Open Letterto Modi-gujarath by Bhatt--IPS

8/4/2019 Open Letterto Modi-gujarath by Bhatt--IPS

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Open Letter

Dear Shri Modi

'It seems you have completely misconstrued the judgement and order passed by the Honourable Supreme Court of Indiain Jakia Nasim Ahesan & Anr. Versus State of Gujarat & Ors'

Sanjiv Bhatt

From:Sanjiv Rajendra BhattIndian Police Service

Dear Shri Modi,

I am glad you chose to write an open letter to the ‘Six crore Gujaratis’. This has not only afforded me a window to your

mind but has also given me an opportunity to write to you through the same medium.

My dear brother, it seems you have completely misconstrued the judgement and order passed by the Honourable

Supreme Court of India in Criminal Appeal No. 1765 of 2011 arising out of S.L.P. (CRL.) No. 1088 of 2008 viz. Jakia Nasim Ahesan & Anr. Versus State of Gujarat & Ors. It is very likely that your chosen advisors have once again misled

you and have in turn, made you mislead the ‘Six crore Gujaratis’ who look up to you as their elected leader.

Let me as a younger brother-Gujarati, help you decipher the Judgement and Order that has led to unequivocal gloating

and jubilatory celebrations among some sections of the political spectrum. It has been stated in your letter that

“One thing is apparent from the Supreme Court's judgment. The unhealthy environment created by the unfounded andfalse allegations made against me and Government of Gujarat, after 2002 riots, has come to an end”.

Let me clarify that even by a long shot, the order of the Honourable Supreme Court has nowhere, even remotely,suggested that the allegations contained in the complaint filed by Mrs. Jakia Jafri were unfounded or false.

The truth is that the order of the Honourable Supreme Court is in fact, a very major leap in the direction of delivering

justice to the hapless victims of the Gujarat pogrom. As you are well aware, Mrs. Jafri had approached the HonourableGujarat High Court with a prayer for registering her complaint as an FIR. The said petition was disallowed by theHonourable High Court of Gujarat. Mrs. Jafri, therefore, approached the Honourable Supreme Court of India by way of

a Special Leave Petition against the order of the High Court.

The Honourable Supreme Court directed the SIT to look into her complaint and subsequently also directed the learnedAmicus to examine the evidence collected by the SIT. At the end of this long and arduous exercise the Honourable

Supreme Court has not only allowed the Appeal of Mrs. Jafri and directed the SIT to virtually treat the complaint of Mrs. Jafrri as an FIR, but has also directed the SIT to file a report under section 173(2) of the Cr.P.C. Let me clarify for your benefit and for the benefit of your Six crore brothers and sisters of Gujarat, that this report under section 173(2) of the Cr.P.C. is colloquially known as Charge-Sheet or Final Report.

The honourable Supreme Court of India has also directed the SIT to place all the evidence collected by it, including thereports of the learned Amicus before the magistrate empowered to take cognisance. I am sure you will appreciate that

in order to let the law of the land take its due course, this was the best option available to the Honourable SupremeCourt as per the scheme of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

What the Honourable Supreme Court of India has given to Mrs. Jafri is much more than what she had originally prayedfor. The order over which some of us are gloating in feigned glee, is in fact, a very cleverly worded order that takes the

perpetrators and facilitators of the 2002 carnage a few leaps closer to their day of reckoning. The false bravado comesacross as a very smart attempt to mislead the gullible people of Gujarat and instil a false sense of confidence in the

political rank and file. Please be assured that we will see a very different picture as the actual import of the order startssettling in and takes judicial effect.

As one of the ‘Six Crore Gujaratis’, I feel deeply pained and cheated when the likes of you, consciously or inadvertently, mislead the people of Gujarat for ulterior motives. The theory propounded and practised to perfection by

Paul Joseph Goebbels, one of Adolf Hitler’s closest associate and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany, can

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definitely work with the majority of the populace for some time. But all of us know from historical experience that

Goebbelsian Propaganda cannot fool all the people for all the time.

I fully endorse your realization that "Hate is never conquered by hate." Who would know this better than you, who hasserved this State for the last one decade; and I, who has served in the Indian Police Service for the last 23 years. I hadthe misfortune of serving with you during those days of 2002 when the dance of hatred was choreographed and

perpetrated at different venues in Gujarat. Albeit this is not the appropriate forum for me to discuss and reveal the

details of our respective roles, I am sure that both of us will be getting ample opportunities before appropriatelyempowered fora to disclose our knowledge about the dynamics of hatred in the realpolitik of Gujarat. I hope you andyour cronies, within and without the Government, will not hate me more for this.

I cannot agree more with you when you say that

“the credibility of those who have been spreading lies and defaming Gujarat has come to its lowest ebb. The people of

this country will not trust such elements anymore”.

But my dear brother, you seem to have got it entirely wrong as to who are the ones spreading lies and defaming

Gujarat. To my mind, Gujarat has gained infamy not because of the hapless victims who have tirelessly crusading for the cause of justice and truth, but because of the despicable actions of the people who sowed and cultivated hatred to

reap political and electoral benefits. Please give it a thought. Introspection can prove to be very revealing at times.

I am deeply touched by your concern and efforts to “further strengthen Gujarat's environment of peace, unity and

harmony.” Thanks to you and your kinsmen, Gujarat has been free from any large scale eruption of communal violencesince 2002. The reasons for this may not be very obvious to our fellow ‘Six Crore Gujaratis”. This is my 24th year inthe IPS. I was allotted to the Gujarat cadre during a time when the State was passing through the throes of widespreadand sporadic communal violence.

Having been baptised by fire, I have been since trying to understand and deal with the likes of you, who deal in thedivisive politics of hatred. It is my well founded observation that the polity of Gujarat has now crossed the stage where

communal violence can accrue electoral benefits to any political party, as the process of communal polarisation is verynearly complete in Gujarat. The experiments in the divisive politics of hatred have been very successful in the Gujarat

Laboratory. You and your likes, in the political arena, have been largely successful in creating divides in the hearts andminds of the “Six Crore Gujaratis”. The need to resort to any further communal violence in Gujarat is already passé.

In a constitutional democracy like ours, it is incumbent upon the State to act in Good faith at all times and under allcircumstances. Over the last nine and a half years many friends have fallen prey to the misleading campaign that theGujarat Carnage of 2002 was a spontaneous reaction to the condemnable action at Godhra on the fateful morning of 27February 2002. The Newtonian Law was never abused more. You had resorted to your knowledge and understanding

of Newtonian physics in March 2002 and had sought to apply it to polity and governance at the peak of the GujaratCarnage of 2002. But what you might have deliberately missed then, and what many of us seem to be inadvertentlymissing now; is the universally accepted principle of governance which mandates that in a constitutional democracy, anavowedly secular State cannot be allowed to be partisan.

It was the bounden duty of the State to have anticipated and controlled the possible Newtonian reaction, if any; notorchestrate and facilitate systematic targeting of innocent individuals! Be that as it may, as an expression of solidarity

with your stated objective of spreading Sadbhavana in the land of the Mahatma, I resolve to join you in your Sadbhavana Mission. What better way to do this than helping the truth to come out and let the spirit of justice andgoodwill prevail. As all of us understand, there can be no Sadbhavna or Goodwill without truth and justice. I herebyreaffirm my resolve to contribute my might towards the restoration of Sadbhavana in the administration and polity of

Gujarat.

But let me warn you that genuine heartfelt goodwill is something we cannot demand, buy or extort…we can only strive

to deserve it. And it is not going to be an easy task. The land of the Mahatma is slowly but surely coming out of itshypnotic state.

As the most powerful person in Gujarat you may think that you do not need to feel accountable to the perceptions of allsections of the community. But believe me, history has proved time and again, that power without genuine goodwill is

a path fraught with dangers…it is also a path of no return.



Samabhava is a condition precedent for Sadbhava. Governance by equity and goodwill should not only be the first

article of your faith but should also be the last article of your creed.

The truth is more frequently than not, a little bitter and not very easy to swallow. I hope that you will take this letter inthe true spirit in which it is written and you or your agents will not indulge in direct or indirect acts of retribution as isyour wont.

In the words of Martin Luther King Jr. – Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The spirit of the haplessvictims who have been struggling for justice in Gujarat may occasionally flag but it will not be suppressed by any

amount of false Goebbelsian propaganda. The struggle for justice is never easy anywhere in the world…it calls for everlasting patience and unfailing perseverance at all times.

The spirit of the crusaders for truth and justice in Gujarat is epitomised in this poem by Bhuchung Sonam, an

alumnus of M.S. University, Baroda.

I have principle and no power you have power and no principle

you being youAnd I being I

Compromise is out of the questionSo let the battle begin...

I have truth and no forceyou have force and no truthyou being youAnd I being I

Compromise is out of the questionSo let the battle begin...

You may club my skullI will fight

You may crush my bonesI will fight

You may bury me aliveI will fight

With truth running through meI will fight

With every ounce of my strengthI will fightWith my last dying breathI will fight ...

I will fight till theCastle that you built with your liesComes tumbling downTill the devil you worshipped with your lies

Kneels down before my angel of truth.

May the kind God give you the requisite strength to be equitable and benevolent towards one and all!

Satyamev Jayate!With best wishes.

Yours sincerely,Sanjiv Bhatt

September 16, 2011



‘I will not allow the victims to be let down'

R.K. RAGHAVAN: “It [the SIT] is now into its fourth year, with the light at the end of the tunnel not seen”. Photo:R.V. Moorthy

Interview with R.K. Raghavan, head of SIT probing the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The former CBI Director, R.K. Raghavan , who heads the Special Investigation Team probing the 2002 Gujarat riots, says he has an open mind on incorporating the report of the amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran while submitting theSIT's final report to the Trial Court. In an interview with J. Venkatesan , Mr. Raghavan says the Supreme Court was

right to subject his report to independent scrutiny.

Will you incorporate the amicus curiae report or merely forward it to the trial court? The Supreme Court does

not appear to have given a positive direction to the SIT on this aspect.

A strict construction of the order requires only the mechanical act of forwarding the amicus's report along with mine.

Anyhow, I have an open mind.

The main allegation against the SIT was that it has given clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Is this perception correct?

“Clean chit” is a vague expression that I don't like. The SIT has only responded to questions that came its way during

the enquiry into Ms Zakia Jafri's petition [on the Gujarat riots]. This response was on the basis of the evidence collectedand the rules of evidence that apply in such matters.



Even the Supreme Court said the SIT's findings and inference did not match. It is only for this reason that the

amicus curiae was asked to give his comments on your report.

I was happy that our report was subjected to a critical scrutiny by an eminent lawyer. This was a correct move on the part of the apex court so that whatever conclusion is arrived at finally by the Trial Court carries credibility. Whilegiving its verdict, the latter would have had the benefit of the findings of two sources who worked independent of each

other. The order of the Supreme Court in asking [amicus curiae] Raju Ramachandran to examine the evidence collected

by us was in no way an index of its dissatisfaction with the SIT.

As of now, Mr. Modi and 61 others are not cited as accused in the case. Is the formal registration of an FIR

required, as Ms. Jafri's original petition had sought, and if so, can the trial court order registration of FIR based

on the SIT report?

We are now far beyond the stage of an FIR. The Trial Court will now decide whether there is material enough in the

SIT's Final Report and in Raju Ramachandran's report that would necessitate further investigation by the SIT or theframing of charges by the court itself against any other accused, other than those against whom charges have already

been framed. Please remember that the trial has reached a very advanced stage.

Do you think the amicus curiae was carried away by police officer Sanjeev Bhat's allegations against the SIT?

It will be unfair to accuse the amicus of having been carried away by one particular witness.

He spoke to several witnesses and I am sure his report was the product of his comprehension, neutrality and integrity.

There is an allegation from Mr. Bhat that the SIT passed on its reports to the Gujarat government. He also

alleged that Tushar Mehta, Additional Advocate-General of Gujarat, had advised some of the accused based on

the SIT report. Is this correct? Were the SIT reports leaked?

This was a grossly unfair and motivated allegation. Anyhow, this matter is before the apex court. I should not commentfurther on this.

At the end of the day, what are your feelings about the SIT assignment which came seven years after you laid

down office as CBI chief?

This has been tough beyond words. I came with an informal assurance from Justice Pasayat that I could finish this and

go home within three months. It is now into its fourth year, with the light at the end of the tunnel not seen. This has been physically exhausting, and my family don't like it a wee bit.

There has also been advice from friends that I should call it a day, because I was in a highly politicised and, therefore,controversial environment where no holds were barred. They also perceived a threat to my physical safety. There were,

of course, several moments when I did want to quit. (Actually, my detractors set afloat the rumour a few months agothat I had resigned! I refused to oblige them!) But after serious reflection, I thought I should not be a quitter and that I

should hold on gallantly. I have been subjected to barbs touching my professionalism, neutrality and integrity. Thesehave saddened me, but have not affected the steel in me.

The personal attacks on me and the SIT have not demoralised us because of the solid support of the three-member bench [Justices Jain, Sathasivam and Aftab Alam]. But for them I would have just crumbled. The two amicus curiae,

Harish Salve and Raju Ramachandran, have also been of great help.

More than anything else, the officers working for me have simply been great. They are not only hard working but have

been acutely conscious of the dangers of partisanship. If I am staying on, it is because of the conviction that in no wayshould I even remotely let down victims.

Documents

Open Letterto Modi-gujarath by Bhatt--IPS