Ahmedabad: Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt has written an open letter to Gujarat
Chief Minister Narendra Modi, saying that he has "completely
misconstrued" the Supreme Court order on the complaint of Zakia
Jafri and there was nothing in the order to give him reason to
celebrate. He concluded his letter with these lines: 'I have principle and no power;
You have power and no principle'.
Here is the full text of the said
letter.
Dear Shri Modi,
I am glad you chose to write an open letter to the 'Six crore
Gujaratis'. This has not only afforded me a window to your mind
but has also given me an opportunity to write to you through the
same medium.
My dear brother, it seems you have completely misconstrued the
judgement and order passed by the Honourable Supreme Court of
India in Criminal Appeal No. 1765 of 2011 arising out of S.L.P. (CRL.)
No. 1088 of 2008 viz. Jakia Nasim Ahesan & Anr. Versus State of
Gujarat & Ors. It is very likely that your chosen advisors have
once again misled you and have in turn, made you mislead the 'Six
crore Gujaratis' who look up to you as their elected leader.
Let me as a younger brother-Gujarati, help you decipher the
judgement and order that has led to unequivocal gloating and
jubilatory celebrations among some sections of the political
spectrum. It has been stated in your letter that "One thing is
apparent from the Supreme Court's judgment. The unhealthy
environment created by the unfounded and false allegations made
against me and Government of Gujarat, after 2002 riots, has come
to an end". Let me clarify that even by a long shot, the order of
the Honourable Supreme Court has nowhere, even remotely, suggested
that the allegations contained in the complaint filed by Mrs.
Jakia Jafri were unfounded or false. The truth is that the order
of the Honourable Supreme Court is in fact, a very major leap in
the direction of delivering justice to the hapless victims of the
Gujarat pogrom. As you are well aware, Mrs. Jafri had approached
the Honorable Gujarat High Court with a prayer for registering her
complaint as an FIR. The said petition was disallowed by the
Honourable High Court of Gujarat. Mrs. Jafri, therefore,
approached the Honourable Supreme Court of India by way of a
Special Leave Petition against the order of the High Court. The
Honourable Supreme Court directed the SIT to look into her
complaint and subsequently also directed the learned Amicus to
examine the evidence collected by the SIT. At the end of this long
and arduous exercise the Honourable Supreme Court has not only
allowed the Appeal of Mrs. Jafri and directed the SIT to virtually
treat the complaint of Mrs. Jafrri as an FIR, but has also
directed the SIT to file a report under section 173(2) of the CrPC
Let me clarify for your benefit and for the benefit of your six
crore brothers and sisters of Gujarat, that this report under
section 173(2) of the CrPC is colloquially known as Charge-Sheet
or Final Report. The honourable Supreme Court of India has also
directed the SIT to place all the evidence collected by it,
including the reports of the learned Amicus before the magistrate
empowered to take cognizance. I am sure you will appreciate that
in order to let the law of the land take its due course, this was
the best option available to the Honourable Supreme Court as per
the scheme of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
What the Honourable Supreme Court of India has given to Mrs. Jafri
is much more than what she had originally prayed for. The order
over which some of us are gloating in feigned glee, is in fact, a
very cleverly worded order that takes the perpetrators and
facilitators of the 2002 carnage a few leaps closer to their day
of reckoning. The false bravado comes across as a very smart
attempt to mislead the gullible people of Gujarat and instill a
false sense of confidence in the political rank and file. Please
be assured that we will see a very different picture as the actual
import of the order starts settling in and takes judicial effect.
As one of the 'Six Crore Gujaratis', I feel deeply pained and
cheated when the likes of you, consciously or inadvertently,
mislead the people of Gujarat for ulterior motives. The theory
propounded and practised to perfection by Paul Joseph Goebbels,
one of Adolf Hitler's closest associate and Reich Minister of
Propaganda in Nazi Germany, can definitely work with the majority
of the populace for some time. But all of us know from historical
experience that Goebbelsian Propaganda cannot fool all the people
for all the time.
I fully endorse your realization that "Hate is never conquered by
hate." Who would know this better than you, who has served this
state for the last one decade; and I, who has served in the Indian
Police Service for the last 23 years. I had the misfortune of
serving with you during those days of 2002 when the dance of
hatred was choreographed and perpetrated at different venues in
Gujarat. Albeit this is not the appropriate forum for me to
discuss and reveal the details of our respective roles, I am sure
that both of us will be getting ample opportunities before
appropriately empowered fora to disclose our knowledge about the
dynamics of hatred in the realpolitik of Gujarat. I hope you and
your cronies, within and without the Government, will not hate me
more for this.
I cannot agree more with you when you say that "the credibility of
those who have been spreading lies and defaming Gujarat has come
to its lowest ebb. The people of this country will not trust such
elements anymore". But my dear brother, you seem to have got it
entirely wrong as to who are the ones spreading lies and defaming
Gujarat. To my mind, Gujarat has gained infamy not because of the
hapless victims who have tirelessly crusading for the cause of
justice and truth, but because of the despicable actions of the
people who sowed and cultivated hatred to reap political and
electoral benefits. Please give it a thought. Introspection can
prove to be very revealing at times.
I am deeply touched by your concern and efforts to "further
strengthen Gujarat's environment of peace, unity and harmony."
Thanks to you and your kinsmen, Gujarat has been free from any
large scale eruption of communal violence since 2002. The reasons
for this may not be very obvious to our fellow 'Six Crore
Gujaratis". This is my 24th year in the IPS. I was allotted to the
Gujarat cadre during a time when the State was passing through the
throes of widespread and sporadic communal violence. Having been
baptised by fire, I have been since trying to understand and deal
with the likes of you, who deal in the divisive politics of
hatred. It is my well founded observation that the polity of
Gujarat has now crossed the stage where communal violence can
accrue electoral benefits to any political party, as the process
of communal polarisation is very nearly complete in Gujarat. The
experiments in the divisive politics of hatred have been very
successful in the Gujarat Laboratory. You and your likes, in the
political arena, have been largely successful in creating divides
in the hearts and minds of the "Six Crore Gujaratis". The need to
resort to any further communal violence in Gujarat is already
passé.
In a constitutional democracy like ours, it is incumbent upon the
state to act in good faith at all times and under all
circumstances. Over the last nine and a half years many friends
have fallen prey to the misleading campaign that the Gujarat
carnage of 2002 was a spontaneous reaction to the condemnable
action at Godhra on the fateful morning of 27 February 2002. The
Newtonian Law was never abused more. You had resorted to your
knowledge and understanding of Newtonian physics in March 2002 and
had sought to apply it to polity and governance at the peak of the
Gujarat Carnage of 2002. But what you might have deliberately
missed then, and what many of us seem to be inadvertently missing
now; is the universally accepted principle of governance which
mandates that in a constitutional democracy, an avowedly secular
State cannot be allowed to be partisan. It was the bounden duty of
the State to have anticipated and controlled the possible
Newtonian reaction, if any; not orchestrate and facilitate
systematic targeting of innocent individuals! Be that as it may,
as an expression of solidarity with your stated objective of
spreading Sadbhavana in the land of the Mahatma, I resolve to join
you in your Sadbhavana Mission. What better way to do this than
helping the truth to come out and let the spirit of justice and
goodwill prevail. As all of us understand, there can be no
Sadbhavna or Goodwill without truth and justice. I hereby reaffirm
my resolve to contribute my might towards the restoration of
Sadbhavana in the administration and polity of Gujarat.
But let me warn you that genuine heartfelt goodwill is something
we cannot demand, buy or extort... we can only strive to deserve
it. And it is not going to be an easy task. The land of the
Mahatma is slowly but surely coming out of its hypnotic state.
As the most powerful person in Gujarat you may think that you do
not need to feel accountable to the perceptions of all sections of
the community. But believe me, history has proved time and again,
that power without genuine goodwill is a path fraught with
dangers... it is also a path of no return.
Samabhava is a condition precedent for Sadbhava. Governance by
equity and goodwill should not only be the first article of your
faith but should also be the last article of your creed.
The truth is more frequently than not, a little bitter and not
very easy to swallow. I hope that you will take this letter in the
true spirit in which it is written and you or your agents will not
indulge in direct or indirect acts of retribution as is your wont.
In the words of Martin Luther King Jr. - Injustice anywhere is a
threat to justice everywhere. The spirit of the hapless victims
who have been struggling for justice in Gujarat may occasionally
flag but it will not be suppressed by any amount of false
Goebbelsian propaganda. The struggle for justice is never easy
anywhere in the world...it calls for everlasting patience and
unfailing perseverance at all times. The spirit of the crusaders
for truth and justice in Gujarat is epitomised in this poem by
Bhuchung Sonam, an alumnus of MS University, Baroda.
I have principle and no power
You have power and no principle
You being you
And I being I
Compromise is out of the question
So let the battle begin ...
I have truth and no force
You have force and no truth
You being you
And I being I
Compromise is out of the question
So let the battle begin ...
You may club my skull
I will fight
You may crush my bones
I will fight
You may bury me alive
I will fight
With truth running through me
I will fight
With every ounce of my strength
I will fight
With my last dying breath
I will fight ...
I will fight till the
Castle that you built with your lies
Comes tumbling down
Till the devil you worshipped with your lies
Kneels down before my angel of truth.
May the kind God give you the requisite strength to be equitable
and benevolent
towards one and all!
Satyamev Jayate!
With best wishes.
Yours sincerely,
(Sanjiv Bhatt)
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