Author: M V Kamath
Publication: Free Press Journal
Date: February 1, 2005
URL: http://www.samachar.com/features/010205-features.html
In all of India's last one hundred
years of history it would be difficult to find a more loathsome character
than Bihar's tainted political leader, Lalu Prasad Yadav. Over the months
he has shown himself to be utterly unprincipled. There have been several
charges against him, not the least the fodder scan amounting to over 1,000
crore of rupees. He has had to give up his Chief Ministership. So what
does he do? He names his own wife as his successor, thus exercising power
without responsibility. Such a thing is unheard of in the history of any
country, but in India, and especially in Bihar, it is par for the course.
And so, when he appointed "a fact-finding"
committee to conduct inquiries into the Godhra incident that took place
almost three years ago, to be exact on 27 February 2002, the presumption
was that the Committee would make every effort to implicate the Gujarat
Chief Minister, Narendra Modi.
What, in effect, Lalu Prasad Yadav
had done to appoint a lawyer to argue the point that the Godhra incident
was not a pre-planned one, but just an incident that could have happened
anywhere and it was strictly coincidental that it happened in Godhra, one
of the worst communalised urban areas in India. Strictly coincidental?
Why couldn't the fire in two coaches
of the Sabarmati Express have flared a few stations prior to Godhra or
a couple of stations after Godhra? What were thousands of Muslims who had
gathered around the Express doing? Had they, by any chance, any premonition
of what was likely to happen right in their presence?
The Bannerjee Committee apparently
had no time to inquire into these things. For one thing, the Committee
sounds more like counsel for the prosecution, the prosecutor being Lalu
Prasad Yadav himself. Indeed, the day he announced the appointment of the
Committee it was a foregone conclusion that its findings would serve to
nail Narendra Modi and the BJP to the cross. In the circumstances its findings
come as no surprise.
Indeed it would have been surprising
if the Committee had discovered a terrorist conspiracy to set a couple
of Express bogies on fire. The Committee had no time to interrogate the
Special State Inspector General of Police, Vadodara Range, Rakesh Asthana
who has been investigating the Godhra Carnage.
The Bannerjee Committee, it seems,
has not even bothered to examine experts from the State Forensic Laboratory
who have been collecting evidence from the scene of the crime. True, it
has allegedly drafted a Report that is over 1,000 pages long. That Report
has yet to be made public. But the Committee, which was to submit its report
some time in March or April thought it proper to release a summary of it
in the third week of January. What was the hurry? Why couldn't the Committee
have waited for the appointed time?
The answer, it turns out, lies in
the Assembly elections in Bihar due soon. It seems clear that Lalu Prasad
Yadav wanted to use the "findings" if that is the right word to win Muslim
votes in his State. Bannerjee thus acted not independently, but as Lalu
Prasad Yadav's lawyer. He stands exposed. In Bihar, Yadavs the community
to which Lalu Prasad belongs constitute 19 per cent of the population,
the most Backward Castes 15 per cent and Muslims 13 per cent. Lalu Prasad
has the full backing of the Yadavs and no wonder.
For all the nauseating talk of secularism,
politics in Bihar is strictly castebased. Lalufurther also has the support
of the most Backward Castes. The Muslim vote around 13 per cent is, in
the circumstances, crucial. If Lalu Prasad can capture those 13 per cent
votes, his partly is in. That will explain why the Bannerjee Committee
Report was revealed in advance.
That Bannerjee showed that in this
regard he was playing the Railway Minister's game does not reflect highly
on his sense of rectitude. By going public with his interim `findings'
Bannerjee has not exactly enhanced his reputation. He has acted more like
Lalu Prasad's counsel than as an independent judge. More so the pity.
Bannerjee has further shown where
his sympathies lie by criticising Nitish Kumar, another Bihari, and the
Railway Minister when the Godhra carnage took place. There was no need
for Bannerjee to attack Nitish Kumar but this he has done by pointing out
that "neither the then Railway Minister (Nitish Kumar) nor the members
of the Railway Board visited the site of the accident or the injured passengers".
Not only this, the Interim Report
has taken a special note of the failure of the Commission of Railway Safety
and the Railway Administration to conduct a statutory probe into the fire
incident, which was a breach of the Railway Act as well as the Accident
Mannual of the Zonal Railway. This is playing politics with a vengeance.
May it be said here that it is in
the same class as Lalu Prasad Yadav's absence from Parliament following
a terrible railway accident in the north west that resulted in the death
of several passengers? It is against this background that one must note
the findings of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the matter of the
Godhra train carnage.
According to Rakesh Asthana, the
Special State Inspector General of Police, who is heading SIT, "there is
scientific and oral evidence" to clearly establish that Godhra incident
was a "carefully planned and meticulously executed criminal conspiracy".
His deputy in the SIT, Noel Parmar, who is a deputy Superintendent of Police,
in deposing before the judicial inquiry commission led by Justice G. T.
Nanavati and including Justice K. G. Shah, has given evidence on similar
lines.
According to Parmar, the train carnage
was not only a "pre-planned conspiracy" but is the suspected work of a
terrorist organisation. We now learn that the SIT investigation has found
that some people entered the coach `forcibly' through the vestibule connecting
the S-6 and S-7 coaches, poured petrol and jumped out through the rear
door, after which burning rags were thrown inside through broken windows
to ignite the fire.
BJP spokesmen who apparently are
aware of the 1,000 page long Interim Report has many questions to ask in
this regard. On 17 January, Jaitley, spokesman for the Bharatiya Janata
Party hit out powerfully at the Bannerjee Report poohpoohing it as having
no 'legal basis'. And he fired ten posers at Mr Bannerjee. Thus, he asked:
a.. Did you consider the evidence
that two meetings took place on the night of 26 February 2002 at the Aman
Guest House (close to Godhra station) where the conspiracy to set fire
to Bogie No. S-6 of the Saharmati Express was hatched?
b.. Did you consider the evidence
that one of the conspirators, Salim Badam was verifying the movement of
the Sabarmati Express at 1.30 a.m. on 27 February 2002 from the Godhra
Railway Station? Since the train was running four hours late, the conspirators
re-assembled at the Aman Gust House at 6.00 a.m.
c.. Did you consider the evidence
that 140 litres of petrol was purchased from a nearby petrol pump on the
night of 26 February 2002 and kept at Aman Gust House itself?
d.. Did you consider the evidence
that chain pulling was simultaneously executed from various compartments
to get the train stopped so that the mob at the platform could indulge
in stone-throwing?
e.. Did you consider that evidence
of workers who have deposed about the transportation of petrol from the
Aman Guest House to the Station?
f.. Did you consider the evidence
that the conspirators entered Bogie No. S-7 and cut open the vestibule
cord between S-6 and S-7?
g.. Did you consider the fact that
burning rags were thrown into Bogie No. S-6?
h.. Do you realise that the 'accident
theory' was propounded by the accused in the case and repeated by Lalu
Prasad Yadav? You have merely stamped the `Laloo Theory'.
i.. Do you accept that a committee
appointed by the Railways cannot go into the issue of `conspiracy'? Policing
is a state subject and prevention and detection of crime on Railways is
the constitutional responsibility of the State Government.
j.. Did you not realise that your
report is an `extra-constitutional' interference in the administration
of justice since the trial is pending before the Court? There were many
other questions that put Justice Bannerjee squarely on the mat. It was
pointed out to him that what he has done is to act as the defence of the
culprits when no one had asked him to do so. He was asked why he had accepted
to head a departmental inquiry on a matter where a criminal trial and a
Commission of Inquiry are already pending. He was further asked why he
preferred to address a press conference to release his Interim Report when
a judge only submits his report and it is up to the government to release
it.
The BJP also wanted to know how
come Lalu Prasad got a copy of the Report in advance, considering that
he also released it simultaneously from his residence in Patna? These are
all important questions which Bannerjee will have to answer. What comes
as a shock is that any responsible judge will accept the leadership of
a Committee appointed by LaluPrasad Yadav to inquire into a matter on which
the Minister's views are only too well-known!
Even as the Report was being released
came the news that Lalu Prasad was severely reprimanded by the Election
Commission, for breaking the moral code of conduct just prior to the Assembly
elections. He has been let off much too easily. What are we coming to?
Who is fooling whom?
