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Amnesty slams police yet again
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 06, 2003
10:12:39
PM ]
AHMEDABAD: The international human rights watchdog
Amnesty International has criticised the
largescale
"illegal detentions" of Muslims in
Ahmedabad by the
Detection of Crime Branch of Ahmedabad Police and
alleged that many of these detainees were being
tortured in custody.
It has also demanded an inquiry by an independent
judicial body to probe such detentions across
police
stations in Gujarat. In a report released
on Thursday
titled 'Abuse of the law in Gujarat: Muslims detained
illegally in Ahmedabad', Amnesty said the police
suspects the involvement of these detained
individuals
in a range of alleged conspiracies against the
state.
All those formally arrested and charged in
relation to
these conspiracies are Muslims and almost all have
been charged under provisions of the Prevention of
Terrorism Act, 2002 (Pota).
Many of these persons, it said, spent periods of
time
in illegal detention prior to their
"formal" arrest.
Others reportedly continue to be held indefinitely
in
illegal detention.
The report claims police from Gaekwad Haveli
police
station, the headquarters of the DCB, have
routinely
resorted to arbitrary detention, denied detainees
access to lawyers and relatives, denied them
access to
medical attention and used torture or
ill-treatment to
induce confession.
It said through these arrests, "the
Government of
Gujarat is following up its
tacit support for communal
violence against Muslims in February 2002 with a
targeted campaign to detain and imprison large
numbers
of Muslims in a discriminatory manner."
Amnesty said it is addressing recommendations to
both
the Gujarat government and the
Union government to
immediately ensure an inspection by an independent
judicial body of Gaekwad Haveli police station and
all
police stations in the state, to determine whether
individuals are being illegally detained and
whether
accurate records of detention are being
maintained.
It also demanded that all those illegally detained
in
Gujarat be immediately
released and that where police
officials are found to have acted illegally,
prompt
action be initiated against them, including the
bringing of charges under sections 342-8 of the
IPC
for wrongful confinement.
Amnesty said it is concerned that patterns of
illegal
detention may be replicated in other areas of the
state where there is even less scrutiny of police
practices. It said the courts in Gujarat have to date
failed to take any action to prevent or
investigate
and prosecute most of these actions.
"Detailed information has been almost
impossible to
confirm because of the reluctance of relatives to
make
complaints for fear of retribution, preventing
lawyers
from challenging the illegal detentions in any
formal
legal proceedings," the report said.
While presenting the cases of two illegally
detained
men in the report, Amnesty said it was concerned
for
their safety and was hence withholding their names
from publication.
Amnesty pointed out that in researching
information on
which the report is based, it has not been able to
visit Gujarat to interview
detainees or the police or
the government officials concerned.
The organisation's request for a visit to Gujarat has
so far been denied by the Government of India. It
also
said that in a rare show of public anger, members
of
the Muslim community in various parts of Ahmedabad
observed a 'bandh' on September 2 in protest at
the
arbitrary arrest and illegal detention of Muslims.
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Precision voting: BJP's GenNext
lap it up with laptops
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, DECEMBER
05, 2003 01:18:04 AM
]
NEW DELHI
: Laptops, computerised caste calculations, demographic profiling, extensive
in-house opinion polls, SWAT analyses of candidates — if you hadn’t
seen these things for yourself, you might have thought this was an election in
the US . BJP’s GenNext
— comprising Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley and Sanjay Joshi —
crafted a scientific poll campaign that’s unprecedented in India
, possibly setting the benchmark for future campaigns because of its sheer
efficacy and eventual success.
While Prime Minister AB
Vajpayee, Deputy PM LK Advani and hands-on party chief Venkaiah Naidu did their
share of meetings and laid down the broad contours of the campaign, the
execution was left to the party’s second generation leaders. Mr Mahajan,
with select aides, worked out a detailed grid sheet of the political calculus
in Rajasthan, while Arun Jaitley unleashed a blistering media campaign in
Madhya Pradesh and the little-known Sanjay Joshi — a swayamsevak on
deputation to the BJP — did the real nuts-and-bolts work in both MP and Chhattisgarh.
GenNext’s wasn’t
merely the donkey work. They strategised, suggested names of candidates, coined
slogans and, of course, Mr Mahajan campaigned in virtually every hick town of Rajasthan
, MP and Chhattisgarh. A couple of slogans — “Mr Bhandadhar”
(The Destroyer) and “Andher Nagri, Chaupat Raja” — coined by Mr
Jaitley, found immediate empathy among MP voters.
And Mr Joshi activated the parivar
machinery with the kind of diligence and effectiveness that only swayamsevaks
can do.
It’s not that these
leaders have surfaced suddenly; they were very much around, but never had the
kind of room that they enjoyed in these polls. While party leaders attribute
this to the changes in the organisation, particularly in Mr Naidu’s
presidency — in the past, it was controlled by an “insecure”
Jana Krishnamurthy or by Murli Manohar Joshi known more for his oversized ego
— the election management this time shows that the BJP now has a
well-oiled machinery in place for the next crucial Lok Sabha battle.
And also a crucial lesson
for the Congress?
