When Partisan Propaganda Masquerades as Defense of Human Rights Response to Dilip D’ Souza Author(s) : Madhu Purnima Kishwar While Kafila has been very generous in giving space to those who critiqued or attacked my study and writing on Gujarat, they are far from fair in giving space to my rejoinders. For example, when I wrote a Rejoinder to Zahir Janmohammad’s “Open Letter” challenging my writing on Gujarat, Kafila sent my Rejoinder to Zahir and published my response only after he sent another counter which was published along with my response. However, when Aditya Nigam and Shuddhabrata Sengupta indulged in outright personal attack, I was not sent their articles to enable me to likewise send them my rejoinders to be published simultaneously. While the attacks of leading members of Kafila against me are given prominent space, my responses are now being tucked away in a manner that they don’t attract any attention. For example, my Response to Dilip D’Souza’s letter “Three Questions for Madhu Kishwar” was published not as a standalone piece, as was done with Dilip’s piece but in the “Comments” section at the end of 39 other comments so that hardly anyone noticed my response. This is just a step away from total censorship. That is why I am posting both Dilip D’Souza’s “Three Questions for Madhu Kishwar” along with my following response on Manushi website. Dear Dilip, Like you, I too value and cherish our 20 year plus friendship. I am very happy to see that our respect and goodwill for each other remains intact despite occasional or frequent differences of opinion on this or that issue. This is rare in today’s vitiated and sharply polarized political environment. I appreciate your well-meaning attempt at pointing out to me that I should avoid using abrasive words if I wish to build bridges of communication. I will try my best to keep this in mind though I can’t promise I will always be able to keep my annoyance or anger under a tight leash. However, it surprises me that you did not think it appropriate to tender similar advice to Aditya Nigam or Shuddhabrata Sengupta who have been far nastier in attacking me on Kafila than I was to Zahir. Despite my annoyance, I actually took the trouble to take every single point raised by Zahir and explained with utmost seriousness why his account was untrustworthy. But what does Aditya Nigam do? Start with a personal attack dubbing me a “Spin Doctor and Propagandist” so that he can justify his imperious declaration that he has “no faith in facts”—he is only interested in “the discourse” or ideology. And since I don’t share his ideological framework, I deserve to be treated with disdain. I will try and answer each of the three questions you have posed in the same spirit of camaraderie that you have displayed. 1. As far as Zahir Janmohamed is concerned, I could well have avoided words like “jaundiced” and “annoyance”. But it surprises me that friends and well-wishers of Zahir are attacking me (you are not included in that because you are the only one who hasn’t talked in the attack mode) instead of pointing out to Zahir what a weak case he presented against Modi. He claims to be writing a research based book on post Godhra Muslims of Gujarat. Do you really think the way he built his case regarding neglect of Juhapura, and the figures and statistics he cited to critique Modi’s governance qualify as even half serious journalism, leave alone social science research? My very first visit to Juhapura showed visible evidence that Zahir was grossly misrepresenting facts. Since then I’ve gathered more information on Juhapura and feel even more convinced that his story of discriminatory treatment of Juhapura is built on a string of untruths. But he gets away with it because Modi bashing is ideologically fashionable. You also need to respond to the reasons I gave for my “annoyance”. Zahir has done precious little for people of Juhapura. All the people I talked to had not even heard of his name. I have serious problem with human rights activists who have very little ground work to show but start globetrotting the moment there is a problem in India. What is your take on that? 2. As for Teesta and the interim SIT report, I learnt from very reliable sources that SIT members admitted that they went to Gujarat deeply influenced by the propaganda against Modi and were convinced he was guilty and their job was to nail him. As the enquiry proceeded, they realized they were acting on wrong assumptions. They also resented the fact that Teesta put enormous pressure on the SIT as well as on courts to influence the course of investigation. They have presented enough evidence to the Supreme Court of her using foul means to implicate Modi. The SIT team has officers whose integrity is believed to be above board. A Modi hostile Supreme Court bench, watchdogs of the Congress party including Teesta Setalvad were keeping a hawk like watch on the SIT while they were carrying on their investigations. Do you think with an openly anti Modi judge like Justice Aftab Alam who gave many biased orders against Modi; the SIT could have played foul to exonerate Modi? None of you have called Teesta to account when she has been indicted by courts or used hate speech in criticizing Modi. It is precisely because she went overboard in unleashing a national and international hate campaign solely targeting Modi that people like me became sceptical of her mission and motives. There is growing evidence that she misused funds collected in the name of riot victims. None of you speak out against it. I’m surprised it hasn’t bothered human rights activists, including you that Teesta has acted at the behest of the Congress Party whose own track record of instigating riots and promoting divisive politics is decidedly far worse than any other party. From day one, Teesta has been openly funded by the Congress Party to go after the BJP. I became sceptical of her politics much before the Modi saga began. Way back in 1999, she misused Manushi’s name in a mischievous advertisement campaign to attack BJP just before the general election that year. I had protested against the draft of the ad text in the meeting of NGOs called by Teesta to become co-signatories to the anti BJP ad campaign. And yet Manushi’s name was added to the list of signatories. I had no love lost for BJP then or nor do I have any dealings with the BJP now. In fact, I have written many more articles critiquing BJP brand of politics than that of Congress. And yet I could not subscribe to the patent distortion of facts Teesta put in the anti-BJP ad which was released to all major newspapers of the country. I became even more sceptical of her actions when I realized that the Congress Party had funded the entire ad campaign. The least she owed us all was an open disclosure of her political alliance. Among numerous other acts of commission and omission of the Congress Party, including humungous financial frauds and scams, the following communal riots have taken place during Congress regimes post 2002. Why has Teesta never gone after those chief ministers with the same maniacal zeal as she does after Modi? The 4 lakh victims of Assam riots have got neither justice nor due compensation. Why has Teesta never demanded arrest of Assam CM or Home Minister? Why does she not want Supreme Court to enquire into the role of Congress government in Assam riots of 2012? She has adopted extremely unethical means to run the Hate and Destroy Modi campaign. Thankfully for India, it has now begun to produce a massive wave of anger and outrage all over the country. I am not the only one who felt compelled to check the facts for myself and found that the country has been fed with humungous lies. If all these wilful acts of cheating the nation do not deserve anger, what does? How can one build bridges of communication with someone who knowingly commits dangerous frauds on the people of India? Someone like you should use your influence to give Teesta, Shabnam Hashmi and others of their persuasion a sense of balance and integrity in conducting their politics. 3. As for Maya Kodnani, I have not studied her case at all. Therefore, I cannot speak with confidence about her. All I can say is that many knowledgeable and trust worthy people in Gujarat have told me that she has been wrongly implicated. But I don’t take a position on her case till I study it personally. However, to your statement, “A man who knowingly appoints a murderer as Minister of Women’s Development and Child Welfare is not a man I want to see as PM of this country” all I can say is: I wish you and the rest of the anti-Modibiradari were as clear sighted when dealing with known murderers of the Congress and the Left parties. The track record of CPM in West Bengal is far bloodier than anything ever done in BJP ruled states. As far as the Congress is concerned, let me provide you a brief list. Rajiv Gandhi not only justified the 1984 massacre of Sikhs but he also protected all the Congressmen who were responsible for the pogroms. Kamal Nath is well known to have played a very active role in the 1984 massacre of Sikhs. Neither Teesta nor you protest over the fact that in decades after 1984, he has been given the most powerful ministries in successive Congress governments. Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar have also held important portfolios in the Congress led governments or in the Party. Omar Abdullah is known to have gotten a senior leader of his own party beaten so severely by the police in his official residence that he died a day later. His party men were up in arms against him for this as well as the cold blooded killings by the J&K police of 112 young kids who were protesting against his misrule. Congress Party has protected him from the wrath of his own people. And yet none of you have asked for his dismissal, leave alone trial. When Pratibha Patil was handpicked by Sonia Gandhi, Maharashtra’s Congressmen protested publicly and through the media that she was unfit for the job because of her involvement in a murder case as well as numerous scams. You did not express similar outrage then. Over a 100 encounter killings during Nitish Kumar’s reign have reached the National Human Rights Commission on charges of them being fake encounters. None of you have asked for the head of Nitish or CBI enquiries against him. Gehlot’s reign saw police go and kill Muslims in a masjid. No enquiry against Gehlot or his Home Minister. Nor any outrage that there have been numerous communal riots in Rajasthan during Gehlot’s tenure. I can understand Assam’s Nellie massacre under Congress rule being forgotten because it happened way back in 1983. But why has the widespread violence of 2012 which devastated hundreds of Assam villages been erased out of memory? All those who are quick to not just condemn Modi but also demand his head even while courts have thus far exonerated him of all charges—don’t seem at all pained or bothered about the endless crimes committed under Congress regimes, nor about systematic subversion of all institutions—the judiciary, the police, CBI, IB, media and much else by the Congress Party. Minority rights activists had once appealed to the International Court of Justice against Modi. I think this time round some of us might have to urge the International Court of Justice to set up an independent commission to investigate the misinformation and outright lies fed to the nation through obliging media houses to destroy and demonize a man who has emerged as the most powerful challenger to the crime and corruption ridden Congress party which is functioning more as a mafia gang than a political party worthy of a democracy. As of now, whatever evidence I have examined convinces me that no man in recent history has been so maligned and hounded so mercilessly for doing all the right things as Narendra Modi. But the issue is not Narendra Modi. He doesn’t need me to defend him. The issue is subversion of democracy in India by systematic manipulation of the media, letting loose a divisive hate campaign designed to create mistrust and fear among Hindus, Muslims and Christians, manipulating agencies of the state—including the judiciary, CBI, IB, police and much else—all to serve the partisan ends of the Congress party’s ruling Dynasty. That is why there is such a powerful sympathy wave combined with genuine admiration for Modi’s resilience and determination to stay steadfast in his mission of rebuilding institutions of governance in Gujarat to make them serve citizens instead of use political office for loot and plunder. I assure you that if during the course of my Gujarat study, I discover facts that paint a contrary picture, if I discover that Modi is indeed the monster that many of you believe he is, I will admit my mistake openly and apologize for my naivete. Madhu Purnima Kishwar
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 00:36:07 +0000
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