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IMC-USA Weekly News Digest - December 7th, 2009

In this issue

Announcements

Communal Harmony

News Headlines

Opinions & Editorials

Announcements

Indian American Muslim group demands immediate civil and criminal action against all accused in the Liberhan Report

Washington D.C.,
December 6, 2009

Indian Muslim Council-USA (http://www.imc-usa.org/),
an advocacy group dedicated towards safeguarding India's pluralist and
tolerant ethos, demands the Indian government to bring the criminals to
justice involved in the demolition of the 16th century Babri Mosque in
the city of Ayodhya in the State of Uttar Pradesh, India as identified
in the Report of the Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry that was
released recently.

Indian Muslim Council-USA further demands that the Indian government
honor the promise given by the former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao to
re-build the mosque on its original site.

On December 6th, 1992 defying the orders of the Supreme Court of
India and their own promise to the nation, the Hindutva fascist forces
demolished the historic Babri Mosque in northern Indian state of Uttar
Pradesh. This 16th century Muslim place of worship was destroyed by a
frenzied mob of kar-sevaks in spite of assurances from the Hindutva
Leaders and the State Administration officials that only symbolic
prayers will be performed and that the structure of the Babri Mosque
will be safe.

The Liberhan Commission appointed by the
Indian government to investigate the destruction of the Babri Mosque
submitted the report earlier this year that took more than 16 years of
proceedings and recording statements of politicians, bureaucrats and
police officials. Led by Indian Supreme Court Judge M S Liberhan the
commission key identified individuals and organizations who played a
direct role in planning what the commission termed as a "joint common
enterprise" that lead to the destruction of the Babri Mosque.

"The Liberhan report is another testimony to the sad state of
communal affairs in India and a clear verdict on deep seated resistance
towards speaking the truth" said Rasheed Ahmed National President of
IMC-USA. Ahmed further stated that "It took 17 years to document the
two obvious facts, first that the demolition of the Babri Masjid was a
premeditated criminal act by Hindutva leaders and second that BJP is
simply a means for RSS to impose fascist regime in India"

Liberhan Commission named 68 individuals as the leading planners and
participants directly or indirectly involved in the destruction of the
Babri Mosque. Most of the perpetrators listed in the Commission report
are associated with Hindutva-fascist groups such as the RSS, VHP and
Bajrang Dal, all of whom are closely allied with the political
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP, in alliance with several other
parties, was in power from 1998 to 2004. These religious extremist
groups garner significant support from Non-Resident Indians living in
the United States.

Dr. Hyder Khan, National Vice President
of IMC-USA said that "I am hopeful that current leadership in India
will take moral and bold decisions to check the criminalization of
politics through regional tribunals as proposed by the Liberhan
Commission and not allow the Hindutva extremist groups propagate
intolerant agenda and sectarianism"

After 17 years the Muslims of India who still feel aggrieved at the
criminal destruction of the mosque demand that Indian Government
immediately initiate criminal and civil action against all accused in
the Liberhan Report and that all politicians, individuals, and
organizations involved in the crime are prosecuted to the full extent
of the law.

Indian Muslim Council-USA is the largest advocacy organization of
Indian Muslims in the United States with 10 chapters across the nation.

Contact:
Dr. Hyder Khan
Tel: 1-800-839-7270
E-Mail: info@imc-usa.org

References::

Complete Liberhan Commission Report
http://imc-usa.org/reports/liberhan.comission.report.inquiring.destruction.babri.masjid.ayodhya.dec.6th.1992.htm

For History, Chronology of events including pictures and video related to Babri Masjid demolition
http://babrimasjid.info/

Babri Masjid demolition was planned: Liberhan
http://www.hindu.com/2009/11/25/stories/2009112558130100.htm

Kalyan govt executed demolition plan: Liberhan Commission
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5265687.cms

Searing indictment of RSS, BJP, but action to be taken: nothing
http://www.hindu.com/2009/11/25/stories/2009112560941000.htm

Liberhan Commission submits Babri Masjid demolition report to PM
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=adcbd5f4-88fd-4ced-b50b-83fbe32e1f37

Vajpayee, Advani brought India to brink of communal discord
http://www.centralchronicle.com/viewnews.asp?articleID=20190

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Communal Harmony

Hindu-Muslim march to promote peace on Babri demolition day (Dec 4, 2009, Indian Express)

Several Hindu and Muslim groups have decided to take out a march on
the 17th anniversary of demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6 to
promote peace and communal harmony, even as many political parties will
be observing the day as "dhikkar" and "kalank" diwas. "With a message
of peace and communal harmony we will start Karwan-e-Aman from Ayodhya
to Ajmer Shareef on December 6 to promote Hindu Muslim unity and
secularism in the country," national president of All India United
Muslim Morcha (AIUMM) M A Siddiqui said.

The march would be
taken out jointly by organisations like AIUMM, Asha Pariwar, an
organisation of Magsaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey, Ayodhya Ki Awaaz,
Vishwa Yuva Sadbhawana Parishad and Mumbai-based Centre for Study of
Society and Secularism, he said. "The basic objective behind organising
the march is to give a message to the people that this is the right
time to move ahead and think about bigger issues like development,"
Siddiqui said.

He said the march which will start from Ayodhya
on December 6 and would reach Lucknow the same day, where a social
harmony conference will be organised. "Later in the day a candle
procession will be taken out against communalism," he said. The march
will culminate at Ajmer Shareef on December 12, where an all religion
prayer will be organised. "At Ajmer Shareef, we will pray for peace and
unity in the country and offer 'chadar' at dargah," Siddiqui said.

The
newly formed front also demanded from the Centre to hold hearing on
Ayodhya issue on lines of fast track court. "An early decision should
be given on this issue and it should be complied by all the parties
involved," he said. Politics of religion and hatred should be put to an
end and this could be done by a decision of the court on the sensitive
Ayodhya dispute, he said.

"Raking up the issue only for
political gain is not justified as it poses a serious threat to unity
and harmony of the country. It should be put to an end," the AIUMM
president demanded. While Samajwadi Party had announced to observe
"Kala diwas", some Hindu organisations will be observing "Shaurya" on
December 6.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/549974/

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Communal harmony rules on Bakr-Eid (Nov 29, 2009, Times of India)

The occasion of Eid-ul-Zuha on Saturday brought with it message of
communal harmony with people from every community greeting Muslims
after the morning namaz in Shahjahani Masjid at the dargah of Khwaja
Garib Nawaz Chishti. A large crowd thronged the Dargah Bazaar with
people busy buying new clothes and gifts.

The Jannati Darwaza
in the dargah of Khwaja Garib Nawaz Chishti was opened for the devotees
for a day. Thousands of devotees queued up since early morning. "When
the people came out from the dargah, we greeted them. It was like we
were also a part of their celebrations," said Ramesh Patni, secretary
of Dhan Mandi of Dargah Bazaar Association.

"I got idi' from my
grandfather and want to buy some ornaments for myself and my mother,"
said Shana Bano of Langar Khana Gali. The khadim community could be
seen greeting each other wearing white sherwanis and pyjamas. In the
Idgah of Sabzi Mandi social and political leaders greeted the Muslims.
"It is really a moment of joy when Muslims include us in their
festivals" said Daljeet Singh, a BJP leader.

The devotees
brought their goats for Qurbani' (sacrifice. "I feel sad that my Gattu
(goat) will be sacrificed. I cared for him as my own son for several
months," said Sayra Begum of Anderkot. In the evening there was a feast
and people from different communities along with their Muslim friends
enjoyed the dinner. "The speciality of the day is that the meat
preparation is delicious and Ajmer has its own taste. Every year, I
wait for this day to have a special treat of non-veg," said Rajesh
Kumar, a businessman in Naya Bazaar.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5280457.cms

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News Headlines

Muslim leaders seek stern action (Dec 6, 2009, Indian Express)

Muslim leaders have demanded "stern action" against those named in
the Liberhan Commission report besides implementation of the report of
the Srikrishna Commission set up following the 1992-'93 riots in
Mumbai. "Stern action should be taken against those who have been named
by the Liberhan Commission," said Congress spokesperson and former
minister Husain Dalwai on the eve of the Babri demolition anniversary.

Attacking
senior BJP leaders named in the report for claiming that they were not
involved in the demolition, Dalwai alleged that the Ram Janmabhoomi
movement was organised to demolish the mosque. "It is necessary to
implement the Srikrishna Commission report," said Dalwai, adding that
police officers against whom strictures had been passed by the
commission had been promoted later. He said the issue needed to be
settled and the communal divide in the country needed to be bridged by
erecting a temple and a masjid at the site in Ayodhya.

Samajwadi
Party (SP) MLA Abu Asim Azmi termed the statements of the government
regarding the Liberhan and Srikrishna Commission reports as an "eye
wash" and said justice needed to delivered speedily. "What action has
been taken after it?" questioned Azmi, pointing to the report of the
commission set up under Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan submitting its
report 17 years after it had been set up. He also sought that the
masjid be rebuilt at the same spot.

Accusing the government of
lacking "will power," Azmi, who was arrested for allegedly booking
tickets for people involved in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts that
occurred after the demolitions, but subsequently discharged by the apex
court, said the masterminds behind the demolition needed to be
punished. "Those who masterminded the demolition of the Babri Masjid
have not been punished," said Azmi, pointing out that such incidents
led to "outside forces" trying to brainwash youth from the minority
community that they would not get justice in the country.

Former
Congress minister Anis Ahmed too pointed out that the Liberhan report
had held BJP leaders responsible for the demolition, and called for
action against those indicted. "The guilty should be punished," he
said, ruing that people only got empty assurances in return.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/550555/

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Babri anniversary passes off peacefully amid tight security (Dec 6, 2009, Times of India)

The 17th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition on Sunday passed
off peacefully amid tight security with various groups demanding that
recommendations of the Liberhan Commission report be implemented while
others raised questions over the findings. Under directions from the
Union home ministry, Uttar Pradesh and other state governments beefed
up security and Ayodhya-Faizabad area was converted into a virtual
fortress.

While the VHP observed the day as "Shourya Diwas
(valour day)", Samajwadi Party marked it as "Kala Diwas (black day)".
All India Babri Masjid Action Committee held special prayers for peace
and harmony. In Ayodhya, Central forces along with 500 personnel of
PAC, 200 jawans of Rapid Action Force, bomb detection squads and
anti-sabotage teams were deployed. CCTV cameras were in operation at
the disputed site with the authorities banning public gatherings and
security forces keeping a close vigil on the Saryu river in Ayodhya,
officials said.

There was no untoward incident in Ayodhya, they
said. The authorities were extra careful this time as the atmosphere
has become surcharged with the Liberhan report indicting senior BJP
leaders including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Murli Manohar
Joshi in connection with the demolition. The report, tabled in
Parliament, however, exonerated then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao.

The
report was in focus at various functions and demonstrations held in
Delhi, with All India Babri Masjid Rebuilding Committee (AIBMRC) and
the Popular Front of India, a confederation of Muslim groups, demanding
legal action against those indicted by the commission and scrapping of
the recognition of BJP by the EC.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5307921.cms

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Two-year jail for 6 in Bhagalpur riots case (Dec 2, 2009, The Hindu)

A court in Bihar sentenced six persons accused in a case of murder
during the 1989 communal riots in Bhagalpur to two years' rigorous
imprisonment after convicting them of involvement in the crime, court
sources said Tuesday.

Bhagalpur Additional District and Sessions
judge Anil Kumar Pandey acquitted the six of charges of murdering a
Muslim man during the riots but found them guilty of involvement in the
crime.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/02/stories/2009120258690300.htm

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Goa bombers had 3 successful dry runs, botched up actual strike (Dec 6, 2009, Indian Express)

Less than two months before they allegedly set out to explode bombs
at Diwali celebrations in Goa on October 16, the Sanatan Sanstha
members - who were killed when one of the bombs went off prematurely -
and their accomplices are believed to have conducted at least three
successful trial runs in Goa and Maharashtra. Goa Police have disclosed
this in their application to a local court opposing the bail plea of
Dilip Mangaonkar, the fourth man in their custody in connection with
the blast. Mangaonkar has been named as a conspirator and is alleged to
have been present during the trial runs.

The application says
that two trials were held on August 25 and 26 on a hillock in Talaulim
in Ponda taluka in South Goa where Mangaonkar was present. "There were
eight people during the trial run including Malgounda Patil and Yogesh
Naik, who died in the Margao blast," a senior police officer said.
"Engineering student Dhananjay Ashtekar and Vinay Talekar, who planted
the bomb in a truck in Sancaole, was also present." A third trial was
conducted a month later in Malgounda's home district of Sangli in
Western Maharashtra, investigators said. "The trial was conducted in a
forest area in Sangli district near the Maharashtra-Karnataka border.
Ashtekar was present here as well," the officer said.

Malgounda
Patil and Yogesh Naik, members of extremist Hindu outfit Sanatan
Sanstha, were killed when a bomb they were alleged to be carrying to
plant in Margao went off prematurely. While two unexploded bombs were
found from near the site of the blast in Margao, one more was found and
defused at a Diwali event in Sancaole town, 20 km from Margao.
Malgounda Patil died within hours of the blast and Yogesh Naik
succumbed to his injuries days later. Goa police subsequently arrested
28-year-old Vinay Talekar, who had an MBA in Human Resources and was
working with a local five-star hotel, and an accomplice Vinayak Patil.
Further investigations also led to the arrest of Dhananjay Ashtekar,
who was studying engineering in Kolhapur, and Dilip Mangaonkar. While
Talekar and Vinayak Patil have been accused of planting the Sancaole
bomb, Ashtekar is suspected of helping assemble the explosives.

Investigators
said that Ashtekar is believed to have come into contact with Malgounda
in June when he came to Goa with some friends and went to the Sanatan
headquarters in Ramnathi in Ponda taluka as he was a Sanatan member.
They said Ashtekar helped Sanatan in some web designing work during his
stay at the ashram and came under the influence of Malgounda, who is
accused of being the brain behind the conspiracy. Prithviraj Hajare,
the editor of Sanatan Prabhat, the outfit's mouthpiece, said he was
unaware of Ashtekar's visit to Ramnathi or his involvement in the
alleged conspiracy. Sanatan has said that it had nothing to do with the
bomb blast and would co-operate in the probe.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/550536/

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Pay up or lose your property, HC tells Shiv Sena vandals (Dec 1, 2009, Indian Express)

The Bombay High Court, hearing a petition of Shiv Sena leader
Sitaram Dalvi expressing inability to pay the compensation for damage
caused to Hotel Intercontinental when a group of men he had led turned
violent in January, on Monday observed that the amount could be
realised by attaching Sena property.

Dalvi, who had led a
morcha of Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (BKS) men to the hotel at Sahar in
protest against sacking of some employees, had said that he had no
money to pay. Under the amended Bombay Police Act, the collector had
earlier issued a showcause notice in March and a subsequent notice on
October 10 asking Dalvi to pay the amount within 15 days.

Division
Bench of Justice J N Patel and Justice Amjad Sayed observed that Dalvi
could pay the amount, Rs 7.8 lakh from the BKS fund. "You should know
who you are leading in a morcha. You will be responsible for whatever
these people commit," Justice Patel said. The court said Dalvi could
have settled the workers' issue by due process of the law. "You don't
believe in law and take law into your hands," Justice Patel said,
adding, "We can ask the collector to attach Shiv Sena's property." The
court said the amount has to be paid.

Dalvi's lawyer had said
he had already paid Rs 2 lakh but was finding it difficult to pay the
remaining sum. When Dalvi's lawyer said there were 41 others against
whom an FIR was filed following the morcha on January 21, the court
observed that Dalvi could ask them to share the amount, as it was a
case of common intent. Today it's Shiv Sena, tomorrow it might be the
Congress or the NCP or some other new Sena, the court observed.

Additional
Public Prosecutor F R Shaikh had opposed the petition stating no relief
can be granted in terms of compensation. The hotel doors, lobby and the
kitchen were damaged. Sahar police had filed an FIR for unlawful
assembly, forcibly entering the hotel and threatening workers who
wanted to resume duty. "He will have to reply if they can pay the
amount. The court will hear the case on January 11," Shaikh said.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/548186/

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BJP hooligans run riot in Kolkata (Dec 1, 2009, Times of India)

Saffron hoodlums ran riot in the city on Monday, burning buses,
smashing car windscreens and attacking IT offices in Rajarhat to
enforce a 12-hour BJP bandh that no one took seriously. The vandalism
in parts of central and north Kolkata and Howrah and on VIP Road went
unchecked as the administration looked on.

The saffron brigade
had its plan well laid out. They started early to spread panic and to
ensure that people stayed at home. Shortly after 6 am, two government
buses were set ablaze - one at Kankurgachhi and the other outside
Howrah station. Elsewhere in the city, a number of state buses were
damaged. The arterial VIP Road was blocked, affecting traffic to and
from the airport.

The next target was the IT hub of Salt Lake's
Sector V and Rajarhat. Armed with lathis and iron rods, bandh
supporters banged on the gates of IT complexes, smashed glass doors and
asked techies to go home. Not a single policeman could be spotted
anywhere.

While Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee
claimed that the state administration had "aided" the bandh supporters,
many said that they had seen dissident Trinamool and Congress workers
carry BJP flags and disrupt the flow of traffic at various places. Some
claimed to have seen CPM workers as well.

State BJP president
Rahul Sinha denied these allegations. "All the bandh supporters were
BJP workers. Nearly 3,000 of them were arrested. There have been some
excesses, particularly in places like Sector V. We are looking into the
matter. Action will be taken against those who got involved in
violence," Sinha said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5286426.cms

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Hiroshima-like memorial planned for Bhopal tragedy victims (Dec 1, 2009, Rediff)

The premises of the defunct Union Carbide factory will be opened for
the public from January, 25 years after the gas leak from it killed and
maimed thousands of people, a senior minister said on Tuesday. "The
Union Carbide factory premises will be thrown open for the public in
January. The date of opening has not been finalised yet. The state also
has plans to build a Hiroshima-like memorial there depicting the
detailed account of the disaster," Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and
Rehabilitation Minister Babulal Gaur said.

However, he added that
people will not be allowed to enter the factory unit which once
manufactured pesticides, adding that the visitors would be able to see
it from a distance. "The Madhya Pradesh high court gave permission to
open the factory premises last week, but given the code of conduct in
place for the forthcoming civic elections, we have decided to open it
from January," said Gaur.

The state has plans to construct a
boundary wall around the factory to keep off encroachers, he added.
Gaur, a former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, said the state government
has sought Rs 116 crore from the Centre to build a memorial for the
victims in the factory premises, spread over an area of 67 acres. He
said that the state wants to build a memorial of international
standards, akin to the one in Hiroshima in Japan depicting the detailed
account of one of the worst industrial disasters in history.

http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/dec/01/hiroshima-like-memorial-planned-for-bhopal-tragedy-victims.htm

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Telangana protest hits Hyderabad (Dec 6, 2009, Times of India)

The 48-hour shutdown called by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS)
demanding a separate state of Telangana in Andhra Pradesh crippled
normal life in Hyderabad and nine other districts of the region Sunday
as party chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao's fast-unto-death entered the
eighth day. Tension prevailed in the region as policemen were deployed
in huge numbers to prevent violence during the shut down, which began
Saturday midnight. Thousands of passengers were stranded as the Andhra
Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) suspended all bus
services within the region and services to other regions passing
through Telangana.

Shops, business establishments, cinema
theatres and petrol bunks remained closed in Hyderabad and other parts
of Telangana, causing severe inconvenience to the public. Motorists had
a harrowing time as several petrol bunks downed shutters even before
the shutdown began while hundreds of vehicles were lined up at some
bunks till midnight here. There was a scramble at ATMs as people rushed
to withdraw money before the shutdown. The ATMs of several banks ran
out of cash. In Hyderabad and elsewhere life came to a complete halt as
the day is also being observed as "black day" and Muslim organisations
have given a call for a shutdown to mark the anniversary of the
demolition of Babri Masjid. Police have banned the assembly of five or
more people in the state capital. The Telangana shutdown is the second
called by TRS since the arrest of Chandrasekhara Rao a week ago.

The
day-long shutdown on Monday last had paralysed life in the region and
was marred by sporadic incidents of violence. With protesters targeting
public and private property over the last few days, police have gone on
high alert to prevent violence during the shutdown. TRS workers
Saturday went on the rampage here attacking shops and buses near
Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), where KCR, as TRS
president is popularly known, is continuing his fast-unto-death. With
rumours that KCR slipped into coma triggering Saturday's violence, NIMS
authorities were briefing the media about KCR's condition regularly.
They said early Sunday that KCR was in the intensive care unit but was
out of danger. KCR, who is in judicial custody, continued his fast for
the eighth day Sunday. Rejecting Chief Minister K. Rosaiah's fresh
appeal to call off the fast, the TRS chief said he would not break the
fast unless the government gives categorical assurance on carving out a
separate state.

A group of ministers belonging to Telangana
region Sunday called on KCR at NIMS. He, however, refused to talk to
them saying he would speak to only those who can take a decision on the
issue. With TRS cadres and students mounting pressure on public
representatives of the Congress party by laying siege to their houses,
the central leadership of the party is also coming under pressure to
take a clear stand on Telangana. KCR was arrested on Nov 29 by the
police near Karimnagar town when he was heading to Siddipet town in
Medak district for launching fast unto death. He was taken to Khammam
town, where a court sent him to jail for 14 days. The TRS chief
launched the fast in jail and was shifted to a government-run hospital
in the town the next day. He, however, broke the fast the same day
after three people committed suicide protesting his arrest. Angry
reaction by the sympathisers of Telangana movement forced KCR to resume
the fast on Tuesday. He was shifted to Hyderabad early Thursday.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5307169.cms

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Madhu Koda arrested in Rs 2,000-cr scam (Nov 30, 2009, Rediff)

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda was on Monday arrested by
the state Vigilance Commission, nearly two months after a case was
registered against him in a multi-crore hawala scam. "We have reached
at a stage when his arrest was necessary. We had taken the arrest
warrant from the competent court," said Inspector General of Police,
Vigilance, M V Rao. Thirty-eight-year-old Koda, who is being jointly
investigated by the vigilance commission, Income Tax department and
Enforcement Directorate, was arrested from the Chaibasa district of the
state. Koda had repeatedly avoided appearing before the Enforcement
Directorate and the state vigilance commission in connection with the
disproportionate asset and the Prevention of Money Laundering case
against him and his close associates.

Sources in the ED said
the Directorate would also join the questioning of the former CM.
During raids on his premises, the IT department had claimed to has
found evidence of hawala transactions and illegal investments running
into more than Rs 2,000 crore. The Enforcement Directorate had
registered a case against him on October 10. On October 9, the ED had
charged Koda and his former Cabinet colleagues under the Prevention of
Money Laundering Act for allegedly amassing assets worth several
hundred crores. Koda, an independent member of Lok Sabha and a UPA
supporter, has been charged with having business interests of diverse
kinds including in cement, steel, auto, power, agriculture and tourism.
Apparently, the former Jharkhand chief minister had put his net assets
at nearly Rs one crore at the time of the Lok Sabha polls. In 2005,
Koda had movable assets worth Rs 13 lakh, and by 2009, they rose to
over Rs 94 lakh. His immovable assets also doubled to over Rs four lakh
during this period.

These disclosures were made by Koda himself
- first in the affidavit he filed with the Election Commission at the
time of contesting the assembly elections in 2005 and then earlier this
year when he fought the Lok Sabha polls. Koda won on both the occasions
- from Jagannathpur in 2005 and Singhbhum this year as an Independent
candidate. According to the affidavits, his cash holding of about Rs
30,000 in 2005 also rose to Rs 13.6 lakh in 2009. He also purchased
shares in blue chip companies like Tata Steel, Reliance Petroleum and
SBI, the EC website says. Koda, who earlier this month said he was a
"poor tribal", has total assets worth over Rs 98 lakh, as per his
disclosure with the Election Commission. The assets include bank
deposits, bonds, shares, other savings, two cars (Bolero and Indigo),
jewellery and land. He disclosed his bank deposits with three branches
of SBI and one branch each of Allahabad Bank and Bank of India in
Jharkhand.

The companies where he owns shares included
Allahabad Bank, Reliance Petroleum (which has now been merged with
Reliance Industries), SBI and Tata Steel. In comparison, he had
disclosed shareholding in only one concern - Allahabad Bank in 2005.
Most of these assets are in Koda's name, while some of the cash
deposits, jewellery and land, are in the names of his wife Geeta and
daughter Darshani Nagi. Koda, who rose from a labourer in iron-ore
mines to the chief minister's chair, is now being quizzed for allegedly
being part of a massive corruption scandal. It is also alleged that
some companies in which Koda and his eight associates had invested the
money were actually a front for Naxal groups.

http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/nov/30/madhu-koda-arrested-in-rs-2000-cr-scam.htm

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Govt rejects SC collegiums move to elevate Dinakaran (Dec 5, 2009, Deccan Herald)

Ending weeks of uncertainty, the Central government has rejected the
Supreme Court collegium's move to elevate Karnataka High Court Chief
Justice P D Dinakaran as a judge of the apex court in the wake of
allegations of land grabbing against him and his family. Sources in the
Law Ministry said that the file recommending the elevation has been
returned to the Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan with a request
to the collegium to reconsider the decision.

Balakrishnan had
written to the Law Ministry seeking delinking of the name of Dinakaran
from a list of High Court Chief Justices, recommended for elevation to
Supreme Court. Sources claim that the Law Ministry's decision to return
the file came after it found that various probes including those
conducted by the Intelligence Bureau and District Collector of
Tiruvallur were enough to deny Dinakaran elevation to the Supreme
Court. Government felt that there was no need for any more probe into
the issue as requested by the Chief Justice.

A report by Survey
of India is yet to be forwarded to the SC Collegium, the sources said.
Dinakaran is facing allegations of land grabbing in Kaverirajapuram in
Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu, a charge denied by him. Law Minister
Veerappa Moily, when contacted for his comments on the development,
said, "I would not like to comment on an issue which deals with the
appointment of judges to the higher judiciary. It is not appropriate
(to say anything).

The Law Ministry sent its report to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, who is understood to have agreed with its
perception and wanted the collegium to reconsider its recommendation.
In August this year, the collegium had recommended the name of
Dinakaran along with Chief Justices of four other High Courts. While
Dinakaran's name was kept on hold while four others were elevated to
the Supreme Court recently. It is learnt that the Prime Minister's
Office had also referred to the Law Ministry the media campaign on the
issue.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/39590/govt-rejects-sc-collegiums-move.html

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Opinions and Editorials

The Big Babri Sham - By Saba Naqvi (Nov 30, 2009, Outlook)

The entire Liberhan issue is about scoring political points and
certainly not about holding any one accountable. Just glance at the ATR
accompanying the report and it's clear that the good justice appears to
have decided to give the nation a sermon on secular values that is
really so much hogwash. We can all read the constitution of India to
reaffirm secular values. Liberhans indulges in the sort of ramblings
about secularism and generalities about Hindus and Muslims that one may
expect from the ageing neighbourhood bore who wants to hold forth on
the state of the nation.

This report will never have too much
credibility for far too many reasons. First the extra-ordinary long
time M.S. Liberhans took at public expense will always taint the
credibility of the report. There are glaring procedural lapses such as
the failure to question individuals like Atal Behari Vajpayee and K.N.
Govindacharya, who was then the RSS point-man in the BJP and is also
mentioned in the list of 68 accused. Surely the judge can't claim he
was pressed for time? What is also damning in my view is that when he
did finally submit the report at a time when the Congress is clearly on
the ascendant, Liberhan gave a clean chit to former prime minister
Narasimha Rao and failed to even mention the Congress leadership that
ordered the opening of the locks at the Babri shrine.

The
politics that will be played with the Babri issue is also now fairly
obvious. The Congress clearly hopes to extract mileage from the report
in its bid to win back Muslim votes in Uttar Pradesh, a project that is
meeting with some success. Party sources say that at a more "opportune
time" (closer to elections in UP) it is very possible that some sort of
gesture will be made towards the Muslim community - perhaps
supplementary charges against BJP/VHP/RSS leaders, the cases speeded up
or even a special court set up. A Congress MP from UP told me last
week: "it was important for us that the Congress leadership be cleared
and we can only take advantage of the report now that the BJP is on the
backfoot."

The party of the gods can shout Jai Shri Ram, but the
Babri matter is now most certainly a dead weight around its neck. All
the MPs and strategists actually engaged in the business of winning
elections know there are no votes to be gained from issues like
Ayodhya. Indeed, the young voter is quite repulsed by the sort of
identity issues the party is perennially trapped in. Yet winning
elections is not the sole compulsion that drives BJP leaders; they must
also please the RSS masters at Nagpur and continue to pay lip service
to Hindutva. They are currently in a most unenviable position. Veterans
like L.K. Advani will continue to tie themselves in knots on the issue
as he will pledge commitment to a Ram temple one day and the next day
speak of "the saddest day…" But the wheels within wheels in the inner
party and RSS relations mean that Advani, like Liberhan, should also
manage to squeeze out a few more extensions.

So the shoddy
theatre of the Ram bhakts will continue for a while. President Rajnath
Singh will yet again affirm faith in the Ram temple. Sushma Swaraj will
try to divert the issue to Atal Behari Vajpayee being held culpable and
demand P. Chidambaram's resignation for the leak of the report. But ask
whether Advani who holds a constitutional post as LoP should resign for
being indicted and there is no reply from the otherwise voluble party
spokespersons. We can also expect more sound and thunder on Babri from
the Samajwadi Party that is quite desperate to hang onto Muslim votes.
Across political parties our politicians appear to be one in the belief
that you can fool all the people all of the time.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263064

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Demolition by design - By Venkitesh Ramakrishnan (Dec 5, 2009, Frontline)

An element of cynicism was always there as the central
characteristic of the Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan Commission during
the 17 long years that it took to probe the December 6, 1992,
demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, perceptible in many ways -
when the commission obtained 48 extensions from various Central
governments, when allegations broke out of slow-pedalling of the
inquiry against certain politicians, and when there was a rather public
spat between the commission's chief and its counsel. Finally, the
government tabled the report in Parliament on November 24 under
tremendous pressure, after a newspaper published portions of it a day
earlier. The government was left with no option but to forsake its
six-month-long inertia since the submission of the report on June 30.
This final sequence of events as well as the contents of the report
have set in motion several debates and also controversies, in the
political, legal and social realms.

Even so, the central
conclusion of the four-volume report running into over 1,000 pages is
by and large seen as a mere repetition of what has been common
knowledge for long. It is that the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS)
and its affiliates such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang
Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which make up the Sangh
Parivar, were responsible for the demolition. The commission has also
held that the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, led by Kalyan Singh, and
some of its officers colluded with the Sangh Parivar in a "duplicitous
and under-handed manner" "not worthy of a democratically elected
government". The report further states: "When push came to shove, the
senior police officers were at hand to ensure their men toed the line
and that the demolition of the disputed structure was allowed to go
ahead with military precision as orchestrated by the leaders present at
the spot and carried out by their henchmen whom they refused to
identify even before me. "By far the worst sin of omission of the State
government was leaking into public domain the information that the
police personnel had been hobbled and would not react or retaliate
under any circumstances. Emboldened by the self-confessed handicap of
the law enforcement agencies of the State, the kar sevaks enjoyed a
free hand, aware that they were at zero risk from them. Even the forces
demanded by the State government and sent by the Central government for
security purposes were intentionally taken away from the scene and
deployed at far away places under the garb of meeting the threat of
terrorism."

At the individual level, the commission has listed 68
persons, including Sangh Parivar leaders and officials of the then
Uttar Pradesh government, as responsible "for leading the country to
the brink of communal discord". The Sangh Parivar leaders listed
include BJP stalwarts such as former Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, former Deputy Prime Minister and Ayodhya Rath Yatra leader
Lal Krishna Advani and former Union Human Resources Development
Minister Murli Manohar Joshi. The commission terms these leaders
"pseudo moderates" who were controlled by the diktats of the RSS. It
also says that RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP leaders such as Ashok Singhal,
K.S. Sudarshan and Vinay Katiyar formed a "complete cartel" supported
by icons of the Hindutva movement such as Advani, Joshi and Vajpayee.
The overall conclusion of the report, holding the Sangh Parivar
responsible for the demolition, has been received with near-total
approval by the main political organisations. But the emphasis it gives
to certain players within the Sangh Parivar, such as Vajpayee, and the
clean chit given to the P.V. Narasimha Rao-led Congress government at
the Centre have not received the same level of acceptance. Reservations
have been expressed not only in the political but also in judicial
terms. While the BJP is naturally in the forefront of opposing the
inclusion of Vajpayee among those held guilty, the centrist and Left
opposition parties question the clean chit given to the Narasimha Rao
government. Anupam Gupta, former counsel of the commission, who left
his position in 2007 owing to differences with Justice Liberhan, told
Frontline that the inclusion of Vajpayee in the list of people with
individual culpability was not legally tenable. He pointed out that the
commission passed a detailed order on July 22, 2003, rejecting an
application to summon Vajpayee on the grounds that there was no
evidence on record against him.

"At that time, the
controversial speech made by Vajpayee on December 5 at Lucknow,
suggesting the demolition of the Babri Masjid, had not come to the
commission's notice. Even when the story about a CD containing that
speech was published, it was not taken notice of by the commission. The
right thing to do would have been to summon Vajpayee at that time.
Without doing that, how can the commission arrive at such an
astonishing finding?" Gupta asked. He maintained that the clean chit
given to the Narasimha Rao administration could only mean that the
commission had failed to consider carefully all the documents and
reports of various security and intelligence agencies it had access to.
"The exoneration of the Narasimha Rao government points only towards a
sell-out," Gupta told Frontline (see interview). The commission, on its
part, has analysed the standards of culpability and categorised them as
primary, secondary and tertiary. Those who had the primary and greatest
responsibility for the demolition are those that had the means to
prevent the assault. Many in the top leadership of the RSS, the VHP,
the Bajrang Dal and the Shiv Sena come in this group. The second group
consists of those who portrayed a benign public face of the Ayodhya
campaign and gave false assurances to the courts, the people and the
nation. "Those who have been put in the second category in these
conclusions are referred to as 'pseudo-moderates' in contrast to the
radicals forming part of the first group," the report says. "On the one
hand, leaders like A.B. Vajpayee, Murli Manohar Joshi and L.K. Advani,
who are the undeniable public face and leaders of the BJP and thus of
the Parivar, constantly protested their innocence and denounced the
events of December 1992. On the other hand, it stands established
beyond doubt that the events of the day were neither spontaneous, nor
unplanned, nor unforeseen overflowing of the people's emotions, or the
result of a foreign conspiracy as some overly imaginative people have
tried to suggest." …

At the political level, the presentation of
the report has opened up a kind of level playing field for various
parties involved with Ayodhya issues. The Congress can highlight that
it was under its regime that finally an indictment was made against the
Sangh Parivar on the Babri Masjid demolition. The BJP and other Sangh
Parivar organisations could close ranks on this issue, leaving behind
their recent history of internal bickering and advocacy of contrasting
political and ideological positions. For smaller parties such as the
Samajwadi Party (S.P.) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which are
major players in Uttar Pradesh, the exoneration of the Narasimha Rao
government could come in handy to initiate fresh mobilisation among
secular groups, particularly in the Muslim community. The non-committal
nature of the ATR could also be apolitical instrument in this context.
Which of these possibilities ultimately becomes real depends largely on
concrete manoeuvres on the ground. For civil society as a whole, the
long and controversial history of the Justice Liberhan Commission only
underlines the futility of such exercises. Almost all such inquiry
commissions have failed to come up with anything tangible, be it the
Nanavati Commission that probed the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 or the
Srikrishna Commission that looked into the Mumbai riots of 1992-93. The
ATRs on these commissions have also nothing concrete to show, and the
early trends of the Liberhan Commission ATR point to a similar ending.

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2625/stories/20091218262500400.htm

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Pseudocrats Tale - By Saba Naqvi (Dec 7, 2009, Outlook)

When Justice Liberhan finally submitted his report on Ayodhya, after
spending an extraordinary 17 years labouring over the events of
December 6, 1992, he added another word to the already well-established
lexicon on Atal Behari Vajpayee: "pseudo-moderate". Chroniclers of
contemporary history have long grappled with the complexities of the
former prime minister. Was he double-faced or just the right man in the
wrong party? Was he a mere mask for the designs of the larger Sangh
parivar or a genuine liberal in an umbrella organisation that also
accommodated a lunatic fringe? Vajpayee was the ultimate pundit, one
who had mastered the art of moral ambiguities and dualism inherent in
the great Indian traditions. Justice Liberhan gave it another name when
he called him a "pseudo-moderate". It's a delicious phrase to use for a
leader of a party that had coined the term pseudo-secularist. The
immediate joke in political circles is that Justice Liberhan took a
very long time to discover what RSS/BJP ideologue K.N. Govindacharya
apparently said years ago-that Vajpayee was a "mukhauta" or a mask.
When the Liberhan Commission report was finally tabled in Parliament
last week, it was quickly evident that it was the critique of Vajpayee
that had caught public interest. The report gives a list of 68 people
in alphabetical order who are held "culpable for pushing India to
communal discord". Vajpayee is the seventh name, Govindacharya the
19th. Ironically, in all those years, the judge never thought it fit to
summon and question either men. It is well-known that the entire Sangh
parivar and BJP were involved in the Ayodhya movement. But what
continues to intrigue is Vajpayee's role in the movement. Was he a
victim of circumstances or a duplicitous villain? Outlook spoke to some
of the personalities involved in the dramatic events of those days to
paint a picture of what Vajpayee actually said about the agitation for
a Ram temple, both in the internal party forum and in public rallies.
Some of the speeches he made in Parliament are a matter of public
record but many accounts of what he said in closed-door meetings have
been pieced together by speaking to those who were witnesses or close
to Vajpayee. For instance, in 1989, the BJP had passed a revolution in
the Himachal Pradesh town of Palampur signalling that it was joining
the temple agitation that was being run by the VHP.

By all
accounts, Vajpayee was not at all keen on the idea, but he did not
oppose the party line either. According to Uma Bharati, one of the
leading lights of the temple movement, "Everyone wanted a Ram Lalla
temple in Ayodhya, including Vajpayee. But we all knew that Atalji did
not want to join or lead any movement for this." Another party leader
says: "Vajpayee had no time for the VHP or Bajrang Dal and told many of
us that a political party should not be part of this."Govindacharya was
then the RSS pointsman in the BJP and the great ideologue and
strategist of the party. He gives a fascinating account of the planning
of the Somnath-to-Ayodhya rath yatra undertaken by L.K. Advani. The RSS
wanted four people to lead yatras that would converge at Ayodhya on
October 30, 1990. Govindacharya approached all four. Vijayaraje Scindia
was asked if she would lead the rath from the Kamakhya temple in Assam
to Ayodhya. She said her health would not allow such a journey.
Sikander Bakht was asked to proceed from Mumbai; he said no one would
come to hear him. Vajpayee was asked if he would travel from Jammu to
Ayodhya. He snapped at Govindacharya: "What nautanki (drama) is this?
Main aisi nautanki mein nahin jaata (I do not take part in such a low
drama)." That left L.K. Advani, and it was proposed that he travel from
Kanyakumari. It was Advani who suggested that Somnath would be "more
political". And so the journey began on September 25, 1990. Lawyer Apa
Ghatate has been one of Vajpayee's closest friends who has also put
together a volume of his speeches in Parliament. Says he: "We all knew
Atalji was against the agitation." Ghatate recalls Vajpayee's speech
when he had to receive Advani's rath as it passed through Delhi: "The
crowd was shouting ‘Advaniji sangharsh karo/hum tumhare saath hain
(carry on the struggle Advaniji/we are with you)'. Atalji seemed a
little irritated and said that Advani is not going to Ayodhya to fight
Ravana but to do penance. The vanar sena (monkey army) will follow him.
Sometimes the vanar sena does not know where Ram is going."

Years
later, after the mosque had been demolished and the movement for
building a temple was going nowhere, this correspondent witnessed
Vajpayee snapping at a group of over-enthusiastic partymen shouting
"Jai Shri Ram". Vajpayee stepped out of his car and said: "Bolte raho
Jai Shri Ram/aur karo nahin koi kaam (keep shouting Jai Shri Ram and do
nothing else)." At one level, the aesthetics of the movement, the
shrieking kar sevaks and the blood-letting along the way could never
appeal to a high pundit like Vajpayee. In February 1991, some months
after Advani's rath yatra had been completed, Vajpayee actually
registered a sort of protest at a BJP national executive meet in
Jaipur. Sources reveal that he asked pointedly: "Are we a political
party or a dharam sansad?" But a few months later, in the course of the
run-up to the Lok Sabha elections of 1991, Vajpayee's own position
began to change. It was becoming apparent that there was a Ram wave in
the Hindi heartland (the BJP would eventually rise to national
prominence with 120 seats and Kalyan Singh would win in Uttar Pradesh).
Journalist Swapan Dasgupta, a chronicler of those times, was also on
the podium with the BJP leaders at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. He says
that Vajpayee began to make pro-temple speeches as and when he saw the
crowds respond. "Vajpayee was swayed by crowds," he says. "What really
got him going was his ability to relate to crowds. I would describe him
as the voice of the enlightened right as opposed to the unthinking or
lumpen right." In the course of touring Uttar Pradesh, Vajpayee did
make pro-temple speeches with a militant edge to them. Govindacharya,
though, is less charitable. "Articulation without conviction was always
Atalji's speciality," he says with a grin. "Advaniji may have gone all
over India making speeches about the Ram temple. But the best speech
about Hindutva, the civilisational context of the Ram movement, was
made by Vajpayee on April 4, 1991, at the Boat Club in Delhi." Combine
that with the speech he made at Lucknow on December 5, one day before
the demolition of the mosque (see accompanying story), and as
Govindacharya jokes, "Wah, that is Atalji!!"

In Lucknow,
Vajpayee was addressing kar sevaks, at the Delhi Boat Club, he shared
the stage with sadhus and sants of the VHP. Govindacharya insists that
"the speech was a classic. It made the best argument for the Ram
temple. It was recorded and as part of our mobilisation we distributed
it everywhere. Some people got tears in their eyes when they heard
Atalji's words. He was great." Yet, privately Vajpayee kept referring
to the VHP-Bajrang Dal lot as the vanar sena! Most of the RSS stalwarts
who were involved in planning the movement have passed away. RSS
functionary Ram Madhav says that there is no mystery about Vajpayee's
role in the movement. "Atalji always followed the party line. He may
have been uncomfortable with aspects of the movement but he
participated in some programmes. It is ridiculous that he should be
branded a pseudo-moderate and Narasimha Rao let off the hook by the
Liberhan Commission." Martin Luther King had famously said-"There go my
people/And I must follow them for I am their leader." That is what
appears to have happened to Vajpayee in the heat of the Ayodhya
movement when the leader began to follow the momentum of the crowds.
The picture was never black and white for Vajpayee; he managed to exist
in the shades of grey. Once the mosque was demolished and panic buttons
pressed, sources reveal that Chennai-based chartered accountant S.
Gurumurthy faxed a text of a statement to Vajpayee that he subsequently
read out in Parliament. "The demolition of the structure is to be
neither condemned nor condoned…" Then the BJP state governments, in UP,
HP, MP and Rajasthan, were dismissed. Govindacharya says this is what
really stunned the BJP and the Sangh parivar. "No one was prepared, but
I will say that Atalji said later you can break the masjid but never
build a temple. He understood that before many others did." In the
course of the debate in Parliament about the dismissal of the BJP state
governments, Vajpayee said, "If a temple is built because of violence,
it will be a temple but not a Ram temple." In a sense, Vajpayee's
ambiguities over Ayodhya also reflect his political horse sense. Advani
was always bogged down by his leadership of the Ram temple movement.
Vajpayee went on to become PM for six long years.

In the West,
Vajpayee's ambiguities would have been condemned and exposed as deceit.
But this is the land where "we are like this and we are also like
that". At some level, there is social acceptance for Vajpayee's
dualism. The right man in the wrong party analogy still persists. Was
this image part of a grand scheme, a sinister conspiracy? Questions
will always be asked, but the answers will depend on the point of view.
In February 2005, when Outlook procured copies of the VCD that recorded
his speech made the night before the Babri demolition at Lucknow, the
tape and a transcript were sent to him. This correspondent then met him
for half an hour. Vajpayee pointed out that the speech was made in a
certain context. "Mera Ayodhya andolan mein zyaada role nahin tha (I
did not have much of a role in the Ayodhya movement)." He then picked
up the transcript to stress that there was nothing in the speech that
could be questioned in a court of law. Questions about his so-called
differences with Advani over Ayodhya and Narendra Modi over the Gujarat
riots were met with a smile, long pause, smile. The man still continues
to be an enigma…

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263016

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Bhopal: The victims are still being born - By Nina Lakhani (Nov 29, 2009,The Independent)

Bhopal is a calamity without end. On 3 December 1984, clouds of
poison leaking from a Union Carbide pesticides plant brought death to
thousands in this central Indian city. Today, fully a quarter of a
century later, victims of this, the world's worst industrial disaster,
are still being born. Here, in neighbourhoods where people depend on
water contaminated by chemicals leaking from the abandoned factory and
to mothers exposed to the toxic gas as children, brain damaged and
malformed babies are 10 times more common than the national average.
Doctors at Bhopal's Sambhavna Clinic say that as many as one in 25
babies are still born with defects and developmental problems such as a
smaller head, webbed feet and low birth weight. Those who were mere
children when the fumes overcame this city of a million are suffering,
too. Painful skin lesions, stomach problems and raw, itchy eyes are
common complaints among thousands of families, some of whom moved to
Bhopal only in recent years. And the clinic says that Bhopal now has
some of India's highest rates of gall bladder and oesophageal cancers,
TB, anaemia and thyroid abnormalities. Young girls start menstruating
much later than normal and experience painful gynaecological problems,
which often lead to hysterectomies at a young age. These problems, say
campaigners such as the Bhopal Medical Appeal (BMA), are linked to the
continuing pollution of parts of the local water supply by chemicals
such as chloroform and carbon tetrachloride. Families have no choice
but to use ground water for washing, cooking and drinking when safe
sources run dry, according to new research that will be published by
the BMA on Tuesday. The study found higher levels of several
carcinogenic chemicals in water sources this year compared with last
year - strongly suggesting that future generations will be poisoned
unless the area is decontaminated.

This flies in the face of
recent claims by state and national ministers that the site is clean.
Meanwhile, the legal fight for the chief executive of Union Carbide to
be tried for his company's alleged negligence is no nearer success than
it was 25 years ago. Amnesty International will this week call on the
Indian government and Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide in
2001, to take "urgent and decisive action" to ensure that the accused
appear in court - more than 20 years after arrest warrants were first
issued. Dow continues to deny any responsibility for the criminal case.
It was in the early hours of 3 December 1984 that 27 tonnes of methyl
isocyanate gas - 500 times more toxic than cyanide and used to
manufacture the pesticide Sevin - began to leak from the Union Carbide
plant into the surrounding areas. Hundreds of thousands were injured by
the gas as they slept. Men, women and children living in the shanty
settlements just over the factory fence woke up, gasping for breath and
blinded by the gas as it rapidly dispersed. Around 8,000 people are now
believed to have died within the first 72 hours. Hundreds died in their
beds; thousands more staggered from their homes to die in the street.
Another 15,000 are estimated to have died as a result of the gas
exposure since then, often from painful and horrific damage to their
lungs, heart, brain and other organs, according to Amnesty
International. An estimated three-quarters of the area's pregnant women
spontaneously aborted their babies within hours or days after "that
night". Hundreds more babies have since been born with deformities such
as missing limbs, abnormal organs, misshapen heads and tumours. None of
the plant's six safety systems was operational that night. Even today,
Amnesty International estimates that 120,000 people exposed to the gas
have chronic medical conditions. While the factory was closed down in
1985, another 30,000 people have become sick from water contaminated by
the chemical waste buried underground or dumped in nearby ponds,
according to health workers in Bhopal. Children and livestock are still
spotted playing and grazing on the grass that hides the waste because
the local government has failed to secure the site properly.

Hazira
Bee, 53, lives in J P Nagar, one of the worst affected areas to the
north of the city. On the night of the disaster, after awakening to the
smell of burning chilli, she and her husband ran with their children,
their eyes and lungs stinging with the gas. In the panic, her middle
son, Mansoor Ali, aged four, was left behind. He has spent the majority
of his life in and out of hospital, severely weakened by chronic lung
damage. His daughter, now aged three and a half, was unable to hold her
head up or turn on her side until she was 18 months old; she has just
started to walk. All Hazira's family have suffered from respiratory,
neurological and skin conditions since the leak. Hazira said: "The
scene inside the factory was terrible. I saw dead bodies and injured
people with foam coming out of their mouths. Since the gas leak we have
all been sick. Because of this, my children couldn't study and now they
can't get good jobs. Today I am the only breadwinner of the family. If
this disaster would have taken place in America, the US government
would have taken good care of their citizens. We want UC to take their
waste back to America." The BMA water analysis report supports previous
studies by Greenpeace which established that the areas north of the
disused factory are worst affected because the ground water runs in
that direction. The Sambhavna Clinic - set up 13 years ago with private
donations - sees 150 people like Hazira and her family every day. There
are 23,000 people who were either exposed to the gas or who have since
used contaminated water supplies registered with chronic conditions
such as liver disease, paralysis and severe anaemia. Doctors report new
patients - adults and children - at the clinic every day. According to
Satinath Sarangi, a founder of the Sambhavna Clinic, tuberculosis is
rife among people whose immune systems have been worn down by chronic
exposure to poisonous water. Cancer clusters and children born with
deformities are another distinction of the area, found by the clinic's
researchers who are conducting a door-to-door survey of tens of
thousands of local people.

Earlier this year, the Indian Council
of Medical Research finally bowed to public and international pressure
by restarting a government-funded research programme to understand the
alarming rates of still births, cancers, neurological and
gynaecological problems seen by Bhopal's doctors. Charities and
pressure groups had been left to study the long-term health problems of
Union Carbide's victims after ICMR controversially abandoned its
research programme in 1994. The $470m out-of-court settlement made by
Union Carbide in 1989 is regarded as grossly inadequate by the city's
health professionals and survivor organisations. It was based on early
estimates of only 3,800 deaths and 102,000 injured, and the maximum
amount any victim received was $1,000 - about 11 cents a day over 25
years. Had compensation been the same as for those exposed to asbestos
under US court rulings against defendants that also included Union
Carbide, the liability would have exceeded $10bn. The Dow Chemical
Company insists that it has no responsibility for toxic legacy. Yet
internal correspondence, seen by The IoS and Amnesty, between different
Indian ministries (including the Prime Minister's Office) shows that
the company continues to lobby Indian ministers in an attempt to close
down the ongoing civil cases. These could require Dow to decontaminate
thousands of tonnes of polluted soil.

Colin Toogood, of the BMA,
said: "We want to see a full clean-up of the disaster site and
surrounding area, including the ground water aquifer - a huge
undertaking, but reasonable considering this was the world's worst
industrial disaster. The $470m compensation payout only ever pertained
to people affected by exposure to the gas on that night. It does not,
and never did, cover children born with terrible defects as a result of
their parent's exposure; people being affected by the environmental or
water contamination; and it does not cover the environmental
contamination itself." Tom Sprick from Union Carbide, said: "Neither
Union Carbide nor its officials are subject to the jurisdiction of the
Indian court since they did not have any involvement in the operation
of the plant… The government of India needs to address any ongoing
medical and health concerns of the Bhopal people." But according to Tim
Edwards, a trustee of the BMA and author of the forthcoming Amnesty
report, this conveys contempt for the process of law. He said: "In
every form of civilised society it is the judicial system that decides
whether an accused has a case to answer. India's courts have decided
that Union Carbide and its new owner, Dow, do - but the company sticks
two fingers up." Scot Wheeler, from Dow, responded: "Attempts to attach
any liability to Dow are misplaced… like all global companies, it is
common for Dow leaders to meet with government leaders and officials
wherever we do business and have plans to grow. It is also common for
companies to discuss challenges and opportunities related to
investment."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/bhopal-the-victims-are-still-being-born-1830516.html

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A Sena With No Fixed War - By Nikhil Wagle (Dec 5, 2009, Tehelka)

I am a pukka Mumbaikar. I was born and brought up in Mumbai, which I
know like the back of my hand. This city after all has shaped my life.
But today I am dismayed by it and feel like an outsider - alternately
angry, sad and suffocated. Indeed even my right to life is denied here.
Now when that happens, how does one fight for those other
constitutional rights like freedom of speech and expression? On
November 20 Shiv Sainiks attacked the IBN Lokmat office and staff with
iron rods and sticks. There was no shock in it for me of course because
since 1991, I have been the Sainiks' target eight times - all because I
dared to criticise their favourite leader. And I was often warned that
if I did not change my ways my life would not be spared.

While
there is a horrible sameness in all Sena attacks, this time was
different because the IBN Lokmat staff captured seven of the assailants
and handed them over to the police. The cops arrived a halfhour or so
after the incident. All seven, plus the 17 Shiv Sainiks who attacked
IBN Lokmat's Pune and Mumbai offices, are now in police custody on
attempt-to-murder charges. But so far only the minions have been
caught: the mastermind Sunil Raut is still absconding and police say
they have no idea where he is hiding. Sunil is the brother of Sanjay
Raut, Shiv Sena MP and Executive Editor of Sena mouthpiece Saamana. The
attacks had lasted for two days; and even after they subsided somewhat
Sanjay Raut kept publishing aggressive editorials. But the utterly
incompetent Congress-NCP combine took no action against him.

In
its wicked career that began in 1966 the Shiv Sena has targeted south
Indians, Muslims, Christians, Dalits, tribals - and the media, which
unfailingly reports the party's vandalism. The Sena seems to think this
will help it consolidate its own existence. Now, if the Shiv Sainiks
can attack and ransack an office, can an ordinary citizen's household
be safe while they are around? I have been the Shiv Sena's target for
nearly two decades now. In 1991 they attacked journalists with choppers
and in 1993 they tried to rip my stomach apart with a broken bottle.
Yet not one of those attackers has been punished so far. Either the
police do not investigate these incidents properly or they book the
assaulters under the wrong IPC sections so that they can escape being
prosecuted.

In many cases too the police delayed arresting the
goons so they would have ample time to escape. This is precisely why
these Shiv Sainiks have no fear of the law. Worryingly, certain other
political outfits have now begun copying the Shiv Sena's tactics and
are attacking media persons. Senior journalist Kumar Ketkar was
attacked last year. But none of this bothers the Maharashtra chief
minister or the parties in the Opposition; and the city's police force
is full of Shiv Sena sympathisers. It was with their help that the
goons spread mayhem in Mumbai during the1992 riots.

The evil
nexus was pointed out by the Srikrishna Commission, which squarely put
the blame on Bal Thackeray and the Shiv Sainiks. And the core ideology
of the breakaway MNS is no different. I keep getting mail from young
journalists saying they fear for their lives. Both the Shiv Sena's
allies and those currently in power find a free media extremely
inconvenient. Unbiased reporting such as IBN Lokmat's will never be
acceptable to the vandals. Yet though I am anguished, I am not giving
up. Instead all this makes me even more committed to question the Shiv
Sena's corrupt practices. Incidents like the one of 26/11 are as much
cause for worry as those that find nourishment within.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne051209proscons.asp

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A Few Who Copped Out - By Smruti Koppikar (Dec 14, 2009, Outlook)

"Mr Karkare's team managed to injure Kasab, even when they were
ambushed. With prior information (which was available with the Control
Room), they would have ambushed the terrorists… And this is what stings
my heart." With these words, Vinita Kamte ends the chapter titled
'Truth Unfolds' in her book To the Last Bullet. Her husband Ashok
Kamte, then additional commissioner of police-who fired at and injured
terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab near Cama Hospital on the night of November
26, 2008-was with Hemant Karkare, then chief of the Anti-Terrorism
Squad. Both the officers and police inspector Vijay Salaskar were
gunned down by Kasab and his accomplice, Abu Ismail. Picking her way
through grief, Vinita Kamte assiduously pursued official information
and call log records to raise questions that have gnawed many since
that fateful night: why did the control room not inform Karkare and
Kamte about the movement of terrorists in that lane and why did it not
send reinforcements that Karkare had specifically asked for nearly 35
minutes before the cops were ambushed? Where were the reinforcements of
150-200 personnel that control room stated had been sent? What was an
additional commissioner of police doing inside the special branch
office barely two minutes away from the exchange of gunfire in the
lane? Why did the police vehicles that passed the injured cops not stop
to assist them? And finally, why did control room in-charge Rakesh
Maria feign ignorance to the police commissioner about Karkare's
location at 00.56 am when call logs clearly indicated that the ats
chief was at the rear gate of Cama Hospital at 11.24 pm, and later that
Kamte and Karkare were injured?

"If only Karkare's team had the
benefit of proper briefing from the control room on what was happening
at the front of Cama Hospital, the story of that night could have been
entirely different," writes Vinita, wondering why it wasn't.
"Inefficiency? Incompetency?" Unlike conspiracy theorists, Vinita has
merely raised questions on the functioning of the police, but these
questions have split open the cracks in the Mumbai Police sparked off
by the comments of the then police commissioner, Hasan Gafoor.
Criticised by the Ram Pradhan Committee for "poor leadership" during
26/11 but subsequently promoted as DGP, Gafoor was quoted in a magazine
as saying certain senior officers had failed in their duties that
night, and IPS officers K.L. Prasad, Parambir Singh, Deven Bharti and
K. Venkateshan "did not appear keen on responding to the situation".
Gafoor denied making these statements, but the damage had been done.
The state government asked him to explain, and his junior officers
sought government permission to file defamation suits as records proved
their presence and action at the terror-hit sites. Joint commissioner
Rakesh Maria too wrote to the government asking that his role be
clarified. Thus did the war within come out in the public domain.

Police
commissioner D. Sivanandan, however, denies any such thing. "There is
no war. The war was fought on November 26, 2008," he said, hoping to
erase the impression of a Mumbai Police vs Mumbai Police situation. The
newly-rolled out Force One, the parade across Marine Drive on Nov 26
and the induction of state-of-the-art weaponry and ammunition did
little to repair the image, though. Officers, in off-the-record
conversations, have spoken of the various lobbies in the force divided
along regional or sectarian lines, the undue influence of certain
political leaders on appointments and the political leanings of certain
officers. In fact, the internal war alarmed former officers like Julio
Ribeiro so much that he stepped in "to restore the honour and prestige
of the Mumbai Police," which, he said, "would have fared much better if
they had a good leader". Ribeiro stated that "the four were outstanding
officers, and a good leader would have made use of their qualities" and
slammed Gafoor for "jettisoning the usual time-tested arrangement of
operations due to his own fears and insecurities". Coordination in
sensitive operations was impacted by the war within, says former IGP
Sudhakar Suradkar. "Had there been coordination, the terrorists would
have been killed in an hour," he said. "Groupism exists, particularly
in the top echelons," former Mumbai Police commissioner M.N. Singh told
Outlook. "The Mumbai Police has become the object of town gossip and
ridicule the last few days. It definitely affects the morale of the
entire force."

The state government plans to back Maria and
others, quoting from the Ram Pradhan Committee report. It praised
Maria's efforts while ignoring-or overlooking-the obvious discrepancies
in the call log records and action taken on 26/11. "It was a crisis;
there could have been a communication gap or lack of coordination in
the control room. Maria has a proven track record," says M.N. Singh,
who was boss both to Maria and Ashok Kamte at different points of time
and speaks highly of their capabilities. This, precisely, is the crux
of Vinita Kamte's questioning: where and why did the lapses or
communication gaps occur, enough to compromise the lives of officers
widely acknowledged as the best in the force? "Truth is always bitter
and they'll always defend themselves," she says. "Ashok loved the
force, it was his pride. I didn't want to do anything to hurt that, so
I corresponded directly with the DGP, CP, JCP, but never got answers. I
was forced to resort to RTI, which too was turned down. Then I filed an
appeal to get access to information." If there was nothing to hide, why
did the police not share the records with Vinita, asks her co-author
Vinita Deshmukh. Former officers too say it was "insensitive and
unbecoming" not to share call log records and post-mortem reports of
the officers with their kin. If the records point to lapses, those must
be corrected, not brushed aside. This calls for collective reflection
and correction, a tall order for a force whose top officers don't see
eye-to-eye even on routine matters.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263175

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