This is an illusion that the situation is better , if you read the newspapers
every day there are almost daily reports of arrests and during legal
proceedings complaints of forced confessions obtained by ATS agencies of
youths from minority communities belonging to economically weaker sections ;
similarly those resorting to genuine peaceful protests in adivasi regions
indiscriminately being labeled as Maoists. Whereas whistle blowers exposing
environmental degradation or real estate fraud against powerful economic and
financial interests , or those exposing large scale financial frauds, and
others attempting to organize the unorganized are targets of assassination ,
including lawyers who represent the aforesaid are also at risk .
If you consider the resources that were expended by Citizens for Justice and
Peace in rightly supporting the cause of victims of the Gujarat pogroms ,with
several petitions required to be filed in the Supreme Court for one order or
another , which none of the victims in any part of the country could afford in
such circumstances , leave alone immediate access to lawyers ; and the
proceedings have taken from 5-10 years , is it possible for us to arrive at the
conclusion that justice within the system is accessible ? Those who perpetrated
the Mumbai pogroms of 92-93 despite the report of the Commission of Inquiry ,
were except for the odd exception , all acquitted despite a death toll of
almost 2000 innocent killed ,and many more injured, with thousands of homes
looted completely not a spoon left, as a consequence of a high level conspiracy
involving several political parties , police personnel and financiers and
corporate houses .
Why despite several organizations have the rehabilitation measures in Gujarat
not been adequate ?Even from Gujarat there are reports of the involvement of
major players, including from abroad , apart from the usual suspects !
Who were the financiers of these pogroms?
Niloufer Bhagwat
----- Original Message -----
From: plural india
To: ram puniyani
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 4:12 PM
Subject: (No) Crime and Punishment ISP I April 2012
(No) Crime and Punishment
Ram Puniyani
The state of crime and punishment is very paradoxical in current times. The
guilty of communal violence generally get away without any punishment, while
the innocents are being punished in acts of terror, just if they happen to
belong to a particular religion. In current scenario, the current policing and
social system seems to operate on the assumption that Muslims are terrorists.
Both communal violence and war against terror have demonized and targeted them
in particular. While the society at large has come to believe in various myths
about minorities; the large section of police force has acted in the most
prejudicial and biased manner on the issues related to violence in the name of
religion and in case of terrorist violence.
There have been innumerable cases of young Muslim youth being picked up in
the aftermath of terror attacks, incarcerated in the jails and then let off as
the legal protective mechanisms, though painfully slow, catch up to intervene
and release some of these terror accused. While every such case of young man is
a heart rending tale, while every such case of police action ruins the family
and career of the accused, the one related to Mohammad Aamir Khan aged 32 today
(March 2012) probably ranks amongst the most horrendous ones’. The other
interesting aspect of this young man trying to restart his life all over again
is that he is full of appreciation of the positive aspects of the system and
acknowledges the good aspects of the system, which released him from dark
dungeons after 14 long and tortuous years. The same system mercifully kept him
connected to the outside world with the interlude in solitary confinement
notwithstanding.
Aamir, a 10th standard student, aged 18 was abducted by the Delhi police and
charged of being the master-mind of the acts of terror and other related
crimes. The methods employed by the police need not be recounted as while the
talk of police reforms etc. is on ‘on the paper’, the brutality of the many men
in khakhi continues unabated. They also keep innovating newer and newer forms
of torture. The illegal act of taking signatures on blank paper seems to be
routine with the ‘guardians of law’. Those supposed to be protecting our law
must be probably the biggest violators of law in the power dens where they are
rarely answerable and generally get away with the most serious cruelties
committed in the confines of their fiefdom, the police stations and jails.
Aamir underwent all this. He tried to continue his study while in jail, through
IGNOU center. But that was not to last long as one police officer in his zeal
of punishing the lad belonging to the ‘wrong’ religion put him in solitary
confinement and cut off his education which he was seriously pursuing. With 14
long years in the jail, how he maintained his sanity to look forward to the
study of journalism or law must be amongst some of the mysteries which our
society provides in abandon.
Coming back to Aamir, while in the prison he lost his father and his mother
suffered paralytic stroke. His family property had to be sold to off to fight
the infinite cases put against him by the police. The ‘leaders of the
community’ did not have time to take up his case, and the label of ‘terrorist’
and that too, a Pakistani one warded off many other friends and relatives to
come and help.
Today out from the jail, with two cases still hanging on his head, he is
working with an NGO to make a living, taking care of his mother’s expensive
treatment and tying to look forward to a life where he can become a
professional of some sort. Who is responsible for the wreckage of the lives of
Aamir and likes of him? While one can see the role of our biased police system,
which regards that Muslim are criminals and terrorists in the main, one can
also see the role of the prevalence of biases and misconceptions about the
community, floating all around, duly promoted and deepened by the communal
forces, our educational books and the slant of media reporting. Now what is the
responsibility of community and state in rehabilitating these young boys? In
Mecca Majid blast the accused after being arrested were let off and given the
compensation of 3 lakhs each, Interestingly when they were arrested there were
banner headlines of Muslims being arrested for the blast but when they came
clean of it small hidden news is all that items welcomed them.
The situation during last couple of years seems to be slightly better,
especially after Hemant Karkare’s path breaking investigation in Malegaon blast
and Rajasthan ATS taking the issue forward and the whole saffron gang of Sadhvi
Pragya Singh Thakur, Dayanand Pandey, Swami Aseemanand and company coming under
the scanner. Interestingly once this gang has been apprehended the acts of
terror have also come down substantially; the right inference needs to be drawn
here. It seems the major flaw of these investigations has been the prejudiced
mind of the investigating authorities. While a proper rehabilitation and
suitable compensation to these youth is imperative there is a dying need for
police reforms and their torture techniques need to be questioned. The rights
of the inmates, the rights of accused need to be honored. Police authorities
are reckless when it comes to Muslim youth, and those officers violating the
basic norms generally get away without any punishment. The Khaki seems to be
giving them too much unrestrained power to wreck the lives of innocent youth.
Is it not time that the case of Aamir and his likes acts a sort of mirror to
our Policing system? It calls for an urgent need for putting the issues related
to communal harmony, the falsity of prevalent myths on priority basis. Hope
such introspection is on amongst those vested with lot of powers.
It is rare that an 18year old, after being tortured for 14 years for
belonging to a particular religion, will come out with such positive
sentiments, the system also needs to introspect in the context of this young
man, help him out in Toto and ensure that such acts of brutality are not
repeated by the system and by men in khaki in particular.
--
Issues in Secular Politics
I April 2012
www.pluralindia.com
response only to ram.puniy...@gmail.com
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