It is the hallmark of events that even the mention of a Pulwama-connected surgical strike can invoke so much bile, anger, bitterness, or irritability and yet Lieu Colonel Purohit’s negotiating with Israel for aid in creating a Hindu Rashtra does not cut the ice. That was because the Gujarat laboratory experiment was meant to make the Muslims suffer, to make hell on earth for them. Such is the stuff of conspiracy and high treason. When PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Godhra and asked Maulana Umerjihow did Godhra happen, the Maulana told him in the face of Modi that the Godhra was the karnama or evil deed of Modi. Modi was seething with anger but waited to take revenge against him.
He let enough time pass and then the Maulana was arrested and slammed with the accusation that he was behind the burning of the train. This is what Modi did to Ahsan Jafri too who had opposed his election of February 23, 2002, on the ground that it would bring in the rule of RSS ideology in the state. He paid with his life for telling the electorate the truth. Vajpayee did not pay anything for all this. As Dulat clarifies regarding Modi, “Vajpayee ji never gave me that impression that he regretted not sacking him or even wanting to sack him. All he said was, maybe, Gujarat may have damaged them in 2004 election.”
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What actually happened?
He chose to toe the line of the hard-core Hindutva and kept Modi as the chief minister for political expediency and blamed Muslims for not living with their neighbours in harmony! But being a poet and given to musing, years later Vajpayee mused loudly that the loss of 2004 election was perhaps on account of the Godhra mistake.
Muslims of India can never redeem themselves from this ever-lasting suffering nor can they forget it.
Another that that is of persisting interest is what transpired in Malegaon. Though the Tata Institute of Social Sciences did commendable work on Malegaon and gave it a title, hell on earth, but there is more. There are more women police informers in the town than men. Reason: their husbands do not work and let the wives work and feed the family. Is it not worse than hell? The more startling discovery is as of now that 25% of Muslim prisoners in Maharashtra have no lawyers to represent them in courts across the state! There are lucky informers in the employ of the police like Sajid Shaikh of Azad Nager slums. He can afford to do his duty not in Malegaon but also in Mumbai. He says he has been used by ATS chief Raghuvanshi as well as the NIA. He can plant bombs and yet not be caught.
But he can very well claim that he knew the planters of bombs in the graveyard and Mushawarat chowk in 2006 case but the police and investigators did not take it seriously. So worse than hell on earth is this nefarious trade. Another remarkable character is the accused in the same case, Abrar Ahmad. Though the highest punishment for perjury is death, it was his informer work that led to the arrest of the remaining accused. The ATS could provide his family with monthly payments to run the house in his absence as he was in prison and also take his wife for treatment for being barren. In no other country, this happens as in India. So much money changes hands and yet the living condition is worse than hell.
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What kind of spy network is there you can have a glimpse of?
The last arrested in the 2006 case was Maulana Zahid, the Phoolsanghvi imam five hundred km away from Malegaon. Within a week of the arrest and before even the interrogation could begin, DGP Dr PS Pasricha in his famous press conference claimed that the blasts case was now solved! So even before question Zahid and Ishtiyak it was resolved. It resembles ATS of Gujarat chief DG Vanzara solving Akshardham temple attack, detaining Mufti Qayum Mansuri and asking him to elect on which head of crime he would like to be arrested! That is how Vanzara worked so easily, facilely and glibly. But those innocent people he dumped in the dungeon of Gaikwad Haveli suffered hell on earth. They lived in dolour. After his release on bail, his children went to the session court in Ahmadabad and filed a suit against Mufti Qayum. They are an enviable family so full of contentment, joy, peace and success as if they are on a foreign tour in Europe:
In stark contrast is the woebegone family of the Haj House imam Maulana Gulam Yahya Illahi Baksh on the stairs to the office of the metropolitan magistrate in Mumbai.
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The imam family is so overwhelmed with an affliction that it is a picture in dolor. When the imam was taken to Arthur-road jail the police colony near Kala Ghoda office of ATS was all out on the balcony staring at the so-called dreaded imam agog. Do they now know that the imam was a noble soul of simplicity, honesty and communal harmony? When he was released, he did not have any money to pay and preferred to remain in jail on account of his penury. How the family must have got their next meal after the arrest is beyond the compass of measuring agony.