Nanavati Report - A Farce

Well...when pseudo-secularists like Lalu can appoint his own commission to get more votes .. How can you say that it is an accident at all?

Our country has a record of having commissions after commissions on each incident... Both the reports have to be taken with a pinch of salt rather than trying to find fault in particular one....

Well Mr Author,

Just because the report is not on your expected lines, it makes no sense to you? For your kind info, this commision is set up by SC and not Guj Govt. How do you say that the commision set up by the most corrup Lalu is not biased? What's your basis for refuting Nanavatis's findings? What evidence do you have?

Whenever communal events have happened in India, who has normally appointed commissions? Can you cite instances when center or SC have appointed them instead of state? If they were all ok, than why this one is not ok?

Weather commission's findings are neutral or biased depend on who is appointed as the person heading the commission - if the person is non-political and not affiliated with any party or politician, than its findings has to be considered as independent and non-partisan unless you can provide contrary evidence. Suppose the commission was appointed by UPA at the center, why would its findings be any less partian by your own logic?

Mr Nanavati is an ex-SC justice known for his independence. Just because a state government appointed him, does not make him a partisan. The same can not be said about Banarjee who was known to be a partisan even before he was appointed. His report was termed Illegal by a High Court. Central Govt could not file it before Supreme Court because of that. It had only one purpose and only one purpose - political.

Unlike Banarjee, Nanavari went thru long list of evidence, witnesses and investigation lasting many years to conclude his findings. Nanavati could have released his findings during any number of elections if his motive was to influence elections. Whereas Banarjee spent less than few weeks to conclude his sham investigation which was meant for Lallu for Bihar elections at hand. It takes longer time for a commission to get setup than what it took Banarjee to come up with his findings - he did not even bother to talk to local police or investigative personnel who had been investigating who had gathered evidences, nor talked to victim's families or all eye-witnesses that were present - he merely introduced hypothetical scenarios to muddy the waters, discarded all evidences to the contrary and came up with a preconceived conclusions as default scenario. If you overlook evidences and cloud it with wild hypothesis, even pre-meditated murder can be made to appear like suicide or accident or self-defense.

People will have ample time to rip apart Nanavati report, the facts, the evidences, the eye-witness accounts etc that he has exhaustively compiled and based his findings on. I am sure people will look for inaccuracies in his report and they will be debated as they should be. But instead of doing that, when people try to discredit the findings by discrediting the commission, by character assassination of person in charge of the commission, than it smacks of Lallu brand of politics.

modi confusing people to hide his sin.

#4

Time and time again, this issue was put before people, in election after elections, and people have given clean chit to Modi. Now Independent Nanavati commission too has backed it up with large dossier of facts and evidences and eyewitness accounts. How long would you want to live in denial and hate? How long would you want to make political hay out of tragedies in which such politics have played no less mean part? Its a hunt with hare and run with mare wolfishness is apparant. The people who are as much a party to riot-culture suddenly come out with peacenick gandhian caps to condemn, heap insults and shame, refuel moral self-righteousness, as champion of secularism, human rights and justice. People know who is hiding whose sins and who is confusing whom. People of Gujarat do.

"The Nanavati report might have given a clean chit to Modi on the Godra train fire incident..."

Are you trying to say that Modi got those people in Godhra killed ? And what justification and evidence do you have to for that ?

A few paragraphs before you say "Justice Bannerjee Commission report which clearly says that the fire incident in which 58 Kar Seveks died was an accidental one"

So what's your point ? Are you saying it was accident or conspiracy ?

Its very hard to believe that a train compartment which is made of mostly metal catches fire, and all the doors were locked/jammed, when most of the trains in India run with all 4 doors of the compartments always ajar.

And who are the more secular parties ? Those demanding leniency for the terrorist who attacked the parliament ? or those who want reservations on the basis of religion ? or our PM who lost sleep on the arrest of a terror suspect and brother of a proven terrorist ?

Rajen,

I pity you...your insight is very limited. Perhaps you want more Islamic attacks in your city and maybe then ( maybe) then you might wake up.

If you feel this report was biased, then why was Mr Modi re-elected time and again.

So were the bomb blasts in 1993 in Mumbai an accident?
Was the bomb blast in 2006 in mumbai in several local trains an accident?
Were they an accident in Bangalore?
Were they an accident in Rajasthan???
Were they an accident in Delhi???
Were they an accident in so many other cities of India?
Everytime a blast happens....and when findings are stated...it has to be a Muhjaidin or SIMI

This is only the start of Islamic terrorism in India. When History is written, Mr Modi's name will cherished for he stood and protected his people and people of India.

And before you respond...WE are a secular country only on paper and no more.
-The hindus are constantly appeasing the minorities for vote banks...which is so non-secular
-The christians are always out there to convert and fund orgs that want to convert.
-The muslims are always there hatching another blast

So lets get our concept clear and if it is rule by communal policy...then BE IT.

We tried being secular for the last 60 years with secular congress ruling us...what is our state today?

--3 wars with Pakistan and bangladesh and a mess of kashmir and the end of kashmiri pundits who had to flee their homes forever.

---------
We the people of India who support Mr modi will always vote for him, no matter what and the people of India will too , now that they know the truth.

we are only secular when we remove and stop the usage of the word "minority" and stop the dirty political practice of "appeasing"

You have used the word "minority" in your article which makes your vision very very narrow.
In that case, the hindus and jews are the minority in the world....does that sound good to you?

So stop your narrow minded crap.

Lexis#6: "Are you trying to say that Modi got those people in Godhra killed ? And what justification and evidence do you have to for that ?"

Sounds similar, replace Modi with Osama Bin Laden and Godhra with Twin Towers.

#9

We have heard conspiracy theories that it was Bush that ordered the 9/11. Some of them can cite you evidence that it was Jews who were behind 9/11.

People blamed Osama because his organization had attacked world towers in the past, was jubiliant when 9/11 happened, and did not deny involvement of his organization, and threatened even more attacks.

In the end, it is really a mute point as to who was personally or directly involved in terror attacks - the counter reaction has to be directed at the power centers that are the source of terrorism. And Osama being the major ideological center of terrorism, the blame was justified being directed at him.

Modi is the scapegoat of convenience for these crooks. Before Godhra, they didn't have much to say about him, but afterwards suddenly everyone is pretending to recall that he'd been a "fascist since childhood", etc. There's no revisionist lie they're not willing to tell.

The Bannerjee report was from the congress and this one from the BJP. No doubt that both reports are comic book stories. We all should read them and feel happy. :-)

What surprises me that the Modi supporters have put on blinders. The Tehelka reporters did a press conference to show the manufacturing of the report.

Have fun Modi lovers but know this report undermined his position even more.

Chandra

On what basis you say that Nanavati report is BJP report? Is Nanavati a BJP's person? why did BJP release it now rather than time its release few weeks before elections for maximum mileage?

Bihari

Tehlka also has proof that SIMI is not a terrorist organization but it is being framed. Its latest finding is that Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma did not die during terrorist encounter but he died from bullets fired by his colleagues due to some past bitterness with him. With their cut and paste prowess, they can prove almost anything. I wonder why its proofs can't stand in any court of laws.

kery #10: "In the end, it is really a mute point as to who was personally or directly involved in terror attacks - the counter reaction has to be directed at the power centers that are the source of terrorism."

So post godhra took place against the muslims.

This Bihari fellow only prefers his brother Lalu's reports, where train occupants are burnt to death by spontaneous combustion.

And this Sanjay fellow thinks just because I am from Bihar I favor Bihari politicians. Should I then consider you to be a Hindu Gujju Bhai since you are a Modi supporter?

The 2 sides of your comparison are inverse to each other, which shows your poor reasoning skills.

Sorry, but your casteism advertises itself quite loudly, and invites comparison to Lalu bhai's similarly crooked casteist politics.

The fact is that Lalu had no knowledge of how to create jobs, other than to rail at the Brahmins and shake them down for money, while driving them out of the state in the process. And all casteists are the same way, which is why they practice their corrupt form of politics.

Modi has shown his strong economic management capability, and has shown his ability to create jobs. That's the real reason why the Leftists and casteists demonize him so much. They're afraid that someone with real economic management skills and job creation ability will achieve successes that make their own corrupt policies look bad. How can the morally bankrupt Leftists and casteists continue to play their game, if someone else shows them up?

Any time you see an able economic administrator, the Leftists and Casteists will quickly come up with some trumped up communal allegations against him. Because that's all their politics knows how to do. They have no other weapon, no other topic of discussion, no other knowledge other than communal caste-baiting. So that's all they do 24/7. It's their universal response to everything. And as you can see, such non-solutions give absolutely nothing to the masses.

See how the doers of society, the Tatas and other industrialists, come up with solutions like the 1-lakh car, water filtration technologies for the poor, etc. And see how the Left just greedily gobble up such solutions thanklessly, without even the slightest acknowledgement that people with an outlook different than theirs created these solutions. How typical of our corrupt single-minded casteist Left.

Modi innocent, Godhra fire preplanned, says Justice Nanavati
By Aditya Pradhan

Justice Nanavati Commission's first report on Godhra is a slap on the face of all secular parties, to put it plainly. And expectedly, the spokespersons for the secular parties, be it the Congress, the Left, the Samajwadi, the RJD and their likes, have all been frothing in their mouth since the report was tabled on Thursday evening. Even the stock markets reacted the next day with a thumbs up to Modi, when Gujarat-based company stocks went up in the green in morning trade.

The two major inferences drawn from the report amongst many others are that the Muslim mob which lit the Sabarmati Express coach full of pilgrims coming back from Ayodhya was a premeditated conspiracy. And second, the report clarifies Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the state police have performed their jobs as they were expected to. At least the incidents of large number of Hindus getting killed in the police firing to control the mobs were not lost on the commission.

Just after the report was filed, many of the respondents this magazine spoke to across the country revealed two things: one, people would have been surprised only if the report said otherwise on Modi government's role in the riots as things were as plain as daylight. The number of Hindus who were killed in the police firing only told a story of a tough state government. Second, there is so much of a relief that in the whole muddle of deliberate misinterpretations, misleading statements and witch-hunting there is one commission which has the courage to speak the truth.

Though the first report filed by the commission is dealing more with the Godhra incident it has alluded to the state government's role in controlling the mobs that took to the streets after the gruesome mass killing of Hindu pilgrims in the S6 coach of Sabarmati Express. Over 58 pilgrims on their way from Ayodhya were burnt to death in that incident. The commission comprising Justice GT Nanavati and Justice Akshay Mehta have to be commended for its sagacity if not its level-headedness in coming to those conclusions. The language used in the report is remarkably shorn of superlatives.

The report dealt with the torching of the Sabarmati coach in February 2002 extensively. The commission has put paid to the counter-conspiracy theories which wanted to show the incident was an accident. To begin with a coach full of Hindu pilgrims getting lit up in a Muslim-dominated locality where the train stopped was too much of a coincidence. Interestingly, the point which the media misses here is that just after the Godhra incident there were very many stories floating around--mostly to do with reported rowdy behaviour of the karsevaks who had enraged the Muslims at Godhra station. One television channel incessantly provided fodder to the rumour mill saying that young Muslim girls were harassed by the pilgrims in the coach. Nanavati Commission states unambiguously that 140 litres of petrol was stored and kept by the mob at Godhra, waiting for the train with pilgrims to come by. The conspiracy, the commission added for good measure, was hatched at the Aman Guest House in Godhra.

Expectedly, Hindu anger split on the streets. Nearly 1,000 people died in the communal riots following the Godhra incident. The Nanavati Commission has inadvertently proved to the world that the Justice Banerjee Commission instituted by the Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav just before Bihar state elections which claimed that Godhra incident was an accident, remains in a shambles.

"There is absolutely no evidence to show that either the Chief Minister or any of the ministers in his council or police officers had played any role in the Godhra incident," said the report of Justice GT Nanavati, a former Supreme Court judge that went into the train burning incident. Well, it only reaffirmed what most Hindus felt in the country.

The first part of the report was tabled in the state assembly on Thursday. Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi went to the extent of questioning the credibility of the commission. But the cake goes to Lalu Prasad Yadav who came on television channels to say that the world had already passed judgement on Narendra Modi and his government and so any commission cannot 'rub the stain away'. If the world thought so, wonder how Modi keeps winning elections one after the other. Also, Lalu's demeanour reveals a dangerous streak in thinking that pronouncement of justice has no value, and someone can be indicted just by making accusations.

Worse still, the best part of the report is reserved for the post-Godhra riots when the secular parties had, as Salman Rushdie would put it, shown manufactured outrage. The conclusion that the train burning was a pre-planned conspiracy was based on the statements recorded of the passengers of Sabarmati Express. The passengers said that the stone pelting continued for 10-20 minutes to prevent the passengers from coming out of the coach. Again, not coincidentally, the attack was only on the coach which had the Hindu pilgrims.

140 litres of petrol was purchased by Razzak Kurkur and Salim Panwala to execute the conspiracy, the Commission emphasised. According to eyewitnesses, Shaukat Lalu and Mohammad Latika had possibly opened the sliding door connecting the S6 and S7 coaches and entered S6 through that door. One Hassan Lalu had thrown a burning rag which had led to the fire in the S6 coach, it said.

The commission report elaborated that the conspiracy was hatched at the Aman Guest House on the directions of Maulvi Umarji and executed by Razzak Kurkur, Salim Panwala, Shaukat Lalu, Imran Sheri, Rafique Batuk and Shiraj Bala. "The conspiracy hatched by these persons further appears to be a part of a larger conspiracy to create terror and destabilise the administration".

On the state government's role commission reiterated what has always been known to be true and that is, there is no evidence to show there was lapse in the role of the chief minister or his ministers in providing protection, relief and rehabilitation to the victims of communal riots or in the matter of not complying with the recommendations and direction given by the National Human Rights Commission.

kerty #20

Very interesting. I commend you for providing a few details. I wonder what happened to those perpatratos who were named in the report. Are they still at large?

What Modi had to say

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/oct/01riot.htm

The Nanavati Commission has conveniently misunderstood Mr. Modi and his Government without examining them.
· Mr. Modi and his Government got Full Marks without appearing in the Exam of the Nanavati Commission.
· We strongly feel that the Nanavati Commission has forgotten the real story of the Gujarat Carnage 2002, publicly admitted and proudly advocated by the Mr. Modi and his BJP. - Rohit Prajapati & Trupti Shah - Activists, Gujarat


The following statements of Mr. Modi say a lot, and even if the Nanavati commission would have taken the statement of Mr. Modi, he might have said similar things to the commission

"With the entire population of Gujarat very angry at what happened in Godhra much worse was expected". Narendra Modi, at a Press Conference in Gujarat, Feb 28, 2002.

Asked about the violence, Modi quoted Newton's third law 'every action has an equal and opposite reaction' - to virtually justify what was happening. The Times of India, March 3, 2002.

"Relief camps are actually child-making factories. Those who keep on multiplying the population should be taught a lesson." Shri Narendra Modi, addressing a rally in Mehsana district during his gaurav yatra, quoted in The Hindu, Sept 10, 2002.

"(Nothing illustrates the role of the police better than police commissioner P.C. Pande's statement that, 'Police were not insulated from the general social milieu... (When) there's a change in the perception of society, the police are part of it and there's bound to be some contagion effect"'. The Telegraph, March 2, 2002

Let us also remind Justice Nanavati that even the then Prime Minister Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee felt compelled to say the following things:

"My one message to the chief minister is that he should follow raj dharma. A ruler should not make any discrimination between his subjects on the basis of caste, creed and religion." -- Atal Behari Vajpayee, during his visit to Ahmedabad on April 4, 2002; in The Hindustan Times.

"I do not know what face I will show them (the world) now after the shameful events in Gujarat." -- Atal Behari Vajpayee, during his visit to Ahmedabad on April 4, 2002; in The Hindustan Times.

"From Godhra to Ahmedabad, in so many places, there are so many incidents of people being burnt alive, including helpless women and children. This is a blot on nation's forehead and has grievously harmed India's image in the eyes of the world."- Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India, statement on March 3, 2002.

The Supreme Court's decision in the Best Bakery case again clearly condemns the state machinery and religious fanatics as the directors of the 2002 Gujarat Carnage. "When the ghastly killings take place in the land of Mahatma Gandhi it raises a very pertinent question as to whether some people have become so bankrupt in their ideology that they have deviated from everything which was so dear to him. [...] The fanatics who spread violence in the name of religion are worse than terrorists and more dangerous than an alien enemy. [...] The role of the State Government also leaves much to be desired. One gets a feeling that there was really no seriousness in the State's approach in assailing the Trial Court's judgment. [...] The modern day "Neros" were looking elsewhere when Best Bakery and innocent children and women were burning, and were probably deliberating how the perpetrators of the crime can be saved or protected. Law and justice become flies in the hands of these "wanton boys". When fences start to swallow the crops, no scope will be left for survival of law and order or truth and justice. Public order as well as public interest become martyrs and monuments."

Even the Nanavati Commission has conveniently ignored the above Supreme Court judgment and other such judgments by the Supreme Court. The Commission had also ignored the NHRC's various interim reports. The recent statements to the Tehelka channel made by various individuals boasting about their role in the violence, which were seen and heard by millions of people in the country, also seem to have made no impression on the Nanavati commission.

Let us remind the people that the PUCL, Vadodara who were active in relief and rehabilitation during the 2002 violence in Gujarat, had withdrawn from the proceedings of the Nanavati-Shah Commission. PUCL, Vadodara had earlier submitted an affidavit to the Commission based on the PUCL investigations into the violence in Vadodara city and surrounding villages. But they were obliged to submit a second affidavit stating that, in view of their lack of faith in the inquiry proceedings, they would not participate in them further due to the remarks made by Justice Nanavati.

The prime reason for boycotting the commission was that in late May 2003, Justice Nanavati has been reported extensively in the media to have said, "The evidence recorded so far does not indicate any lapse on the part of the police or administration in controlling the communal clashes in several parts of the state." Thereafter, Justice Nanavati reportedly backed out and stated that the media had misquoted him. But a TV channel reported that Justice Nanavati, in an interview with the channel, had said the Gujarat riots were not one-sided and that there was limited evidence against the VHP. We were shocked with the comments made by a senior member of the Commission, Justice Nanavati, a former judge of the Supreme Court. "There is no real evidence that has been brought to name individual Bajrang Dal or VHP leaders," the TV channel quoted Justice Nanavati as saying. This despite the voluminous evidence that emerged from the investigations of several independent fact-finding commissions.

We strongly feel that the Nanavati Commission has forgotten the real story of the Gujarat Carnage 2002 publicly admitted and proudly advocated by Mr. Modi and his BJP.

Let us remind the Nanavati Commission that denial of justice on such a scale will have disastrous long-term consequences for the entire society.

#23

There is a big difference between propaganda and investigations. The former can rely on cut and paste job, taking statements and actions out of their contexts to create loaded perceptions that may have no basis in facts or reality. Having reapeated them ad infinitum, some may come to believe their own lies. Propaganda can afford to look at only one set of carefully picked quotes or facts, but then there could be overwhelming body of other quotes and facts that contradict and suggest just the opposite that propaganda can afford to gloss over them. Investigations and legal proceedings, on the other hand, have to look at all sides, much have stronger requirements for evidence and testimony - they have to meet stronger tests. They do not run on perceptions. They have to wade thru them and get to actual facts.

The is the same Nanavati commission who investigated Sikh riots of 1984, and nobody had its methods, impartiality or thoroughness.

Lets face it. Modi's distrators are desperately looking for smoking gun to nail him, but none have come so far. So they have become a frustrated and angry lot. Their rhetorics and propaganda no longer match facts on the ground, or at least something that can withstand impartial scrutiny and so nobody buys their BS anymore. So they have become more desperate and shrill. I suspect this witch-hunt is pure politics that plays so well in certain bimaru regions of India. It had purely propaganda and political value outside Gujarat, while Gujaratis have rejected the BS time and time again.

#24

The para in #24 should have read:

This is the same Nanavati commission that investigated Sikh riots of 1984, and nobody had disputed its methods, impartiality or thoroughness.