Critical Analysis of Sonia Gandhi's Communal Violence Bill

You might have seen a lot of reviews in 2011 about Sonia Gandhi led NAC's supposedly draconian Communal Violence Bill (CVB). I have seen a few too. But over the weekend, I got a chance to read a very short, yet concise book containing some serious critique of CVB. The book is titled "Hole in the bucket" and written by  Prof. Rakesh Sinha, Director of India Policy Foundation. I felt a need to blog after reading this book, as it is to the point, minus any detailed commentary, and exposes the grave situation India's secular society would have, if this draconian bill becomes law.

Read the salient points and feel free to pick up a copy of the book itself for further reference. Also, you are most welcome to educate or correct any point raised here, if you have a different view point. I am merely highlighting the points from the book, which I see are slamming CVB, for being highly discriminatory and dangerous for the long term stability of Indian multi-religious, multi-linguistic and multicultural society. If any section reference or legal question comes through, I would suggest to contact the India Policy Foundation at indiapolicy@gmail.com, http://www.indiapolicyfoundation.org or +91-11-2652-4018.

Before reading the salient points from the book, if you wish to read all 56 pages of the CVB, here is the Communal Violence Bill 2011 from NAC's website: http://nac.nic.in/pdf/pctvb.pdf

Now over to some key points from this 30 page book:

Book: Hole in The Bucket

1. The concept of Minority is flawed: In 1940s, two famous leaders, Tajamul Husain (Muslim) and HC Mukherjee (Christian) opposed the majority and minority concepts based on the forms of worship, in the Constituent Assembly of India.
2. Sonia Gandhi's Communal violence bill is unconstitutional per Professor Sinha. It provides two criminal laws, two legal systems and two punishments in India.
3. The essence of the book is to expose that NAC and Sonia's CVB's agenda is to treat Muslims and Christians above Hindus in the eye of security laws. SC/ST & Linguistic minorities are merely added to hide the real agenda.
4. R.Venkata Narayanan is quoted to have said, Sonia Gandhi's CVB will be a "Hindu Apartheid Law"! That's a strong statement exposing the discriminatory nature of this bill.
5. The book goes back in time to show how Hitler's Germany had biased view of a particular community. In Hitler's Germany, Jews were held responsible for ALL acts of violence. Now Sonia's CVB may do the same over Hindus :(
6. If missionaries try fraudulent or forced conversions, Sonia's CVB is NOT applicable to the violence between tribals & Christians.One wonders why is that scenario left out?
7. Sonia's CVB Article 3(F) will allow to charge a Hindu landlord of "depriving place of living", if he just tries to vacate his Muslim tenant! That can be disastrous in basic society transactions such as renting a place.
8. Sonia's CVB Clause 114 A thru E term a rape of a 2 minority women as "Mass rape". But 2 Hindu women raped is not mass rape! This to me sounds the most bizarre view of a serious crime such as rape, by communalizing it in the view of law.
9. If Sonia's CVB becomes law, a Christian or a Muslim from the "Group", can criticize sati system, but if a Hindu criticizes burqa system, it becomes "hate disinformation". For more information of who belongs to the "Group", refer to the PDF mentioned above.
10. Prof. Sinha highlights that Hitler's 1933 Nazi law viewed police & bureaucracy as pro-Jew. Sonia's 2011 CVB views police & bureaucracy as pro-Hindu. I say what a coincidence in the thought process!
11. Sonia's CVB Section 12: If police hit a minority (not Hindu) during terror investigation, it's "torture" and severe punishment for police prescribed. But if a Hindu is hit, there is no special provision to punish the guilty police.
12. Sonia's CVB Section 120 makes it almost impossible for state administrations to demolish illegal Muslim or Christian religious structures. That's a serious flaw.
13. Sonia's CVB Section 18 (I): Police MUST act against "daily activities" of Hindu organizations, if complained by minorities. The first thought that came to my mind.. RSS shakhas anyone? :)
14. The book says, Hitler and Mussolini rewarded bureaucracy if they were "efficient" (translation: targeted Jews in the first case). Prof. Sinha feels, Sonia's CVB replaces Jews with Hindus, which makes it a very dangerous bill.
15. Prof. Sinha tracks back to 1930, when Muslim League's baseless allegations against police & bureaucracy were common. This eventually led to the disastrous partition of India in 1947. If in 2011, Sonia's CVB replicates the situation for a similar bias, what next?
16. The book lists the top 3 sources of baseless allegation against India's administration & police: a) Radiance. 2) Milli Gazette and 3) Communalism Combat (Teesta Setalvad & Javed Anand)
17. Prof. Sinha categorically states that in the past 5 years, both Ranganath Mishra and Sachar Committee reports have not been able to cite even ONE instance of institutional bias against minorities of India. Hence the rabble rousers are to be ignored.
18. Muslim scholars like AAA Faizi and Humayun Kabir have termed "institutional bias against minorities" in India as imaginary.
19. The most important take away from this book is that while pretending to prevent "state sponsored riots", Sonia Gandhi's NAC is pushing "state sponsored communalism" via this draconian anti-Hindu CVB.
20. Sonia's CVB section 18:122, ALL members of a Hindu org may get ten years jail term, if just ONE member names someone in organization as criminal! Setup precisely to discourage people from becoming board members of Hindu organizations.
21. Sonia's CVB Sec 21 calls for a seven member national authority for final word, which is outside the RTI purview. The craziest part is that this authority must have four minorities & ALL decisions will be taken via majority vote. So essentially, this whole "above the common law" authority is designed be controlled by Muslims and Christians. To top it, this national authority must select its chairman and Vice Chairman from the minority groups. And here it the googly.. anyone with "bias" against minority shown anytime in their career till date, however minor it may be like talking against Muslim reservation just once, is barred! Needless to say, this pretty much negates any sane voice from either minority or majority community to make decisions.:)

Let's stop at these 21 points. These are enough to give you a glimpse of how discriminatory and anti-Hindu agenda driven, this CVB 2011 is. After reading the "Hole in the Bucket", examining Prevention of Communal & Targeted Violence Bill, I feel that even India breaking Jinnah wouldn't have thought as 'communally', as this Sonia Gandhi's NAC!

Feel free to read the book. Again, you are most welcome to educate me and the readers of this blog, if these points are not interpreted properly. You have to provide a proper interpretation or example though, without getting into unnecessary diversions or fights.

Godhra Train Burning : Yet Another Rewind

We saw Narendra Modi getting yet another relief today on the judiciary side when Supreme Court handed over further probe of a particular 2002 case to a trial court. The right of center folks on internet are celebrating this as yet another defeat for the long list of lies propagated by Teesta Setalvad and co. The left of center folks are either silent or having difficulty gulping the news that Supreme Court would not act against Narendra Modi. Even though a gazillion websites and videos talk about Narendra Modi's stellar development track record transforming Gujarat into a model growth story, there is one thing about 2002 which just doesn't go away when talking about him.

So let's dig into Godhra 2002, particularly the train burning incident, a bit more for clarity. We have heard enough about what happened after Godhra, but not much on this very important trigger. Let me provide plenty of links here, majority being reputed national level news papers from India. Once you read through the entire saga, including the links, I would let you draw the conclusion yourself.








Section 1: Godhra Town's history & pre-plan for a mass murder:

1. Godhra town had settled Sindhi Hindus who moved in from Pakistan & Ghanchi Muslims after partition. The relationship between Hindus and Muslims was apparently not that cordial right from the start, as Ghanchis were termed as very aggressive per some reading I did online.
2. Godhra town witnessed communal riots in 1947, 1952, 1959, 1961, 1965, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1980, 1983, 1989, 1990 and in 1992. Wasn't Congress party ruling all along?



Godhra Train Burning in Feb 2002. {Source: The Hindu}

3. Two Godhra petrol pump men, Ranjitsingh Patel & Prabhatsingh Patel said they sold 140 liters of petrol the previous evening to Muslim looking men. This was established in the court in 2010-11 period conclusively.

Section 2: Let's learn about the Congress party's M. Kalota:

1. Mehmud H Kalota, Salim A G Sheikh, Abdul R A M Ghantia, Farroukh Bhana and Haji Bilal, were the five Congress members/supporters at Godhra. Read More via a Rajeev Srinivasan writeup in Rediff portal: http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/mar/25rajeev.htm
2. Read more on Kalota's link to Congress party in particular, from Rediff's 2002 writeup by Onkar Singh: http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/mar/12train3.htm
3. Mohammad Hussain Kalota, acquitted for 'lack of evidence' was an independent president of Godhra corporation. But worked for Congress minority cell for six years, so the political leaning & support was hard to hide.
4. The same Kalota had given an ad in a Gujarati paper on May 10, 2001, thanking Congress for getting him elected per another old news item.
5. Kalota was a district convener of minority cell of Congress. Salim Sheikh (absconding) was the youth Congress VP and Haji Bilal (Convict) was associated too.
6. Tablighi Jamaat, whose links Godhra Congress minority cell leader Kalota had, also had former Pakistan president Rafiq Tarar as its member. Being just a member is not the concern, but read on.
7. Kalota, who ran Congress minority cell at Godhra for 6 years, had past links to Tablighi Jamaat. Tablighi founded Harkat, a Jammu & Kashmir terror org (which claimed responsibility via an email for 2011 September 7th Delhi blasts too). So here we have the grand old party of India, whose main guy in Godhra town is linked to one of the worst human rights violating terror organization in Kashmir that is fighting India itself! So now we have Godhra conspiracy, linked to Tablighi, which in turn an incubator of outright terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir..<cry> . Read an elaborate writeup from 2002 by journalist Praveen Swami, exposing all the above mentioned details here: http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl1906/19060120.htm
8. The main accused in the Godhra genocide, Mohammed Hussain Kalota, has been a "Congressman and a protege of a sitting Congress legislator". Read more about that here in Indian Express:  http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=8349

Section 3: Haji Bilal, the first in death penalty list:

Haji Bilal {From TribuneIndia}

1. DeshGujarat portal lists the names of all 31 convicted for Godhra train burning, based on 21st Feb 2011 court verdict: http://deshgujarat.com/2011/02/22/godhra-verdict31-accused-guilty-63-acquitted-punishment-on-25-february/
2. Those who had poured petrol over coach S-6 are: Aiyub Pataliya, Irfan Kalandar, Mehboob Popa, Shaukat Patadiya and Siddik Vohra.:(
3. Their leader was Haji Bilal per the writeup. The real name of Haji Bilal, prime convict in Godhra train burning is Abdul Raheman Abdul Majid Suleja, a member of Godhra corporation under M. Kalota.
4. Haji Bilal was not arrested after Godhra train burning. He was missing, but arrested later. The second main planner Faruk Bhano may be in Pakistan per some other news items.
5. In 2008, two of the Godhra accused, possibly Haji's men, were hiding in Pakistan : Ibrahim Dhantiya and Salim alias Paanwala. More here: http://islamicterrorism.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/two-godhra-accused-in-pak-say-they-want-to-return-home/

Section 4: Terrorism/Riot links to Gujarat Congress:

Mahmood As'ad Madani of Jamait in front {From Milligazette}

1. Well before Godhra, Congress party had black sheep, who were actively hand in glove with terrorism in Gujarat. Read about how a former Congress Fisheries Minister of Gujarat Mohammad Surti and ten others were found guilty in 1993 Surat twin blast case by TADA court in 2008.
2. Apr 29, 2002, Mahmood Madani of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind sent a list of 25 Congress workers, including one MLA & one MP involved in post Godhra riots. Of course neither Sonia Gandhi, nor her loyal supporters ever talked about this.. for obvious reasons! Read more from Times of India: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2003-08-09/india/27201201_1_congress-leaders-congress-mlas-gujarat-youth-congress
3. From February 2011 verdict, it was clear that Godhra train burning also had Congress supporters involved. Gory details of train burning here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godhra_train_burning. To get a background of the same folks, read the May 2002 Godhra charge sheet featuring five apparent Congress party members/supporters like Bilal. The chargesheeted names prime accused Haji Bilal, a municipal corporator and Congress supporter. Bilal along with President of Godhra municipality Mohd Hussain Kalota were arrested in March. Others arrested include corporator Abdul Razak and Shiraj Abdul Jamesha. Read more here from 2002 Indian Express: http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=10692

Section 5: Episode of cover-up via media & sham commission:

Justice Banerjee {From Jagran}

1. All those fans of Tehelka's journalism, read this Godhra "Investigative" report - - "spontaneous mob fury".. Sick! Read more on the apparent paid coverup: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107Godhra.asp
2. Should Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Lalu Yadav & Justice Banerjee be questioned further for apparently lying to the nation? Infact, it was not just a lie, but a lie of the century. Read more: Godhra was an accident: Banerjee panel: http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=63804 Can't believe how such an 'accident' resulted in death sentences to so many in the court in 2011!
3. Thankfully, the judiciary of India is still working outside the evil clutches of the manipulating politicians. Gujarat High Court categorically stated in October 2006, that Sonia Gandhi's government has committed an unconstitutional blunder & threw 'honest' Manmohan, Lalu & Sonia's efforts into dustbin. The Gujarat High Court termed the appointment of the high-level Justice UC Banerjee panel that probed the Godhra train carnage as “unconstitutional, illegal and void”. UPA's cover-up chapter closed. Read more from DNA: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_banerjees-findings-contrary-to-facts-gujarat-hc_1058373
   

Section 6: Post February 2011 Godhra court verdict:

Lalu Yadav {From Hindu}

1. "Godhra verdict exposed Lalu, UPA and a fake inquiry under a retired SC judge, that blamed victims themselves" - BJP : Read more: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1480169.ece
2. "Can't comment on verdict" BUT "post Godhra was blot on democracy" - So Congress folks' involvement in Godhra train burning, a celebration of democracy?  Read more: http://www.sify.com/news/congress-declines-comment-on-godhra-verdict-news-national-lcwpkfehhdi.html
3. Just read the headline from Sonia Gandhi's birth country news paper which sums up: "India: 31 Muslims condemned for massacre of Hindus". That's how the world is viewing the real story. Read more: http://www.agi.it/english-version/wo...acre_of_hindus
4. Long back, on Oct 22, 2000, Sonia Gandhi had accused Sangh parivar of killing Mahatma Gandhi & partitioning India. What a baloney! Read more: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2000/10/22/stories/02220007.htm. Nathuram Godse had left RSS in 1930s per RSS' accounts. Still we hear "RSS killed Gandhi in 1948". After the 2011 court verdict, it seems five 2002 train burners were Congress members/supporters. Will she or her party accept that Godhra train burning was a Congress party event, following the same logic?

I have drawn my conclusion well, and you can do so, after going over all the info provided in the dozens of links from mainstream media.