SIMI Fictions Tehelka

AN INDIAN MARXIST: EXAMINING THE EARTHY LEGACY OF HARKISHAN SINGH SURJEET p10
SATURDAY, 16 AUGUST 2008 | VOL. 5, ISSUE 32, NEW DELHI

RS
15
EXPOS
INVESTIGATIONS REVEAL THE INDIAN STATE IS WALKING DOWN A DANGEROUS AND UNJUST PATH IN ITS ATTEMPT TO COMBAT TERROR
www.tehelka.com | www.tehelkahindi.com
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RAHUL BAJAJ THE WORLD RECOGNISES INDIA NOT FOR ITS CULTURE BUT FOR ITS GROWTH
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LITERARY APARTHEID
Richard Crasta hits out at the West and India

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MY BROTHER, OUR TOWN SUDHIR MISHRA TALKS ABOUT HIS CHILDHOOD FRIEND DR. BINAYAK SEN
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FREE
FA I R
FEARLESS
incoldblood
UMA BHARTI IS LYING AT AMAR SINGHS BEHEST

SHAILENDRA PANDEY
The BJP hit back when it was stung but party General Secretary Arun Jaitley tells SHOBHITA NAITHANI that sting operations are kosher
What do you mean when you say you have documentary proof against Amar Singh in the cash for vote scam?
serious comment.
Are you trying to cover up because there is disarray in your
This crime of bribery comprised three stages. The rst was the own house? Eight of your MPs cross-voted during the trust oer to MPs, the second was their meeting with Amar Singh, vote in the Lok Sabha. and the third is the actual payment of money through his assis- Why is it a cover up? I think your conscience should prick on tant Sanjeev Saxena. All three stages are on the videocassette. the question of corruption. This is the kind of investigation Additionally, the cameraman and reporter of the channel that that TEHELKA should have been carrying out rather than us. recorded it are corroborative witnesses. The MPs themselves are We are giving evidence of the fact even if we give it in the a direct witness. And the fact of Sanjeev Saxena being Amar case of three MPs that money was used to inuence the vote. Singhs man can be corroborated Was it then a planned strategy from the video with independent eviYour conscience should prick on by the BJP to display the bundles dence. He speaks to Amar Singh at of cash in the Parliament on the the question of corruption. Tehelka day of the trust vote? least six times. His phone shows calls should have done it, not us made to Amar Singhs residence durWell, once you have got evidence ing that period. The car in which he to prove that bribe was given, it is came is registered in the name of Amar Singhs family memnecessary to arouse the national consciousness. bers. And we have given huge proof. In fact, only one proof itThere was a time when BJP questioned sting operations. self is enough. Now that it is admitted that Sanjeev Saxena Doesnt the current one by your party fall in the realm of came with the bribe money, who is he and whose man is he? entrapment? We have given voluminous evidence including documentary I dont think we have ever questioned the very idea of sting evidence in his own handwriting showing that his place of operations. The fact is that one has to be careful about the vework was 27, Lodhi Estate and he is Amar Singhs man. racity of the facts, thats all.
How would you refute allegations from former colleague, Uma Bharti who has accused you, a BJP general secretary, a party chief minister and some MPs of having a hand in planning the entire cash for vote episode? When your former party president Bangaru Laxman was stung, the party did question the sting operation.
We had made him resign the very night that the sting took place.
But the BJP did question it
She doesnt deserve a reply.

Why not?
Her politics have sunk so low that she can only tout fabrications at the behest of Amar Singh. I dont think she deserves a
You see, there was a dierence regarding the interpretation of evidence in some cases, but the concept of sting operations was never questioned.
16 AUGUST 2008 TEHELKA
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16.08.2008
thisweek
VOLATILE IMPASSE Jammu & Kashmir burns as the State fails to solve the contentious Amarnath Yatra imbroglio
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UNSAFE HAVEN The mysterious deaths of children at the ashrams of Asaram Bapu raise unsaintly questions P14
the menu
EARTHY MARXIST CPM veteran Harkishan Singh Surjeet leaves behind a legacy of pragmatic politics P10 THE CASE AGAINST SIMI Little evidence has backed the grave charges of terrorism against the outlaw P21 TERRORISTS OR VICTIMS? Chilling personal narratives of activists the State has charged with sedition P26 BAN ON SIMI IS LIFTED A tribunal headed by a Delhi High Court judge refuses to accept the P40 Centres case against SIMI BEHIND THE VEIL An account of SIMIs true history and the ideology that continues to inspire its ex-members P45 CHARMINAR IN CRISIS Greens protest the Andhra governments much-hyped Metro project in Hyderabad WRITING WHILE BROWN Author Richard Crasta hits out at the expectations of the Western literary establishment P56 COMPULSIVE CONFESSIONS A prole of Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan, author of one of the years most anticipated books P58 DIVINE MADNESS Psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar explores the link between the spirit and the psyche P60
WEB SPECIALS
REAL REEL WOMEN Nagesh Kukunoors Dor marked a refreshing break with lms that never tire of portraying the mans woman CRY FOR COPTERS Activists plead with India, among other countries, for helicopters for the severely ill-equipped UN Mission in Darfur TEXTBOOK STRIKE In a Bokaro school, children demanding textbooks make themselves heard by organising a sit-in and refusing entry to grown-ups www.tehelka.com
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bouquets&brickbats
Please send in your feedback to letters@tehelka.com
LOOK FOR THE TERROR WITHIN

Your cover story (All the Wrong Men, August 9) is very informative and analytic about the growing sense of unease and apprehension among Muslims in India. I strongly feel that terrorism can only be defeated by sensitising and providing a secure feeling to the people on whose behalf the terrorists claim to be acting and among whom the terrorists seek shelter as they plan and execute their murderous attacks. There is an urgent need to evolve an effective anti-terrorist strategy which requires us to look even more deeply into ourselves. Effective police measures must go hand in hand with wise policies. Security agencies have the image of an inefcient, corrupt and highhanded force that regularly preys upon the poor and mirrors the prejudices of the majority community, singling out minorities, and adding fuel to the re of terrorism. But you have failed to stress that India simply cant afford to allow terror attacks for fuelling political agendas. I strongly feel that the terror threat is too serious to be trivialized. Over the years, I have observed that every terrorist attack exposes the political parties and irresponsible leadership of India who are all out to grab the vote bank advantage, shamelessly ignoring the fact that it is at the cost of national security, misery, insecurity, and tragedy engulng the people and national security. Dr Vitull K. Gupta, Bhatinda It is ignominious that at a time when the country is passing through the ordeal of terrorism,
06 LETTERS
REAL SETHU ISSUE

The Supreme Court has asked the government to make a statement on the historicity of the Ramsethu (A Clear Channel For Sethu, August 9). The politicisation of the project has resulted in sidelining three very important issues that should demand an honest review of the project. One, people who are dependent on the shore for shing and other related livelihood will be displaced and made destitute, whether the channel is realigned or not. Two, the massive and irreversible ecological damage that will have a long-term ill-effect on the coasts of India and Sri Lanka. And three, the fact that the technical viability (effectiveness and associated costs of dredging a channel that will rell with shifting sands within hours, location for dumping dredged material, etc) and economic viability (time taken to transit the canal comparable to circumnavigating Sri Lanka, the tonnage and draught of vessels that can use the canal, the total volume of trafc versus charges for transit, etc) have not been established. Maj General SG Vombatkere, VSM (Retd), Mysore
NAOREM ASHISH
you are trying to act as an advocate for a special community. You were the rst people to expose the perpetrators of the post-Godhra riots. Then why are you silent this time? Maybe you dont nd it as barbaric as the Godhra riots for some specic reason. I dont think your dogmatic approach to prove that the ongoing investigations are a farce and targeted towards a special community is going to serve the cause of true secularism. Neel, Delhi
LET CHILDREN SMILE

THANKS TO TEHELKA for bringing out (Jackboots Too Large For Them, August 2). Since the inception of the armed struggle in Manipur we only heard of gunshots, but now the cry of the people is brought to you from the region by the unprecedented abduction of children by the so-called self proclaimed revolutionary parties. We remember the infamous child recruitment by the LTTE that sowed the seeds of chaos in Sri Lanka. No doubt this mass child abduction by the militants to ll their ranks and foster a second generation of militants will inevitably ing the people of the state into added turmoil. A message to the militants through your medium is not to entice the children with your guns. W. Rorrkychand Mikon, Kumbi
OMAR THE ORATOR

They say one of the functions of a political speech is to stir the heart. Omar Abdullahs captivating speech in the House of Parliament did stir many a heart. The speech won him many admirers and the UPA chairperson and many veteran parliamentarians were awe-struck by his speech. Good speakers make good leaders. The oratorpolitician can put his point across
vigorously and sometimes his misdemeanors are overshadowed by his oratory skills. Having been given an opportunity he was waiting for, Omar Abdullah made good use of it and became one of the star speakers during the debate on the trust motion in Parliament. Unlike his counterpart, Mehbooba Mufti, who looked perplexed, Omar made best use of the time allotted to him and didnt
TEHELKA 16 AUGUST 2008
| For subscription enquiries and complaints, write to response@tehelka.com | LETTERS
get distracted by the noise and constant interruptions. Syed Ali Safvi, Srinagar PARADOXICAL STAND? At the TEHELKA Summit, you had invited the RSS, but the Left was left out in the cold. This, at a meeting of intellectuals ? Tarun Vijay of the RSS says rmly sticking to a united front against terror might help. Is the Congress Party, to whom you seem to give critical support , up for this united front? Dont you think, for you, with your avowed stand against communalism, this is paradoxical? Though the Left often seems intellectually jaded these days, it does have a clear record against communalism. Then, you invite the RSS and leave out the Left, at a summit with Pakistan! Pankaj Kinni, by e-mail
members of being bribed to stay away from voting on the condence motion, should not be acceptable to the general public. What did the Lok Sabha do in the past to punish its guilty members in the JMM bribery episode when even the Apex Court expressed its inability to punish the bribed MP, because their vote for the PV Narasimha Rao Government was deemed part of Parliamentary proceedings and out of its remit, leaving the matter to be decided by the Lok Sabha. Unfortunately, those same persons sit even now in the Lok Sabha waiting for a ministerial post after a deal to vote for the condence motion this time. Subhash Chandra Agrawal, Delhi
DEMOCRATIC VALUES
NO, SHOMA CHAUDHURY shouldn't have put a questionmark with the title of her piece Tiger By The Tail? (August 2). After buying out a highly tainted trust vote on July 22 to keep his 'Left out', fragile government Amar (immortal) Dr Manmohan Singh has ceased to be a stainless man of integrity, and thereby has lost every right to lead the nation that never tires to boast of it being the largest democracy in the world. Now the key question is: Would the US still go ahead and clinch the civilian nuclear deal with an government that had to adopt the meanest tricks for its very survival? Chandrakant Chandramouli, New Delhi
TAGOREAN SOMNATH
Somnath Chatterjee (The Conscientious Marxist, August 2) is true to his salt like the character Kadambini Tagore created in the story: Jibito O Mrito (The Living and the Dead). Kaadambni, a widow presumed to be dead came to life just before her cremation. She walked away silently, but was reported cremated. When her relatives refused to accept her on her return, she killed herself. Tagore concluded: Kadambini proved by dying she was alive all along. If the Ofce of Prot controversy could be compared to the Vatican selling indulgences centuries ago, Somnath Chatterjees boldness as a Renaissance man indeed marks a Holy Redemption for both the sinners and those sinned against, but for a difference. It evokes the critic Paul Grays denition of, amongst
GREEN COVER
A very true depiction of the current scenario and challenges of climate change facing the world and India has been brought into stark light (In The Woods Over Environmental Policy, July 19). The basic argument about containing the glacial melt by reducing carbon emissions is well taken. So are the arguments on zero-carbon energy sources such as wind, solar, thermal etc. to be adopted as intelligent options. A valid and serious point is made is about Task Forces and Action Plans being produced on assembly lines in our country. The climate challenge is a critical area where task-forces should be forced to perform their tasks, and action-plans should ensure that actual actions are planned and put into action with immediate effect. Manisha Gupta, Delhi
others, the American writer Paul Bowles as a Renaissance man born into an age that applauds specialization. Here, Chatterjee is a specialist in a desperate age of constitutionalism; and that has been decisive in every which way. His denial of Karat and Co. proves that hed been alive. I tip my hat, nonetheless, to Somnath Chatterjee (a respected junior fellow traveller of my father, the late Mrigen Sen). Saswata Sen , Delhi
GRATEFUL DEBATE
Which source of energy is given precedence over another is a matter of serious debate on social needs, economic costs and environmental impact. Then why is it that the Indian government has the sole right to decide the nations common interest? We, the people, dont have a voice, but what about our elected representatives? Shouldnt the nuclear deal have been discussed in Parliament (as it will be in the US)? Or is the Indian Parliament
merely a theatre for farce? To those riding high on the government generated euphoria, sage words from a Grateful Dead song: Since it cost a lot to win, and even more to lose, You and me bound to spend some time wondering what to choose. Goes to show you dont ever know Watch each card you play and play it slow, Wait until your deal come round, Dont you let that deal go down. Anvita Lakhera, by e-mail
CORRECTION
In last weeks cover story, (All The Wrong Men, August 9), the date of the rst ban on SIMI by the Centre was wrongly given as September 29, 2001. The correct date is September 27, 2001. The error is regretted. Editor
DEJA VU
The setting up of a seven-member House Committee by Lok Sabha Speaker Somanth Chatterjee to examine the complaint of three BJP
16 AUGUST 2008 TEHELKA LETTERS 07
currentaffairs
newspick
| CASH-FOR-VOTE SCAM |
CDs galore in an attempt to
THE WEEK IN A CAPSULE

| WARANGAL TRAIN BLAZE
prove BJP guilty At a joint press conference with RJD and LJP leaders Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan, SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav released a third CD claiming that the BJP had stage-managed the entire show for political gains. He claimed that the entire incident was cooked up by the BJP to make it a poll issue in the next elections. A similar CD was recently released by Bharatiya Jan Shakti Party Chief Uma Bharti.
| SETHU PROJECT |
SC slams Karunanidhi, Baalu
Thirty-two dead as ve coaches catch re Passengers were charred to death when a re engulfed ve coaches of Gautami Express while it was speeding at 100 kms per hour near Kesamudram station in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh on August 1. The Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety has started an inquiry into the accident.
| MURDOCH IN INDIA |
AP
| NAINA DEVI STAMPEDE |
146 panic deaths after rumours of landslide Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal ordered a magisterial inquiry into the stampede that killed 146 and injured more than 50 devotees. An estimated 25,000 pilgrims had gathered at the popular temple for the Sawan Navratra, an annual festival, to oer prayers when rumours of boulders rolling down from a nearby hilltop spread fear among the devotees, resulting in the stampede.
| NUCLEAR DEAL |
| HOGENAKKAL ISSUE |
for ignoring notice The Supreme Court threatened to issue arrest warrants against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and Union Transport Minister TR Baalu for failing to respond to a contempt notice on the Sethusamudram bandh row issued by it in October last year. It was issued for going ahead with the state-wide bandh on the issue despite the bench restraining them.
| ABORTION DEBATE |
Rajnikanth apologises to Pro-Kannada groups Tamil superstar Rajinikanth apologised to Pro-Kannada groups to ensure the release of his new lm Kuselan in Karnataka. Rajinikanth received a lot of ak in April this year when he said kick them who sought to block the due share of Hogenekkal water to Tamil Nadu. Kannada activists announced that they would not allow the release of his lm in the state unless he apologises for his comment.
To launch six regional TV channels News Corp Chief Rupert Murdoch announced that the US conglomerate will launch TV channels in six Indian regional languages over 12 months in collaboration with Star network. He said despite a slowing economy, investment in India is a longterm bet driven by the emergence of a wealthy middle class.
GOOD FOR
India upbeat after IAEA safeguard pact India passed its rst international test on the civilian nuclear deal with the US after the IAEAs board unanimously approved a country-specic safeguards agreement, the penultimate step in making the deal operational. India now needs an approval from the Nuclear Suppliers Group of 45 nations, some of whom are reluctant to deal with India as it has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
08 CURRENT AFFAIRS
HC refuses to allow couple to abort six-month old foetus The Bombay High Court denied permission to Niketa and Haresh Mehta to abort their 25-week old foetus who had a congenital heart block. The couple had told the court that since the child would need a pacemaker right from the time of birth, the quality of its life would be poor and hence, they want to abort the child. Their plea was rejected since according to law, a foetus cannot be aborted after 20 weeks.
Prakash and Mandakini Amte: The doctor couple receive Ramon Magsaysay award for public service in tribal areas MS Dhoni: To be conferred with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award
BAD FOR
Surat: Twenty-seven live Water Level: Water
bombs defused in a week in Gujarats diamond city
storage levels in southern and western parts of India at a 10-year low according to a recent report by the Centre
pros&cons
DAVID
LEPESKA
THESE JOKERS ARE SERIOUS

shut after receiving an anonymous bomb threat via email. UST BEFORE he kills his victims the villain of The Dark Knight, On the second point the bad guys have made decent headway. this summers white hot Hollywood blockbuster, likes to ask Bangalore is a global IT hub. Ahmedabad is a leading manufacturing them a question: Why so serious? The Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger, does not expect an answer. But as the viccentre. Surat is a diamond centre and operates a port. All three are tims realize the end is near, he relishes their rising fearit now less attractive to local and international businessmen. And an suggests they hadnt been taking him seriously enough. email from Indian Muhajideen received minutes before the The terrorists who set o dozens of bombs in Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts began, put industrial titan Mukesh Ambani and Ahmedebad and scattered handfuls more around Surat seek a simifour major Muslim lm stars in their crosshairs. lar reaction. As with the Joker, the horrors have come rapid-re, yet The third and most combustible objective has not yet come to each has lingered longer than the last. Bangalores eight blasts ocpass, despite the seeming eorts of the opposition BJP. A senior curred over 15 minutes. In Ahmedebad the 19 explosions took over party leader argued that the attacks were part of a Congress-led conan hour. Surat discovered 25 ticking bombs over 40 hours. spiracy and a spokesperson said the problem requires a KashmirA few of the Surat bombs were found in garbage cans. Nobody type operation to tackle terrorism and root out the outts supportknew where or when the next might appear, or whether it might reing it. Funny choice of model the region is a tinderbox of reliveal itself more rudely. Was that part of the plan? Unsure whether gious tensions. After weeks of pro-Amarnath rioting in Jammu, the bombs were intended to explode, the police have theorized that Hindu nationalists urged residents to block supplies to Kashmir. A they may have been a test to measure response times. Whatever the few days later the army was called in to clear the passage of 172 case, Surat is psychologically shattered. trucks into the Valley. Fears of a communal A Joker-like strategy of inciting fear is Can India appreciate the bigger areup had seeped north into Doda and not the only cinematic homage hidden in Rajouri, forcing ocials to extend a weekspicture, or will the tide of last weeks terror. In Contract, a terrorist delong Jammu curfew. progress be swamped by fear The Dark Knight climaxes with the tails his plan for bomb blasts in Mumbai, Jokers most insidious stunt. Two ferries followed by several blasts at hospitals. The and communal rage? Ahmedebad bombs followed this outline. one full of criminals, the other full of lawDozens of analysts have outlined detailed policy proposals on edabiding Gotham citizens have been wired to explode. The Joker itorial pages in Indian newspapers. Most cite the need for a central gives each boat a detonator to the bombs on the other boat, then anintelligence agency and various multi-pronged initiatives intended nounces that if an hour passes without either button pushed, both to redouble surveillance and security, increase Muslim development boats will blow. Its a moral dilemma, a deadly game of chicken, and and foster community awareness, justice, and equitable treatment. Gothamites nd it in themselves to stay calm and embrace life. Fine ideas all, but we should rst grapple with the enemy we face. Indias been given the detonators. Can the people and politicians These predominantly homegrown terrorists have three objectives: of the worlds largest democracy appreciate the bigger picture, or to incite widespread fear and make over a billion Indians ill at ease; might this tide of progress be swamped by fear and communal rage? to throw a wrench in Indias widely lauded economic progress; and A legitimate question, and reason enough to be serious. nally, to sew Hindu-Muslim rage. David Lepeska is a writer based in Delhi. He contributes to the On the rst score their success has been obvious. The fear has Economist and Monocle and writes about conict and even reached Delhi, where the Japanese embassy was evacuated and development for devex.com
16 AUGUST 2008 TEHELKA CURRENT AFFAIRS 09
ANAND NAOREM
Like the citizens of Gotham City, can Indians stay calm and embrace life?
appraisal
THE INDIGENOUS MARXIST

Harkishan Singh Surjeet read Marxism in a language of his own. VIJAY SIMHA examines its consequences for the Left and India
General SecreNot a soul from his Bundala viltary Prakash Karat lage in Jalandhar could have foreseen and Politburo memanything like that for Surjeet that ber Sitaram Yechury huddled he would end up as a sort of Dale with Telugu Desam Party PresCarnegie. Surjeet changed others beident Chandrababu Naidu, at haviour by changing his reaction to Harkishan Singh Surjeets crethem, the essence of winning friends mation in Delhi, it seemed that and inuencing people. Barring the at least some lessons had gone right wing parties, who Surjeet kept through. Surjeet was never one at a distance at least in public, most for ceremony. He never let an Indian politicians changed their opportunity go. Karat, it apmind after a meeting with Surjeet. peared, was doing likewise. Not all Marxists liked Surjeet, Karat, Yechury and Naidu didthough. The extreme Left factions nt look like they were commisgrew in number and acceptance durerating each other over ing the time Surjeet was practicing Surjeets death. They had a centrism. The Naxals, as the extreme more urgent air. Left are known, were dismissive of Surjeet would have apthe CPMs politics. Curiously, both have expanded. The CPM today has 43 proved. The CPM stalwart, who had to force his way out of the MPs, the maximum that a Left party CPM Politburo in April by citing has had in the Lok Sabha. The Naxals his failing health, had somehow have grouped as the CPI (Maoist) married an idealist background party, impacting life hugely, moving with an astonishing absence of from state to state with their brand of ego to steal power from under violence to ght the system. the noses of those who thought The growth of the Naxals in India they had it made. In 1989, Rajiv is thus one of the unintended conseARKISHAN INGH URJEET Gandhi watched his bitter opquences of Surjeets politics. By going ponent VP Singh become the mainstream, the CPM became a part 1916 2008 Prime Minister with the help of of the system. The role of ghting the Surjeets party and the system was handed to the Naxal orBharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In ganisations. Karats three years as 1996, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was left as stunned as everybody else Surjeets successor have barely stalled the growth of the Naxals. when Surjeet managed to get HD Deve Gowda chosen as Prime The other area where Surjeets politics left a curious impact Minister. In 2004, the Congress was, likewise, a most unexpected was the lost opportunity of having a CPM-led government at the beneciary of Surjeets skills at keeping the BJP out of power. Centre. Surjeets colleagues in the CPM Central Committee, a sort That Surjeet is most remembered for political intrigue is probof a council of ministers within the party, thought that he was ably a reection of his basic ideology: he never behaved as though being too eager, and did not agree to make Jyoti Basu the Prime he was right. He always kept the possibility of reconciliation alive, Minister in 1996. For all his people skills, Surjeet couldnt deliver with what he called an open mind. Many times, Surjeet ended at the most decisive moment in recent CPM history. After that, discussions by saying he would keep an open mind, and that the Surjeet mostly spent his time working out temporary reconciliaopposite party should do the same. The CPM beneted immensely, tion among a host of politicians in the northern part of India who moving from rigid Leftist positions to more centrist and mainthought they could make it to the top post as well. stream versions. Surjeet made the CPM famous. He brought his So what did Surjeet achieve anyway? One big contribution was to keep the CPM, and the Left Front, in the news constantly in an party right into the drawing rooms of people who barely knew a thing about him or the CPM. age driven by incessant television coverage. The decline of the
REUTERS
S CPM
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CURRENT AFFAIRS
Congress probably alarmed Surjeet more than many Congress politicians. If the BJP has failed to occupy the space being vacated by the Congress, it is because of Surjeets sharp reexes. Surjeet out thought the RSS and the BJP on too many occasions. his instincts at excelling as a political fox early. He came within a whisker of defeating Baldev Singh, Indias rst Defence Minister, in the 1952 general election. Surjeets performance stunned the oldtimers, who thought that Baldev Singhs stature as a leader of the Sikhs at the time of Partition was untouchable. Surjeet did pretty well later, winning assembly elections two times in Punjab. When Surjeet won for the second time, the then Punjab Chief Minister, Pratap Singh Kairon, also a towering politician of his time, applauded the return of the young and intelligent Surjeet. Dealing with top guns like Baldev Singh and Kairon helped Surjeet ght his RSS foes of later years with nesse. He was unstoppable. The second big accomplishment of Surjeet was to hold the CPM together after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Surjeets deft manoeuvering saved the Left parties from becoming fringe players. He shifted the focus from the ideological confusion created by the crisis in the USSR, and let the dust settle on the Soviet Union. It may have helped save the CPM. Surjeets third big skill was in raising funds for the CPM. Political parties have a ravenous appetite for money, and the CPM is no exception. The more a party
URJEET SHOWED
Not all Marxists liked Surjeet, though. The Naxals grew in number and acceptance during the time he was practising his centrism
grows, the more it needs resources. Surjeets phenomenal connections with Marxist leaders across the world kept the funds coming. He used his 30 years as head of the CPMs international department to fantastic eect. Cuban leader Fidel Castro, for instance, was a fan till the end. Surjeets fourth major feat was in retaining his integrity. He had no use for money for himself. There are oce-bearers in the CPM today who can tell you tales of how miserly Surjeet was while spending money on himself. Theres a story of Surjeet and his comrades stopping at a dhaba in Punjab for lunch. Surjeet insisted that the dhaba serve him only sabzi, because he said he was carrying his rotis. The dhaba owner refused. Surjeet drank plenty of water and opened his lunch box. It had a few slices of bread. As the head of an important political party, Surjeet made a powerful impression with his spartan lifestyle. Surjeet had the freedom of a man who possessed nothing but his actions. He stole what he needed. He had the will for power. He rustled power from his opponents. He was the honest burglar.
KASHMIRCRISIS
PLAYING NERO OR WORSE

Politicians in Jammu and in the Kashmir Valley have opportunistically fanned the communal conagration all for a few votes more, says HARINDER BAWEJA
ISUALS OF aming tyres, of street protestors and teargas swirling through crowded areas have become a common sight in Jammu and Kashmir. Last week, it was dicult to distinguish Jammu from Srinagar, Hindu communalist from Muslim separatist. Most of all, it was dicult to sift religion from politics and propaganda from facts. At the heart of the turmoil which forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call an urgent all-party meeting lie 40 hectares of land that were transferred to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) which was subsequently revoked. Even as protestors on either side of the Pir Panjal range upped the ante, the question that is begging an answer is why the issue of the Amarnath Yatra, a pilgrimage that was attacked, but not once stopped through all the years of insurgency, become a throwback to the early 1990s when the insurgency rst took root? Why, for instance, is National Conference President Omar Abdullah saying that the situation today is the worst that he has ever seen, worse even than the 1990s? As always, the devil lies in the details. Why is the state up in ames? Why were there violent protests in the Valley despite the fact that the land was to be used only for prefabricated structures such as toilets and camping facilities; when the transfer order clearly stated that the proprietary status of the forest land would remain unchanged? Examine the background that goes back to 1996. Following the death of pilgrims in blizzards, the government appointed a committee headed by Nitish Sengupta to recommend measures to ensure that the pilgrims progress to the holy cave, located 14,000 ft above sea level, remained safe and comfortable. The committee had then suggested the creation of a trust, a recommendation reendorsed by another committee, set up after 90 yatris were killed in a terrorist attack.
12 CURRENT AFFAIRS
In 2000, the then chief minister Farooq Abdullah implemented the recommendations and passed a bill, though the SASB nally came into existence in 2003, when Mufti Mohammed Sayeed was chief minister. The board, headed by the governor as chairperson, was responsible for the smooth running of the yatra. The then governor, Lt Gen (retd) SK Sinha sought the assistance of the government in erecting prefabricated structures at camping grounds along the mountainous route. But its not the prefab structures that are responsible for building discord for that, political egos are solely to blame. The problems date back to the run-in between Sinha and Mufti Sayeed in 2004, when Sinha asked for the yatra to be extended to two months. Sayeed opposed it, saying that 40,000 security personnel had to be diverted from the security grid. But he was forced to accede after the Centre intervened. The Congress was in alliance with Muftis Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and four Congress ministers in Muftis Cabinet resigned to apply pressure on the state and the Central Govern-
Meeting ground The all-party meeting called by the PM to discuss J&K
Why were there violent protests in Kashmir when the transfer of land was temporary?
ment to press for an extension of the yatra. If the Congress was conscious of its vote constituency in Jammu in 2004, the PDP succumbed to electoral pressure in 2008 by withdrawing support to the Ghulam Nabi Azad government in June this year, even though ministers from the party were part of the Cabinet meetings in which the decision to transfer the 40 hectares was taken. What neither party was willing to clarify was this In April 2005, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had made it clear that the duration of the yatra would be decided by the
SASB, not the state government. It had also ordered that the state should immediately permit the use of forest land by the board, if it had not already been allowed. Anticipating the courts judgment, and under pressure from the Congress, State Forest Minister Mohammad Afzal Qazi approved the request on March 28, 2005. In May, however, the chief secretary shot down the governments decision to allow the board land-use rights, noting that the minister was not advised properly. Days later, though, Sinha wrote to the government asking for this decision to be reconsidered.
Street battle Violent protesters take to the streets in Jammu, attacking security forces
looming PDP President Mehbooba Mufti was the rst to succumb to poll pressure. Scared of losing ground to the separatists led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mehbooba panicked when Geelani, while talking about a demographic shift said, Jews rst took refuge in Palestine and then established their own state, while the Palestinians are being forced to live the life of nomads in their own motherland. The same is being done here in the name of Shrine board. But Mehbooba is hard pressed to explain why she pulled the plug on the government, when her ministers were part of the Cabinet meeting that passed the order. Our ministers misled us, is all she says to explain a decision that not only saw the imposition of Governors Rule in the sensitive border state, but also triggered a massive communal explosion.
MUFTI SAHIB WAS AGAINST THIS TRANSFER. HE WAS ABLE TO FORESEE THE REPERCUSSIONS INVOLVED BUT GHULAM NABI AZAD MISLED OUR MINISTERS
MEHBOOBA MUFTI, PDP
ZAD, WHO unsuccessfully tried to save his government by revoking the transfer order, is now in the thick of the political blame game, where every single party is simply fanning communal ames. The Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti, spearheading the agitation in Jammu, is being helped by the BJP: that party has now smelt the chance of not just regaining the political ground it lost to the Congress in the 2002 assembly election, but of converting this into an emotive issue that will nd takers outside Jammu & Kashmir as well. First, the Valley saw violent protests, and now Jammu has been aame for over a fortnight. As for the Centre, it has taken a month to wake up to the dangers of the political pyromania that is threatening to subsume a state that has been smouldering for the last two decades. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi have reached out to BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and LK Advani; the shrine board is set to be reconstituted; and Finally, in 2007, the conservator of forests a temporary transfer of land to the trust for the zeroed in on the 40 acres that has set the entire pilgrimage is being considered. But even if this state on re. His recommendation was placed is accepted by every party the peace it brings before the Forest Advisory Committee, which, will be both temporary and tenuous. in turn, sought the opinion of the chief wildlife The lessons that need to be learnt are warden. Armed with his approval, the com- harder and far more serious. Parties need to mittee cleared the transfer. realise that the smallest tension can bring temPoliticians on both sides of the divide could peratures to boiling point in Jammu & Kashwell have pointed in the direction of the court mir. If anything, the current mayhem only verdict, but that is never the detail highlighted shows that the problems of this troubled state not when its election time. With need urgent political engagement. WRITERS EMAIL assembly elections due in October shammy@tehelka.com Its most denitely not a law and this year and a general election order problem.
REUTERS SHAILENDRA PANDEY
WITH AN EYE ON THE ELECTION, THE BJP IS TRYING TO ADD FUEL TO THE FIRE. NOBODY IS STOPPING THEM FROM DOING POLITICS BUT IT SHOULD NOT BE THROUGH VIOLENCE
GHULAM NABI AZAD, Congress
WHY ONLY 40 HECTARES? CREATE FACILITIES ALL ALONG THE YATRA ROUTE AND CONSTITUTE A FRESH SHRINE BOARD THAT IS SECULAR
FAROOQ ABDULLAH
National Conference
THE TRANSFER OF FOREST LAND TO THE SHRINE BOARD IS A MANIFESTATION OF INDIAS CULTURAL AGGRESSION ON KASHMIR
SAS GEELANI
Hurriyat Conference
CURRENT AFFAIRS 13
ASARAM BAPU
TUSHA MITTAL
Ahmedabad
the scent of mangoes, Manish Thakur and his friends wandered onto the property of spiritual leader Asaram Bapu in Motera village, Ahmedabad, on the banks of the Sabarmati. Suddenly, the boys heard shouts asking them to get out; as they scurried out, white-clad sadhaks followed them and beat them up. Manish, 12, was snatched, taken back to the ashram and locked inside a bathroom. Hours later, after villagers pleaded with the godmen and paid money Manish was released. That was 10 years ago. Manishs story is a tale parents use to warn children: Dont go near the Ashram. If its also reminiscent of the Gabbar Singh warning from Sholay, the resemblance is not incidental Asaram Bapus ashram inspires a similar miasma of fear. Now, with the ashrams gurukuls under scrutiny for four mysterious deaths of children, investigations have no leads but allegations of vice have raised uncomfortable questions (see box). Emboldened, locals are speaking out. Ashok Thakore, 39, was threatened when he approached ashram ocials to reclaim his ve-acre plot. His father, Ramanji, had allowed devotees coming for Guru Purnima to set up tents on a section of his land. After his death, when Thakore tried to use it for cultivation, ashram authorities refused. Thakore has proof that the land belongs to him; the ashram has no documents whatsoever to prove ownership, but continues to claim the land. When I approached the ashram, Arvind Bhai, (a sevak) told me to take whatever money they are giving me as prasad and forget about the land, says Thakore. When he persisted in demanding his land, the sevaks upped the ante. All of us are dressed in white, no one will know who killed you, they threatened if Thakore didnt back o. When he said he would go to court, the reply stunned him. Ministers, collectors, DSPs come to us, they are all our sevaks, court mein kuch nahi hoga, (nothing will happen) said a worker. It is only now that Thakore nally sumURED BY
14 CURRENT AFFAIRS
OF GOD AND OTHER DEMONS

After mysterious deaths at Asaram Bapus gurukul, people are now making charges of landgrabbing
moned the courage to le a case in the Gandhinagar High Court. Rati Lal Patel woke up one morning to nd a fence around his six-acre plot, with ashram security men guarding it. He too continues to ght a court battle. Gujarat High Court Judge MR Shah has reportedly said that the Surat ashram has been illegally built on government land. In Delhi, Asaram Bapu is reported to have forged documents of registry for his ashram in Rajokri, near Gurgaon. The case is before the Delhi High Court. The tehsildar of Rajokri says there is no evidence that Asaram ever bought this land. In Bihar, a government
In Delhi, Asaram Bapu is reported to have forged documents of registry for his ashram in Rajokri
agency has given a nal notice to Asaram to vacate land belonging to Bhikham Das Thakurbari, and occupied illegally by the ashrams trust in Patna. In Ahmedabad, there is a hushed eeriness about what really goes on inside the ashram. Most troubling is the silence of those who quit the ashram. Reva Patel and his wife live a few kilometers away; locals say Mrs Patel left the ashram after she discovered some dark realities. The couple are scared for their life, sources told TEHELKA . We value our life, we dont want to get involved, says Patel. Hari Bhai Rabbari is the neighbour of a doctor who moved out of the ashram after several years inside. When TEHELKA tried to approach the doctor, we found he had left Ahmedabad. He left because he was being threatened by ashram authorities, says Rabbari. But if there is fear among former disciples, new converts to the faith have not been hard to nd. Asaram Bapu was in Delhi a day after a fourth boy was found dead in the gurukul in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh. Hundreds showed up at the satsang in Rajokri, where Asaram sat like a mortal deity inside a bulletproof glass covering. These incidents are a sazish against me, he told TEHELKA . The Asaram Bapu ashram began small as a little hut on the banks of the Sabarmati in 1972, when Asaram, born Asamal in Sindh in
MEDIA
SANTOSH DESAI
mediawatch
BETWEEN COMPASSION AND RETRIBUTION
WHEN WILL IT STOP? read a Hindustan Times headline on the terrorists attacks in Indian cities. The week was dominated by the terror, evoking a ood of editorial outrage at the inaction shown by the Centre, in particular the Home Minister, Shivraj Patil. Very little by way of insight here. Shiv Vishvanathans edit in the Economic Times and Tridip Suhruds op-ed piece in the Indian Express were the exceptions. Suhrud favourably contrasted the reactions of the city to these blasts with those in Godhra, arguing that the people of Ahmedabad changed the semantic ground by choosing to see this occurrence as a tragedy that invited compassion rather an attack that invited retribution. Interestingly, no mention was made of the role played by Narendra Modi in this. Surely, the people of Ahmedabad could not have reacted this way without some prompting by Modi. Sitaram Yechurys edit in the Express pointed out the uncomfortable fact that the POTA was very much alive during the BJPs tenure and that didnt stop attacks on Parliament, Akshardham and the Red Fort. The arithmetic of the tragic can sometimes be confounding. Why does a story of a schoolboy being kidnapped by a senior for a ransom of Rs 50 lakhs make frontpage headlines? A crash on the expressway that kills a biker is front page news, while 30 people perishing in a train re are tucked away in an inside page. THE NEWSPAPER Uncommon Ground on NDTV is a great idea. SUPPLEMENTS ARE FULL OF Anchored by Rohini Nilekani, it gets two people A BATTLE RAGING WITHIN from different ends of the spectrum to sit toTHE FASH FRAT, WHICH gether and have a meaningful conversation. I COINCIDENTALLY RHYMES caught the one between Mukesh Ambani and WITH BRASH BRAT RK Pachauri. C. Raja Mohans edit in the Express urging the government to stop seeing Pakistan as a coherent whole and to pursue several simultaneous policies towards it was an insightful break from the geo-politico-babble that usually charcterises analyses of this kind. The cricket team lost in Sri Lanka and the media converged in its description of the defeat by labelling it shameful. Rants about budhe khiladi lled the screens. The supplements are full of a battle raging within the fash frat, which coincidentally rhymes with brash brat. It makes for riveting reading, I am sure. Speaking of rhymes, Delhi Times has taken to advertising Mr & Miss DT, its campus beauty pageant, by resorting to a rareed form of rhyme. For example, one ad goes Hey There! Do you make everyone Stop & Stare? Things improve with Meet that Gaze! The whole campus is in Daze! reaching a poetic crescendo with Whos that Dame? This could be her ticket to Fame. I think I should leave you to ponder over this. Desai is the MD and CEO of Futurebrands
CURRENT AFFAIRS 15
Power Guru Asaram Bapu has strong links with politicians
1942, came there after tapasya in the Himalayas. In 1984, the ashram would get about 20,000 followers during the Guru Purnima festival. Today, some 4.5 lakh disciples turn up. There are 225 branches in India, and several more abroad. The Asaram phenomenon rests on moral values; his devout army continues to believe, despite the court cases against him. Even allegations of murder do not tarnish bapus halo. For them, the ashram to lls the void inside. What their guru gives them is not the abstract idea of God, but a more real ideal of social service.
N DOING this, Asaram has been recast larger
than life. Part of this is because his core value, his unique selling proposition, is to gift followers a space in which to forget their own past, without judgement. And their collective amnesia over the mistakes in their past naturally extends to the guru, who cannot have done any wrong. Sample some of his appeal: Meera Bai from Chandigarh believes a moment of eye contact with Asaram Bapu cured her blood cancer. Pura Singh, a dacoit from Chamba Ghatti in Rajasthan used to loot money and jewellery, stopping buses with pistols like a latter-day Angulimala (a dacoit tamed by Lord Buddha). He stumbled upon an ashram brochure, vis16 AUGUST 2008 TEHELKA
PHOTOS: VIJAY PANDEY
ASARAM BAPU
ited and was converted. I was looking for a way out, and Asaram Bapu gave me that, Singh says, touching on a key factor in Asarams appeal. The enthralled Singh even set up his own ashram in Chamba Ghatti. When TEHELKA asked him where he got the funds, he was forthcoming. I met an American, Morrison Bhai, Singh began, adding, I oered to carry a basket of apples for him. I followed him into a cellar, where I met Durbhai Seth, who thanked me and gave me Rs 500. He asked if there was anything else I wanted. I said, yes, I
VICTIMS OF BLACK MAGIC

The parents of the two children found dead near Asaram Bapus gurukul are not convinced by the ashrams explanations or the police investigation
wait. Even when we nally got an FIR led, the police did not begin any investigation or enquiry, says Praful Vadega, Dipeshs father. On the night of June 5, the parents received a call from ashram authorities saying the bodies had been found. Praful Vadega and a few relatives found that Dipeshs head had been shaved, his rib cage was open and his heart was missing. His T-shirt was beside his body, without a single mark. Abhishek lay alongside, blackening with decay. The parents allege that the police did not collect any valuable on-site evidence. Initial reports claimed drowning was the cause of death in 1.5 feet of water. The missing heart was supposed to have been the work of an animal, but there were no other marks. I think the children have been victims of black magic, they have been used as sacrice, Praful Vadega told TEHELKA. Abhishek was born with his feet out rst. Its said black magic shows better results on such a child. And this happenend on the night of In Mourning The parents amavasya, says Abhisheks father, of the dead children hold Shanti Vadega. The Gujarat govtheir pictures ernment and police are in Asarams pocket, hence no proper investigaTHE PARENTS COMPLAIN THAT tion is being done, he added. After Praful decided on to go on a fast, THE ASHRAM AUTHORITIES he was approached by a local RSS member DID NOT AT FIRST ALLOW THEM and asked to meet the chief minister. TO FILE AN FIR Modi called for sharbat, and requested us to drink. We couldnt refuse. He also called Rath Yatra, so we looked in that direction, a photographer to document the breaking Uday Sanghani, spokesperson for the of my fast, Praful adds. He says Modi told ashram, told TEHELKA. The parents, meanwhile, complain that him: Ill give you even better investigation the authorities did not allow them to le than the CBI. You will have to trust me. And ordered a judicial enquiry. an FIR. Ashram workers told them that Bapu had to be informed rst. His instrucThe Vadegas are looking for a powerful tion: wet a T-shirt the boys wore often, turn lawyer. Asaram is big and powerful. My it inside out, place it where they sleep, and message to other parents is please take wait for them to return. your children out of the gurukul, says The next day, when the children hadnt Praful. I dont want other children to sufreturned, the parents went to the police, fer the same fate. TUSHA MITTAL who were equally casual, asking them to Vadega, 10, and Abhishek Vadega, 11 were found dead on the banks of the Sabarmati, about 2.5 kilometers away from Asaram Bapus gurukul, where they had been enrolled since June. The children were last seen at 8:30 pm on July 3. At the 9 pm roll call, they were missing. At 9:15, the authorities called the parents. The bodies were found on June 5. What happened in those 48 hours? Ashram authorities say they mounted a massive search, so why werent they found earlier? We thought they had gone for the
T HAS been over a month since Dipesh
The ashram is like an industrial house: its publishing arm has 170 books on Asaram Bapu
would like to open my own ashram, and Seth agreed to give me the money. As soon as Singh mentioned the cellar and Seth, some sadhaks called Uday Sanghani, the ashram PRO. He told Singh he was being urgently called inside and whisked him away. The ashram is like an industrial house: its publishing arm has 170 books; the magazine Rishi Prashad is published in Hindi and Gujarati; and it prints notebooks with Asarams photograph on the cover and teachings inside. These are cheaper than the market rate. Lakhs are published every year. Low-income children can be given these books free or at a discounted rate, say ashram promos, which compare Asaram Bapu to religious gures like Krishna, Buddha, Rama, Jesus and Mohammed. They also strategically display photos of politicians like Narendra Modi, LK Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Farooq Abdullah meeting bapu. The Pura Singh incident is indicative of why many people believe that there is more to Asaram Bapus ashram than meets the eye. Ashram authorities agree that though there are no exact numbers, there are many criminals turned sadhus. Unfortunately, in the context of current events, one could extrapolate that the reverse might be truethe CONTACT WRITER AT ashram could have many tusha@tehelka.com sadhus turned criminals.
16
CURRENT AFFAIRS
THESIMI
FICTIONS
THE KAFKA PROJECT

An inquiry into prejudice and oppression
By AJIT SAHI
REUTERS/COVER IMAGE: TRILOCHAN S KALRA
Blood on the oor Survivors of the 2006 Mumbai blasts in hospital
20
COVER STORY
coverstory
THE THIN RED LINE

TARUN J TEJPAL
Editor-in-Chief
Tehelkas exhaustive investigation reveals the Indian state in an unjust and dangerous place
steel may cut steel, as the old Hindi saw goes, can prejudice ever neuWAS AMONG several who saw him die. His name was Surjit tralise prejudice? Singh Penta, and the year was 1988. A smartly calibrated siege For the seven years since SIMI has been outlawed, state agencies have of the Golden Temple had just ended in the surrender of all been insisting that the outt is an anti-national organisation engaged in the militants holed up inside the Harmandir Sahib, the Temconspiracies to destabilise the government through acts of terror; and ples sanctum sanctorum. As they led out and squatted in the that it brazenly preaches sedition, being closely linked with Pakistancourtyard of the serai on the Temples periphery, a sudden commobased terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Tyaba, Hizb-ultion broke out. The police spotters had recognised a major militant. Mujahideen, and the Jaish-e-Mohammed. But before they could lay hands on him, he Alleged SIMI activists stand accused of some had swallowed his cyanide pill, and though of the worst terrorist crimes on Indian soil, the police threw him into a jeep to rush him including bomb blasts that killed 187 people to hospital, he was dead. Pentas story dein Mumbais local trains two years ago. serves telling because it illustrates the pathology of oppression. The young Sikh UT A three-month long investigation was a national-level athlete representing by TEHELKA carried out all over the Delhi before he became a witness to the brucountry reveals that a large majority tal Sikh massacres of 1984. By the time he of these cases are redolent of a chilling and committed suicide a few years later more systematic witch-hunt against innocent Musthan 40 killings were attributed to him. lims. Sadly, the expose shows it is not just the Before he became a terrorist Penta had policing and intelligence agencies that are to been terrorised by the state or its malign blame even the judicial process is often absence. That is often the sequence: the complicit in the terrible miscarriage of jusstates excesses, followed by those of the tice. Ajit Sahis painstaking and remarkable individual. The line between law enforcereportage reveals a shocking web of dubious ment and high-handedness is always very cases being pursued against so-called operathin. In India, dangerously, it is being tives of SIMI cases which lack evidence, smudged every day. Are Naxalites victims cases which agrantly ignore standard before they become perpetrators? Are young procedures of criminal investigation and trial, militants in the north-east and Kashmir brucases that callously destroy the lives of young talised before they become brutal? Is the ormen and their families. dinary citizen meted out insensitivity before The Indian state must tread he becomes desensitised? What Are Naxalites victims before they become carefully. The individual tragedies does one say about a country where point to a wider psychosis. For the one turns to the police with trepiperpetrators? Are young militants in last many years abetted by dation, where no one expects the the north-east and Kashmir brutalised global trends the states actions men in khaki to do the right thing? and utterances seem to be deepenWhile extreme viewpoints have before they become brutal? ing a prejudice against Muslims. a right to exist in a free society, it Catching the mood, Bollywoods arch villains are now mostly Islamic. goes without saying that no one ought to have any sympathy for India has 160 million Muslims - more than Pakistan, more than any the positions of bigoted groups and individuals. The kind who base other country save Indonesia. Even if 10,000 are radicalised its barely their existence on perilous ideas of divine rights, exclusion of unbea tree in a forest. To create an atmosphere that blights the entire forlievers, intolerance, violence, and a preferred way of life to which est is a mistake. To foster a psychology of siege in an entire commueveryone else must conform. If SIMI is one such organisation, it deserves our criticism and scorn. If it is breaking the law and nity is a disaster. Before it seeks further bans, the state ought to fomenting hatred, it deserves to be rigorously investigated and vigorously introspect. William Faulkner wrote that prejudice is brought to justice. But what if it is a target of widespread and growshown to be the most destructive when it is internalised. TEHELKAs ing prejudice? What if the drive against it is misdirected and detailed investigation suggests, alarmingly, that in the shiningdesigned to seed more terror than it aims to suppress? And while struggling India of today there is a real danger of that.
ANAND NAOREM
COVER STORY
21
coverstory
In a crucial investigation over three months, Editor-at-Large AJIT SAHI tracked the SIMI ctions across 11 cities Trivandrum, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Udaipur, Bhopal, Mumbai, Delhi, Aurangabad, Ahmedabad and Gorakhpur. His ndings are alarming and distressing. They demand urgent introspection and corrective action
Naturally the common people dont want war That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
HERMANN WILHELM GOERING, Nazi Party leader
morning of September 27, 2001, Shahid Badr Falahi, a doctor of the alternative medicine system of Unani and the president of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), sat with a few colleagues in the SIMI oce in a Muslim neighbourhood of South Delhi, wondering whats next. Fatigued from two weeks of public meetings across Uttar Pradesh from where he had returned only the previous night, Falahi had just nished speaking with SIMIs oce-bearers across India. Using the local STD booth
N THE
as his oce phone had been dead for hours, call after call fetched an echo: anxious SIMI activists in Mumbai, Lucknow, Indore, Kolkata, Chennai, Kozhikode, Patna and other cities said the police had sealed their oces the previous night without explanation. At 4 pm, Falahi got to know why. The television news announced that the Union Home Ministry had invoked a 1967 law against unlawful activities and banned SIMI for two years with immediate eect. The nature of this organisation had become apparent and preliminary information sent by various state governments only conrmed its tendencies, LK Advani, then Union Home Minister, told reporters that evening. The notication his ministry issued that day banning SIMI qualied Advanis assertion. SIMI has been in22 COVER STORY
dulging in activities which are prejudicial to the security of the country and have the potential of disturbing peace and communal harmony and disrupting the secular fabric of the country, the terse, six-paragraph notication said, strongly suggesting that the government had a watertight case against SIMI with unchallengeable proof. Other grave charges levelled said SIMI: Was in close touch with militant outts and supported extremism/militancy in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere Supported claims for seceding parts of Indias territory and groups ghting for it, and thus questioned Indias territorial integrity Was working to establish an international Islamic order Published objectionable posters and literature calculated to incite communal feelings and question Indias territorial integrity Most damning was the governments claim that SIMI was involved in engineering communal riots across India. The notication said SIMIs anti-national and militant postures were clearly manifest at its various conferences. The speeches of the leaders [at the conferences] gloried Pan Islamic Fundamentalism, the notication read, claiming to expose SIMIs nefarious designs. [The leaders] used derogatory language for the deities of other religions and exhorted Muslims for Jehad.
SINCE 9/11, LK ADVANI HAD STEPPED UP A WAR OF WORDS AGAINST SIMI. FALAHI HAD DUELLED BACK AGGRESSIVELY
Falahi and SIMI knew they had this coming. In fact, for more than a month, and especially since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, Advani had stepped up a war of words against SIMI, and Falahi had aggressively duelled with the Home Minister. A month earlier, on August 20, Falahi had issued an angry press release those were the days when the media provided space to SIMIs views. Warning that Muslims wouldnt tolerate injustice and atrocities anymore and would ght a decisive battle for their rights, Falahi said: The increasing Islamic awakening has disturbed the Sangh Parivar as it considers SIMI the biggest obstacle in building the Ram temple at Ayodhya and making India a Hindu rashtra. Taking on the Home Minister, Falahi said Advani and the RSS were responsible for the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in 1992, and reminded Advani that his cross-country Rath Yatra in 1990 had triggered riots across India. The government hasnt been able to make out a case against SIMI and, therefore, false grounds are being prepared, Falahi further said. He added: Till date, not a single allegation against SIMI has been proved while the planned attacks of the Sangh Parivar against Christians, Dalits and Muslims have been exposed by various inquiry commissions. Falahis reckless challenge to Indias Home Minister was not atypical. But that was perhaps the last media space Falahi got to exercise his Right to Speech. On September 27, after the ban was announced, Falahi and three others stayed at the oce awaiting the inevitable arrival of the police. Sure enough, a dozen policemen stormed the building shortly after midnight and arrested them. They broke the door before we
THESIMI
FICTIONS
could open it, Falahi told TEHELKA from his village in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh where he lives and practices medicine. They kicked us and abused us all the way to the police station. The government said no fewer than 240 SIMI members, including Falahi, had been arrested in a nationwide crackdown. SIMIs units gave wide publicity to the [Quran burning] issue through the Internet, the Home Secretary said. Believe it or not, police across India have over the years repeatedly told courts that the use of the Internet by SIMIs activists proved their anti-national and unlawful goals. (Some allegations are so absurd it is incredible that they launched criminal cases. They include: the accused trained SIMI members in swimming and horse-riding and the accused stood at the door of his house and shouted antiIndia slogans. Maharashtra police says the SIMI accused want that state to secede from India.) When the rst two-year ban lapsed, LK Advani, who was by then Deputy Prime Minister, slapped another two-year ban on SIMI without a days break on September 27, 2003. A fresh
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notication virtually identical to the rst was issued, replete with the same grave charges but once again oering no evidence. Midway through the ban, the NDA lost the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and the UPA came into power. The new Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, allowed the ban to lapse in September 2005. But inexplicably, four months later, on February 7, 2006, his ministry suddenly banned SIMI a third time. When that ran out, SIMI was banned a fourth time without a days break on February 7 this year. Once again, the notication was identical to that of 2006. During the course of the four bans, hundreds of criminal cases were slapped on alleged SIMI activists across the country. Hundreds of Muslim men were arrested. A few were lucky to quickly get bail. A majority has spent a year, sometimes two, in jail on the imsiest of evidence. Those who secured bail after repeated efforts often succeeded only because the police failed to le chargesheets within the legal deadline of 90 days from arrest (the deadline is 60 days in minor cases). Hundreds out on bail are still embroiled in cases dragging on for years; in
called a press conference and grandly claimed that SIMI had links with Osama bin Laden/Al Qaeda, and that Palestines guerrilla militia, Hamas, was its close ideological partner. Anti-national video and audio cassettes and other propaganda material were reportedly seized. SIMI activists had been allegedly found distributing pro-Taliban leaets in Delhi and other cities. No details were given, then or later. In seven years, recovery of such material has become the standard in criminal cases against SIMI, without explaining how their content like videos of Osama bin Laden and the US terror attacks, which are easily available on the Internet links SIMI with terrorism. Indeed, just a day into the ban, the government had launched the tactic of making unsubstantiated, vague and generic allegations against SIMI a tactic that the police and the intelligence agencies have perfected against SIMI since 2001. In quite the manner prescribed by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, the government also took to repeating mere allegations so often that they began to be accepted as the truth without needing to pass the litmus test of evidence and proof. Typically, top ministers and police level allegations against SIMI, especially when there is a terrorist attack, and the news media play them up incessantly. Yet, no proof or evidence is ever oered from a public forum. What is oered as evidence in the judicial forum is a mockery of the principles of criminal investigation. On that day, many such allegations against SIMI tumbled out. The Home Secretary said SIMI had printed provocative posters and issued press releases that caused communal tensions. No details were given of the communal tensions or the provocation in the posters. He said SIMI distributed posters and pamphlets across the country again, no mention of what they contained and how that broke the law. Even legitimate acts were dubbed unlawful and seditious. In March 2001, SIMI had called public protests across India against the burning of a copy of the Quran in Delhi. This was now cited as an unlawful act to justify the ban.
HE NEXT day, the Union Home Secretary
THE GOVERNMENT TOOK TO REPEATING ALLEGATIONS SO OFTEN THAT THEY BEGAN TO BE ACCEPTED AS THE TRUTH
Defused lives A bomb squad neutralising a suspicious object in Lucknow (right) Stone and sheild Indian security personnel stand guard outside the Charminar in Hyderabad as tension spirals in the city in March, 2006 (below)
SHASHI BHUSHAN PANDEY
AP
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many, trials havent even begun. Scores are still in jail, charged with crimes ranging from the absurd to the heinous. New cases are launched every now and then, and fresh arrests land more and more Muslims in jail. Many accused are repeatedly implicated in cases over the years, even as earlier cases are thrown out by the courts.
HAT IS most amazing is that till date, police across India have failed to establish a single charge of sedition and terrorism against SIMI. In not one court have the police oered evidence or proof of links between SIMI and Pakistani and Bangladeshi terrorist organisations. Never has any link been established between SIMI and Osama bin Laden/Al Qaeda or Hamas or even with the armed separatism of Jammu and Kashmir or of Punjab, where such insurrection supposedly ended around 1991 a decade before the government made the allegation against SIMI. No cases have ever been proved against SIMI on engineering communal riots, a categorical assertion in the rst notication repeated with successive notications. As for seditious literature, SIMI had published many magazines, posters, pamphlets over the nearly quarter century (1977-2001), when it had existed legitimately. No case was brought for two decades, until 1998, against any of its publications. Before any trial, the judge examines the case for the prosecution and determines whether the material against the accused merits a trial, and if there isnt, the accused is discharged. In many SIMI cases, this is exactly what happened: the judges found the charges so bogus they could not even sustain the framing of charges. In fact, many cases cited against SIMI are so sloppily crafted that the accused arent even accused of being SIMI members. In a majority of the few cases that have been decided, judges across India have either summarily dismissed the charges and discharged the accused, or acquitted them after the trial. The reason lies in the quality of evidence on oer. One would expect that with police claims of a watertight case against an outlawed terror group, the police would tender clinching documentary and/or circumstantial evidence. Surely, the sealed SIMI oces across the country oered a veritable telltale treasure to establish its links with terror networks. Surely, the police would nd a paper trail such as bank accounts, handwritten letters, secret plans detailing contacts, false passports the usual incriminating documents. Surely, the police would oer recordings of phone conversations
24 COVER STORY
SHAILENDRA PANDEY
THE POLICE ALWAYS SEEM TO RECEIVE SECRET INFORMATION FROM UNNAMED INFORMERS ABOUT SUSPICIOUS MEN
and testimonies of neighbourhood witnesses. It is astounding, however, that not once in their evidence do the police rely upon the contents found in the sealed SIMI oces. It is the ex-SIMI activists that have regularly asked the government and the police to give them a list of items seized from their oces, but without success. In hundreds of cases police have found no neighbours as witnesses, no bank documents, nothing. In case after case, the pattern is similar: The police receive secret information from an unnamed informer about a meeting or a suspicious character at a certain location. They reach the spot, search the prem-
ises, nd unlawful material such as pamphlets and CDs on the person or persons present there, and arrest him/them. No, they failed to record in their station diary (the all-important noting register that is the rst record of every police action) the fact of having received the secret information. No, there wasnt any time to get the mandatory search warrant from a magistrate before the raid. No, they didnt record in the station diary before leaving their station why there wasnt time to obtain the search warrant, or the grounds of their information or the article or thing they were going to search for. No, they didnt make any attempt to get respectable local inhabitants to witness the search as the law demands. No, they didnt record in their documentation that they tried to get local witnesses but couldnt. Yes, they brought along their own witnesses to attest to the arrests and the seizures. (Often the same witnesses have attested searches, repeatedly, sometimes on successive days and on others,
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shall be proved as against a person accused of any oence. As recent as 2005, the Supreme Court, while deciding on appeals in the Parliament terrorist attack case of 2001, spoke of serious doubts about conceding the power of recording confessions to police ocers. In any case, a confession cannot be forced but has to be made voluntarily. That the confessions by the SIMI accused are fabricated is evident from the fact that in several cases, the police claims that numerous accused are struck by remorse all at the same time and confess to their crimes on the same day and, most surprisingly, in near identical words. To be sure, the minute the accused are brought before a magistrate, they deny having made confessions or say that the police tortured them to sign on the dotted line.
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bunals acceptance of secret material brought by the Centre, read alone by the presiding judge, and returned to the government, with no one else knowing what it contained. The 1967 law allows the government to claim privilege if divulging such information would imperil public interest. But it also says that the Centre must share the secret material with the party contesting the ban, in this case, SIMI. In a 1995 judgement, however, Supreme Court Chief Justice JS Verma said the government need share it only with the presiding judge and not with the contesting party. So in essence, while a judge rules that the secret information from the Centre is good enough to uphold a ban, the banned organisation cannot know what that secret information is and, therefore, is severely compromised in its right to defend itself against the charges. Not one to give up on his faith in the Indian judiciary, Shahid Badr Falahi has challenged the ndings of each of the rst three tribunals in the Supreme Court. When SIMIs counsel appeared before the Supreme Court judge at the
REUTERS
Hit and stun (Top) A damaged mosque hit by a blast in Malegaon, near Mumbai, on Septemebr 9, 2006. (Above) Police and lawyers gather around a bomb explosion site in a civil court in Varanasi on November 23, 2007 Hates debris Forensic personnel inspect the site of a bomb blast in Ahmedabad on July 27, 2008 (left)
weeks later.) In many cases, the seal used to secure the seized material was not handed to a third person as prudence would require but was simply carried back to the police station by the investigating ocer, which straightaway raises the possibility of tampering with the alleged seized articles. There are a few cases in which bomb-making material such as RDX and gelatine sticks, and chemicals like ammonium nitrate such as in the July 2006 Mumbai train blasts case was allegdly seized. If searches had been conducted as required by law, they would have left a paper trail of supporting evidence. But because the searches were conducted in violation of the law, the only evidence of such a search having been conducted is the word of the police ocer. Once the arrested person is in police custody, he is miraculously struck by remorse a few days later and volunteers confessions. The section on confessions is clear-cut in the Indian Evidence Act the British wrote 136 years ago. It says: No confession made to a police ocer
dence backing the governments claims about SIMIs involvement in the most monstrous terrorist crimes: confessions and unlawful material seized in the most dubious and illegal manner. Though the Centre has already appealed against it, SIMI leaders were ecstatic that a tribunal headed by the Delhi High Court judge, Geeta Mittal, rejected the Centres ban on the organisation on August 5, 2008. This is the culmination of a long, dry journey for them, who have contested three previous bans and lost every time. As required by the 1967 law under which SIMI was banned, the rst tribunal was constituted to hear both sides and decide if there was sucient ground to ban SIMI. SIMIs leaders were convinced that the tribunal would see through the weakness of the case and blast the ban out the window. But the rst tribunal upheld the Centres ban, as did the second and the third. The reasoning oered by the tribunals in upholding the bans dees both law and common sense. Stunningly, the rst tribunal said that while it was true that confessions cannot be accepted as evidence against the accused in their criminal trial, the tribunal could accept such confessions since it wasnt a criminal trial. The succeeding tribunals stuck to this convoluted reasoning. No less astounding was the remark by the second tribunal that the fact that SIMI could mobilise funds to pay its legal fees itself proved that it existed and hadnt disbanded as its leaders claimed. Tribunal after tribunal said that the fact that so many fresh cases had been registered against SIMI activists was proof that the groups activities hadnt ceased. The most shocking of all has been the tri-
O THATS the comprehensive bank of evi-
AP
THE COURT DOES NOT SHARE WHAT THE SECRET INFORMATION IS, BUT UPHOLDS THE BANS ON THE STRENGTH OF THAT
time of admitting the appeal against the third tribunals report, the judge said: Same activity, same result. The lawyer for SIMI pointed out that the government itself said that during 2003-06 there had been no fresh activity from SIMI, the honourable judge shot back: Is this a joke? Every time we conrm a ban you come back? The counsel gently said the judge was wrongly informed, that every appeal was still pending at the Supreme Court and hadnt yet been heard. Realising his mistake, the judge said the matter should be heard by a larger bench. In the six years since the rst tribunal returned a nding, the apex court hasnt yet found time to take up Falahis appeals. On the other hand, in stark contrast, the elation of tribunal judge Geeta Mittals order has already abated. Though the Supreme Court has still not heard Falahis earlier appeals against the previous three tribunals orders upholding the bans, it has already reacted to the Centres appeal and stayed Judge Mittals order. We will not give up, Falahi says with conviction. Justice must nally be ours as truth is with us.
COVER STORY 25
coverstory | personal accounts
INSIDE THE WHALE: STATE VS SHAHID BADR FALAHI

In case after case, the ex-president of SIMI has been the target of the law agencies absurd yet sinister charges
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act
GEORGE ORWELL
S WE entered the jail, the boys asked me: when will we be freed? recalls SIMIs ex-president, Shahid Badr Falahi, after he and three others were arrested on September 27, 2001. The government portrayed Falahi as the mastermind of a sinister jehadist group working with Pakistan to destabilise India. But the criminal cases against him did not match his stature in the government propaganda. Eleven days before his arrest, Falahi had addressed a daytime meeting of Muslims in the Bahraich town of Uttar Pradesh, some 500 km east of Delhi. Police permission had been obtained to hold the meeting at a girls college, a stones throw from the local police station. The police had video recorded the event. After three days, an FIR was registered against Falahi saying his speech spread hatred, contempt and disaection against the government and incited communal disharmony. Be a good citizen. Make your parents proud of you, Falahi says he had told the Muslim youth there. He had also held US policies responsible for bringing on that weeks terror attacks there. Of Falahis speech given before hundreds, only policemen were cited as witnesses. The judge asked the police: why did
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you take three days to book him? Why did no communal violence occur then or since if thats what he incited? Yet, Falahi and 11 others spent time in jail. This was a fast-track court but the case dragged on for ve years, whereupon it was youve got to believe this withdrawn by the government. The reason given:
said it was disturbing that in his speech, Falahi suggested that the Muslim be allowed to bear a sword as the Sikh bears his dagger and the Hindu sadhu his trident. But mere suggestion is no crime, the judge said and allowed the government to withdraw the case in September 2006. Falahis woes have been many.
SHAHID BADR FALAHI

Home: Azamgarh, UP Date of arrest: September 27, 2001 Charges: Speeches inciting communal disharmony
SHAILENDRA PANDEY
Evidence: Video taken by police of a speech, CD with photo of a gun and some cassettes
IN ONE CASE, FALAHI WAS ACCUSED OF PASTING STICKERS OF THE BABRI MASJID. AN EXASPERATED JUDGE ASKED, WHAT EXACTLY IS THE OFFENCE HERE?
inherent lacuna and insucient evidence. The government lawyer admitted that senior district and police ocers had attended the gathering. In the court, there was high drama as local Hindutva lawyers moved the judge against withdrawing the case. The judge questioned their locus but agreed to review Falahis speech. The police video was played in a packed courtroom. The judge realised the FIR didnt truly reect the speech. He Upon his arrest in Delhi in September 2001, police had slapped three cases against him. In one of these, he was accused of carrying in his right hand a calendar that wrongly portrayed the history of Kashmir in that it claimed Muslims had been persecuted during the rule of the Hindu kings. Once again, Falahi was accused of treason, spreading contempt, hatred and disaection, etc., etc. He was denied bail, including from the high court. In
the trial court, an exasperated judge asked the government lawyer to go study Kashmirs history and summarise it a week later in his court. Needless to add, the government lawyer failed the history test. The two independent witnesses of the calendars recovery from Falahi told the judge that the police were forcing them to falsely testify against Falahi. As the other witnesses were policemen, the judge threw out the calendar case in 2003 and acquitted Falahi. The third case against Falahi belongs to the night he was arrested from his Delhi oce a few hours after SIMI was outlawed on September 27, 2001. The police said that, past midnight, Falahi gave a speech (again: contempt, hatred, disaection) to a group of Muslims and shouted Hindustan murdabad. The police said they tried to reason with him but he wouldnt listen. A week later, on October 4, the police allegedly seized evidence from Falahis ofce: a CD with the photo of a gun, and some cassettes. The judge asked the police: why didnt you seize the material the night you arrested him? The police said: we forgot. Still, this case lasted 14 months after which the judge dropped the charges of promoting enmity on religious lines. He said Falahi would be prosecuted only for being a member of an unlawful organisation, and sent the case back to the Metropolitan Magistrate. For the last nearly four years, that case hasnt moved an inch. For the nth time, Falahi will have traveled to Delhi from his native Azamgarh on August 8, 2008 to appear in this case, and, inevitably, be given another date. In yet another absurd case, Falahi was allegedly caught pasting a sticker on a wall of Jamia Milia Islamia University in Delhi. The sticker had a picture of the Babri Masjid and a slogan in
THESIMI
FICTIONS
Hindi: God willing, well pray there one day. The judge asked the prosecution: isnt it a bit farfetched that the head of a national organisation would go around pasting stickers on roadside walls? He also asked: what exactly is the oence here? A public witness said he was forced by the police to falsely testify against Falahi. The judge acquitted Falahi. If these were absurd, then a case in Azamgarh is alarmingly sinister. In 2000, Falahi held a press conference in that city to slam BJP leader Kalraj Mishra for demanding a ban on SIMI. The police said this created communal disharmony and booked a case against Falahi. Falahi was in jail on this, too. For four years, the police didnt le a chargesheet. Falahi was denied bail by the local courts and had to move the Allahabad High Court to get it.
personal accounts | coverstory
THE GOOD DOCTORS COMPLICATIONS

Absolved by several courts, a former SIMI ofce-bearer continues to face the stigma that bars him from home and job
M HASAN
Home: Dholpur, Rajasthan Date of arrest: October 6, 2001 Charges: Distributing seditious literature in Pali, Rajasthan Evidence: None, except police allegations
case goes back to 1999. As editor of a SIMI publication, Islamic Movement, Falahi published a verbatim translation in Hindi of a feature published in an English language newspaper, The Asian Age, that contained uncharitable remarks against Lord Krishna. Of course, there isnt any case against The Asian Age on this. In all, Falahi spent 30 months in jail related to these bizarre cases. Ecstatic at the tribunals decision to reject the ban, Falahi isnt much troubled that the Supreme Court has stayed the tribunals order, and is condent that SIMI will soon be a legitimate group again. Yet, he knows that the criminal cases against SIMI activists may continue for long. As we entered the jail, I told my boys not to worry as everything happens by the mercy of Allah, Falahi says. He will decide when the cases end. He will decide when our test will end.
NOTHER PENDING
POLICE ACCUSED HASAN OF HANDING OUT SEDITIOUS LITERATURE IN PALI DISTRICT. BUT HE HAS A WATERTIGHT ALIBI. HE WAS AT A MALARIA CAMP IN JAISALMER ON THAT VERY DAY
Muslim doctor, it is my duty to serve the poor, says Mohammad Hasan, 34, a government doctor in Rajasthan. When SIMI was banned in 2001, Hasan was serving at an anti-malaria medical camp in a Jaisalmer village. Hasan rst heard of the ban on September 29, two days after it was promulgated, from newspapers reaching his camp. A week later, on October 6, the police arrested him and charged him for being a member of an unlawful organisation. Hasan was given bail the same day. The police claimed that on September 29, Hasan distributed seditious literature, including pamphlets in Rajasthans Pali district. But Hasan had a watertight alibi: the attendance register at the Jaisalmer anti-malaria camp. The police obviously thought I would be at Pali where I was then posted, Hasan laughs. They probably hadnt heard that I was on deputation at the medical camp in Jaisalmer. Should have been an openand-shut case, right? Wrong. After the case against him was registered, the state government suspended Hasan from his job. He moved the Rajasthan High Court. A single bench ruled in his favour. The government refused to reinstate him. Hasan appealed before a two-judge bench. This, too, ruled in his favour. The government appealed before the Supreme Court. In July 2003, nearly two years after
SA
his suspension, the Supreme Court ordered Hasans reinstatement with back wages, increments and allowances. Ten days later, he was back in his job. Hasan devoted himself to further studies alongside his job. Last year, he earned an MD in Radio Diagnosis. He is currently serving as Medical Ocer at the district hospital in Dholpur city. In 2005, Hasan cleared the prestigious Rajasthan Public Services Commission exam to be elevated as a doctor in the state cadre. But the Health Department rejected his appointment as the routine police verication showed he had been a SIMI member. Hasan has moved the High Court again. On another petition, the High Court has stayed his criminal trial in the original case. The stigma of SIMI is a social handicap for Hasan, a shadow that never leaves his side. No one rents me their houses, says Hasan. He changed houses thrice in Bikaner. At Dholpur, he has been living at the hospital guesthouse since last year. His wife and two small children live with her parents at Jaipur. Wherever he goes, Hasan is followed by state intelligence personnel. Of course, Hasan was once a member of SIMI. In fact, at the time of the ban, he was SIMIs national general secretary. But until the ban, no case was ever led against him. I am no criminal or terrorist, Hasan says. I am a Muslim and a doctor and Ill always serve my people.
COVER STORY 27
THEY JUST WANT MUSLIM BOYS TO ALWAYS BE IN JAIL

Moutasim Billah has been a police scapegoat for seven years, even though they acknowledge they have nothing on him
N ENGINEERING student forced to give up studies because of cases of sedition and terrorism against him, 22-year-old Moutasim Billah of Hyderabad would do a lawyer proud with the way he reels out sections of the Indian Penal Code. Sadly, Billah is familiar with these sections only because he has suered them for seven years. Billah was arrested on March 5, 2008, after his name came up in alleged confessions of other young Muslims randomly arrested and tortured with electric shocks by the police during investigations of last years bomb blasts in Hyderabad. Nine people were killed in the May 2007 blast outside a mosque called Mecca Masjid near the Charminar.
GLOBAL NEWS NETWORK
MOUTASIM BILLAH
Home: Hyderabad, AP Date of arrest: March 5, 2008 Charges: Terrorist conspiracy to incite violence Evidence: Confessions of those arrested with Billah. CDs police claim to have seized at the meeting
Forty more were killed in two simultaneous blasts at a snack shop and in a park in August. When the police found no grounds to implicate Billah in the two blasts, they slapped a patently bogus case on him, saying he and the other men secretly met at a cemetery to hatch a terrorist conspiracy and incite Hindu-Muslim violence. The police claim to have raided the meeting and arrested seven persons, but say Billah absconded until his arrest in March. He was in prison for 90 days until the High Court gave him bail. The only evidence cited against him were some inammatory CDs allegedly found in the cemetry. The police want Muslims boys to always stay in jail on some pretext or the other, Billah told TEHELKA in an interview on
June 12, 2008 at his home in Hyderabad, just hours after he was released. Billahs narrative is a good primer on how the Indian police trap innocent people and makes their lives a living hell. His story began when as a 15year-old, Billah joined demonstrations in Hyderabad called by local Muslims in 2001 to protest US President George Bushs decision to invade Afghanistan. For some reason, police decided this was a crime in India. They registered cases against scores of protestors, including Billah. Despite there being no independent witnesses or evidence, the case has dragged on for seven years, during which Billah has attended more than 50 hearings. In 2002, he joined another protest, bringing on another FIR that is still a live grenade. In 2004, a tragic event occurred. Billah was its victim, but the police made him an accused and slapped serious charges on him. Readers will recall that last week TEHELKA exposed the police lies against Maulana Nasiruddin of Hyderabad and two of his sons, all of whom are
A DOUBTFUL CRIME, AND YEARS OF UNFAIR PUNISHMENT

Yasin Patel is the only SIMI activist to be convicted under POTA. His crime was nothing more serious than an offensive poster
E BELIEVE in God and God is great, a beaming Yasin Patel told TEHELKA on August 5, 2008 after the SIMI tribunal rejected the Centres ban on SIMI. Yasin Patel has the dubious distinction of being the only SIMI activist to have been convicted under the
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draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). His crime: allegedly sticking an anti-India poster inside Delhis Jamia Milia Islamia University. His witnesses: only policemen. The evidence: the alleged poster. A native of Ahmedabad, Patel left Gujarat following the antiMuslim violence of FebruaryMarch 2002. He was arrested in
New Delhi on May 26 that year. In 2003, the court accepted the prosecutions argument that the alleged poster denigrated an image of Indias ag and sentenced him to ve years in jail under POTA and, concurrently, seven years for spreading disaection against the Indian government. Patel had told the court that he was arrested from home at midnight and the poster story was a plant. In any case, the poster in question, printed by SIMI in 1996, did not contain Indias ag. Rather, it showed an image of a clenched st and the maps of the ve members of the UN Security Council: the US,
THE JUDGE SAW THE POSTER AND SAID: IT LOOKS MORE DANGEROUS THAN AN AK47. IT SAID NOTHING ON INDIA
Britain, Russia, China and France. Its text slammed the UN for becoming a handmaiden of these nations instead of staying neutral as per its mandate. On this ground, Patel appealed against his conviction before the High Court, which granted him bail in August 2004. By then, Patel had spent 27 months in jail. During his trial, Patel recalls
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in jails in dierent states. Billahs family and Maulana Nasiruddin are neighbours in the Muslim neighbourhood of Saidabad in Hyderabad. To recap: in October 2004, Nasiruddin went to the local police station for a routine attendance in an earlier case when policemen from Gujarat waiting there arrested him on a charge of conspiracy to enact terror in that state, including the murder of its former home minister, Haren Pandya. When a few Muslims who had accompanied Nasiruddin to the police station protested, a Gujarat police ocer red at them, instantly killing one protestor. That protestor was Billahs older and only brother. Forget about getting justice for his brothers death, Billah was made an accused in the criminal case led against the protestors, charging them with the very serious crime of obstructing police ocers from doing their duty: in this case, taking custody of Nasiruddin. The protestors forced the police to le a case against the Gujarat ocer. Billah is listed as an eyewitness in that case. TEHELKAs investigation reveals that across India, police repeatedly and deliberately list some accused as absconding, so that they can be easily picked up when the heat is on the police for some case. Thats what was said about Billah in myriad cases since 2001. But Billah was no absconder. Until 2004, he was studying BE in civil engineering at the local Deccan Engineering College, when he dropped out in the third year. He regularly participated in community events. He regularly used a mobile phone, the recordings of which could easily prove his whereabouts.
NOTHER TACTIC the police regularly use against SIMI activists is to implicate them in older cases with retrospective eect. The day after Maulana Nasiruddins arrest in 2004, angry Muslims had pelted stones at the police as Billahs brothers con had wound its way to the cemetery. The police had promptly registered another case. Billah wasnt an accused in

that case for over three years. But after his arrest on March 5, 2008, police included his name in that case as well. When he was produced in court, Billah told the judge that he had made no confessions to the police and was forced to sign a blank paper by them. But his prospects look grim: his confession submitted by the police says member (which too both the family and SIMI deny), or that he was a sympathiser of SIMI or associated with SIMI members. But one of Hyderabads senior IPS ocers, Amit Garg, categorically asserted before the tribunal (assessing the ban) that Billah was a SIMI member. This reects either Gargs prejudice or a deliberate attempt on his part to mislead the tribunal. As the point person of the Andhra Pradesh police for all SIMI cases before the tribunal, Garg swore an oath that he had no, repeat no, personal knowledge of the cases and was deposing entirely from documents given him by various investigating ocers. Yet, none of the documents except his says Billah is a SIMI member. All the allegations against Billah seem to ow from prejudice. The police have been smarting since 2006 when Billah mocked them with his bold decision to assist SIMIs legal team in hearings by the previous tribunal. Policemen came to me and said, Why the hell have you come here if you are not with SIMI? Billah recalls. They said I was making a terrible mistake.
IN 2004, A TRAGIC EVENT OCCURRED. BILLAH LOST HIS BROTHER, BUT THE POLICE MADE HIM AN ACCUSED
he was networked with the alleged SIMI leader, Safdar Nagori, who was dramatically arrested in Indore on March 26, 2008 and is the polices latest fall guy, vilied in the media as a big terror mastermind though his trial is yet to even begin. Curiously, none of the police cases against Billah ever claimed he is a SIMI member, saying only that he was the brother of a SIMI
the public prosecutor hardly spoke; it was the judge SN Dhingra (who also tried the Parliament attack case) who countered the defence all the time. Police records showed Patel was arrested from the spot at 1.30 pm. and both the police and the accused were there until 7.30 pm. Why then, the defence lawyer asked, were no public witness found in this long period? Because, said the judge, people are afraid of SIMI. The judge saw the poster and said: It looks more dangerous to me than an AK47. As the judge dictated Patels oral submissions from the cross-examination to his typist, he misquoted one line. Patel spoke out to correct him. Tell your client to watch his
SHAILENDRA PANDEY
tongue, the judge bluntly told the defence lawyer. He will regret it if he doesnt.
YASIN PATEL
Home: New Delhi Date of arrest: May 26, 2003 Charges: Pasting an anti-India poster at Jamia Millia University Evidence: Poster showing a clenched st and the names of UN Security Council members
MADARSA alumnus from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, where he and SIMIs ex-president Shahid Badr Falahi were classmates, Patel joined SIMI in 1985 and stayed on till his mandatory retirement in 1997 at the age of 30. He rose to become secretary of SIMIs Uttar Pradesh unit. For a living, Patel set up a printing unit in Ahmedabad and published books on politics, socialism, psychology and languages. As an outspoken Muslim youth, he often called public meetings to ask Muslims to de-
fend themselves against attacks on the community. This brought him under the police scanner which began harassing him in the 1990s. Patels parents and siblings are settled in Chicago and are US citizens. He, too, moved in 1992 and lived there for two years. At school, he topped his class on social science. But I wore a beard and both the teachers and the students kept their distance from me, Patel recalls. I realised I have no future in the US so I came back. Today, Patel says he will live and die in India. The bones of the Muslims are buried in this land, he says. Now India has to decide whether it wants us or not.
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THE CRY OF THE BELOVED COUNTRY

Chilling stories of fathers and brothers swallowed by midnight arrests, as family members lack the resources for legal redress
police in the various states made a huge ruckus with their presence on the two or three days the SIMI tribunal held its hearing in their cities during June-July, 2008, the overwhelming dominance of the police was nowhere more evident than in Bhopal during July 1-3, where the Centre presented SIMI-related cases from Madhya Pradesh. As uniformed ocers and their subordinates with guns holstered had the premises in their control, many plainclothesmen also moved around the government building where the makeshift courtroom had been prepared for the tribunal, perhaps keeping an eye out for troublemakers. It was, then, no small act of courage when a fear-stricken group of Muslims, numbering about a dozen and clearly of little means, landed at the tribunal hearings most tentatively and, speaking meekly, urged their plea be taken up. All travelling to Bhopal from small towns near and far, they had only heard from newspaper inserts that a tribunal somehow connected with SIMI had arrived in the state capital. Though they had no idea about its framework of inquiry, they still decided to take their chance. They were led by a local lawyer, a Muslim, most sincere and earnest but, certainly, not much tuned into the possibilities that this tribunal could oer this group. Each one of them has a tragic tale to tell with brothers and sons arrested by police over patently fabricated charges of being SIMI
LTHOUGH THE
30 COVER STORY
members. The tribunal did accept their adavits, but that was more for the record. Justice, or rather help, of the sort they sought was not to be found here. Outside the tribunal, this reporter spoke to a few of this group and found a disturbing pattern to their stories. It was clear that these scared people had little idea that they could actually be
TEHELKA . On the third day, he read in the newspapers that a SIMI activist had been arrested and wondered if it was his brother. On the night of April 5, the police returned with Faisal and searched the house. They found nothing, Husain says. When the family asked for a panchnama the ocial record of the search, the police ig-
THE BHOPAL CASE

Home: Madhya Pradesh Date of arrest: 2001 onwards Charges: Sedition, being members of an illegal organisation Evidence: None except confessions to being SIMI members and pamphlets and books allegedly seized in searches
THE TRIBUNAL SWARMED WITH POLICE. IT WAS, THEN, NO SMALL ACT OF COURAGE WHEN A FEAR-STRICKEN GROUP OF MUSLIMS LANDED AT THE HEARINGS
looking at a much longer haul than they realise now. Here are some of those chilling stories: Tabrez Husain, 28, runs a photo studio some 150 km from Bhopal, in a tehsil called Narsinghgarh where his family has lived for 40 years. On April 2 this year, a dozen policemen landed at his house in the middle of the night and dragged his younger brother, Faisal Husain, away with them. For three days we didnt know where he was, Tabrez told nored their requests. Shortly, the police left with Faisal. On April 8, Tabrez and his two other brothers, Aftab and Intekhab, had gone to the local court to appear before a judge in an eight-year-old case of rioting in which all the four brothers were implicated by the police. All of a sudden, someone called from the nearby village, where Aftab runs a shop as an optician, to say that the police wanted to search his shop. Aftab and Intekhab went across to
be present during the police raid. After the search, the police took them along. Within hours, the two brothers were arrested on charges of sedition and unlawful activity, and for being a member of a terrorist organisation, which is punishable with life imprisonment. Tabrez says neither his two brothers nor he were ever associated with SIMI. Faisal had, indeed, been a SIMI member but had submitted an adavit in 2001 after the ban that he had quit the organisation. On June 6, the police led a chargesheet against the three brothers. Sure enough, all have confessed to being SIMI members. The police claim they found pamphlets at their house announcing that Muslims will build Babri Masjid once again at the same spot in Ayodhya where it was demolished in 1992. Tabrez fears for his brothers, as they have been implicated in the confessions of Safdar Nagori, the SIMI leader arrested in March at Indore. Tabrez fears he may be next in the line of re. Abdul Saleem, 74, is grieving for his youngest son, Abdul Mubeen, who was arrested on April 6 this year. Saleem lives in a tehsil in the Guna district, 175 km north of Bhopal, where he worked and retired as a reader in the magistrates court. Mubeen, 28, ran a photocopy-cum-STD booth from a rented room 3 km from their home. They came at 4 am and showed no warrant to arrest him, Saleem told TEHELKA. The police also dragged away Saleems two other sons, an 18year-old grandson, Abdul Qadir, and a nephew. The next day, police released all but Mubeen and Qadir. On July 2, when the interview with Saleem was conducted, his youngest son and grandson were in judicial custody. Mubeen had once been a SIMI member. When the organisation was banned, he and some others were called in by the police and made
THESIMI
FICTIONS
to submit adavits that they would stay away from SIMI. The police claim they seized pamphlets from Mubeen suggesting that the Amarnath Yatra be attacked. It is pointless to ask if the police found independent witnesses to these seizures. tion in the morning but was cold shouldered. Four days later, the police presented him before the court as being a member of a terrorist organisation. The evidence: The police say they seized the same pamphlet from him that claims Babri Masjid would be rebuilt. Identical is the story of Irfan Ali, 34, who lived in a joint family with his older brother Majid Ali.

Not one person in this group seems to possess the resources to mount any defence beyond the local courts. It seemed beyond both their intellectual and nancial capacity to take the battle to the High Court, leave alone the Supreme Court. For most, while one earning family member has fallen o, there is now the additional burden of sustaining his family and paying his legal fees. vestigations in the various cases. Jawahar Raja, the counsel for exSIMI president Shahid Badr Falahi, had fully used such opportunities to launch a scathing cross-examination of those ocers, often catching them on the wrong foot, and making them admit their procedural failures such as in eecting seizures. But in Madhya Pradesh, only one investigating ocer was brought by the government to depose before the tribunal. All others were senior ocers who said they were deposing from their knowledge of the documents. A typical conversation went like this: Jawahar Raja: Did the police
seat covers in his small shop in the Sehore district 50 km west of Bhopal. It is his father, Mohammad Rafeeq, who was arrested by the police as a SIMI member, even though he is 45 years old and way beyond SIMIs upper age limit of 30 years. The chargesheet led claims that the police found 11 SIMI pamphlets and a book published by SIMI from Rafeeq. The police claim that the book in Hindi is titled SIMI: 25 years of the journey of a struggle, 1977-2002. I swear to God that my father has never been a member of SIMI or any such organisation, Khan told TEHELKA, more scared than agitated. He is a simple man who has never even remotely had any political ideas. As is the standard with lower courts across India in such matters, his father has been denied bail. Khan was aquiver with both rage and fear as he talked haltingly about his options. If some ex-SIMI members were forced by the police to submit adavits in 2001 that they wont have anything to do anymore with SIMI, there is a scandalous story of police arresting someone this year who had, in 2001, submitted an adavit that he had never been a member of SIMI. This is Shakir Ali, 29, and a resident of Narsinghgarh. Shakir and his older brother Zakir Ali together ran a grocery store. My brother has never been a SIMI member, Zakir told TEHELKA . On April 2, at 1.15 am, about 15 policemen came to their house and took Shakir away. Zakir went to enquire at the local police sta16 AUGUST 2008 TEHELKA
IZWAN KHAN, 24, sells cycle
FOR MOST PEOPLE, WHILE ONE EARNING FAMILY MEMBER HAS FALLEN OFF, THERE IS ALSO THE BURDEN OF SUSTAINING HIS FAMILY AND PAYING HIS LEGAL FEES
AP
Face of terror? An alleged SIMI member in Bhopal for interrogation
The two brothers ran a readymade garments shop in Narsinghgarh. On the night of April 2, the police picked up Irfan from their home and booked him for sedition. When the police led a chargesheet against him, they applied another charge: being a member of a terrorist organisation. We led for a bail application before the High Court but our lawyer was very pessimistic so we withdrew it, says Irfans distraught brother, Majid.
Tabrez, whose three brothers are in jail, has been driven mad. He loses the strands of his thought in the middle of his speech, like an old man given to hopelessness after a long run of misery. Meanwhile, the proceedings before the SIMI tribunal in Bhopal turned out to be in a class of their own. In the earlier hearings at Thiruvanathapuram, Bangalore, Udaipur and Hyderabad, the Centre brought as witnesses police ocers who had had led in-
apply for a search warrant before a magistrate? Deponent: I cannot say. I am not the investigating ocer. Jawahar Raja: Is it true that the police carried its own stock witnesses? Deponent: I cannot say. I am deposing from records. Raja: I suggest to you that the police claim is false. Deponent: The suggestion is denied. And so forth.
COVER STORY 31
THE HAUNT OF OUR PAST LIVES

A leading Muslim outt in Tamil Nadu is accused of killing Hindus. But the Centres lawyers cant remember their own evidence
H JAWAHIRULLAH, 48, is a Muslim leader in Tamil Nadu. He often leads delegations to the government on issues concerning Muslims. In September 2007, his organisation, the Tamil Nadu Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK), played a crucial role in securing reservations for Muslims in government jobs. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi graced a TMMK public function and commended its work. Karunanidhi donated two ambulances to TMMK, which now runs 42 ambulances oering free services across the state. Hundreds of volunteers of the TMMK had jumped to rescue work in 2004 when the tsunami struck the states coast. District ocials of the worst-hit Nagapattinam city wrote them letters of thanks. In 2007, TMMK won an award for bringing the highest number of blood donors in emergencies. Imagine, then, Jawahirullahs shock when he found that the background note the Centre issued with the February 7 notication banning SIMI said: SIMI was closely associated with TMMK and was involved in various incidents of violence relating to killing of Hindus, especially persons associated with RSS/ Hindu Munnai organisations, since August, 1993. When the tribunal travelled to Chennai in June, the feisty Muslim leader landed before it and appealed that his organisations name be struck o the background note.
32 COVER STORY
What is the evidence against my client? his counsel asked. Although the Central governments lawyers had made such a sweeping remark against TMMK, they had no clue if they had evidence. So they asked for a day. The next day, Jawahirullah deposed before the tribunal. The Central governments lawyers cross-examined him. Of course, said Jawahirullah, he was a SIMI member, but left it way back in 1989 when he turned 30, the age of superannuation. SIMI was then a legitimate organisation. Jawahirullah admitted that, as SIMIs state president, he had taken on rent an oce from the local mosque. But after he left SIMI, he had nothing to do with that transaction. At this, the Central governments lawyer claimed that Jawahirullah had been paying the rent for that oce until the year 2000, which established his links with SIMI. Grandly, the Centres lawyer waved alleged rent agreement letters between SIMI and the mosque committee for the years 1997 and 2000 saying it was written in Jawahirullahs name. The judge asked to see it. Turned out it had no signatures from Jawahirullah. Too bad, said the judge, cant be used against him, cant be taken on record. So much for the Centres watertight case against SIMI and TMMK on violence relating to killing of Hindus. Innocents are being caught and the real culprits are left scot free, Jawahirullah said to TEHELKA on the sidelines of the Chennai hearings. In the end, only Muslims suer.
JAWAHIRULLAH MH
Home: Chennai, Tamil Nadu Date of arrest: No arrest Charges: His organisation TMMK accused of involvement in communal violence and association with SIMI Evidence: No evidence apart from government allegations
GOVERNMENT LAWYERS GRANDLY WAVED DOCUMENTS IMPLICATING JAWAHIRULLAH. THE JUDGE ASKED TO SEE THEM. TURNED OUT THEY HAD NO SIGNATURES FROM HIM ON THEM
N HINDSIGHT, it wasnt perhaps the best of ideas. In the most galling of attacks, terrorists had stormed Parliament just 14 days earlier and, for the while it lasted, the nation had held its breath in sheer horror. Undeniably, a group of radical-looking Muslims gathering so close after that crime would be vulnerable to police suspicion. But little could these 124 Muslims have imagined what was in store for them in the years to come when they gathered on December 27, 2001 at Gujarats port city of Surat. A well-known Muslim organisation called the All-India Minority Educational Board had called participants from across India to attend the 8th Seminar on the Constitutional Provisions for Minorities Educational Rights. Its mandate was to discuss ways to harness constitutional provisions to help economically and educationally backward Muslims. The rst topic of discussion was The Role of Minority Education in Promotion of National Integration. Also to be discussed were the Contribution of Sir Saiyed [Founder of Aligarh Muslim University] in the Educational Field and Social Service and its Education in India. The motley group included authors, teachers and scholars, as well as religious leaders. The meeting was to begin the next day and last two days. All the 124 participants had gathered by the night of December 27 at a well-known cinema hall-turned-wedding venue in Surat called Rajshri Hall, also a favourite with the likes of Rotary Club. As they prepared to lie down on their beds, policemen came in and arrested them. The police seized a banner of the organisation, a few copies of the programme and the papers that some participants were to
THESIMI
FICTIONS

indeed an active SIMI member. The Surat police oered that letter from the Aurangabad police to the trial court as clinching evidence that since Siddiqui was a SIMI member, and since he was a participant there, it was obvious that the Surat meeting was called by SIMI. One of the accused is 46-yearold Mohammad Muslim, a civil construction contractor from Ahmedabad. The police had been swarming around us since morning, he recalled in an interview with TEHELKA in Ahmedabad. Muslim was never a member of SIMI. He spent nine months in three jails across Gujarat before getting bail. Four of the accused were denied bail even by the High Court. They had to go all the way to the Supreme Court and could get bail only in February 2003. These include Atta-ur-rehman Kureshi of Saharanpur, the gentle septuagenarian (proled on page 36). As Chairman of the host organisation, Kureshi is accused number one. Another accused is a professor of economics at Jodhpur University. In 2005, High Court judge RP Dholakia ordered that the matter be expedited and the trial end in six months. The trial is still going on. Five of the eight witnesses have turned hostile. The police said the host organisations Delhi oce was untraceable. As proof, they led a report from a police sub-inspector, who they claimed went to Delhi for a day, sat in a taxi, hunted for the oce, couldnt nd it, and came back. The report, interestingly, was led on December 29 barely two days after the arrests. When live bombs were being diused in Surat last week, police and intelligence agencies announced they were keeping a close watch on the ve SIMI activists from Surat who were arrested in December 2001.
COVER STORY 33
SIMI HERE, SIMI THERE, SIMI EVERYWHERE

This SIMI litigation is an omnibus case in which the 100 plus accused are now always at hand to be implicated in future cases
present, etc. It also claimed that it seized unlawful material such as SIMI receipt books. The FIR alleged SIMI had called the meeting and the participants were hatching a conspiracy. SIMI had been banned three months ago, so it was easy to bring a host of charges of unlawful activity against them. It didnt matter that nearly every one of them was much older than the upper age limit of 30 years for SIMIs membership. The next day, a local judge packed o the 124 to police custody for 14 days. Later, they were sent to jail in judicial custody. Bail was denied. All hopes for bail died when the Sabarmati Express caught re at Godhra on February 27, 2002, and the macabre killings of Muslims began in Gujarat.
IAUDDIN SIDDIQUI, the pharmacist from Aurangabad in neighbouring Maharashtra, is an accused in this case. He spent 11 months in the Surat jail. First, ve people managed bail in October 2002. Then Siddiqui and 85 others got bail on November 20 that year. This bail order, by Gujarat High Court Judge DP Buch, was a scathing comment on the police case. It said: It is not much in dispute that incriminating materials have not been seized from the personal search of the petitioners of this petition. Still, the court ordered every accused to appear at a Surat police station every Sunday. As all the accused, save ve, were from outside Surat, they would have to
travel to the city every week. The bail order said if a petitioner absented himself twice in a row from the trial court, then the bail shall stand cancelled without any formal order of the Court. Passports had to be surrendered. Over time, the accused have been exempted from visiting the police station. The Supreme
now lodged in a Gujarat jail, accused of killing in cold blood Kausar Bi, the wife of businessman Sohrabuddin, who himself was killed in a fake encounter. Despite the fact that Rajshri Hall is one of the best-known venues for public gatherings in Surat, the police could nd no independent witnesses to attest to
THE SURAT CASE

Home: Gujarat Date of arrest: December 27, 2001 Charges: Criminal conspiracy and unlawful activity Evidence: None
THE GROUP GATHERED IN SURAT WERE AUTHORS, SCHOLARS, RELIGIOUS HEADS. THEIR SEMINARS FOCUS WAS BACKWARD MUSLIMS. YET, THEY WERE ALL ARRESTED
Court later relaxed the condition on personal appearances at the trial and rejected automatic bail cancellation saying due process of law will have to be followed if bail already given has to be cancelled for some reason. One of the witnesses in this case is the controversial Gujarat police ocer, Narendra Amin the man accused in Hyderabad of shooting dead the brother of Moutasim Billah (proled on page 28) in October 2004 and is the arrest and seizures. The defence has claimed in the trial court that the witnesses who did join the investigation are themselves accused in other cases registered in the same police station. The Surat police also wrote to police in other states seeking more information on all the other accused in the case. In the case of Ziauddin Siddiqui (proled on page 38) the Aurangabad police promptly wrote back saying, yes, he was
GOVERNMENT OF ANDHRA PRADESH
avenues
16 AUGUST 2008, VOL. 5 ISSUE 32
A HUMANIST GOVERNMENT THE HUMAN TOUCH

The Andhra Pradesh State Government, headed by Chief Minister Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy has transformed the state by implementing fundamental changes at the grass root level
ESPITE having been in politics for more than three decades, Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy came in closest contact with the grim living conditions of the poor during the 1500-km padayatra he undertook before he became Chief Minister in 2004. Once he assumed oce, he did not lose time, nor spare any opportunity to make changes that are necessary for the betterment of the (common man).
help groups in Andhra Pradesh, which have increased even trading in agricultural produce by crores, ensuring fair prices to farmers and prots for themselves. In the last four years, banks have advanced loans totaling Rs. 12,000 crore to such groups. This years target is Rs. 10,000 crore. Pensions are being granted to widows, weavers, the elderly and the physically challenged. Nearly 49 lakh people are receiving a Rs. 200 pension every month. The total number of beneciaries is expected to cross the 60-lakh mark soon. AGRICULTURE MY MISSION IS TO MAKE ANDHRA PRADESH ANNAPURNA (RICE BOWL) OF INDIA, AN IT HUB OF THE WORLD. DR. Y.S. RAJASEKHARA REDDY, CHIEF MINISTER The Union Government chose Andhra Pradesh as the model state to launch the National Food Security Mission to increase buer stock for contingency and disaster mitigation needs, which is a tribute to the states food production capacity. Dr. Reddys belief in the equality of percent interest. Any woman who repays a loan punctually with a banks xed rate of interest is reimbursed anything she pays over and above three percent. There are more than 88 lakh women in more than 7 lakh self Andhra Pradesh is once again becoming the granary of India and reclaiming its erstwhile title Annapurna. The state produced a record 191 lakh tons of food grains during 2007-08, during which year the agricultural sector registered a growth rate of 12 percent. It has set itself a target of 200 lakh tons for 2008-09. The government is planning to spend a further Rs. 32,074 crore on agriculture, and 20
LOANS At the very beginning of his tenure, Dr. Reddy waived any overdue interest owed by farmers, wrote o their power bill arrears, and made provisions for free power supply to the agricultural sector. The government is now arranging short-term crop loans at three percent interest, which will become available to farmers from the Kharif season this year. As many as 84 lakh Andhra Pradesh farmers are beneting of the central governments waiver of agricultural loans worth Rs. 72,000 crore. Farmers who have already
34 ANDHRA PRADESH
repaid their loans are not being left out either. The Reddy government is giving each of the 22 lakh farmers who have repaid loans a Rs. 5,000 incentive.
men and women led to the conception of the Pavala Vaddi (three percent interest) scheme, which has enabled lakhs of women to avail of bank loans at only three
avenues
other related departments, in 2008-09 under an integrated action plan. The Andhra Pradesh government has taken upon itself the gigantic task of providing irrigation to an additional one crore acres at a cost of more than Rs. 100,000 crore in ve years. 12 of the 74 projects initially undertaken have been completed, providing irrigation to 14 lakh acres. Twenty-seven more projects will be completed by March 2009, providing irrigation to another 19 lakh acres. Rice is being supplied to low-income groups at Rs. 2 a kg, instead of the ruling market price of around Rs. 15-20, since April 2008. There are 1.82 crore white cardholders accounting for nearly 6.5 crore of the States 8.22 crore population (82 percent). Each cardholder gets 16 kg to 20 kg every month, depending on the number of family members. Since July 2008, the government has also been supplying red gram dal and palmolein oil to white cardholders at subsidized prices. In the last four years, the government has distributed 600,000 acres of land to SCs, STc and BCs, and launched a scheme to help weaker social groups cultivate lands assigned to them earlier. As a result, lakhs of uncultivated land acres have been brought under the plough for the rst time. The state government has implemented a program called Pasukranti under which it procures high milk yielding animals from other states and supplies them to farmers. Dairy farming, although ancillary to agriculture, is very benecial to agricultural workers in rural areas as it provides them with additional income. Rs. 165 crore have been allocated for the program in the Budget for 2008-09. The government is also implementing a scheme called Pashukranti with a subsidy component of Rs. 40 crore, under which sheep and goats will be distributed to farmers. Previously, sheep and goat farmers were sustaining severe losses when animals died of natural causes. The government is now vaccinating sheep and goats on a large scale and implementing the sheep insurance kidney, brain, heart and lungs, cancer, and burn injuries. Any white ration cardholder can get treatment costing up to Rs. 2 lakh free of cost at a hospital of his choice government, private, or corporate. In addition, the government has, through another scheme, enabled over 8,300 children with congenital heart diseases to undergo surgery free of cost since 2004-05.
ECONOMY
Reddy Government is the provision of a pucca house to each poor family in the State within three years. The program INDIRAMMA, i.e. Integrated Novel Development in Rural Areas and Modern Municipal Areas aims to construct almost 80 lakh houses in three phases, and to provide basic amenities such as roads and drinking water. A similar scheme Rajiv Grihakalpa is being implemented in urban areas for the benet of the urban poor. EDUCATION The state Government has set up four new universities in 2007 and is planning three more, each with a budget of Rs.15 crore next year. The launch of Rajiv Gandhi University of the Knowledge Technologies, aimed at providing quality technical education to meritorious rural students, is another pioneering initiative. Three Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) aliated to the new university will admit 6,000 students every year. Students will be admitted based on their SSC marks. The university coaches students for a 6 year degree in Information Technology. A 21st century gurukul has been started in each university area to impart software and communication skills to graduates with rural backgrounds that are comparable to those possessed by urban students. The government had launched an unique experiment of setting up Jawahar Knowledge Centre (JKC) in engineering colleges to prepare the engineering graduates in soft skills needed for placement in ITES and IT sector jobs. To promote research activities and to increase the number of quality teachers, the state has launched a ve year integrated degree courses from the current year.
ANDHRA PRADESH 35
THE ANDHRA PRADESH GOVERNMENT IS PROVIDING UNPRECEDENTED SUPPORT TO FARMERS IN THE FORM OF SUBSIDIZED LOANS AND INFRASTRUCTURAL ENHANCEMENTS scheme, which came into operation in June 2006 all over the state, and under which the government pays 50% of the premium on behalf of farmers. HEALTH Troubled that thousands of people were dying of critical ailments because they could not aord medical treatment, the Chief Minister conceived Rajiv Aarogyasri. This unique medical insurance plan covers over 80 percent of its population. Under this plan, the government pays all health insurance premiums for the poor so they can be treated for over 863 diseases, including those related to Andhra Pradesh is the rst in the country to provide emergency ambulance services all over the state. One can call a toll-free number 108 from anywhere in the state. An ambulance arrives within 20 minutes of the call and takes the patient to the nearest hospital, free of charge. One can also get free medical advice by dialing the toll-free number 104. The government is now about to launch xed day mobile clinics with telemedicine facilities in rural areas all over the state as part of the Rajiv Health Mission. HOUSING One of the greatest ventures of the
THE HISTORY APPRAISER CAUGHT WITH HIS BOOKS

Among Abdul Raziks crimes: books, old issues of a SIMI magazine and a talk on Muslims in the freedom struggle
AUGUST 15, 2006, in his hometown of Kottayam in Kerala, Abdul Razik boarded a 6 am bus for a three-hour journey to a village up north. To mark Independence Day, the village Muslims had invited Razik, a scholar of some repute in the community, to speak on the role of Muslims in Indias freedom struggle. At 10 am, a group of 18 assembled at the ironically named Happy Auditorium. When Razik started his lecture, three policemen he had earlier seen in a jeep outside entered the hall. They browsed through my notes and questioned me, Razik told TEHELKA during an interview at Thiruvananthapuram. The entire group was taken into custody but 13 were let o. Five, including Razik, were arrested and charged with (a) crimN
inal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death or life imprisonment; (b) sedition by way of attempting to bring hatred or contempt against the government and excite disaection towards it; (c) being a member of an unlawful association (yes, SIMI, again); and (d) participating in its
I WASNT ANGRY IN JAIL, RAZIK SAYS. I KEPT PRAYING TO GOD. I WAS PREPARED TO BE IN FOR A LONG TIME
meetings to incite unlawful activity. So o went Razik and the other four to jail. The police claim this was a secret meeting called by SIMI, but cite no proof. The organisers deny any SIMI link and say they put out
notices in the area, including at the mosque. Happy Auditorium sits squat in the middle of the village, with bustling shops around, including a well patronised bakery-cum-teashop. The law says the police must get independent and respectable inhabitants of the locality in which the place to be searched is situated to stand witness. One imagines there would have been no dearth of witnesses around a place like Happy Auditorium. But the FIR against Razik does not cite any such witnesses, nor does it state whether the police even tried to nd any. The only witnesses cited are two policemen. The police say the ve arrested were SIMI activists. The host of the meeting, a local by the name
of Nizamudheen, denies associating with SIMI. This should be easy to settle: the police have a list of SIMI members seized from its ofce sealed at the time it was banned in 2001. But the police make no reference to that list. Instead, they say they collected the list of SIMI members from the Intelligence Bureau, without explaining how that list can be deemed incontrovertibly genuine. From Razik, the police seized a book titled Mass Resistance in Kashmir: Origins, Evolutions, Options. This book is authored by a Pakistani scholar, Tahir Amin, and is published by the Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad. The book was issued to Razik by a library run by the Jamaat-e-Islami in Kerala. It certainly reects the typical Pakistani position on Kashmir. But is the possession of this book unlawful? The Kerala police wrote to the Centre asking if the book is banned. The Centre hasnt yet answered. The police have initiated no action against the Jamaat library that owned it. The banned SIMI literature police claim to have seized includes back issues of SIMIs Malayalam magazine, Vivekam,
A MAN OF GOD, NOT A MAN OF TERROR

The Centre casually links a septuagenarian religious leader with SIMI and then fails to sustain its reckless accusation against him
west Uttar Pradesh town of Saharanpur, 70-year-old Atta-urrehman Kureshi hardly seems a candidate to be tempted by terrorist ambitions. Kureshi set up Wahadat-e-Islami (Unity of Islam) in 1994 to propagate Islam. In July-end this year, an outraged Kureshi appeared before the SIMI tribunal in New Delhi with a plea with which the judge was by now quite familiar: to strike o his organisations name from the background note, which had claimed: SIMI is reported to be
SCRAP DEALER in the
ATTA-UR-REHMAN KURESHI
Home: Saharanpur, UP Date of arrest: No arrest Charges: Governments background note alleges Wahadat-i-Islami is a SIMI front Evidence: No evidence
having many cover/front organisations. At the All-India level these [include] ...Wahadat-e-Islami. Kureshi told the judge he had long passed the upper age limit of 30 years for SIMI membership when Wahadat-e-Islami was launched in 1977. He demanded to be told the basis on which his outt was linked with it. (The paragraph names 60 organisations across India, including one Association for Rural Development and Research and Minority Rights Watch in Kerala.) As ever, the Central Governments lawyers hadnt a clue who Kureshi was and why their backgrounder
36
COVER STORY
THESIMI
FICTIONS
also seized from Razik a booklet with articles on the repression of Muslims by state agencies. Alleging misdeeds by the State cant be seditious, can it? Yet, Razik spent 65 days in jail. The Kerala High Court denied him bail thrice, relenting only when the police failed to submit an update on the investigation, which the judge had repeatedly ordered. This February, the police requested the district collectors sanction to begin prosecution. Six months later, such sanction is still awaited. The chargesheet is yet to be led. The trial is yet to begin. Razik, 29, says he has been framed because he was a SIMI member from 1996 until the ban. Razik holds MA and B.ED degrees. He has worked as an editor of religious books in Urdu and Malayalam. His harassment by the police and intelligence agencies began with the ban. His house was often searched; he was often questioned. Never was a case found against him. Even though the ban on SIMI is lifted, the Damocles sword still hangs over him. I wasnt angry when I was in jail, Razik says. I kept praying to god. I was mentally prepared to be in prison a long time.
DISSENT OR DONT, YOURE DAMNED EITHER WAY

Since when did protest get you called a jehadi? Ask M. Elliyas, jailed under a ludicrous law
NE MORNING in July, a nattily dressed man named M. Elliyas arrived at the SIMI tribunals sitting at Mumbai and, speaking condently in English, demanded that his name be struck o the background note that the Centre had issued with its February 7 notication banning SIMI. The note alleged that Elliyas incited local Muslims in Pune, who staged a demonstration to protest the municipality razing some illegal construction. When exactly did this happen? he asked the battery of Central Government lawyers, who shued papers and hummed and hawed but couldnt nd more details of their own allegations against him. He volunteered: on the day of the event he was visiting the municipal oce to nd how to make a birth certicate for his newly-born daughter. Even the local police have never questioned him in that case. Then why M ELLIYAS name him in the backHome: Pune, Maharastra ground note? Date of arrest: 2001 But Elliyas, a successful, 40-year-old IT consultant Charges: Incited Muslims to protest the demolition of who topped his Microsoft some illegal construction exam with 99 percent marks, is hardly surprised. Evidence: None. Yet he is named incriminatingly in a Elliyas was a SIMI member background note by the during the 1990s and reCentral government urging a tired when he turned 30, continued ban on SIMI three years before the ban. In the seven years since the ban on SIMI, the Maharashtra police have harassed him no end. He told TEHELKA that when the police couldnt nd anything against him, they booked him under a humiliating law called the Maharashtra Bad Persons, Slumlords and Bootleggers Act. It is ridiculous that Elliyas spent a year in jail in 2001 under this law. In his adavit, Elliyas wrote that the statement against him in the background note seems to reect the Central Governments intolerance of any democratic expression by Muslim members of the public and an attempt is being made to link every such expression with the activities of SIMI to stie the same. When Tribunal Judge Geeta Mittal sought to soothe him, Elliyas, in a voice choked with controlled emotion, asked: What does this government want? Should we actually become terrorists?
COVER STORY 37
SK MOHAN
ABDUL RAZIK
Home: Kottayam, Kerala Date of arrest: August 15, 2006 Charges: Criminal conspiracy, sedition, unlawful association Evidence: Possession of a book published in Pakistan, issues of Vivekam, a SIMI magazine publishd in Malayalam before the ban, and a booklet on State atrocities
published before the ban. Vivekam was registered with the Registrar of Newspapers of India and sold by subscription and on newsstands. The issues allegedly seized are of 1993, 1994, 1998 and 2000. No cases were made out against Vivekam in those years or afterwards. The police
named his organisation. But surprisingly, in his cross-examination, the rst question the Centres lawyer asked him was, Are you Yasin Patels father-inlaw? Perplexed, Kureshi said he wasnt, but volunteered that Patel was his friends son-in-law. Patel, a former SIMI ocebearer, is the legal representative of ex-SIMI president, Shahid Badr Falahi, who contested the ban at the tribunal. Sentenced to seven years in jail and out on bail, Patel was attending the tribunal hearings in Delhi. Moments before they stepped inside the courtroom, Patel introduced Kureshi
to the SIMI lawyers as my fatherin-laws friend. Standing nearby, the government lawyer perhaps misheard and, in the absence of any other evidence, decided to use it to connect him with SIMI. A year ago, the Wahadat-e-Islami held a meet on the Role of Muslims in Indian Politics at Lucknow. Two years ago, it had organised Islam and World Peace Programme against International Terrorism. Yet he is the main accused in the infamous Surat Case, a case that reects the never-ending persecution of these Muslims and that is proled in another column. (See page 33)
THE LEFT HAND DOESNT KNOW, OR DOESNT IT?

The bizarre case of Ziauddin Siddiqui, injured in a clash with police, given compensation and then accused of rioting and sedition
N URDU couplet is always at hand as Ziauddin Siddiqui explains lifes small and big events. With a mien more Su than fundamentalist Islamist, the 46-yearold pharmacist in Maharashtras Aurangabad is unrued as he slowly details the criminal cases against him, each more bizarre than the other. The case that takes the cake is the one in which Siddiqui and 95 others were implicated on December 6, 1999, when they held symbolic protests in the city to mark the seventh anniversary of the demolition of
Ayodhyas Babri Masjid at the hands of Hindu zealots in 1992. That day in 1999, about a hundred activists belonging to a local organisation called the Muslim Action Committee gathered at a city square in Aurangabad and, as in every year since 1992, courted arrest. Around the same time, an equal number of activists from the local Samajwadi Party unit, which always has an eye on the Muslim vote, did likewise on the same issue. Both sets of protestors were taken and held together in a stadium ground next to the police headquarter.
THEY BROKE MY NOSE, I LOST MY SENSE OF SMELL FOREVER, SAYS SIDDIQUI. BUT IM YET TO BE CHARGED
As per practise, all of them would have been let o after some paperwork. But there was some altercation and the police and the protestors clashed. The police red. One protestor died. Ninetysix were very badly injured. So badly injured were they, in fact, that the whole event spun
out of the administrations control. Siddiqui suered grievous injuries on his spine, face, nose, eyes and ears. When the government hospital couldnt treat him and others similarly injured, they were sent to the KEM Hospital in Mumbai. A letter from the government hospitals medical ocer to the Mumbai hospital said, The government has assured treatment free of charge. The government also announced payments of Rs 10,000 to each of the injured. It also appointed AD Mane, a retired High Court judge, to head a commission of inquiry into the event. Justice Manes report blasted the police for using excessive force against the protestors who had courted arrest. He suggested that the police be sensitised to human rights. The state government accepted his ndings and issued an Action Taken Report, which absolved the protesting outts of blame.
THE CASE OF THE ABSCONDING LAWYER

DELHI lawyer Humam Ahmed Siddiqui saw a break in the hectic schedule of the SIMI tribunal under Justice Geeta Mittal, he headed straight to his father-in-laws home in Gonda in Uttar Pradesh to fetch his children from there. Defending SIMI, Siddiqui had since May attended the tribunals sittings at Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. A veteran of three tribunals and an ex-SIMI oceHEN
38 COVER STORY
bearer, Siddiqui knew every case past and present, the best defence arguments, and, most importantly for SIMI, the loopholes in the prosecutions case. At 8 am on June 23, 2008, as he stood at the Gonda railway station, the anti-terrorism squad swooped down and arrested him. Siddiquis case dates to 2001. Police say that on September 15 that year, he and ex-SIMI president Shahid Badr Falahi made speeches against Hinduism at a madarsa in Gorakhpur city, 800 km east of Delhi. (Falahi
HUMAM AHMED SIDDIQUI

Home: New Delhi Date of arrest: June 23, 2007 Charges: Made communal speech at Gorakhpur, 2001 Evidence: Information given to police by unknown persons
TRILOCHAN S KALRA
Midway through the tribunal, a key SIMI lawyer is suddenly arrested in an old, forgotten case and released as arguments end
was given bail in this case ve years ago.) The police had also created another FIR against four local Muslims for attending that meeting. Neither FIR showed how the police got wind of the meeting. Intelligence agents, who claimed to have attended the meeting, were the only prosecution witnesses. That the police registered the FIRs six days after the alleged incident immediately raised doubts that the cases were fabricated. The other four accused secured bail, though by then they had spent two months in jail. Seven years later, the state government is yet to give a routine sanction to start prosecution against Siddiqui and Falahi. Yet, though virtually dead for seven years, the case suddenly came alive miraculously with Siddiquis arrest in June. Presenting Siddiqui before the Chief Judicial
THESIMI
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Yet, the police led a case against 96 people for their December 6, 1999 protest, and accused them of sedition, rioting, calling an unlawful assembly, assaulting a public servant, endangering public safety, and even mischief by re or explosive substance with intent to cause damage to the amount of one hundred rupees.
LL THOSE injured and given Rs 10,000 as compensation were also implicated. But that is not all. In the nine years since the incident and the alleged crime, no chargesheet has been led. No charges have been framed. So, the trial hasnt begun. Some 29 accused are on bail. The rest are shown as absconding. They broke my nose and I lost my sense of smell forever, Siddiqui recalled in an interview with TEHELKA in Aurangabad. He can barely see with

his left eye. Siddiqui was SIMIs all-India general secretary from 1984-92, and had retired at the end of that tenure upon turning 30. Of course, once the police decided that Siddiqui was a SIMI member even though he had left it in 1992 there was no stopping them. In March 2001, the second criminal case against him was registered. Following an incident of burning of the Quran in New Delhi, public protests were called in Aurangabad by a federal body of Muslim organisations. Midway, the protest had turned violent, and the police had red. No one was killed, none injured. SIMI hadnt yet been banned so its ofce-bearers issued a press release criticising the police for the ring. The police retaliated by ling a case against SIMI alleging it called that protest, and arrested 10 people including Siddiqui. Once again, the accusations were the same as in the December 1999 case; in addition, they were also accused of hatching a criminal conspiracy. They were let o on bail after three days. Seven years later, the judge is yet to accept the chargesheet and start the trial. On the day SIMI was banned on September 27, 2001, Siddiqui was picked up from home. I phoned the police ocer to ask why but he said he just wanted to talk with me. When he went there, Siddiqui was arrested and had to spend the night in the lock-up; he got bail the next day. He was accused of inciting people to violence to protest the ban. After six long years, the charges in that case were framed only earlier this summer. God knows when the trial will begin, Siddiqui says. He is also implicated in the mother of all SIMI cases, the Surat Case, which is detailed in another column (See page 33).
SHAILENDRA PANDEY
ZIAUDDIN SIDDIQUI
Home: Aurangabad, Maharashtra Date of arrest: December 27, 2001 Charges: Sedition, rioting, unlawful assembly, implicated in Surat case Evidence: None, except that Siddiqui was a former SIMI ofce bearer
Magistrate of Gorakhpur on June 23, the police claimed he had admitted to his role in blasts that had rocked Gorakhpur in 2007. Police said they had sent Siddiqui notices and warrants to his fathers house in Sultanpur city and then attached his house in a village in the Sultanpur district. But the house they attached is an ancestral property that Siddiqui hasnt visited in a quarter century. As for the court notices, Siddiqui says he never received them at his fathers house.
has Siddiqui been part of the defence team for Shahid Badr Falahi at all the SIMI tribunals, he had deposed before the rst tribunal in 2001-02 and was crossexamined by the Home Ministrys lawyer. Siddiquis name is printed on the reports of the three tribunals. Yet, the
OT ONLY
Gorakhpur police say he was absconding. His former associate, Supreme Court lawyer Satyanarayan Vashisth, told TEHELKA: Siddiquis arrest could be the governments way to cripple the defence at the tribunal. Siddiqui languished in jail for exactly a month. Gorakhpur lawyer Radheshyam Pandey nally managed bail for him on July 16. In a total mockery of police and jail accountability, Siddiqui could walk out of his cell only a week later, on July 23, because processing the paperwork took that long. By then, the hearings at the SIMI tribunal had already been held at Udaipur, Bhopal, Aurangabad and Mumbai, where the defence was forced to appear without his valuable support. Siddiqui thought better than to rejoin the defence team. Ever the lawyer, Siddiqui wont
SIDDIQUIS ARREST IS THE STATES WAY OF CRIPPLING THE DEFENCE AT THE TRIBUNAL, SAYS A LAWYER
talk about the case as it is pending trial. But he denies he confessed to his involvement in the Gorakhpur blasts. He may be free now but his reputation is in shreds, vilied in just a month. The media widely published a news item released by a news agency, which quoted a top Uttar Pradesh police ocer as saying that Siddiqui had confessed to managing funds of the banned organisation and that he sent money to members in dierent states. The report claimed Siddiqui was in touch with ex-SIMI general secretary Safdar Nagori,
who was arrested in Indore in March this year. The widely internalised prejudice against SIMI was perhaps revealed most starkly when a Hindi newspaper reporter visited Siddiquis retired father in Sultanpur while Siddiqui was still in jail in Gorakhpur. In the course of the interview, Siddiquis father told the reporter that as a government servant he had lived in many cities and named a few. The reporter got stuck on one name: Azamgarh. The newspaper report he wrote suggested that Siddiqui must have got close to ex-SIMI president Falahi, who is an Azamgarh native, when his father was posted there. You know something? Siddiqui says with dismay. I wasnt even born when my father lived at Azamgarh. Reported by Anil Varghese from Gorakhpur and New Delhi
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A JUDGE STIRS A HORNETS NEST

Mere opinions, a stunning abscence of facts and gross violations of law in the Centres case against SIMI are what moved tribunal judge Geeta Mittal to reject the ban
HORTLY AFTER the 9 pm news began rolling out on major television networks on August 5, 2008, sources in the Union Home Ministry quietly let out that Delhi High Court judge Geeta Mittal had rejected the Centres ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) citing insucient evidence to connect the group with unlawful activities as alleged by the Centre. Media reports said that the tribunal judge had sent her report in a sealed cover to the Union Home Ministry. Certainly, her order had not been pronounced in an open court. Even the legal team that had contested the ban on behalf of SIMIs ex-president, Shahid Badr Falahi, had heard of judge Mittals decision certainly very welcome to them only from the television networks. Yet, the next day, on August 6, while the fact of the order having been passed had still not been communicated to either Falahi or his lawyers, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Gopal Subramaniam appeared before Supreme Court Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and sought a stay on the order of the tribunal and got the order he wanted. The Supreme Court immediately stayed the order of the tribunal and ruled that the ban on SIMI will continue for at least three more weeks. The apex court also issued notices to SIMI asking it why the ban against it should not be maintained. The Supreme Courts stay on the tribunals order is a murder of justice, Falahi told TEHELKA (see interview on page 43). Falahi certainly has reason to feel the Supreme Court is being unfair to him on the matter. As per the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, under which SIMI was banned, a tribunal headed by a sitting high court judge has to be constituted within 30 days from the day the ban is notied, for the purpose of adjudicating whether or not there is sucient cause for declaring the association unlawful.
40 COVER STORY
The law also clearly stipulates that such a tribunal must declare its nding within a period of six months from the date of the issue of the notication banning the organisation. (As the last ban was imposed on February 7 this year, Judge Mittals report was due no later than August 6.) SIMI was banned thrice before in 2001, 2003 and 2006. Each time, a new tribunal was constituted. Each tribunal returned its nding in favour of the government, upholding its ban on SIMI. Each time, Falahi appealed before the Supreme Court against the tribunals decision. While the Supreme Court showed great alacrity on August 6 in responding to the Centres plea to stay Judge Mittals order, it hasnt taken up any of Falahis three appeals in all these years. Fundamentally, there should be no dierence in the legal status of Falahis appeals and that of the Centres appeal before the
THE NEWS MEDIA SAYS JUDGE MITTAL LIFTED THE BAN ONLY ON TECHNICAL GROUNDS. NOTHING CAN BE MORE OF A LIE
Supreme Court. After all, both were equal parties before the four tribunals. Every time, the party that got an adverse order approached the apex court, but were not granted a hearing. In any case, the governments move to seek a stay from the Supreme Court also compromised Falahis legal rights in another way. As per practice, as soon as a party gets an order in its favour from one court, it has the option to le a caveat in the court, to which an appeal would lie, asking that no orders should be passed in the matter on appeal without intimation to it. However, if Falahi wanted to le such a caveat he would be required to clearly set down the date of the order that was given
SHAILENDRA PANDEY
The Righteous SIMI counsel Jawahar Raja and Mobin Akhtar weigh the evidence (top) Iron Woman Tribunal judge Geeta Mittal gave a fair ruling (above)
THESIMI
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while giving out its opinion that SIMI must be banned because of its unlawful activities, set out no ground. During the last days of the hearings at the tribunal, Judge Geeta Mittal had virtually lost her cool with the counsel for the Central government on this issue. Falahis counsel Jawahar Raja a formidable young lawyer who kept his opponents on tenterhooks throughout the three months demanded that the government set down in writing which part of the notication it considered as the grounds that substantiated its opinion that SIMI be banned. Initially, the government submitted in writing that the last 4 sub paragraphs of the notication are the grounds upon which SIMI has been declared an unlawful association. However, three months later when Additional Solicitor General KK Pathak, who led the governments charge throughout in the tribunal, submitted a Synopsis of Reply arguments on July 30, he wrote: The rst 3 (three) sub paragraphs of the notication dated 7.2.2008 are the grounds. It is evident, therefore, that even the
ASKED BY THE JUDGE TO SUPPORT ITS DEMAND FOR A BAN, THE CENTRE DESPERATELY KEPT CHANGING ITS GROUNDS
in his favour. But because Falahi hadnt received any ocial intimation on Judge Mittals order, he was in no position to even comply with the formalities that the Supreme Court registry would have insisted upon if his caveat was to be entertained. It is typical of the governments skulduggery that it moved the Supreme Court without communicating the tribunals order to the contesting party, SIMI, which, in this case, actually won a hard-fought ve-month battle against the government at the tribunal. The appropriate step for the government would have been to at least inform us that an order has been passed in our favour and that it is going to appeal against it before the Supreme Court, a lawyer connected with Falahis defence told TEHELKA . It has also been suggested in the news media no doubt based on o-the-record suggestions by Union Home Ministry ocials and by the governments lawyers that tribunal judge Mittal threw out the Centres ban no16 AUGUST 2008 TEHELKA
tication on some technical grounds. Nothing could be further from the truth. This reporter attended the tribunals hearings across nine cities over three months. The truth is that case after case that the Centre brought before the tribunal was either dubious in its evidence or on procedural issues before the trial court.
NDEED, RIGHT from the step of issuing the notication banning SIMI on February 7 this year, the Centre did not meet a variety of requirements laid down by the 1967 law, as well as the standard procedures of litigation and the principles of natural justice. The ASGs submissions before the Supreme Court on August 6 while urging for a stay of the tribunals order are of a piece with the deception that the government has practiced before the tribunal throughout. To begin with, the Central governments notication banning an organisation under the 1967 law must state its opinion and the grounds that led it to the opinion. It is astounding that the notication,
Central government is desperately casting about in search of the grounds in the notication, which in fact contains no such grounds, Falahis lawyer Raja submitted before the tribunal. Before the Supreme Court, too, Subramaniams petition continued in the same vein as the notication did, laying down an unsubstantiated statement: Being a group of students and youth, SIMI is easily inuenced by hardcore Muslim terrorist organisations operating from Jammu and Kashmir. The Hizb-ulMujahideen and the Lashker-e-Taiba have successfully penetrated into SIMI cadre to achieve their goals. Of course, Subramaniam made no reference to any grounds. In his petition seeking the stay, Subramaniam referred to the notication, saying it clearly mentioned that if SIMIs unlawful activities were not curbed immediately, it would continue with its subversive activities and reorganise its activists, who were still absconding; destroy the secular fabric of the country,
COVER STORY 41
THESIMI
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polluting the minds of the people by creating communal disharmony; propagate anti-national sentiments and escalate secessionism by supporting militancy. Once again, these are opinions not supported by an empirical grounds. The Supreme Court itself has established that grounds of the opinion must mean the conclusion of facts on which the opinion is based. But in case after case, as detailed in the personal histories of the various accused chronicled on other pages in this issue, the facts against the accused have turned out to be highly dubious. In fact, scores of the SIMI activists who have been accused of various crimes have been acquitted by lower courts across India. Indeed, an over-
FICTIONS
THE RIGHT TO ASSOCIATE IS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT. LEGALLY, EACH ORDER FOR A RENEWED BAN MUST BE BASED ON NEW FACTS
whelming majority of the judgements in the criminal cases against SIMIs activists have gone in their favour and against the prosecution. (Read a report on such acquittals in TEHELKA next week.) Another fundamental principle of natural justice that was severely compromised because of the Central governments approach is that of the right of the defence to cross-examine the witnesses directly linked with the investigation. Raja, who won the tribunals order, says, My client Falahi had strongly questioned the veracity of cases brought against SIMI. The requirements of natural justice would not be served unless the facts that were sought to be proved were deposed to by witnesses from their direct personal knowledge in accordance with the requirements of the Indian Evidence Act. This means that the Centre should have brought the investigating ocers of the various criminal cases against the alleged SIMI accused to depose before the tribunal, so that the SIMI lawyer could get a chance to cross-examine them on the various aspects of the case such as how the arrests and the seizures were made as well as about the confessions of the accused, etc. But an overwhelming number of the witnesses who were brought to the tribunal nearly all of whom were police ocers were those who hadnt directly led the investigations of the criminal cases, and hence took refuge in saying that
42 COVER STORY
Battle absurdus Unexamined prejudice, not based on fact, underlies all the animus against SIMI
they couldnt answer the question put to them because they had no personal knowledge about the crimes investigation, and were only deposing from their study of the documents.
LSO, THE scheme of the 1967 law is such
that an organisation will be banned only for two years at a time. If a fresh ban has to be promulgated after the lapse of the previous one, then it must be based on evidence of new unlawful activity arising after the rst ban was notied. In other words, the second ban cannot be based on the basis of the unlawful activity that occurred before the rst ban and had formed the grounds for its imposition. Such safeguards were considered necessary at the time the bill for the law was debated in Parliament. After all, the right to associate is a fundamental right guaranteed in the Constitution, and endless bans on an organisation without fresh cause to do so would severely compromise the constitutional right of that association to exist. Thus, the Centres decision to ban SIMI on February 7, 2008 should be based on fresh ground arising only after February 7, 2006, when the previous ban was imposed. Despite this requirement, an overwhelming majority of
the cases that the Centre brought to this tribunal from the various states pertained to periods as far back as 1999 which have been led in evidence in the previous three tribunals. (In fact, the Centre had so much as admitted before the third tribunal that it didnt have any new cases against SIMI. Yet, the third tribunal had inexplicably upheld the ban notication.) The law also says that the ban notication can be based only on grounds arising before the notication is promulgated. The only valid period here is Februray 7, 2006 to February 6, 2008. Thus, the Centre could not bring cases arising after February 7, 2008 like Safdar Nagoris arrest in March this year before the tribunal. Yet, in state after state, that is exactly what the Centre did. Such was the indefensible weakness in the Centres case before the tribunal that Judge Geeta Mittal, who throughout the hearings relied extensively on points of law, found that the Centres ban of SIMI was unsustainable. Kudos must go to the judge for a decision that goes against the prevalent widespread prejudice against SIMI in the government, the police and most certainly in the media. Even if it has promptly been stayed.
THESIMI
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The Supreme Courts stay is a murder of justice

Despite the setback, SIMIs ex-president Shahid Badr Falahi is condent the body will be legitimate again
What is your reaction to the lifting of the ban on SIMI?
Our case has always been strong. The government used to create an external situation that put pressure to get a favourable verdict. When the rst tribunal was about to give its report in 2002, Godhra happened and SIMI was named. Obviously, the tribunal was inuenced. When the second tribunal was to give its report, Mulund and Ghatkopar blasts took place, then again SIMI was named without any proof. And when the third tribunal was to give its report, Mumbai train blasts of July 11, 2006, happened, and the verdict went against us. Though if you read that tribunals report you will wonder why the judge didnt apply his mind. But this time, the governments manipulations fell at. Earlier verdicts, too, would have favoured us had the circumstances been different. This verdict absolutely matches our expectations. The case against us was a cas-
SIMI IS ALWAYS NAMED WITHOUT ANY PROOF. THE CASE AGAINST US WAS A CASTLE OF SAND AND WE KNEW IT WOULD FALL
tle of sand and we knew it would be blown away. We are happy.
Why do you say the third tribunals judge didnt apply his mind in giving his verdict in 2006?
If you read the judgement you will see that the foundation of the judgement is that all the things that have come into the picture are false but it seems that Shahid Badr is not telling the truth. The word the judge has used is evasive. He said he felt that I wasnt telling the truth. So the judgement was made on the basis of feelings and not evidence.
What do you have to say about the Supreme Courts stay on the judgement?
The stay from the Supreme Court is a murder of justice. Three previous tribunals ruled against us and we appealed against those orders, but the Supreme Court didnt hear us. But now the Supreme Court intervened immediately. If it had been so prompt with our petitions, then our previous bans would have been thrown out long
SHAILENDRA PANDEY
COVER STORY
43
THESIMI
ago. But we have not lost hope even after seven years of being banned. And now we have already got the notice of lifting of ban for a few hours and even this time we wont lose hope.
Why is it that SIMI has been constantly accused of being unlawful and seditious, be it the BJP-led government or the Congress-led? There must be some reason?
FICTIONS
and propagate it in a decent manner? No.
But SIMI is accused of being a terrorist group. It is said it has links with Lashkar-e-Tayaba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden...
We have faced not one but a thousand allegations. But we never backed out in the legal proceedings and demolished every argument and evidence against us to prove that we are not guilty. If anyone takes out the time to come to us and read all the documents with the allegations against us and our responses to it, he will wonder how on earth the castles of sand became so strong. We are not afraid of any accusations. They thought that if this group of Muslims which is young and educated can be crushed then the entire community will be weakened. RSS and its sympathisers are present in all other parties and they have always opposed us. But we are not afraid of them.
Why do you think the Centre is adamant to keep SIMI banned?
MILLIGAZETTE
[Laughs] These are false accusations against us and even though we have proved our innocence time and again, it is disappointing that they keep being repeated. Basically, because of the successive bans on us we are blamed for everything. We have never been associated with any terror group. We believe only in reaching our ideologies, thoughts
I had held a press conference in Delhi after the bomb blasts in Mumbai, denouncing the terror acts. We opposed it and oered sympathies to the relatives of the victims. But that was used against us. It was said that despite being banned we hold press conferences and release statements. Even the judge said that.
Do you think SIMI can make a contribution in maintaining communal harmony in the country, to ensure there is no divisiveness, and that India moves forward?
The BJP-led government had taken advantage of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the US and banned us in order to raise their position with the US. Now, everybody is trying to show their loyalty to the US.
It is said that SIMIs ideology does not believe in the Indian Constitution, that it is pan-Islamic, that it rejects Indias nationalism.
These are only allegations. We have given our detailed written explanations to the courts. Please read them if you can. I believe that in a land where everybody is allowed to follow his religion and principles and popularise those ideals, we also want that all those who live on this planet should live like Allahs people, and live their lives as per the teachings of Allah and Prophet Mohammad. This is our desire. But we do not use any force for this, because Allah Himself has rejected force. But is it wrong to make ones ideologies public
A great man like Gandhiji was killed by Nathuram Godse. Godse was a terrorist. Working on the same ideology, RSS has always played a key role in disturbing the communal harmony. In spite of that RSS is not banned. We believe that to maintain brotherhood and harmony in India, RSS should be banned. BJP, RSS are people of Unbowed Falahi says the same family, they should that the courts have be sent to jail. How do you been pressurised expect peace and harmony without sending them to jail? Think about it. Modi is a big terrorist. TO MAINTAIN PEACE Arun Jaitley, Advani, Vajpayee are all terAND BROTHERHOOD IN rorists. The entire State, the entire country INDIA, BAN THE RSS. is terrorised by their activities. But in every way they get respect. When you allow terTHEY TERRORISE THE rorists to sit on your head, how can you ENTIRE COUNTRY BY still hope to live in peace? They kill people for their personal benets, for their chair, THEIR ACTIVITIES for their party. On the other hand, people and messages to the people. We have op- like us, who are weak and subjugated, who posed violence right from the start. run a character-based organisation that Quoting intelligence agencies,the hones ethics and morality in young men so media has said SIMI has broken into two that they dont ask for dowry, dont smoke, dont abuse, stay away from lms and merfactions: yours and Safdar Nagoris. I, too, have read this in the media. Had the riment and fashion, are thrown into jails. ban been lifted for some days I would have And the killers of humanity roam freely. called them and asked about it. Right now There are 80 crore Hindus in India. What there is a ban on travelling or phoning or does SIMI think of them? meeting anyone. Anyway, whatever is This is a very good question. Allah has set being published in the newspapers is being some rules for his kingdom. They say that done at the behest of those who want to you should call the people on the earth toprejudice the public mind against us. wards the religion of god with service, adWhat is your stand on the bomb blasts vice, in a decent way, with politeness, with logic. All of us are sons and daughters of by terror groups? We have always maintained that murder of Adam and Eve. We love all human beings even one innocent person is the murder of and want to save them all from the res of entire humanity. We also opposed it when hell. We want them to live in a just world we were functional and not banned. Once and, after death, live peacefully in heaven.
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Assertions SIMI members stamp on an American ag to protest US action in Iraq
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ments and other material in its dozen-odd oces across the cou ntry that were sealed at the time of the 2001 ban. But now, it is impossible to know if the insides of these oces have been maintained exactly as they were then. SIMIs last president, Shahid Badr Falahi, thinks that opportunity is gone. I passed by my former ofce after leaving jail four years ago, Falahi told TEHELKA, referring to SIMIs national headquarters in Delhis Muslim neighbourhood of Zakir Nagar. I was dismayed to nd it was missing doors and had turned into a den of gamblers. So the only way to sift the SIMI ctions from the facts is to juxtapose the two versions. This reporter leaves it to the reader to decide which version she nds credible. The very rst page of the background note issued with the Centres notication banning SIMI in February this year had this to say about the controversial outt: The stated objectives of the organisation (SIMI) are a) Governing of human life on the basis of Quran, b) Propagation of Islam, c) Jehad for the cause of Islam, d) Destruction of Nationalism and establishment of Islamic Rule or Caliphate... The government says SIMI is a widely spread organisation with Muslims of all ages and persuasions as its members, who are underground and active across India. It says SIMI is linked with international terror groups; that it trains itself in arms, raises national and international funds from the Gulf and other Muslim countries, hatches conspiracies and carries out bomb blasts. Says the background note: [SIMI] does not believe in the nation state, as well as in the Constitution, or the secular order; it regards idol worship as a sin and its holy duty to end it SIMI aims to replace [Indian nationalism] with an International Islamic Order. SIMI says the government is right in saying it believes that human life should be governed on the basis of the Quran and that it wants to propagate Islam. (Its ex-leaders dont say so openly, but certainly as Islamists they entertained notional ideas of an overarching Islamic order across nations and lands.) But SIMIs ex-leaders deny every other claim of the government, especially that they are terrorists and want to break up India. According to them, theirs was a pious organisation that wanted to instil the best Islamic values in students. It was a fusion of purist Islamic religious values gained in madarsas as a guiding principle of life, with the secular learning of engineering, medicine and accounting.
COVER STORY 45
REUTERS
TERROR HAS TWO FACES

A shadowy, pan-Islamic seditious organisation or merely a conservative Islamist and politically conscious student group? Read and draw your own conclusions on SIMI
is. One is SIMIs own, the other is that of the rest of the world. For all purposes, the rest of the world has been led by the Indian government for the last seven years since SIMI was rst banned on September 27, 2001. The governments averments about SIMI are said to be based on supposed intelligence from its secret agencies and the police across India. There are, of course, scholarly Internet sites holding forth on the organisation. But it is clear on their rst reading that their text is dictated by none other than the intelligence agencies.
HERE ARE two versions of what SIMI
Sadly, it may perhaps never be known for sure what SIMIs character and activities before the ban was or what it has been since, for that matter. The reason is that the two versions, SIMIs and the governments, stand at absolutely opposite ends of the spectrum. The governments version is suspect for the obvious reason that it is propagandistic; besides, there isnt any way to crosscheck it. The government had seven years to bring proof of its claims about SIMI, but it hasnt yet done so and it appears doubtful it will bring some dramatic proof anytime soon. As for the SIMI version, its truth or lie could perhaps have been nailed by investigating docu-
coverstory
UT, AGAIN, no accurate background can be wrenched even from SIMIs recent leaders on the groups core activities of 30 years ago when it had barely launched, or in the years immediately after. Such is the ferocity of State persecution of SIMI that everyone, save a few, ever connected with SIMI are loath to articulate their experiences and highlight the organisations changing character over the years. What is true though is that SIMI has in a sense contextualised for the Indian Muslims the key milestones in the history of independent India as they see it. Ask an Indian Muslim his list of key events since 1947 and chances are that the destruction of Ayodhyas Babri Masjid by Hindu zealots in December 1992 would rank among the top three. The grisly killings of about 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat in FebruaryMarch 2002 would certainly be another. The Shah Bano judgement would be the third. The sizzle of a booming economy has seen Indias middle classes enjoying their new riches shrug o these epochal events and move ahead. For them, Babri Masjid is a relic and a nonissue, politically and socially. Not so for SIMI and its thousands of adherents across India. Says Yasin Patel, a SIMI member from 1985-97: The
demolition of the Babri Masjid was the murder of democracy. SIMI took notice of it. Conversations with a cross-section of Muslims across some nine cities give the impression that SIMIs biggest attraction was that it organised a voice for those Muslims who felt disheartened at being at the receiving end of decades of communal violence, and at the lack of political and economic opportunities for the Muslim com-
SIMIS ATTRACTION WAS THAT IT ORGANISED A VOICE FOR MUSLIMS WHO FELT DISHEARTENED AND DISPOSSESSED
munity. Most importantly, SIMI rejected the pervasion of hopelessness and defensiveness among Muslims and said Muslims must ght for their rights within the framework of Quranic teachings. This certainly explains the groups increasing pull among the Muslim youth. SIMI gave scholarships to bright and needy students, said Razik. SIMI also launched summer camps for middle class Muslim children studying in secular schools so they could be given
crash courses in Islamic teachings. Every day a new topic from the Quran was discussed. The 12-day workshop also had quizzes around holy teachings. SIMI also involved itself in relief work, such as in Gujarat when the earthquake struck the Kutch region on January 26, 2002. With so many college students under its wings, it was natural that SIMI would take to publishing on current events in a major way. For years before it was banned, SIMI ran weeklies in Hindi, Urdu, English, Malayalam and Tamil among other languages across India. It had fulltime editorial sta from among its members, who daily scanned the mainstream media and picked up content from them. Such content, as well as original content in SIMI publications, were always highly political and analysed in the overall context of the Quran. It was constantly pushing the envelope, such as demanding a plebiscite be held in Jammu and Kashmir to determine what Muslims want in that state. One feature of SIMI was organising large conferences. SIMIs ex-leaders are eager to point out that these were secular events, at least until 1992. Former SIMI activist Abdul Razik of Kottayam, Kerala, recalls that more than 700 people had attended one of its seminars, including
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SIMI (1977 2008)

THE FOUNDING
SIMI was founded in Aligarh
on April 25, 1977 as an organisation run exclusively by member students. Its uniqueness lay in the fact that here were college students and not just madarsa alumni who had come together to follow the path set by the Quran and Prophet Mohammad and evangelise. The rst president was M Ahmadullah Siddqi were Ph.Ds. One was a doctor. Although SIMI was afliated with the umbrella Muslim group, the Jamaate-Islami Hind, it ercely maintained its autonomy independence. over time, it gained prominence as it attracted students.
46 COVER STORY
RADICALISATION
SIMI rst came to national
attention in 1984 with a conference it organised in New Delhi to debate the challenges before Indias Muslims. About 10,000 students reportedly participated in it. With a young leadership at the fore, ery speeches were inevitable. The media took note so did the police and intelligence agencies. Subsequently, the group began reacting to
political issues as well as pan-Islamic ones. In 1985, it led protests against the Supreme Court verdict in the Shah Bano case. The demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 radically transformed the public posturing of SIMI. By now, the Jamaat had grown too uncomfortable with SIMI and the two parted.
TERROR PROFILE
The rst criminal cases against SIMI began to surface 1998 onwards. With the BJP-led NDA in power at the Centre and the BJP ruling Uttar Pradesh, a war of words began between the Muslim students body and the Hindu organisations such as the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. Security agencies began building a case against SIMI. By 2000, the Union Home Ministry had begun to say that SIMI was under its scanner for possible connections with Pakistani terror groups.
AN OUTLAW
In the wake of the terror attacks in the United States, the Indian government banned SIMI on Sep-
tember 27, 2001, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, for two years. The ban was renewed thrice. Each time, a tribunal constituted by the Centre upheld the ban after elaborate proceedings. But the fourth ban promulgated on February 8 this year was rejected by a tribunal headed by Delhi High Court judge Geeta Mittal on August 6. The next day, however, Supreme Court Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan stayed the tribunals order.
THESIMI
FICTIONS
several non-Muslims, one of them a professor of history at a nearby town college. In the early 90s SIMI called a seminar on Communism and Islam at the Aligarh Muslim University. We called people from both sides, says Patel. Once in Ahmedabad, VHP demanded a ban on lamb slaughter when the Muslim festival of Bakr-Id and Mahavir Jayanti fell on the same day. SIMI called a symposium Hindu Dharma and NonVegetarianism and invited members of the Jain community. (The police had led FIRs against the organisers.) When the Jamaat-e-Islami was banned after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, SIMI called a conference to protest it. In 1994, SIMI called a Muslim-Dalit conference against the caste system in Hinduism. SIMIs leaders would travel regularly to smaller towns and cities and hold public meetings and discuss local issues of the Muslims concerning everyday living. As a bonus, they would explain key national and global events aecting Muslims. On an ordinary day, SIMI activists would get together, pick a page of the Quran, and discuss its signicance among them. At the time of the ban, SIMI was spread across 16 zones in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, among others. Each zone was further subdivided into sub-zones, units and circles. The pyramid structure worked well and had its own version of democracy. The bottom rung elected a leader from among itself through consensus. The member who was the subject of discussion would politely leave the room, so others could talk freely about him. Leaders so elected would meet and similarly elect leaders
coverstory
Surprisingly, almost everyone TEHELKA spoke with stressed that free speech was not only tolerated internally in SIMI but vigorously championed and zealously guarded by the members, lest the outt turn autocratic. What distinguished SIMI from other Muslim organisations was that while the others had a limited vision, SIMI traversed the whole universe of local, national and international issues, ex-SIMI activist Muqeemuddin Yasir told TEHELKA in Hyderabad, his face aglow with obvious pride. It never failed to oppose the oppression of Muslims. A month after the interview, Yasir was arrested by the Hyderabad police. Arrests and more arrests, thats about all thats been happening with SIMI over the last seven years.
SIMI LEADERS SAY THEY NEVER TOOK FOREIGN MONEY. CONTRIBUTIONS WERE TURNED DOWN IF MEMBERS MIGRATED
for one level up, and so forth. A member retired from SIMI after turning 30. Leaders were elected for a maximum of a two-year term. The president would appoint other oce-bearers. SIMI ex-leaders say they never took international money. Contributions were turned down from members if they migrated overseas. Ordinary members werent paid anything, but ocebearers received meagre stipends Falahis at the time of the ban was Rs 3,000 a month.
NEXT WEEK IN TEHELKA
Freedoms Song: Accounts of Lie Detection: SIMI and the July

innumerable acquittals 2006 Mumbai train blasts The Curious Case of Safdar Nagori
business &economy
I HAVE COME INTO PUBLIC LIFE, NOT POLITICS
Straightforward and earthy, Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj exemplies a type of corporate czar rarely seen in India one whos always ready to shoot from the hip. A central maven of the Bombay Club, which demanded a level playing eld for Indian companies to help them compete with incoming transnationals, Bajaj is also a maverick politician who marches to no drum other than his own. Last week, the ebullient Bajaj took time o his busy corporate and parliamentary schedule to meet SHANTANU GUHA RAY and comment on poverty, politics and best practices
The only words ascribed to you on your company website are these: Be the best at whatever you do.
who would work selessly for the poorest of the poor. So, everyone must know what to do in life and try to be the best: only then will you be remembered. May I tell you that my name was given by Jawaharlal Nehru? But I cannot claim to be a Gandhian by any standards.
I nd this intriguing. You are a Rajya Sabha member but continue to deny that you are in politics.
This is my message for my three children, my two sons and my daughter. My father also used the same words with me. I told my children, especially my daughter, who was not that keen to come into business, that just because we are a business family in the last 30 to 40 years, you dont have to be in business. You could be a mountain climber or a tennis player. Look at me. I am not a Gandhian but my family is Gandhian. My grandfather, Jamnalal Bajaj, was a saint. Not only did he give up his money, but he lived like a fakir in the last few years of his life and stayed with Mahatma Gandhi. He was considered his fth son. When he died, Gandhi called a conference of 300 Sarvodaya workers and asked them if they could name one person like Jamnalal Bajaj,
48 BUSINESS&ECONOMY
Unlike the United States, there is a perception here which may not be correct, but needs to be claried that any one in Parliament is in politics. I still maintain that I have not joined politics, or any party, and I have no desire to become any minister. Which Prime Minister would hire me? Do you think any party will touch me? I am an unguided missile. But this perception of Parliament and politics remains. The other day, Pappu Yadav met me in Parliament and told me: Bajajsaab, Jab tak jinda hun, mere constituency se main hi jeetunga. Ab to meri wife bhi politics mein aa gayi hai (Till the time I am alive, only I will win from my constituency. And now, even my wife has joined politics). I am not a part of todays political system. I will say what I want to say, say what I believe is right. My genes are all anti-establishment. Many tell me, not many from the industrial sector are talking against the government and I laugh. I feel like asking them: Have the Ambanis ever said anything against the government? After all, they are sensible and
BUSINESS&ECONOMY
49
PHOTOS: TRILOCHAN S KALRA
intelligent. I am stupid. I can tell you ten things I said against the government in the last couple of years. I voted against the government on the reservation issue, saying that I was for the Dalits and the poor and would like to stand with the poor and not for votebank politics. I believe that the government has not done the right thing for 60 years in independent India. Why didnt you educate them? And now you want us to do the work of reservation. We talk of merit and quality and end up with reservations. So, I am not in politics. I didnt ask anybody for a ticket. But then, there were others in the family who were in politics. My father was a three-time Lok Sabha MP from Vidharbha. In fact, we are perceived as a family of freedom ghters though we have never claimed to be so. My father, grandmother, mother, grandfather, uncles and aunts all were in British jails.
hearing about such programmes. I have to get food and shelter for the poor, ensure their education. Is that happening? I am tired of this great talk of our sanskriti of 5,000 years. What will I do with it? Sorry, its of no use. This is all air-conditioned talk. When will the poor get food and shelter, sadak, bijli and paani? That needs to happen rst. The world doesnt value us because of our sanskriti alone, the world will value us because of our economic growth, because of the deals we make to acquire companies like Corus and Jaguar and Land Rover.
Who will take the mandate forward? What about young parliamentarians, such as Rahul Gandhi
I wouldnt talk about individuals like Rahul Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Manvendra Singh or Naveen Jindal. But I do have a feeling that they are better placed to take the case forward. They have a better
I AM TIRED OF THIS GREAT TALK OF OUR SANSKRITI OF 5,000 YEARS. WHAT WILL I DO WITH IT? THIS IS ALL AIR-CONDITIONED TALK. WHEN WILL THE POOR GET FOOD AND SHELTER, SADAK, BIJLI AND PAANI?
My father was hung with both hands tied for 15 days in solitary connement. So I dont want to be a politician its too late. If you want to be a politician, you should come from the Lok Sabha. Ive come into public life, not political life.
What does it mean to be poor in India?
the right thing, the right quality at the right price. Thats what happened with Bajaj Chetak. I joined the company in 1965, and was CEO from 1968 to 2000. There was a 10-year delivery period for Bajaj scooters and three wheelers. We had the lowest priced scooter, but the premium was only on our scooter. We gave quality and the right price; we didnt exploit customers today, you cant exploit them. I may not be able to see a scratch, but the customer can see it from 100 feet away and he says hes going to the competitors, and vice versa. At that time, scooters were all below 200 cc and the Bajaj 150 cc scooter was the most famous. Also, although people didnt know, of the top 50 countries with two wheelers, scotters were sold mainly in India, Taiwan and Italy. The rest of the world was a motorcycle world. From 1990, the market here too started shifting to motorcycles, but the shift was slow, hardly noticeable. We used to make 75,000 scooters a month, but in two years it came down to less than 5000 a month. Previously, the Enelds and Rajdoots didnt do well, but when Honda,Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki came in, they brought quality and fuel economy.
Somewhere down the line, scooters were phased out?
Being poor means being without almost anything and everything in life. Gandhiji said that after independence the Congress party should be disbanded; nobody did that. I think the time has come for the nation to redene poverty. I dont have evidence but have been told several times that theres tremendous corruption in any anti-poor project in the country. The question is: in a country like India, what should be done to help the poor? I am tired of
50 BUSINESS&ECONOMY
vision than those in their 50s and 60s. But the experimentation must start. There is no reason to believe that they will not deliver they should gradually get into positions of power. You ask about Rahul Gandhi, I dont know him but to me he has a handicap: he is Rajiv Gandhis son. Most people see that as an asset, but I think its a handicap. It may be an asset for getting elected, but once you get elected, I dont see how it is an advantage. Expectations from him are huge.
Moving to the business front, does Hamara Bajaj stay?
That meant, hopefully, that it was not a westernized slogan, it was an India slogan to make costumers feel ki yeh hamari cheez hai. Par yeh bolne se nahi hoti hai: you have to give them
At one time, scooters had 80 percent of the market, and 20 percent was with motorcycles. Mopeds werent that important. Now, I think that 80 percent of the market is with motorcycles, and 20 percent is scooters and everything else. I think that scooters will continue to have a place in most places in India, but the majority of the sales will be with bikes. Unlike a scooter, which requires clearance like a car because of its chassis, the bike doesnt require a clearance, it can go on rough roads better. So I think almost 80 percent of the two wheeler market (under 250 cc, that is) will be motorcycles and 20 percent scooters, mainly gearless. Aaj kal gearless scooter bik raha hai but gearTEHELKA 16 AUGUST 2008
INTERVIEW
I HAVE NOT JOINED POLITICS AND I HAVE NO DESIRE TO BE A MINISTER. WHICH PRIME MINISTER WOULD HIRE ME? DO YOU THINK ANY PARTY WILL TOUCH ME? I AM AN UNGUIDED MISSILE
wala scooter bahut kum bik raha hai.
What prompted you to look at the car?
First, a little correction, nothing prompted me: something prompted my elder son. So the credit or the debit of that will show when it comes out in the middle of 2011. Everybody is looking at small cars, maybe not extremely small but not big. We have not diversied, to set up a power plant: we are sticking to making vehicles. We did invest in two insurance companies, but that business is outside Bajaj Auto. In Bajaj Auto, we want to stick to our line, but do something more in that line. Will a scooterwala go to a car? Of course he will. Its his aspiration. The fellow who buys a mobike like a Pulsar, will still buy a Pulsar, he will not go for a car. But the commuter who is on a scooter or small motorcycle will buy a car if he can aord it. And we should be there so that the Bajaj motorcyclewala should not buy some other car, he should buy a Bajaj car. Also, keep in mind that while there is a twowheeler for every two persons in Taiwan, in India, there is a two-wheeler for every 50 people. So, there is tremendous penetration possibility even if a few move to cars, there will be many more who come to entry level motorcycles, such as those who are using buses, trains or bicycles today.
Does the farmer suicides issue bother you?
My maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha was on that subject, on farmer suicides. First of all, people, including the minister of agriculture, were shocked. I spoke for 20 or 25 minutes. I spoke of agriculture, about a farmer, about suicides. It was my maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha, in July 2006. What are we doing about the issue? Obviously not enough. My grandfather started an institution called Shikshamandal that we run: there are science, polytechnic and agricultural colleges. I, personally, use the member of Parliament local area development funds in Wardha distrcit. My constituency is Maharashtra, where I have lived for 40 years. I wrote to the government that my nodal district will be Wardha, so the money goes there. But I am going to spend only in villages in Wardha district: there is a Rs 2000 or Rs 3000 crore programme the Prime Minister has put in place.uska kya ho raha hai? The problem is ineciency and corruption in delivery. The government had good intentions but the delivery and implementation is weak. Thats why publicprivate partnership is required, thats a separate topic on which I can talk for an hour. People are dying because water nahi hai, those villages that are not getting water, pipeline udhar hi band ho jati hai. People say road bana do, people say hall bano do: I have to spend the money through the district collec-
tor, whatever I have to spend I have to spend through the government, so there may be some misuse. Ive built some cremation grounds for them and they recommended some roads, so I said ok. We have also begun the Janki Devi gram vikas sanstha (Janki Devi was my grandmother), to run rural development activities near our land in Aurangabad. We have also set up a hospital there, with 134 beds.
You had a strong point on SEZs..
I have said that time and again. Get into SEZs but do not mess the situation. Many gave me the Chinese example and I told them that they should know most SEZs in China are government owned. On land, from where the opposition is ercest, enough has been said and I hope reasonable things will be done. Non-diversion of good agricultural land, fair price to the landholder, making him a stakeholder, etc. However, the proportion of area that needs to be utilised by production units at 35 percent is still too low and creates this sense of real estate play. I believe that with a stier export obligation of 60 to 75 percent of production, 60 to 75 percent reservation of land for production units and logical and fairer land acquisition process, SEZs may serve the ends that they should serve. Otherwise, we are actually in a real messy zone.
mymoney
SAVING MONEY COMES NATURALLY TO ME BECAUSE I BELONG TO A TYPICAL MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILY
I AM NOT EXACTLY ROLLING in money so this big bucks savings do not work with me. I plan my savings very meticulously with the help of professionals who routinely advise me on a host of saving options. Real estate is by choice an option I have looked at, the same goes for shares, bonds and debentures. I am lucky to have friends who guide me to pick up shares from time to time. There are, of course, occasions when I miss the bus (of investing in some special shares) because I am out shooting. Saving money comes naturally to me because I belong to a middle-class family with strong, earthy values. I was not born with a huge bank balance. In fact, it is my aim to have one. Lets see how fast it happens.
KAY KAY MENON

actor
16 AUGUST 2008 TEHELKA BUSINESS&ECONOMY 51
HYDERABAD METRO
RIDING ROUGHSHOD
The Andhra Pradesh government raties the Hyderabad Metro project despite a host of protests, reports N. VENUGOPAL
TS LIKE a green light signaling a departure, even before the train has reached the platform. Last week, ocials of the Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd (HRM) enthusiastically announced the nalising of a historic bid for the citys local train facility (it was ratied on August 4 by the Cabinet), even as political disagreement surrounding the project gathered pace. Recently, all political parties, except the ruling Congress, met to consolidate opposition to the project. The BJPs B Dattareya, instrumental in bringing the metro project to the city during NDA rule, as well as the Telegu Desams K Vijayrama Rao, who supported it during his tenure as minister of transport, are both against it in its present form. The allegations include lack of transparency, cost escalation, real estate issues, demolition of heritage buildings, residential and commercial structures, and opposition from displaced people. But in a premature show of enthusiasm, HMR ocials have announced passenger taris as well as parking fees at proposed stations of the 71-km, Rs 12,000-crore project that will have the capacity to carry 16 lakh passengers every day. Sounds like the city decongestant the doctor ordered? No, say critics, alleging that costs have gone up from the 2006 envisaged outlay of Rs 7986 crore to Rs 12,410 crore, without any activity. Its only a real estate project under the mask of the metro, charges C. Ramachandraiah, professor at the Hyderabad-based
52 BUSINESS&ECONOMY
Uneasy passage The Metro project could create problems for the majestic Charminar in Hyderabad
troubled metro
The cost of the project has increased from Rs 7866 crore to Rs 12,410 crore without any activity All parties, barring the Congress, are against the project The Metro service will have three routes covering a length of 71 km A consortium of citybased construction companies won the deal amid charges of favouritism
Centre for Economic and Social Studies, who heads Citizens for Better Public Transport (CBPT), an umbrella organisation of 14 NGOs. He says the CBPTs principal objection is to the lack of transparency. Not a single document has been made public, he says, adding that when the HMR did give
no consequence. And therein lies the rub: the consortium that has won the bid a combine of city-based construction companies Navbharat and Maytas, Ital Thai of Thailand and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services has oered to pay Rs 30,311 crore to the government over 34 years, instead of seeking the normal viability gap funding (VGF), basically a supplementary
The Metro will demolish over 1,200 heritage structures. Even the Charminar will have an overhead Metro line nearby
their organisation an environmental impact assessment report, it was one that had been carried out in 2003, when the service was to consist of two routes and a length of 28 km. In the present project, a third route has been added, as has 43 km. HMR Managing Director NVS Reddy dismisses these objections, saying that since the bidder is oering hefty returns to the government, cost escalation is of grant given by the government to help bridge the cost gap for large infrastructure projects. The bid process was actually for the lowest VGF quote. But when the other bidders wanted VGF, ranging from Rs 318 crore to Rs 3,100 crore, the successful bidder counter-oered, asking for no VGF at all. The reason for that, alleges the CBPT, is that it will get prime land to build
WRITERS EMAIL
venugopalraon@yahoo.com
REALTY CHECK: THE MARKET PERSEVERES

THERE HAS, OF LATE, been a lot of speculation about the real estate market in India, which seems to be bowing under the pressures of increasing interest rates, rising raw material prices and skyrocketing ination all interlinked forces that show no signs of desisting for the foreseeable future. Battling an impending economic slump, the RBI has decided to restrict money supply in order to reel in ination, raising interest rates on home loans from around 10.5% to 12% per annum. This means a 10% hike in the EMI. High ination and lending rates also mean an increase in the input prices for developers, and thereby an increase in nished product costs. The combined burden of these trends is falling squarely on the shoulders of consumers, who are rapidly losing the ability to invest in real estate. The developers are suffering as well. The RBIs recent decision to raise the repo rate and cash reserve ratio will result in a further constriction of liquidity for developers, who will be compelled to seek other sources of funding. Higher borrowing rates will also hit ancillary industries, augmenting the impact on cost-benet ratios, and adding to the price tag of the nal product. Rising ination and interest rates also mean, however, that past investors may be unable to retain investments and be compelled to sell at lower than current prices. Recent investors, too, may sell property at a loss in order to rid themselves of EMIs on home loans. An increase in supply and decline in secondary sale prices might, in a couple of months, lead to a considerable depression in property prices. Perhaps it is in anticipation of such a dip in prices that most developers seem to be sticking to their present plans for development, hoping to nd nancing and to prevent further delays in projects. Insiders are optimistic about the potential of foreign direct investment as a viable source of capital. Even if local investors seem to be shying away, NRIs are still showing signicant interest in Indian real estate. NRIs are responsible for 10% of total residential sales over the last six months. Apart from a sentimental attachment to the homeland, NRI investors are attracted by the prospect of an emerging economy with growth patterns that are positive compared to the economic state of affairs in most developed nations. NRI interest also means that the quality of the developments is being consciously enhanced. Developers are investing in green infrastructure and superior architectural design, including smart home features, in order to appeal to international sensibilities. Many developers maintain, however, that NRI involvement is no greater than before, and that international interest in the Indian realty sector remains undiminished. And although there is an impulse to push toward NRI purchasers to help tide over the present slow period in local sales, it is unlikely that it will do much to turn the economic tide. The fate of the real estate market is by no means sealed. Developers do not believe there will be any drastic changes in the overall demand, and are condent that even if there is slight turbulence, rst time home buyers, the primary market for real estate in India, are unlikely to be easily discouraged.
commercial structures and shopping malls. Other bidders include one consortium led by Reliance Energy, and another by Nagarjuna Constructions. The GVK-Gammon India combine had dropped out, saying the project was not viable. The Metro is also set to demolish over 1,200 heritage structures, including the 300-year old Sultan Bazaar, a portion of the Mecca Masjid and the adjacent bangle bazaar. Unconrmed reports suggest that even the Charminar, the citys most enduring symbol, will have an overhead Metro line passing nearby. In the core areas of a city, metro rail is built underground. But in Hyderabad, it is above ground all through, says Ramachandraiah. Its certainly true that in Delhi, after protests from environmentalists, the Metro Line to Gurgaon had to go underground to avoid interfering with the visual prominence of the historic Qutub Minar. One hopes the ancient charm of the Charminar is not defaced by modern progress.
PHOTOS: AP
BUSINESS&ECONOMY
53
society &lifestyle
IT WAS THE USUAL
sultry Bombay morning. I dont know much about mornings, as I go to sleep only when those who do nothing else but look after their health are about to leave for their morning walk. That day I could see them from my window as the morning broke and I realised that sleep was not going to be possible because it was a ghost day. In my dictionary, a ghost day is a day when the past intrudes into your present, pushes aside the immediate, and snarls. Talk to me, it says and depending on what conversation it wants to have and who it brings, its either a good day or a bad one. Today, it wasnt particularly bad because it brought along many old friends from Sagar, where I had grown up. One of them was Dipankar Sen. I was glad since he was one of my closest buddies, somebody with whom I had done most of my growing up rituals, all the usual rsts.
sedition waging war against the State. This is not the kind of news one hears everyday so there was silence. And then, because he had two brothers, I asked, Which one? Binayak, he said. When he said that, many things struck me. I realised it had been a long time since Id actually had a conversation with Dipankar. It also struck me that the Binayak Sen Id been reading about was Dipankars Binayak Da. I remember thinking when we were growing up how the two brothers were totally unlike each other. Dipankar was great fun. He was tough, aggressive, with a loud laugh and with an equally loud sense of humour. Binayak was soft, gentle and, according to most people, quite brilliant. He was not merely dierent from Dipankar but also totally unlike other sons of army ocers, the core group of the friends I grew up with. Sagar was really a one-horse town where a remarkable man called Hari Singh Gaur had built a university that had a rare academic quality at that time. Before
Guardian o our secret hometowns

Dr Binayak Sen embraced what everyone wanted to escape. Filmmaker SUDHIR MISHRA remembers the gentle friend of his childhood
ferent, he followed in his dads steps and became a doctor. That was where the resemblance ended. Or did it? What hidden strengths Binayak inherited from his father I do not know, but his mother has a strength of character I did not suspect at that time. Its strange how you meet people almost everyday and dont know them. When I hear about the courage of Binayaks mother, how at the age of 80, she ghts for her son while running a school at the same time, I cant quite reconcile her with the image in my mind of the aunt of my childhood. Actually, when you grow up in a small town you live in a fantasy world which you concoct for yourself. The reality is too grim or simply boring. People who think that big city kids are selfabsorbed have no idea about the small town kids obsession with himself and his single-minded devotion to one single cause: how does he get out of this f***ing hole! When you grow up in a small town, you just want to leave and reinvent yourself in some other place. Most of us get the hell out and never look back. Of course this happens over years, but one day, you suddenly discover that the connection has snapped. Somebody else lives in the house of our old friends and some other lovers hold hands in the secret places that we thought were ours alone. Another strange thing happens once the connection snaps. We receive news about our home as if it is from some alien land. Did you hear about the massacre of the Dalits in your part of the
Dipankars voice on the phone was tense. My brother is in jail! The charge is sedition... waging war against the state
I dont know why I looked at my phone just at that moment. I realised that it was on silent mode and someone was trying to get through. It was Dipankar! Many would consider it spooky but these coincidences happen all the time with me so I have stopped trying to gure them out. Hello, I said. His voice on the other end was tense. My brother is in jail! The charge is
54 SOCIETY & LIFESTYLE
that, the British had built a large cantonment there that housed the 36th division of the Indian army and also the Mhar Regiment. If you read the British author John Masters, you can read about the lads of Saugor playing cricket matches with the lads of some other town. Dipankar and Binayaks dad was an army doctor who was posted there. Even though Binayak was dif-
Refusing to look away Dr Binayak Sen
LIVES
your other brother, or in Belgium, with you. He would have been an extremely successful medical man and, to quote a comic sage of our time, Sajid Khan, he would not have just been rich but very very rich
LSO, AND NOW Im misquoting, his life could have been about loving his children, his wife and four bank accounts. Because he is not from Bollywood, he would not have been able to give his opinion on all subjects, from public toilets to higher education, but then life is not perfect and the paychecks would have compensated. Instead, he chooses to go to a place where in place of appreciation he gets locked up in jail! Where the initial FIR of the police states that he is not even a doctor. Where the people who run that place are using him as an example to all those who dare raise their head that if they dont retreat, they will face the same fate as him. And where his wife ghts a lonely battle to get her husband back. This is the same place, a famine-struck village in Uttar Pradesh, my maternal great grandfather left to make a living. Im not into self-agellation and my life has had its share of struggle but I dip my hat in admiration for Binayak. Im also not an elementary Marxist and certainly do not believe that power ows through the barrel of a gun but Im sure, neither does Binayak. I think India needs to listen to people like Binayak, and through him, look at the problems he is addressing. I think more violence will follow if we do not listen to Binayak Sens urgent plea for compassion. I think dierent places have their own unique problems and need unique ideas to resolve them. Thank you for talking on behalf of at least one of the homes that I have left behind, Binayak Da!
world? says the big-city smartass shaking his head with disbelief and derision at the savagery and backwardness of heartland India. You look at the moron with some amount of pity because he has forgotten the savagery of his own city. And the countless children who are sodomised in the dark of the night. You also want to tell him of the divisions between religious communities and the lack of concern for any one elses death, which is euphemistically called the spirit of the city. But we have lost the connection with where we came from to such an extent that we lack even the basic information required to stand up for ourselves. Plus, we have a horrible suspicion that most of the things that are being said are probably true. Inside ourselves, we know that the
Binayak left the comfortable club we are all part of and went to a place where there are no clubs. He agreed to stay there forever
big city has given us a home, hope and a chance to reinvent ourselves. We also know that there is nothing much to say and a lot to do. The truth is that we are embarrassed and often pretend that we are from nowhere. What can you do if your home has no place for you? Sometimes we invent a mythical homeland where everyone loved each other, families were united and people held hands during times of sorrow and joy. Because, back home the shits have taken over, and the young dont have a hope in hell of competing with the rest of India. Except for one or two exceptions, everybody slowly deteriorates. Nobody ever goes back there except to die. Nobody except people like Binayak! He left the comfortable club we all are part of and went to a place where there are no clubs. Dipankar, his brother and my friend, once told me that the time he spent in Sagar was synonymous with hell, that when he was there he had a terrible feeling that he would never be able to get out. Well buddy, your brother went to a worse place and voluntarily agreed to stay there, forever. He could have been in Bombay with me, in Washington with my sister, in Turkey with
SHAILENDRA PANDEY
SOCIETY & LIFESTYLE
55
BOOKS
Richard Crasta, author of six books, including The Revised Kama Sutra and the essay collection Beauty Queens, Children and the Death of Sex was born in Mangalore, Karnataka. Crasta has lived in New York for two decades and he describes his newest book The Killing of an Author as an autobiographical literary thriller.
How did the experience of trying to market The Revised Kama Sutra in New York lead to The Killing of An Author?
The Killing of an Author is my sixth published book. I started writing it in 1993-94, but only published it in 2008. In 1991, I was trying to sell The Revised Kama Sutra. Publishers in the West were not willing to publish my book because I was an Indian writer and expected to conform to a certain kind of style. It seemed like literary apartheid that just because I was brown, I was expected to write in a certain way.
How did The Revised Kama Sutra originate?
I had a story to tell the story of a lot of people growing up in the Third World. I did not even know how babies were born until I was 14 years old. When I rst experienced puberty at 13, I was abbergasted. I thought I
Refusing to conform Author Richard Crasta at his home in Bangalore
had a medical problem. Sex was that hushhush, then. The Revised Kama Sutra was a comic take on how repressed we were, and are to a large extent.
Youve described The Killing of an Author as a campaign for freedom.
The freedom to be who we are. I speak especially of Indians and Third World residents. Freedom not to be cultural or literary slaves of Western publishers or publics and not to be punished for it. Punished not just by Western editorial masters, but also by their Indian henchmen. Our literature, our intellectual freedom, our souls should never be up for sale.
Is it tough to nd an Indian publisher?
WRITING AND THE ORDER OF LALU

TUSHA MITTAL speaks to author Richard Crasta who says
that Indias literary output is controlled by the West

David Davidar bought my book for the second-highest advance at the time to a rst novelist, and if most Indians and critics who read it loved it (Khushwant Singh called it one of the few unforgettable books of the previous 12 years), and with most of my most fervent readers of my other books being other Indians, why shouldnt Indian publishers publish all of my books? I am sure, in a country of a billion, one can nd at least 10 Indian editors with balls. In The Killing of an Author, I have explained how the job of publishing is snung out my booksin-progress. I've been blankly refused distribution by at least ve dierent Indian distributors. People have been buying my books. If distributors refuse to distribute without any explanation, this is, in eect, censorship. Denial of distribution to a bestselling,
I was in negotiations with a major Indian publisher only two weeks back. The Revised Kama Sutra hugely impressed the editor-in-chief, who said, This book should never have been out of print. It should always be available. If
PHOTO: S RADHAKRISHNA
Pornography is mechanical, often improbably superb. I dont think I am in danger of being pornographic
critically acclaimed Indian writer, is a crime and a national shame. My rehabilitation in India may make it possible in the West. It is time for Indians to demand that their uncompromising authors be included in Western publishers lists.
Do you believe Indian writers published by the West have conformed to a specic style?
YOUTH
SPEAK
CASH AND THE CAMERAS

The unsavoury nature of parliamentary politics in India has made itself shamefully apparent, says KALYAN CHATTERJEE
Not so much a style as a certain formula, limitations on content, the expectation of a cultural-social-spiritual-exotic biriyani, good for an evening out for the White Masters, not too hot, not too aphrodisiac, an Anglofriendly masala, not politically or sexually impudent. Have you noticed that teddy bears dont have sex organs? They want us to be their literary teddy bears, pettable and dispensable at will. I am an independent, autonomous human being with sex organs, and I refuse to be a Western readers teddy bear! But many of us oblige.
Youve said that you think Indian literary output is controlled by the West. How so?
Unless youre Khushwant Singh or Shobhaa De or Chetan Bhagat, what a serious literary Indian writer earns is still not enough for a living. You cannot be a fully professional writer unless your main focus is on the Western market. Thats how they end up ruling us. Another method: the Booker. The Brits always gave prizes to well-behaved brown boys who served their purposes. Rao Bahadur and Order of the British Empire. Who the hell are they to give us prizes? Why dont we give them prizes? The Cooker Prize For Docile, Well-Behaved Brit Writers and The Order of Lalu, whose recipient will have to kneel while Lalu knights him.
Do you nd yourself negotiating the space between the racy and the rened?
I dont look to be racy or rened. I just write, and what comes out is what you get, edited only for readability, for my own literary pleasure. In a sense, the raciness is truth. I am a sexual being. If it were not there in my writing then I would not be honest. If I were to write a book thats completely asexual, or homo-erotic, or sadistic, it would not be me. Pornography is dull; it is mechanical (and often improbably superb) sex without the redemption of thought, feeling, character, humour, passion, failure. I dont think I am ever in danger of being pornographic, just as you cannot accuse Henry Miller of being so; anyone who accuses either of us of obscenity must have a dirty mind.
IN MY YOUNGER DAYS when I followed the goings on in sports, there used to be mainly three varieties of wrestling Grecoroman, freestyle and Indian style or (to quote my friends more accurately) Indian ishtyle. Now it seems, there is an Indian ishtyle of running democracy. I am not talking of rigging or booth-capturing, which is prevalent in many other parts of the world and was not unknown even in Western democracies not so long ago. I am referring to the shenanigans of members in that most august Lok Sabha. A new twist has been given to the entire issue by the fact that the media, through the auspices of a new television channel called Lok Sabha TV, has become an important factor. Given the unsavoury avour of politics, who would want to watch the debates our law makers indulge in while making laws? Indeed, few were even aware that such a channel existed. But all that changed on July 21 and 22 when the UPA government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought a vote of condence. Sick of a surfeit of cricket, the Indian public found new excitement in the two-day event in the Lok Sabha. Saas, bahu and other soaps were left far behind as the TRPs of Lok Sabha TV went sky high. It was perhaps the largest ever audience to have watched parliamentary proceedings anywhere in the world, said its CEO Sunit Tandon at a seminar recently. In the event, there were two episodes in the two-day affair that went counter to expectations. First, the attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party to tarnish the image of the Manmohan Singh government by claiming that the ruling party had tried to purchase its MPs. It would not have been so bad had it limited itself to levelling the charge. But it tried to overdramatise the matter by getting its MPs to troop to the well of the house with briefcases and slam down wads of currency notes on the secretary generals table. It wasnt even clear whether they were indignant at being offered money to change sides or were unhappy with the sum offered. The second miscalculation occurred as the CPI(M) tried to take the moral high ground by expelling Somnath Chatterjee from the party for not heeding its direction to resign as Speaker and to vote against the government. But CPI(M) supremo Prakash Karat failed to take into account the rise in the stature of Mr Chatterjee in the eyes of the public through live telecast. A man who could conduct with dignity the proceedings of the house at such a time deserved kudos and not the boot from his party. Chatterjee teaches at the Amity School of Communication, Amity University. E-mail: youthspeak@amity.edu
SOCIETY & LIFESTYLE
57
Girl about town Blogger-turned-novelist Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan in Mumbai
Madhavans blog is popular. At over 8.5 lakh hits, there is no running away from the fact. Her writing on her blog is in the vein of successful books like Belle de Jour, The Sexual Life of Catherine M and Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl but her subject matter is nowhere near as incendiary. Yes, there are sexual encounters, all-night clubbing, angsty boytalk, mentions of ovulation and its distressing byproducts, all suitably drowned in vodka. But really, so what? What is it about this brand of writing, this confessional style, which is so compulsive? Part of it has to do with the voyeuristic instincts that lead us to the oce cooler and the nearest Stardust for the latest gossip, fuelled by the perverse fascination of watching people willingly, even
POULOMI BASU
Meenakshi to sit and write given her busy calendar. But she is great at creating mood and she has a confessional style that makes you read on. I would call it a single-in-the-city book. Smells deeply sitcomesque. Saying my lifestyle is like Friends or Sex and the City is patronising. Global India has a denite culture of its own, and I am a desi product, Madhavan says, clearly resentful of the Westernised! slurs ung from across the street. Metaphorically, of course. Being brought up by literary parents and being an alumnus of schools like Shiv Niketan (famous pupils include Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi) and Lawrence, Lovedale, and nishing o with a literature degree from Lady Shri Ram College, must have its advantages. Her mother, literary
Sexual encounters, clubbing, angsty boy-talk, all suitably drowned in vodka. So what?
eagerly, exposing themselves in public. The other has to do with these writers ability to write, to draw us in, to communicate their compulsions. And of course, they are eye-wateringly honest; that is, after all, what they are selling. I think my writing is fantastic, says Madhavan, rapidly following through with an impish giggle. She says she has developed a voice though her blog over the last four years, but thinks the real reason her writing stands out is that I really dont bullshit; I take pride in being completely honest with myself and with other people. Madhavan started blogging whilst in a dead-end job to relieve her boredom. You Are Here traces a year in the life of 25-year-old Arshi, a Delhi girl who has a bad job and lives alone. The book is a product of the blog, which caught the attention of editors at Penguin. Diya Kar Hazra, the books editor explains: It was hard work getting critic Sheila Reddy wonders if she (Madhavan) realises that my generation paved the way for her. Reddy talks of being told she was bringing up a mist, but says she believed that a change in societys attitudes was nigh. It is strange to hear the same words come from mother and daughter their indignation about You Are Here being labeled as chick lit It is such a lazy label; then Jane Austen should be chick-lit as well. Anyway, it is not the kind of writing I want to do for the rest of my life, Madhavan announces. Modern confessional writing has been both rubbished as authorial catharsis and lauded as rigorous and discursive. Whether You Are Here adds to the canon or whether it lives up to the promise of the blog is going to be a matter of opinion. What is more certain is that its author admits to being somewhat of a frothy concoction, nothing more and nothing less.
Inside the Confessional

Indias rst big blog-to-book phenomenon Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan prides herself on her honesty, says ANASTASIA GUHA
AM NOT GOING out very much right now, I stay at home and watch TV in the evenings, says 26-year-old Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan. This is a departure of sorts; two weeks before the launch of her book You Are Here, published by Penguin Books, one imagined Madhavan, a self-professed single girl about town, would be well, about town. By the arguably crude standards of online hit-counters,
YOU ARE HERE Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan Penguin 272 pp; Rs 199
NEELAKASH KSHETRIMAYUM
change
N OT E S O N S U R V I VA L
food crisis environment and human health deepens, governments which led to our poisoning ourselves, look for solutions to our water, soil and food. According to the latest United Nathe problem a problem created in tions Report on Food Security, awed large part by their own awed policies. government policies that have One solution that is receiving supported these transnational much support from certain govcorporations at the expense of ernment ocials and the increasingly powerful transnational Powerful lobbies are at work, bringing harmful GM food into India small farmers have meant an increasing concentration of power agribusiness sector is Genetically in their hands. Today, they domiModied Organisms (GMOs) for PAMELA GALE MALHOTRA nate not only marketing and conboth foods and textiles. GM crops sumption of agricultural products, but are being touted as the Second Green Revo- Co-founder of SAI Sanctuary Trust production and supply as well. This means lution for India and the world. they have virtual control over every aspect of GMOs are organisms whose genetic matethe worlds food supply. rial has been tampered with by scientists. All blind eye, and are pushing a proposal here in This is a real threat not just to our food seliving matter has a unique combination of ge- India for an open door policy allowing both curity, but to our national independence as netic material designed by Nature as its own GM seeds and foods into the country. If blueprint for life, giving it certain character- passed, the proposal would streamline (read well. This type of power translates into massive inuence over national policy decisions. istics in response to the environment in eliminate) proper testing procedures, public As any student of power politics knows, which it has evolved. When creating GMOs, input, or labelling of GM foods so that conscientists insert genes from one organism sumers can decide for themselves if they wish when you have control over a countrys food supply, you control the country. into another to give it characteristics not to purchase them or not. For generations, our farmers have fed this found in nature, and those characteristics What does this mean? If passed, this polcountry through traditional, organic farming could be animal in origin as well. This is what icy would bring the dangers of GM foods into techniques that emphasised biodiversity, seed sets GMOs apart from hybrids this crossour own kitchens, with no warning whatsostorage, non-chemical fertilisers like cow species manipulation. We could be eating ever. At least in the European Union, stores dung, companion planting and multi-croptomatoes that have been crossed with pigs, or and manufacturers are required to label all ping, cooperating with natures cycles, natupotatoes crossed with snakes. So much for products that contain GM material. In India, those of us who are vegetarian! we are left completely in the dark, with no la- ral pollinators and pest controllers such as spiders, birds etc. Our soil was rich and alive More worrisome, study after study done on belling at all. GMOs are demonstrating just how dangerous This policy would also undermine our na- with organisms that helped crops grow and ourish. The advent of agrichemicals has these crops are from causing tumours, can- tional food security as many of these GMOs brought death to all of this, and the docucers, sterility, birth defects, premature death in are designed to stop seed production. This mented threats GMOs pose to the environanimals fed on GM crops, to death of livestock means that farmers will have to go back to feeding on post-harvest Bt cotton stalks right these same transnational corporations year ment and human life should make us stop here in India, to life-threatening allergic reacafter year to buy new seeds. Some GMOs are and think once again. tions in humans, and unintended DNA mutaeven designed not to sprout without the use Lets not make the mistake of blindly trusttions that have spawned dangerous new of certain chemical fertilizers, again sold by ing these same vested interests and transnaviruses and bacteria threatening both human these same corporations or sister companies. tionals who got us into that rst chemical life and the environment in general. So comIts important to note that the companies soup and who are, in large part, the root of pelling is the evidence of the dangers of GMOs so eager to introduce GMOs here in India are the current global food crisis. To do so will that they have been banned for use and imthe same that pushed the petrochemical fermean letting in a ood of unmarked GM port throughout most of the European Union. tilisers, pesticides, and herbicides of the rst products into India products that threaten In spite of these studies, vested interests in Green Revolution chemicals that we now our health, environment, food supply and nagovernment and business continue to turn a know have had disastrous eects on both the tional independence.
S THE GLOBAL
Study after study has demonstrated that GMO crops can cause tumours, cancers, birth defects and premature deaths in animals
POISON PLATE
SOCIETY & LIFESTYLE
59
Analyse That
VIJAY PANDEY
Psychoanalyst and writer Sudhir Kakar tells ASHIS ROY that the happiness people seek in their lives can only come from a connection to the divine
MAD AND DIVINE Sudhir Kakar Viking 188 pp; Rs 325
What were the early inuences that led you to psychoanalysis?
Reading Freud and Dostoevsky, generally. But I didnt take to analysis because of that. Psychoanalysis was very intriguing I was going through an identity crisis. Studying Economics bored me as did teaching in IIM Ahmedabad. I wanted to apply to Poland to the lm school. And then, I met Erik Erikson. I thought he was a wonderful person.
Do you see yourself as Sudhir Kakar the writer or Sudhir Kakar the psychoanalyst?
and by himvery free-associative material, full of contradictions. And second, of course, I wanted to see how spirituality and aggression are chiselled. With all the three people featuring in the book, there is this interplay. With Rajneesh it is between spirituality and narcissism, with Drukpa Kunley it is spirituality and sexu-
That is the oer being made here.

At the launch of Mad and Divine, you said that we dont accept other peoples narcissism. Would you elaborate?
tual masters oer the same.

You seem to suggest that for psychotherapy to be relevant to the common man, it needs to incorporate spirituality.
With sexuality, there is no problem. You can be tolerant of any kind of sexuality. Its much easier for people to be conscious of it, to admit to it and to accept it.
If anything provides more happiness, it is spirituality and not psychotherapy

ality, and with Gandhi it is spirituality and violence.
You write about Rajneeshs recollection of his previous life, one in which he was born 700 years ago. What sort of an other does this create in someone who may be listening to Rajneesh?
I think I would be more the writer than the analyst. When I am doing non-ction, I am more the analyst, and when Im doing ction, I am more the writer than the analyst. It changes, according to where Sudhir Kakar is at that particular time.
In your latest book, Mad and Divine: Spirit and Psyche in the Modern World, why did you choose to write about Rajneesh?
But narcissism, boastfulness is still a very unacceptable thing. We dont really like Rajneesh.
In what ways do processes in the psychoanalytic setting come close to Rajneeshs need to create an explosion?
There are two reasons. One, the amount of information that was available. Without material, there cannot be any interpretation. There is a lot of material on him
The listener enters a magical world where everything is possible everyone likes to go into such an enchanted world. Rajneesh allows you to do that, and says: I can create this world for you, look at me, what I have done, I am such a big person. And immortality we will never die, we will always keep on living.
The analytic setting is not like what Rajneesh would do. In the psychoanalytic setting, things happen in a gradual manner. Rajneeshs was the anarchic way of a complete revolution. His temperament did not believe in any evolution. It is the fantasy of many: I wake up tomorrow and am a completely dierent person. There is an explosion and you are changed and that is a big oer. Many spiri-
No, not to incorporate spirituality in the sphere of psychotherapy I think the two are dierent but they should not dismiss each other. Freudian psychotherapy is rationalist but there are others such as Bions and Lacans, which are open to spirituality because it adds a dimension to human life. Being less unhappy may not be enough for many people any more. They want to be happy and not just less unhappy. That kind of happiness or joy comes from the other; a connection to the other is more important than what I want, than my life and my beliefs. So spiritual in the sense that the I goes down. If anything provides more, it is spirituality and not psychotherapy.
How is spirituality different from religion?
Its a religion-less religion. There is no dogma; there are no creeds. Often, there doesnt have to be a God. Spirituality involves the transcendence of the I.
BOOKS
ILLUSTRATION: NAOREM ASHISH
FLIGHT FROM FAMILIARITY

An innovative voice makes this collection of stories a treat
THE
word
KAVERI NAMBISAN Writer
Perimeter are non-simplistic and intriguing. Each of these three stories takes you to where you either have a ringside view of the small HAD A great time reading Kuzhali Mandramas inherent in all kinds of little events, ickavels Insects Are Just Like Us Except or you are in a world where someone has unSome Of Them Have Wings. The stories done the seams of possibility. are well written, of course, but what In these stories, sometimes an event, really gets you is the variety, the sheer sometimes a line, and sometimes just the way unpredictably of them. Some are about the a character is, has this ability to insist that oddest things, others about the most comyou see, without the anesthesia of description monplace; the most peculiar things happen or logic. Consider these: Everyone must in some, while in others nothing happens at all. Some characters are normal; others may keep a box of things they dont understand and cant throw away or Even Dalit Chrishave wings coming out of their backs or will tian lesbians who write feminist be pulling cats out of their manifestos are allowed to drown mouths. You just cant say which in wells or Sri Lankan Tamils. way a story will turn. Its like they are trying to sing Be warned, though. You might but their voice never quite takes get a bit unsettled if you bring o or Selva and I are cursed. maintrack reading habits into this We have silhouettes that dont semi-surreal, sometimes magical t anywhere. realistic, sometimes deadpanKuzhalis writing sends you INSECTS ARE JUST bizarre, sometimes nihilistic shooting o into her stories place, where nothing need do LIKE US EXCEPT with a crazy shove, after which what its supposed to be doing. SOME OF THEM you will nd yourself rushing These are the bylanes where HAVE WINGS around on your own. The aftermiddles are more likely to be not Kuzhali Manickavel math is a well-observed in the middle and no end comes, Blaft thoughtfulness that shows you even after the action rises, falls 142 pp; Rs 195 stu about stu that you know and appears to be done. Here, style may take the place of character and nar- is true, because its stu you have seen and known. For example, in the story about Mira, rative may not gure at all in the way that who has streamlined down to the shape of a you mostly expect it to. pin, the writer says, Some girls naturally I thoroughly enjoyed several of the stories turn into pockets and the lives of all the girls in this collection of 35, both the really short you ever knew that did turn into pockets, ones as well as the longer ones. However, holding god-knows-what, will rush out of there must be a reason that all three of my your knowing. favourites The Dynamics of Windows, What is disappointing are the illustrations: Suicide Letter is the Most Common Form of Letter, Flying and Falling are among the they are forced and very forgettable, although they might make you smile. longest of the stories here. If the reader thinks that these stories are Perhaps this is because with the longer there so briey, like distant, exotic relatives stories, there is so much more room for the who you unexpectedly share an intimate holicharacters to move, and for the reader to acday with but who cannot stay, consider that tually get a sense of where they are and what on the other side, you have the staying pleasis around them. There is so much more time to listen to the fall of the characters lives and ures of the family! I look forward to whatever unexpected deto look at the possible turns they, and the lights and revelations Kuzhalis next book story, might take. The one and two-pagers are not bad read- might bring with a sense of committed interest because I feel that Ive been in an advening at all: Do You Know How to Twist with ture that I would like to repeat. Girls Like This?, Cats and Fish, The
KALA KRISHAN RAMESH
A book that means a lot to you? Walden by Thoreau and My Experiments with Truth by Mahatma Gandhi, both for the utter simplicity and honesty of thought. Votaires Candide, for its brilliant irreverance, and Robert Graves Wife to Mr Milton, for his ability to use fact and imagination so succintly. Your favorite character from a book and, briey, why? It has to be Yossarian, in Catch 22. Hes so real. An author or genre you dislike? Those who write laboured, overwrought prose, especially when they dont have that much to say in the rst place. Your favourite book to lm adaptation? To Kill a Mockingbird. Last book bought? My husband buys the books and so, right now I dont remember. But Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson was recently given to me by a friend. It is marvellous. Last book read? Sabre Tooth from the Modesty Blaise series, which is a thriller by Peter ODonell. Im in that kind of mood. I love the entire series. A very overrated book? It would be unfair to say it, I think. A book that you wish you had written? That book is still to be written because only I can write it. Your favourite writers? Mohammed Basheer, the malayalam writer, Robert Graves, Kipling, Girish Karnad, Naguib Mehfouz, Bulgakov, Upamanyu Chatterjee and at least 20 others. A book youve always wanted to read but havent? JRR Tolkiens The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
KARMA VIVAN
SOCIETY & LIFESTYLE
61
Compiled by NITHIN MANAYATH
MASTERtakes
CULTURE CRITIQUE BY THOSE WHO KNOW
British are there, but in the background. This is not about colonialism as a simple encounter between East and West, but about the deeper ferment caused by that encounter. Hasan is a poet and the author of Lunatic in My Head SUMAN SRIDHAR ON
Safe View An image from the series Freedom of the Seas
SONIA JOSE ON
ART
I enjoyed Sreshta Premnaths exhibition Black Box held earlier this year at Gallery Skye in Bangalore. The show dealt with issues of representation, ownership and generation of meaning. I nd his practice interesting and the knowledge and commitment he brings to it, very stimulating. At rst I found it hard to decipher but after watching a video transcript and looking at his earlier work and process, I was hooked. His latest work, a two-channel video installation with sound called Innite Threat, Innite Regress, is currently on display at a group show called Current at Gallery Skye. Jose is a Bangalore-based artist ANJUM HASAN ON
I've been listening to CocoRosie and Prabha Atre. I know they seem oceans apart, but as the latter Hindustani diva quips "music has only two categories good and bad!" I fell in love with the Prabha Atre composition Jagoo main saari raina, listening to my mother sing it. Atre's brilliant, more than good, divine. I rst listened to CocoRosie on MySpace. I could ll these pages with how the sisters make theatre out of their image, but I'll save it for the critics! They unabashedly bring classical music to what is contemporary, even "trendy". In an age where new music is often seduced by technology, CocoRosie seduce us with their irreverence, opting instead for objects accessible to anybody, like musical toys and bells, yet sounding like nobody. Sridhar is one half of the music duo Sridhar/Thayil SONYA THIMMAIAH ON
MUSIC
BOOKS
THE CANVAS IS HUGE, TEEMING WITH CHARACTER AND INCIDENT

ANJUM HASAN
I never tire of recommending Sunil Gangopadhyays First Light (Pratham Alo in Bengali) an epic novel set in Renaissance Calcutta, which is unafraid to present famous historical characters alongside ctional ones. The most pleasurable part of First Light is how leading turn-of-the-nineteenth century gures are always crossing paths with each other. A young Tagore chances upon an even younger Vivekananda singing one of his compositions; Ramakrishna, the saint of Dakshineswar, attends a performance by the famous Binodini Dasi and momentarily mistakes her for the character she is playing. The novel has a huge canvas, teeming with character and incident. I am awed by the way Gangopadhyay is able to pull dozens of strands together to present the cultural excitement of the period and the sense of a people shaping their own destiny. The
FOOD
In the same way that glitz does not guarantee gold, grime does not preclude diamonds. And this is certainly true of many great food places. Maratha Darshan, off Queens Road in Bangalore, is one such begrimed gem. You pass the kitchen as you walk in, and you are met with the heartening sight of sari-clad mothers or aunts with necks bent in honest immersion. There is no printed menu to my knowledge, and I have never felt the need for one. Why the name Maratha Darshan? I havent a clue. How long have they been around? I dont give a damn. My faith is unclouded, lled with the light. I always order the same thing the ragi mudde, with a decent kheema ball curry or the full-avoured country chicken curry, and one okay, two portions of the ery, tender, haunting mutton chops. It is a sup-withstrangers setup and you will nd yourself sit-
62
SOCIETY & LIFESTYLE
theTAKE
ting beside people that you couldnt have imagined you had much in common with slurping public servants and prim dog-tagged IT worker bees. Ah, but you do, at the altar of the mutton chops goddess, how much you do. Thimmaiah is a New York-based food writer RAJ NIDIMORU ON JAI ARJUN SINGH
TRULY, MADLY, TACKY

SACHIN KHOT'S Ugly aur Pagli wastes no time in convincing us that it isnt trying to be a rened comedy. The rst ve minutes contain references to intestinal mishaps and other bodily functions, including a loving shot of the lms drunken heroine spewing bright orange vomit on someones head. In other words, elements of 1990s Hollywood B-comedies have made inroads into Hindi cinema. Or perhaps the scriptwriter read the news item about the fart joke being the oldest form of humour, and deFILM UGLY AUR PAGLI cided to pay homage to the past. DIRECTOR SACHIN KHOT When the abrasive Kuhu (Mallika Sherawat) STARRING MALLIKA SHERAWAT, RANVIR staggers into the life of a wide-eyed young enSHOREY, TINU ANAND, SUSHMITA MUKHERJEE gineering student named Kabir Achrekar (Ranvir Shorey), he falls irredeemably in love. This is before theyve even had a coherent conversation. Once shes conscious and sober, she turns his life upside down, smacking him about at whim, making him wear her high heels and asking him to perform a humiliating public stunt on her birthday. Kabirs T-shirts, which have prescient lines printed on them (eg. I will get wet on this ride just before she tosses him into a pool), appear more clued in to whats happening than he is (or we are). There seems little option but to sit back and let Ms Sherawat lead us through a series of increasingly random situations and song sequences reminiscent of the good old 80s, when songs had nothing to do with a movies narrative ow. To call this lm uff would be an understatement. Its as messed up and capricious as Kuhu herself, and the THIS FILM IS AS MESSED UP AND only way to watch it is to keep reCAPRICIOUS AS KUHU HERSELF. minding yourself that no questions BUT WHAT UGLY HAS GOING FOR must be asked (which is pretty IT ARE THE TWO LEADS, much Kabirs predicament vis--vis ESPECIALLY SHOREY his pagli). One gets the impression that the shooting process was repeatedly interrupted and the lmmakers kept forgetting where to pick up the threads: entire sequences look like they were thrown in just because someone said, Okay, we need a few beach-volleyball shots in Goa now or One song with amenco dancers please. This kind of madcap spontaneity does result in a few moments that work well such as the one where Kabir meets Kuhus high-society mom and spaced-out alcoholic dad but these are few and far between, and they cant stop the lm from plunging towards a soppy, tone-altering explanation of its leading ladys actions. What Ugly has going for it are the two lead performances, especially by Shorey, who has come along terrically as an actor. He injects feeling and believability into even the laziest situation comedy (watch him in the dinner scene where a weeping Kuhu repeatedly blows her nose into his handkerchief while people gawp). Sherawat is a rawer, less assured performer, but she makes a difcult character likeable. The chemistry between her and Shorey isnt quite as effective as her equally atypical teaming with Rahul Bose in Pyaar ke Side Effects was, but it still provides one of the few reasons to watch this little oddity.
FILM
No Country for Old Men by the Coen brothers is a stunningly produced lm with attention devoted to the smallest detail that goes into creating scenes. When I saw the lm I enjoyed the suspense and the micro-detailing right away, but was disappointed at the end. I wondered what the point was. But almost immediately, riding on the second thought, the lm elevated itself to become one of my absolute favourites. It left me with a strong sense of disquiet, gesturing towards an evil that does not believe in restraint. This is not a lm that glories heroes and heroism. It is ominous. In the resignation of the character played by Tommy Lee Jones, an intelligent but deeply disenchanted ofcer who is unable to deal with the brutality of the times we live in, we know its not just no country for old men but no country for anyone. Nidimoru is one of the two directors of the feature lm Flavors
Savage omens Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men
SOCIETY & LIFESTYLE
63
vanityfair
JOHNNY CASH
JOHN ABRAHAM IS STARRING IN THE NEW KARAN JOHAR PRODUCTION
Money Hai To Honey Hai John Abraham is turning producer
What is it about John Abraham that he makes everything look fun? Cant remember the last hit he had. The last time we saw him, he was coming out of tubs for Anurag Kashyaps No Smoking. He has just turned producer but, typically, instead of making cinematic vehicles for himself, he is funding Pakistani band Strings new album and a Mike Pandey wildlife documentary. And soon we will see the nice man in the Karan Johar production, Dostana, alongside Priyanka Chopra . STEPPING ACROSS THE LINE Despite the best efforts of Americas confessional literature industry, their tell-alls never manage quite the same effortless, raunchiness as their British counterparts. Salman Rushdie is astounded to nd that, instead of being able to enjoy his position as the irascible Grand Old Man of Scandalous Letters, he is scandalised. One of his former Special Branch bodyguards has written a book about his literary charge in rather unliterary terms. Not only is Rushdie having to deny that he is the unpleasant, arrogant man the book makes him out to be, he also has to deal with another indignity. The book says the bodyguards referred to him amongst themselves as Scruffy. Rushdie is suing. To borrow Christine Keelers immortal phrase, He would, wouldnt he? THE COMPANION PIECE Pakistani journalist and author of the Booker-longlisted The Case of Exploding Mangoes, Mohammed Hanif says that the material he rst found when researching General Zias death was so banal that he had to sex it up. Whatever that involved, he has now written a play that emerged from the same material. The Dictators Wife is to be staged soon in Edinburgh and no doubt will unlock more jaws. Compiled by NISHA SUSAN
Once I'm ready with all the data and ready to transmit, I will certainly send a signal out to Dad
RAHUL MAHAJAN
(On his interest in extra-terrestrial life)
STAR BRIGHT, STAR LIGHT

For a girl who vehemently and snippily tells the press that her private life is off bounds, Katrina Kaifs life is full of the stuff that teases. Most people KATRINA REPLACES are still reeling from AISHWARYA RAI IN her party where the JEWELLERY Khans went stAD CAMPAIGN happy. Then came various announcements that she and Salman Khan are breaking up. And now, she has Abhishek Bachchan scrambling to say that the loss of one jewellery endorsement (albeit big and substantial) does not mean that Kaif has trumped his darling wife Aishwarya Rai. Kaif has certainly got some Eve Harrington qualities that bear watching.
64
SOCIETY & LIFESTYLE
FIRST
I WANT TO CHANGE MY WAISTLINE AND HAIRLINE
PRASAD BIDAPA, Fashion designer
LOOK
WORKS IN THE MAKING
DOCUMENTARY
What is your earliest memory of an interest in fashion? I remember dressing up my paper dolls Norah, Tilly, Milly and Chilli. Who or what do you turn to for solace in times of distress? I turn to God and to the person I am closest to, my wife Judi. What is your favourite lm/book/music? Funny Girl with Barbara Streisand. The Moors Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie. Breathless and other songs by Shankar Mahadevan Whos been the greatest inuence in your life? Professionally and personally? In my professional life, designer David Abraham my classmate, my mentor and my friend. In my personal life, my parents What is a pre-show superstition or ritual that you have? I always say a little prayer before every show and perform a jai! What do you want to change about yourself? My waistline and my hair line! Less of the rst and more of the other. I would like to stop smoking and exercise more. What do you like most about yourself? I enjoy making people laugh. I like my sense of humour. What is your biggest fear? I have a fear of falling. Its called the Thudani Syndrome, named after a Sindhi who fell from the fourth oor. How do you spot a winner among a crowd of models? Winners glow with a divine aura from the very beginning. Its easy to spot them if you know how to read their auras. What does it mean to be cool and stylish? Cool and stylish have no meaning unless you are a self-condent person, secure in your own skin. What makes a good marriage? Friendship and mutual respect is the foundation for a good marriage. And extra-marital affairs are best kept in the mind, so go have a virtual one. Your most embarrassing or frightening fashion experience? Walking up on stage to receive an award perfectly draped in a stunning dhoti only to realise it was unraveling behind me. NITHIN MANAYATH
psychologies
PREMJIT RAMACHANDRAN
Balkrishna Doshi is not just an architect. He is a philosopherpoet and a 100 percent Indian creator. He is all about temples, rituals and the Mahabharata. He talks about how the Indian experience is all about being frugal and getting the best of everything
Filmmaker Premjit Ramachandran has just completed Doshi, a documentary on the legendary architect Balkrishna Doshi. We met Doshi and he changed our lives, Ramachandran says. The lm explores Doshis fascination with ritual, scripture and myth. Doshi, who founded the School of Architecture, CEPT, in Ahmedabad saw his lifes various endeavours as being part of a constant search, says Ramachandran. It is tting, then, that the lm that pays tribute to him is not just an architecture lm. This is Ramachandrans second lm after Look Here, Kunigunda, a short lm shot in the deserts of Dubai.
BOOKS
SHRUTI SAXENA
Out in stores in October
Shruti Saxena has nished her rst book, Stilettos in the Boardroom. The novel, to be published by Zubaan, is about three women working in the BPO industry. The story takes off with a rm taking on a new project with which all three women have to be involved. The project leader is a beautiful, charming woman, used to having her way. Except that things start to go wrong. Saxena, who has worked in the BPO industry for ve years, says that part of the reason she wrote this novel was to break down stereotypes and misconceptions about this industry and change peoples attitudes. It is a different world. People come in from various industries and the culture is very different from other companies.
SOCIETY & LIFESTYLE
65
personalhistories
Talent and creativity were ruthlessly buried. Only rote learners survived
UZMA MOHSIN
PR Rajeswari Is 32, self-employed and lives in Dubai with her husband and child
re-evaluation of their papers. I lacked the mental courage to ght. I AM OVERTAKEN by repugnance whenever I think of my school repeated class nine, completed the 10th with 72 percent marks and days. The reason is quite simple. I was crippled mentally during thus my journey through the tunnel came to an end. high school. As I pen this essay, a couple of questions pop up. Today I ask who were the losers when the library hours and What is the purpose of education? Why are children always physical training sessions were hijacked for extra classes and revitreated as students? sions? In the race for achieving high results, talent and creativity were I was raised in a joint family, which included a grandfather and a paternal uncle. My mom, a homemaker, was a lady of high calibre and ruthlessly buried. Only rote learners survived. For my pre-degree years, I opted for commerce at the Government she nurtured the passions of her loved ones. Like any other mother, Victoria College in Palakkad. With just 72 percent, getting admission she too had dreams for her children, wanting them to be condent was dicult but I managed to snag the last available seat. This marked and fearless under any circumstance. a rebirth for me. In college, I found that independent views were I was inclined to music, so my parents sent me to music classes encouraged, I could actually explore life while learning. Each day, I when I was 10 years old. I was an average student, although I had a found a new me within myself. The support I got from the teachers penchant for current aairs, quizzing and debates. My parents were helped build my self esteem. In the second year, I joined the college content with my scores, which ranged between 65 and 70 percent. cricket team and represented my college in matches. Resuming music Little did they know that one day, their daughter would be demoted lessons under the guidance of a and devastated. An extended hell! That is how I describe renowned musician added to my My turmoil began when I was happiness. In the rst year, I had in class seven. The school headclass nine. Did the teachers ever make a actually topped my class and was mistress, who had exceptional single effort to point out my strengths? soon among the top ve at the teaching skills, heard of a ght that had broken out between me university. A student demoted in class nine occupying a place at the top! My teachers felt a little disapand another friend. She sought an explanation from our parents. pointed as I missed the overall top rank by a whisker. But for me, the After this, occasional taunts aimed at me became a regular feature of her classes. This made me an object of ridicule among my classmates. results were a morale booster. It was a turning point for me. I went on to do my masters, and was elected to the college union. Day after day, my anxiety and fear grew, but I couldnt reveal my feelCanvassing, meetings and elections were fantastic experiences. A ing to others including my mom. timid, neglected school student elected to the college union! In class nine, my anxiety grew further, because of Math and the Soon I was on stage, addressing the college, attending cabinet Math teacher. She used to place the weaker students in one corner of meetings, interacting with students and the principal, leading the colthe classroom so she could focus more attention on them. This crelege in inter-collegiate festivals, forming an association exclusively for ated a negative impact on me. I started feeling targeted and cornered and felt that my independent thinking was suppressed. My inability to girls to encourage them and ensure their participation in campus activities. The scared introvert in me had gone forever. draw perfect maps or gures was used as a pointer while making Failing a class in those days was and is, even now humiliatscathing comments and this added fuel to the re. ing, primarily because teachers and the larger society make a child An extended hell! That is how I describe class nine. Did they ever feel that way. It is seen as a scandal, a blot from which one can never make a single eort to point out my strengths? They denied me an recover. I left school with a heart lled with fear, depression and opportunity to grow! At the end of the year, I was demoted. Later, I realised that 36 other students also suered the same fate. The reason didence. My college faculty changed all that. To them, I was just one among the thousands of students they teach. They are my idols, the school authorities gave was ltration before promotion to class 10. A few students joined other schools while others registered for a because they changed my destiny forever.
A SERIES ON TRUE EXPERIENCES
FOR THE WEEK AUGUST 10-16, 2008
RNI. NO. - DELENG - 2004/12605, Regd. No. - DL(S)-01/3053/2007-2009 Regd. No. KA/BGGPO/2508/07-09

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AN INDIAN MARXIST: EXAMINING THE EARTHY LEGACY OF HARKISHAN SINGH SURJEET p10

SATURDAY, 16 AUGUST 2008 | VOL. 5, ISSUE 32, NEW DELHI

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