnage on February 27, 2002 was an " act of terrorism planned at the behest of Pakistan to foment communal riots all over the country", according to a study report. The study, conducted by a five-member team led by Justice D S Tewatia, former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, for the Council of International Affairs and Human rights, released in New Delhi described the Godhra incident as an act of international terrorism planned and executed in connivance with the jehadi forces. Haji Bilal, Mohammad Husain Abdul Rahim Kalota and a few more Congresmen were involved in the plan to burn the Sabarmati Express at Godhra ( FPJ- 27-4-2002, Navabharat, Hindi daily- 30-5-2002, Loksatta-27-4-2002).
( ii )According to Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind most Congress corporators actively participated in the riots. JUH secretary Farooqi has a list of 25 Congress leaders
from Gujarat which included former Congress minister, a sitting MLA and a former MP. Farroqi acused Congress workers of committing sins of commission and omission during the riots.( ToI â 10-8-2003).
( iii )Teesta Setalvad herself had said in March 2002 that in the attack on former MP Ehsan Jaffery's house, a Congress member was among the mob ( FPJ â 30-3-2002).
(iv) The fact that Congress governments in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Punjab refused to send police force to Gujarat, to control riots, though the Gijarat government was ready to spend full money for their deployment, shows that the congress was not interested in curbing the riots, but was interested only in making a political capital out of riots.
( i ) According to the editorial in the Free Press Journal Teesta Setalvad had come to access crores of rupees in the 1998 general election. In the editorial of the Free Press Journal dated November 5, 2004 again a reference to the suspicious sources of funding for multi-crore advertisements against the BJP in newspapers is made pointing out a finger to Teesta Setalvad.
( j ) Teesta Setalwad approached DCP, G.D.Pol in zone 5, Dadar, Mumbai and asked him to file FIR against VHP general secretary Praveen Togadia under sections 153A, 153B, 295A,298 and 505 for his alleged inflammatory speech at a meeting of the Rashtriya Vichar Manch at Nardulla Tank Maidan on March 16. ( ToI- 14-5-2003 ). The speech was not as alleged by Teesta and no untoward incidents took place after the speech.
( k ) Javed Akhtar and Alyque Padamsee and Vijay Tendulkar, all members of the CJP had congratulated Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan, through a letter (IE-May 10,2003), for banning trishul and not allowing Togadia to enter Rajasthan though Court had allowed him to enter. According to a news (ToI- May 9, 2003), Additional district and sessions judge Ajay Kumar Jain, trident is not a weapon; and so he granted anticipatory bail to VHP activists accused of displaying trishuls, banned in Rajasthan under Arms Act.
Thus the venom spit by above members of the CJP is an attempt to malign Hindus, their leaders and their organizations. It must be noted that these persons had never criticized " Lathi rally" of Laloo Prasad Yadav in Bihar. (12-5-3-Indian Express ), the rally with bows and arrows of more than 1000 activists of Communist
Party of India (Maoists) in Kolkata ( FPJ- 16-12-2004) and rifle rallies of Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh.</b>
( l )Alyque Padamsee, an activist of the CJP, had said recently that he does not know Mumbai, but knows Bombay. He has no objection for renaming Calcutta as Kolkata, Madras as Chennai and Trivendram as Thiruanathapuram.
( m ) Vijay Tendulkar, an activist of the CJP, had said at a speech in Pune and then in Dapoli in Maharashtra in November 2003, that if he is given a gun, he would shoot Narendra Modi. This reveals the bonafides of the organization CJP.
(n) At a press conference in Mumbai in February 2004, Asghar Ali Engineer, member of the NGO, Citizens for Defending Constitutional Democracy and Secularism, at a press conference, said in Mumbai " BJP has polarized the country and came to power by attacking minorities, secularism and Indian pluralism" ( FPJ â February 26, 2004). All such utterances of members of the CJP reveal that it is an anti-Hindu, anti-BJP organization.
( o ) One can have freedom to have his views and have an organization, but to form an organization and pretend that it is citizen's organization, a non-political and that also for peace and justice is certainly deception and cheating. I am to add that this organization is not registered under any act and its membership is not open for citizens though the word "citizen" is therein. I allege that it does not have any Constitution of its own. I pray the Supreme Court to take this into consideration and decide the bonafides of the organization " Citizens for Justice and Peace".