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TERRORISM
The
Gujarat Way.
. .
By
Fr. CEDRIC PRAKASH SJ
GUJARAT STATE has done
it once again!
In a predawn “swoop”
on Sunday, 1st June, the City Police Commissioner O P Mathur, filed a
complaint against the Resident Editor of The Time of India,
Bharat Desai, a Correspondent, Prashant Dayal and a Photographer
(actually, the photographer named is Gautam Mehta who is currently
with the Gujarat Samachar and not with The Times of India).
According to Mathur,
the persons named had committed offences under Sections 124A
(Sedition), 120B (Criminal Conspiracy), and 34 (Common Intent) of the
IPC.
What The Times of
India (TOI) did, was to publish a series of articles beginning May
28th, with serious questions raised on the newly appointed Police
Commissioner of Ahmedabad. The first article entitled ‘How can
Ahmedabad be safe in his hands?’ raised a key question as to whether,
as the head of the Latif squad, Mathur was actually “on the don’s
payroll”. It also highlighted the fact that during his stint as DGP,
CID (Crime and Jails) and somebody in charge of the Sabarmati Jail,
mobile phones and SIM cards were freely used by hardcore criminals in
the jail premises calls made to Pakistan.
In a second article
entitled ‘OPM high A'bad can do without’ the TOI brought to the
attention of its readers, a case registered against Mathur for
attempting sexual harassment and issuing threats to a woman lawyer.
Another article alongside, emphasized the fact that inspite of being
the head of the Latif squad in 1992, he did not go to arrest Latif in
Ahmedabad.
The final article
entitled ‘Crooked path to the crown’ very emphatically states that O.
P. Mathur got the position of Police Commissioner of Ahmedabad, as a
reward for botching up the probe into the fake encounter of
Sohrabuddin, a close associate of mafia don Latif. The "dead"
Sohrabuddin grabbed national headlines when senior IPS officers were
arrested and are still in jail for killing him in a fake encounter
apparently because "he was in Gujarat to kill the CM" !. Most human
rights activists and other civil society members found it hard to
believe that an extortionist like Sohrabuddin would want to kill the
CM ! When the truth was finally revealed, an important CD which
apparently had telephone records of top ranking BJP politicians of the
State, went missing. This CD went missing when it was in Mathur's
custody and it apparently provided the confidence, according to the
TOI, to the Gujarat Government to admit in an affidavit to the Supreme
Court "that the Sohrabuddin encounter was fake and that is why
Kauserbi was also killed by the same policemen".
This final story
seemed to be the last nail in the coffin of Mathur. On the same day
(May 30th), the Times of India conducted among its readers, a high
profile survey "Do you want O.P. Mathur to continue as Commissioner of
Police, Ahmedabad ?". The response, when it was published next day had
an overwhelming 98% of the respondents saying that "he had to be shown
the door", whilst just 2% said "no". With his back to the wall, the
Commissioner then filed the complaint of Sedition" and "Conspiracy
against the State".
Human Rights
Activists, media personnel, intellectuals and others from all walks of
life have come out openly to protest against the charges made by the
Commissioner. Several questions are being raised:
Ø
Does the media
have the responsibility of revealing the Truth to the public?
Ø
Does the State /
Administration have the right to gag the media, to suppress the
Constitutional Right of the Freedom of Speech and Expression?
Ø
How does raking up
the muck of the Police Commissioner’s past (and apparently of his
“dubious” links), give him an opportunity to file charges as serious
as Sedition and Conspiracy against the State?
Ø
Is the Police
Commissioner ‘The State’?
What Gujarat
experiences today is yet another “milestone” in the emergence of a
fascist State. The nexus between the politicians and the police in the
Gujarat Carnage was very evident. When Dalits, Adivasis and Minorities
are bashed up by the right-wing Hindu elements, practically no cases
are allowed to be filed against the perpetrators. When the media,
which is an indispensable pillar of democracy, stands up for the
Truth, every attempt is made to muzzle its voice. If this is not
terrorism, what is?
Civil society in
Gujarat has allowed too much to happen in too short a period of time.
It has to come out loud and strong to stop those who are responsible
for such acts of “terrorism”.
Fr. Cedric Prakash sj is the Director of “Prashant”,
the Ahmedabad-based Jesuit Centre for Human Rights, Justice and
Peace. The views expressed in this article are strictly of the
author’s and not of THE VERDICT and The Independent Media of
India.
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