Book
Review
Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up
By Rana Ayyub
Published by
Rana Ayyub, New Delhi 112016
Communalism and the ‘Political
Underworld’ in India
Ish Mishra
In the aftermath of Allahabad High Court judgement that
nullified her election as a MP from Rae Bareli and in the midst of on growing students’
unrest, Mrs Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India imposed
emergency on 25th June 1975. Fundamental rights were suspended;
political opponents and dissenting intellectuals were jailed, press censored[1]. The pervasive
sense of fear; apprehension and the threat to fundamental rights including
right to life in Gujrat under Narendra
Modi’s regime, as ‘uncovered’ in the book under review, was far higher. Modi is
trying to implement Gujrat model in the whole country, after coming to power in
2014. A perusal of Gujarat Files:
Anatomy of a Cover Up by Rana Ayyub makes it clear that oppression of rights by extra
constitutional forces of various RSS[2]
(Rashtriya Swayam Sevak) affiliates; and extra constitutional use of
constitutional state apparatuses, sense of fascist fear in Gujrat was more
intense than that during the declared emergency. The student wing of RSS, ABVP
(Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad) is acting like Nazi storm troopers (SA) in
disrupting the programs of other organization; attacking minorities and Dalits;
and indulging in hate campaign against minorities and left[3].
The undeclared emergency under the Modi regime in Gujrat and now in India has
been more frightening and scarier. What Indira Gandhi could do through constitutional
amendments, Modi government is doing much more than that without it. As during
the emergency (1975-77), Modi government in Gujrat had ‘obedient’ and complying
and politically loyal bureaucracy and police. Indira Gandhi resorted to
supersession of Supreme Court judges for a ‘committed’ judiciary. Present
dispensation seeks to subvert judiciary by manipulations, for which the
government was recently, badly rebuked by the Supreme Court of India[4].
The comparative study Indian fascisms, constitutional and extra constitutional,
are beyond the scope of this review. While Indira Gandhi used the
constitutional provision of emergency to supress the fundamental rights,
particularly rights of freedom to expression and dissent, the Modi government
is using the extra-constitutional RSS brigades like ABVP; sold out or scared
media and arbitrary misuse of draconian colonial sedition laws to silence the
dissent[5].
For the suppression of dissent, Indira Gandhi had only state’s coercive
apparatuses on her disposal, in addition to that Modi in Gujrat during his
chief ministership and now in the India, has the additional forces of various
RSS affiliates. After coming to power at the Centre, the series of attacks on
the democratic institutions and right of expression are nothing but extension
of the fascist terror of Gujarat variety to the entire country.
Emboldened by the arrest of Amit Shah, following her expose in Tehelka[6],
the daring young journalist Rana Ayyub decided to achieve the impossible, to explore
the truth of Gujrat genocide in 2002; the subsequent communal build-up by the RSS
fronts in complicity with the state apparatuses and the cover up. And she proved
that the impossibility is just a theoretical concept. The complicity of the
government in post-Godhra[7]
Gujarat holocaust in 2002 and subsequent fake encounters for chauvinistic electoral
polarisation is a common knowledge. But as the author admits at the very outset, it could not
be proved because of lack of solid evidence. “There was an indication that over
the last decade there had been subversion of the judicial process. Those who
were supposed to safeguard the lives of people had been bought over. From the riots to encounters to political
assassinations, many an inconvenient truth was waiting to come out” (Page 9).
With the encouragement from the editors of Tehelka, she ventured out
to uncover the ‘covered up’ truth of the Gujrat’s political ‘underworld’ as an
undercover journalist. She disguised as Maithili Tyagi, a student of a US based
Film institute. She luckily met a 19 year old French boy, a foreign exchange
program student, who agreed to act as her assistant. With full preparation and
precautions, notwithstanding the great risk involved, she began her sting
operation lasting for eight months with substantial success.
At almost the last leg of her investigation, while waiting a call from
Narendra Modi’s office for her second meeting with him, she was asked to halt
the investigation and called back by the editors. Echoes of fascist ambience
pervading Gujrat had reached Delhi. They ‘politely’ turned down her request to
carry the ‘story’ citing Modi’s increasing aura and ability to harm the
publication. As Rana recalls her arguments with the editor in her first job over
ethics and morality in journalism during her initial days of job, “He gave me a
patient ear and then said something which stayed with me: ‘A good journalist
should learn the art of detaching herself from a story and be pragmatic. Till
this day I regret being unable to master this art, particularly because, very
often, it is used as an excuse to kill a story at the behest of corporate and
political powers” (p 8). She removed the undercover and decided to make her
findings public, notwithstanding several adversities. The result is, Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover up, an incisive documentation of the rare
narratives about premeditated and protracted 2002 program, subsequent
continuity at places and unceasing hate campaigns.
While going through the book, a reader, not well acquainted with the recent
political history of India and Gujarat, might take it as an interesting detective
novel with unfolding of mysteries one after the other. The underworld in it is political and the characters
are real and live. The extent and intensity of diffidence, insecurity and
pervasive fear under a ruthless and corrupt government can be gauged by the
fact that not only the spineless officials, complicit in political crimes of
the political bosses but even those known to be honest also remained
tight-lipped against injustice, citing helplessness. Rana Ayyub makes these tight-lips
to talk. In the disguise of a non-resident Indian filmmaker, she captures their
conversations through spy cameras hidden inside her kurta, diary and watch.
Gujarat Files is an account of an undercover investigative journalist’s daring sting
operation for eight months into 2002 pogrom and subsequent fake encounters.
‘Maithili’, stings those administrative and police officials who were on
important positions in Gujarat during the years 2001 and 2010. The narratives
captured by spy cameras contain clear evidences of the complicity of the government and the RSS
affiliates in one of the most heinous crimes against humanity. But the Gujarat High Court, which could not
see any conspiracy in Gulbarga Society killings in which 69 people including
former Congress MP, Ehsan Jafri[8],
is
unlikely to take suo-moto cognizance of these evidences.
The book also records the confessions of some of some
of Modi’s staunch supporters that chauvinistic political mobilization by
communal polarization created by communal violence paved the way to the
political ascendance of Narendra Modi. As PP Pandey, the Police Commissioner of
Ahmedabad during the pogrom, believed to be close to Modi, implicitly confessed
about his role in the riots and explicitly confessed about those riots being
the basis of Modi’s political ascendency. On the question, “Modi was made Modi
by riots?” his answer is, “Yes, before that who knew him? Who was Modi?”(P146).
A former minister in Modi’s government and convicted in the gruesome Naroda
Patia massacre, Maya Kodnani[9]
feels being used and thrown. (Pp 168-73) This book reveals universally known ‘covered-up’
truths by the narratives of some of the highly placed bureaucrats and the
Police officials who knew the truth but had chosen to keep mum before the
probe commissions.
The
Machiavellianism
The acquisition, consolidation and expansion of power by chauvinistic
political mobilization through the communal violence, hate campaign and misinformation
by various RSS groups and fake encounters by Police in Narendra Modi’s regime,
as documented in this book, reminds the Renaissance political philosopher,
Machiavelli. It gives the feeling of reading a neo-liberal, Indian edition of a
political novel of regarding European Renaissance period. For Machiavelli,
success in politics, i.e. in acquisition; retention and extension of power,
holds the same place as virtue in ethics. A prudent Prince follows political
code of conduct, which he calls ‘the reason of the state’ and not the ethical
or religious, while leaving no stone unturned in pretending to be the highest
priest of morality and religiosity. Religion for Machiavelli is an effective
political instrument. He advises the king that he should not only not disturb
the religious doctrines and practices and belief in miracles, which he knows
are false, but also ensure their observance, as it keeps people “well conducted
and united.” Moreover fear of God may transcend into the fear of the Prince[10].
RSS and BJP have been thriving on the chauvinistic political mobilization
around religious appeals.
All the writings are reflection upon the existing state of affairs, but the
great writings become classics with universal contemporariness. Machiavelli’s Prince
written in the forced solitude in 1513, is a classic whose depiction of the
political authority has remained relevant in subsequent times in changed forms
in the changed circumstances of time-space. In action of rulers, “the end
justifies the means. Let the Prince therefore aim at conquering and maintaining
the state, the means will always be judged honourable and praised by everyone.”[11]
The end in the politics is power. All the means including treachery, hollow
promises, deceit and demagoguery to attain, maintain and extend power are
justified. Intellectuals do not create justices-injustices; virtues-vices. They
only react to and reflect upon conditions prevalent in the society. The
idealist camouflage the unpleasant realities into abstract philosophical
jargons and a realist presents is naked, as it is. Machiavelli did not invent political
murders, palace coups, treacheries. They were ubiquitous in renaissance monstrous
monarchies. He just advised the prudent princes to do it magnificently. The
political graph of India’s present PM, Narendra Modi is a living testimony of
the contemporary relevance of Machiavellian maxims.
Prince is in the form of advices to the prudent Princes to attain, maintain and
expend power, without any consideration to the sanctity of means. Rana Ayyub’s
sting operation resulting into Gujrat Files is a vivid exposure of
Machiavellian “means” to attain and retain power in Gujrat and extend it to the
centre, through communal polarization of society without any consideration to ethics
and social harmony. Discussion on Machiavellian attributes of Modi or RSS is
beyond the scope here and is matter of a separate discussion; the reference is
just to allude at the neoliberal relevance of Machiavelli’s theory of state
craft.
Machiavellian Prince is neither a
medieval king ruling with divine mandate nor a dynastic crown Prince. He is condottieri
(a mercenary leader) risen from a humble background like Hitler or Modi, who
founds a new state (principality) through conquest, consolidates it and extends.
Machiavelli advises the prudent Prince to choose and follow suitable model out
of the examples of existing or historical successful princes. He presents one contemporary imitable example with one from the
classical times.
He fools everybody and people get
fooled
Agathocles was a potter’s son from Sicily,
who had migrated to Syracuse in the 4th century BC. Not finding
interest in the family occupation, he joined army. “Born as a potter, this man
lived wickedly at every stage of life. Yet his wickedness was accompanied by so
much of vigor of mind and body, that having taken up a military career, he was
able to rise in ranks and become the commanding officer. Once established in
this position, he decided to be Lord of Syracuse and hold it by violence, without
any obligation to others. …. One
morning he assembled the people and senate of Syracuse, as if he had to discuss
with them things relating to the Republic, and at a given signal the soldiers
killed all the senators and the richest of the people; these dead, he seized
and held the princedom of that city without any civil commotion.”[12]
Machiavelli’s contemporary model
Rodrigues Borgias was a cardinal in the Roman Church. He had his own prison,
hangman and poisoner. Latter, in particular, was constantly busy. His victims
included several cardinals. He manipulated his way to become Pope as Alexander
VI. About whom Machiavelli writes, “Alexander VI did nothing else but deceived
men; he thought of nothing else and found occasion for it; no man was ever more
able to give assurances or affirmed the things with stronger oaths and no man
observed them less; however he always succeeded in his deception, as he well
knew this aspect of things.”[13]
Machiavelli’s admiration for Alexander
VI finds echo in the lamentation of Rajan
Priyadarshi, the DG of Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) in 2007, “he fools everybody
and people get fooled”, (p.57) in response to the question regarding Modi’s popularity in
Gujrat. Though Machiavelli’s political axioms and maxims hold true for most of
the present ‘prudent’ rulers, reading about communal violence and hate campaign
by RSS affiliates permanently denting country’s composite culture for power,
one wonders, if Machiavelli was to write “Prince” for a neoliberal Third World
country, he would find many close contenders for his neoliberal models but Modi
would leave all of them behind. Machiavelli advises the prudent Prince to make
haughty promises but never to keep them as it might be detrimental to self-interest.
In nutshell he should promise the sky and plunder the earth.[14] Had
Modi kept his election promise on black money from foreign banks, every Indian
would be richer by Rs.150, 0000. Machiavelli’s another maxim is dissemble
affability, mask yourself while unmasking others.
Orders but not on Paper
Gujarat
Home Secretary at the time of 2002 riots Ashok Narayan tells about Modi, “He
would never write anything on paper. He had his people and through them the VHP[15]
and then through them (it would) trickle down through informal channels to the
lower rung police inspectors.” (p.86)….. “And they are so smart they will make
conversations so smartly on the phone –they will call up the officers and say,
’take care of that area.’ Now a common meaning for a layman would be ‘take care
riots don’t take place in that area’ but the real meaning would be take care
that riots take place in that area.’ They don’t do things themselves. There are
agents and agents and agents.”(p. 88). When a high level official like Home Secretary
is so helpless, the helplessness of a common man in daring to dissent can be imagined.
Ashok
Narayan tells ‘Maithili’: “When I was the Home Secretary I had given orders
that nothing will happen unless written orders are given. So when the bandh was
call was given,(27 February 2002) the
Chief Secretary called me and said one leader from VHP, Pravin Togadia wants to
take out a rally so what do you think? I said sir no such permission should be
given because then things will go out of hand. The CM came to know of this. He
said how you can say this. We have to give them permission. I said OK, then
give me the written orders, he (Modi) just stared at me.” (Pp 88-89)
The Truth behind
‘Encounters’
An apparently conscientious
police officer, who remained tight-lipped before the inquiry commissions, was
quite vocal in front of the ‘NRI film maker’. Rajan Priyadarshi was ATS (Anti
Terrorist Squade) Chief when CID was probing fake encounters in 2007. He was IG
of Rajkot during 2002 riots. “The Entire country is talking of that encounter. They
bumped off that Sohrabuddin and Tulsi Prajapati at the behest of the minister.
This minister Amit Shah, he never used to believe in human rights. He used to
tell us that he does not believe in these human rights commissions. And now
look at this, the courts have given him bail too.” On the question of his
experiences of working under Amit Shah, he said “I did (work under him), when I
was ATS chief… I am a person who believes in human rights. So this Shah calls me
to his bungalow. … So when I reached, he says, ‘You have arrested a man recently,
kill him’. I did not react. And then he said, ‘Kill him such people have no
right to live’.”
“I immediately
came to my office and called a meeting of my juniors. I feared Amit Shah could
give them direct orders and get him killed.” (Pp 58-59) On the issue of
Police-politician nexus, he recounts his experience as the IGP Rajkot around
July 2002, “There were communal riots near Junagadh. I wrote FIRs against some
people. The Home Minister called me up and said, ‘Rajanji where are you?’ I
said, ‘Sir I am at Junagarh.’ So he said, ‘write down three names, and arrest
all these three.’ I said, ‘Sir these three are sitting with me and let me tell
you that they are all Muslims and because of them normalcy has been restored. These
are the people who have brought Hindus and Muslim together with their efforts
and brought riots to an end. He said, ‘Look it is CM’s order’ and then this guy
was the CM, Narendra Modi. …, ‘Sir, I can’t do it even if it is CM’s orders
because these are innocent.” This is a government that seeks to protect the
perpetrators of violence and punish the peace makers, a typical characteristic
Machiavellian ‘Prince’.
To the question,
“The person, who Amit Shah had asked you to bump off, was he a Muslim?” he
replied, “No, he wanted him to go because there was some pressure from the
business lobby.”
On Ishrat
Jahan encounter, he shares another in formation, “…, at one time these people…..means
Vanjara[16]
and gang had arrested five Sardars(Skhs) and one of them was a constable. So Banjara
said that their encounter should be done because they were terrorists. Luckily
Pandian was the SP then and he refused, so those five (innocents) were saved.” When
asked about the up-righteous officers in the state, his answer is, “There are
very few of them. This man, Narendra Modi has been responsible for killing the
Muslims across [the state]. According to him, though the officers may not be
anti-Muslim themselves but “politicians make him do this. If you are upright, they would never let you
be in a posting.”
About the
government, he opines, “This government is corrupt and communal. Like this Amit
Shah would come and boast to me about what he did to instigate riots in 1985”. Talking
about Amit Shah’s boasting and fondness of calling the officers at his place,
He revealed that “He would confide in me. In fact he was the one, who told me about
the Ishrat case. He said he had kept Ishrat in custody before they were killed
and all five were killed and there was no encounter. He would tell me she was
no terrorist.” (Pp.57-63)
The
Machiavellian Fear
Machiavelli
thinks that it is better to extract loyalty of the ruled by love but love not
always reliable factor. But fear is always reliable that never fails. “Catch
them by balls, their mind and heart will follow.” He quotes the monster
emperor, Caligula, “Let them hate me as long as they fear me”. To instil fear,
some killing is necessary but killing must stop at some point. His maxim is
“kill quickly and reward gradually” and “kill the killer”. Justice has been
done by hanging the hangman. As has been very well documented in the book, the
lamenting confessions of implicated officers in fake encounters, most of them
Dalits and Maya Kodnani convicted in Naroda Patia massacre that Modi follows
the policy of ‘use and throw’. (Pp 169-73)
The sense of fear
created by Modi in Gujrat was so intense and pervasive, leave aside the bureaucrats
and policemen in Gujarat, even editors of the magazine, known for daring
investigative journalism too got badly scared. When Rana Ayyub phoned the
editor of Tehelka for next step of sting, she was called back to the
Delhi office. In her words: “The next morning I reached Delhi and went straight
to Tehelka office. I had
transferred the footage of the Modi recording to my laptop. ... I showed them
the footage….. ‘So why was I called back’ I asked, ‘His office will call me in
a few days and I am supposed to meet him again.’` Tarun (Editor of Tehlka)
said, ‘Look Rana, after the Tehelka sting
on Bangaru Laxman[17],
they shut our office. Modi is all set
to be the most powerful man, the PM. If we touch him we will be finished.’” (Pp 203-04)
“I was not
convinced. Was the entire sting operation not a big risk in itself? But I was
given a sharp No to every argument.” (Page 203) When the torch bearers of the
investigative journalism turned out to be so scared, the state of the captive
media can be well imagined. “Two days later I removed Uninor Sim card from my phone,
crushed it and threw it in the dustbin. I did the same with the phone. Maithili
made an exit forever that day. The editors took a call that investigation would
not be published.” (p 203-04) And when
she decided to print it as a book, she failed to get a single publisher. When
she got it published on her own, she did not get a single distributor. What
else will be the terror of fascism?
When the economy
of the country is in doldrums and subservient to imperialist global capital to
deviate the attention from the economic issues, the Brahmanical forces under
the tutelage of RSS and the Government are trying to polarise the society by
orchestrating chauvinistic Hndutva nationalism, misinformation, rumours and
hate campaigns against Muslims with the Uttar Pradesh election in 2017 in mind,
this book is an important document that nails down the fascist designs of RSS.
This is full of evidences that the Supreme Court must prima facie take
cognizance and initiate proceedings against culprits. This document also makes
an emphatic statement that all the riots are political and premeditated. This
also proves that a riot stretches for longer duration only with the backing of
the Government. In the words of Ashok Narayan, “Encounters are less on
religious lines than political. Look at the Sohrabuddin encounter. He was
killed at the behest of the politicians. Amit Shah is behind bars because of
that[18].”
The
question is why people increasingly fall victim to the electoral trap of the
religious fanaticism? The nationalist
journalist, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi wrote in his editorial titled “In the
Guise of Religion” in his newspaper Pratap on 21 October 1924, “In the
guise of religion, few men misuse the power of crores of people for their
vested interests. .… As long as people do not get rid of bigotry,
religious superstitions and prejudices, some clever people will keep on making
fool of them for their own political gains.”
Ish Mishra
Associate Professor in Political
Science
Hindu College, University of
Delhi
Delhi – 110 007 (India)
Email: mishraish@gmail.com
Phone: +9811146846
[1]
Mrs. Indira Gandhi, by 1971 had concentrated and centralized the political
power into her hands. Students of Patna University in Bihar began a small
agitation against corruption in a hostel mess that soon transformed into a
movement against corruption in general and pervaded most of the campuses in
north India.
[2] RSS is
a right wing Hindu organization formed in 1925 to unite male Hindus to take the
country to the heights of some unspecified glory of some unspecified past. The Constitution of
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Dina Nath Mishra (ed.), RSS: Myth and
Reality, Vikash Publishing House, New Delhi 1980.
[5] Students of JNU
(Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), critically opposed to Governmental
policies and ‘Hindutva’ nationalism are charged with sedition. See Ish Mishra
(op cit.)
[6] Amit Shah, the then Home Minister of
Gujrat and present president of the ruling party BJP was arrested in July 2010
and the case of fake encounters of Sohrabuddin, his wife and an eyewitness,
Tusli Prajapati on the basis of her report in Tehlka, a journal
published from New Delhi. www.tehelka.com/tag/amit-shah-arrest.
[7] On 27 February a coach of
a train carrying RSS supporter who had gone for karseva for a Ram temple
at the sight of the demolished historic Babri, caught fire and 65 people
including women and children died. From the next day began the communal pogrom.
From all the evidences, the fire appears to be stage managed. See KS
Subramanium, Truth behind the Fire in Sabarmati Express, Mainstream
Weekly, New Delhi, Vol.XLIX, April 19, 2011; Dionne Bunsha, The Facts from Godhra Front Line, Calcutta, Volume 19 - Issue 15, July 20 -
August 02, 2002
[8]
Gulbarg Society is a housing society (Uninhabited now) in a Hindu majority
neighborhood. Majority of inhabitants were Muslims and other minorities. During
the communal mayhem in Gujrat, the society was surrounded by thousands of
Hundutva goons for 3 hours under RSS leaders’ supervision and in Police
presence. 69 people including a former
MP were dragged, brutalized and burnt alive. www.indiatvnews.com ›
India
[9] On 28 February one of the
most gruesome massacres occurred at Naroda Patia in Ahmedabad, the rioters were
led by Maya Kodnani, then a minister a Modi Government. She has been sentenced
to life imprisonment by a court and was on parole, when disguised Rana met
her.
[10] Niccolo Machiavelli Discourses
upon the First Ten Books of Titus Levy. Bantam Dell, New York, 2003. Book-1;
D-12.
[11] Quoted in William
Ebenstein, Great Political Thinkers: Plato to Present, oxford and IBH
Publishing Co., New Delhi, 1960, P 280
[12] Niccolo Machiavelli, Prince,
Bantam Dell, New York 2003, Pp 39-40
[13] Quoted in William
Ebenstein, Great Political Thinkers: Plato to the Present, Oxford &
IBH Publishing Company, New Delhi, 1960, P 282
[14] Machiavelli, op. cit. Pp
68-70
[15] Vishwa Hindu Parishad,
the RSS’s international wing formed for international propagation of ‘Hindutva’
and leads the riots and hate campaign in India.
[16]Vanjara is an IPS,
convicted and sentenced along with few other Police Officer headed the Police team that kidnapped and killed
Sohrabuddin in fake encounters on May 26, 2005.
[17]
Bangaru Laxman was BJP President was caught on camera accepting bribes from Tahelka
reporters disguised as arms dealers in January 2001 when there was BJP led
government at the Centre under the Prime Ministership of AB Vajpayee. He was
convicted by a court in 2012.
[18] Amit Shah was arrested by
CBI in July 2010 charged with murder, later got released on bail by Gujrat High
Court. He was made BJP President after Modi became the PM of India.
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