Who is to blame for this -- the politicians and media, or the middle class?
*** Where have we heard this before?
cm
( Highlighting mine)
The Real Fake Encounter
Not the middle-class, but political parties and the media have always
distanced themselves from this ugly reality of law and order.
RAJINDER PURI
The alleged fake encounter perpetrated by the Gujarat police is
horrendous. Sympathizers of the Gujarat government dwell on the
reputation of the victim, Sohrabuddin Sheikh, allegedly a criminal
with possible links to terrorists. Does this unproven fact justify
cold-blooded murder? That politicians justify police excess by
questioning the nature of the victim is nothing new. Decades ago the
police paraded Maya Tyagi naked through the streets of a UP town for
alleged misdemeanor. Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister justified the
police action by describing Maya Tyagi as a woman of dubious
character. So much for a woman PM defending the rights of women! In
the current fake encounter case, two women witnesses to the murder,
not described as criminals, were allegedly killed by the police to
ensure their silence. More cases of fake encounters by the same
police officers are surfacing.
Is it too cynical to suggest that the revelations in Gujarat have
surfaced only because of a silent power struggle within the BJP? The
Hindu wrongly attributed a police report related to the Gujarat fake
encounter to one officer. The Gujarat government rebutted the news.
The Hindu conceded that the report had not been officially submitted
but was in its preparatory stage. Significantly, The Hindu editor
claimed that the report had been leaked by a senior BJP leader. BJP
leaders maintained a diplomatic silence over the editor's claim.
The current buzz against police fake encounters lends hope that it
will lead eventually to a systemic reform. To ensure that any such
effort is not derailed one must recognize reality. The hard reality
is that police excess in India has decades-old origins. It was
allowed to flourish under criminalized politicians and a subservient
media. Political parties and the media have always distanced
themselves from this ugly reality of law and order.
Last week, the leading columnist of a national daily commented that
India could not claim to be a democracy if it "countenances rogue
police officers playing God". The leading columnist of another
national daily, while deploring the police excess in Gujarat,
suggested that the ultimate responsibility lay with India's middle
class which condoned police crimes. Was the distinguished columnist
including media as part of the middle class?
Politicians across the country are pulling out old fake encounter
cases from closets to score points against political rivals. Fake
encounters have become the current drawing room conversation topic.
Whatever the motives of politicians in digging out old dirt, the
effect is positive. Whether the muckraking arises from infighting or
from a belated sense of responsibility, the result is welcome. It
could initiate a long delayed cleanup of the police system.
Consider the case of Punjab. An Akali-BJP combine now rules the
state. The consequent desire of the Punjab government to even the
score against the Congress after the Gujarat exposure is
self-evident. Media reports revealed that several alleged terrorists
"killed" by the police, for which policemen duly collected rewards,
are still alive. This was sufficient ground for the Punjab government
to order "a fact-finding inquiry" by a team under a senior police
official. The probe will cover the fake killings involving the state
police during the height of the militancy two decades ago when the
Congress governed Punjab.
Should one laugh or cry over the antics of these politicians and over
our hand-wringing media pundits? What new facts will any inquiry
reveal? It may be instructive, though, to recall the past.This should
among other things set the record straight for the benefit of the
distinguished newspaper columnist who condemned the middle class for
allowing excesses by the police.
Reports of police excesses against innocents in the name of fighting
militancy had circulated in Punjab for a considerable time. Many
youths had disappeared. In 1995 Jaswant Singh Khalra, who headed the
human rights wing of the Akali Dal, issued a press note alleging
thousands of police custodial deaths. Khalra claimed that the victims
were secretly cremated. In the police records they were listed as
"unidentified". The Punjab Director General of Punjab police at the
time, KPS Gill, rebutted Khalra's claim. He said: "Thousands of Sikh
youth who had left for foreign countries under fake names and
documents were claiming to be missing persons killed by security
forces in encounters." He added, "They are missing with the consent
of their parents." It is possible some youths might have disappeared
in this manner. But to offer this as adequate explanation for the
disappearance of all the missing youth betrayed careless, callous
thinking.
The Punjab media picked up the report. After this, Khalra was whisked
away by the police. He too disappeared. It was presumed he was
killed. Middle class citizens (newspaper columnists please note)
belonging to human rights bodies formed an apex body, the Committee
for Coordination on Disappearances in Punjab (CCDP). It was funded
solely by local donors. CCDP took Khalra's case to the Supreme Court.
Ensuing investigation proved that Khalra had been killed. Nine police
officials were indicted. The Supreme Court then ordered the CBI to
investigate Khalra's charges of secret police mass cremations.
The CBI confirmed that the police had illegally cremated 2097 victims
of custodial death or fake encounters in Amritsar district alone. The
remaining 16 districts of Punjab were not investigated. Of these
victims the CBI identified 582 who were all non-terrorists. The CCDP
identified over 1700 victims and their families. It chronicled the
torture, harassment and extortion inflicted by the police on the
victims and their families. Many among them were unconnected to
terrorism, and killed in cold blood by the police. A leading CCDP
activist, Ram Narayan Kumar, wrote a meticulously researched book,
Reduced to Ashes, which laid bare the whole truth of this gruesome
carnage.
After the CBI report the Supreme Court in 1997 designated the
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to deal with the case. It
vested NHRC with full powers of the Supreme Court. Apart from
awarding paltry compensation to the families of victims, the NHRC did
precious little. In 2002 LK Advani and Amarinder Singh pleaded
amnesty for all the tainted policemen. KPS Gill continued to trash
human rights activists on TV. The national media virtually ignored
the 2097 police custodial deaths that had been verified by the CBI
and the Supreme Court.
Recall -- Pinochet of Chile was held personally responsible for 3000
innocents killed; and Milosevic of Serbia, personally, for the death
of 2000 innocents. Both were reviled as international war criminals.
But for 2097 deaths in only one district of Punjab nobody has been
held accountable. Who is to blame for this -- the politicians and
media, or the middle class?_______________________________________________
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