July 2015 Archives

Yakub Memon Hanged in Nagpur

Yakub Memon became the third terror convict to have been sent to the gallows in the last four years

New Delhi: Yakub Memon – the only accused person from the series of communal riots and bomb blasts that shook Mumbai from December 1992 to March 1993 to be sentenced to death – was hanged today, becoming the third terror convict to have been sent to the gallows in the last four years.

Memon, who would have turned 53 today, was executed around 7 am at Nagpur Central Jail.

His end came soon after the Supreme Court, in an extraordinary late night hearing that ran from 3:18 am till 5 in the morning, rejected a final appeal by lawyers arguing on his behalf that the court’s own guidelines mandated a 14-day gap between the rejection of his mercy petition by the President on Wednesday and his actual execution.

Before Memon, Mohammed Afzal Guru, convicted of being part of the December 2001 conspiracy to attack Parliament, was hanged at Tihar jail in the Capital on February 9, 2013.

Afzal’s death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2004 but the sentence took nine years to be carried out.

On December 13, 2001, five heavily-armed terrorists had stormed the Parliament complex and opened indiscriminate fire, killing nine persons. The terrorists themselves were eventually shot dead but the police subsequently arrested four persons for being part of the conspiracy, all of whom were found guilty by a special anti-terrorism court. Along with Guru, two others were sentenced to death, one of whom was later found innocent on appeal by the Delhi High Court while the second had his death sentence commuted by the Supreme Court.

Prior to Afzal, Ajmal Kasab, the sole Pakistani gunman involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks to have been captured alive, was hanged to death at the Yerwada central prison in Pune on November 21, 2012, in an operation that was shrouded in secrecy.

Ten Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists had descended on Mumbai on November 26, 2008 and unleashed mayhem, targeting many of the city’s landmarks, including Hotel Taj and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. 166 people, including some foreigners, had been killed in the most brazen terror assault.

Nine of the perpetrators were killed during the 60-hour siege and Kasab was captured alive.

(with PTI)

Another Blow to Autonomy of Telecom Regulator

The NDA should be open to appointing individuals from the judiciary or the not-for-profit sector as TRAI chairpersons, not officials who bring with them the heavy hand of bureaucracy

The National Democratic Alliance’s decision to appoint a serving bureaucrat as the chairperson of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is a debilitating blow to the independence and autonomy of an institution that is on its last legs. In picking a secretary to the government of India to helm the country’s top telecom regulator – which, ironically, was conceived in the nineties as an antidote to government overreach and corruption – the NDA has merely toed the practice of its predecessor.

TRAI changed hands on three occasions during the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) ten-year term, from one bureaucrat to another. Two of them even served as secretaries in the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), their appointments reflecting the UPA’s brazen attempt to align TRAI’s views with that of the government. Over the last decade, TRAI has become a veritable arm of the government, its facade of autonomy masking the political projects that the regulator has been drawn into.

R.S. Sharma. Source: eletsonline

Through its appointment of R.S. Sharma, secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeITy), as the TRAI chairperson, the NDA, it would appear, is charting a similar, dismal future for the regulator.

It is not difficult to gauge why Sharma specifically has been chosen to lead TRAI. He is a highly qualified, respected and competent bureaucrat. Sharma’s experience both as the IT Secretary and former director general of the Aadhaar initiative may prove useful as TRAI prepares to expand its regulatory ambit to include digital services and internet applications. Nevertheless, the regulator’s role – which, according to the TRAI Act of 1997, is to “protect the interests of service providers and consumers of the telecom sector” – is distinct from that of an administrator.

The context in which the government has chosen to harness administrative acumen from within its own ranks to populate TRAI is particularly important. Few initiatives of the Modi regime are grander in scope and visibility than the “Digital India” programme: whether through country-wide internet connectivity or improved e-governance, the results of this programme if implemented successfully will be immediate and palpable.

To pull off a mission of this scale, however, the government will need to manage its relationship with the private telecom sector, as well as foreign and domestic internet companies. With its institutional linkages to the telecommunications industry, TRAI therefore becomes an ideal platform for government to synchronise its views with the private sector, which is yet to be sold on this politically savvy project.

Taming the telecom regulator

The telecom regulator, however, is neither a policy coordinator nor relationship manager for the government. If Digital India is the motivation for the NDA, the Congress-led UPA sought to use TRAI’s offices to steer through its nebulous political enterprise of auctioning spectrum. TRAI’s complicity in the scandal earned the wrath of the Supreme Court in 2012, which through its 2G Spectrum judgement said “the [regulator’s] recommendations became a handle for the then Minister of Communications & IT and officers of the DoT who virtually gifted away the important national asset at throwaway prices”. The Court chided the regulator for failing to adhere to “basic constitutional principles” in formulating its recommendations.

That embarrassing instance of judicial castigation appears to have had no effect as the government continues its efforts to erode TRAI’s autonomy. The goals of the Digital India programme are laudable, and will likely require the government to goad the private sector into action, but TRAI is neither the place to strike bargains nor forge a convenient consensus between the political class and industry.

Secretary R.S. Sharma, doubtless sensitive to these challenges, may well rise to the occasion. But the precedent set through an individual’s appointment often has lasting repercussions for the institution. The NDA’s first executive action after it came to power in 2014 was to amend the TRAI Act, which stood in the way of its appointing former TRAI chairperson Nripendra Misra as principal secretary to the Prime Minister. The TRAI Act, which forbade chairpersons from assuming government office upon retirement was modified to include a two-year “cooling period” beyond which the restriction was no longer applicable.

With the appointment of a bureaucrat as TRAI chairperson– the first after the amendment took effect – the NDA has now hacked at the root of the regulator’s independence. The TRAI chair has in effect become a sarkaari posting where bureaucrats are parked for three years or less before retiring, only to take up politically sensitive appointments later. Surely this was a foreseeable outcome for the Bharatiya Janata Party, since by its own admission in Parliament, the TRAI amendment was not “individual-specific.”

TRAI, imperfect as its consultative mechanisms may be, is among the few platforms that lend voice to all stakeholders in the telecom and internet sectors, including civil society. Bureaucrats deployed in these fields, on the other hand, would have had a long history of professional engagement with the private sector. Industry’s perceived closeness and accessibility to such an administrator too would act to the detriment of TRAI’s autonomy if she is appointed to the top job.

TRAI’s regulatory powers have been contested by successive governments since 1997, when it was hurriedly created in response to a spectacular corruption scandal that engulfed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Narasimha Rao government. Justice S.S. Sondhi, retired Supreme Court judge and TRAI’s first chairperson, fought hard to preserve the regulator’s independence but a series of legal and political battles between TRAI and DoT left it with few real powers. The government has all but tamed the telecom regulator: it is today an institution that aids the DoT’s decision-making, going against the grain of its mandate to evaluate telecom policies.

If the Modi government is serious about eliminating corruption and institutional malaise, it should ask itself whether government functionaries can be expected to function independently in their new avatar as regulators overnight, especially if the government is an interested player in telecom. If it still stands by the “minimum government, maximum governance” slogan, the NDA should be open to appointing individuals from the judiciary or the not-for-profit sector as TRAI chairpersons, rather than officials who bring with them the heavy hand of Indian bureaucracy.

Arun Mohan Sukumar heads the Cyber Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. Views expressed here are personal.

Clothing Rural Indians in Urban Excess

Anshu Gupta’s fresh thinking not only highlighted the need for clothing to be a part of the development agenda but also helped create a resource out of what city dwellers discard

Anshu Gupta and wife Meenakshi celebrate with colleagues from his NGO, Goonj, after he won the Ramon Magsaysay Award on Wednesday. Credit: PTI Photo by Subhav Shukla

“Roti, kapda aur makaan.”

Those who grew up in Indira’s India (in the 1960s and ’70s) know well how this catchy string of words once held out so much hope to so many poor Indians. The dream was sold by Mrs. Gandhi and her Congress party – and later followed by others – mostly to rural impoverished voters, that they would make possible a day when the basics would be in place in this country – food, clothing and shelter.

Born in 1970 in Meerut and raised in Dehra Dun, Anshu Gupta – who won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award for 2015 along with bureaucrat-whistleblower Sanjiv Chaturvedi – was well aware of how those hackneyed words had turned into a pipe dream for the poor.

In the years that followed, some governmental attempts were made to address the issues of food and shelter. “But somehow, the need for kapda has been forgotten. Though clothes are the first sign of poverty, we have just refused to recognise it,” he pointed out in a 2011 interview to this correspondent.

So when in 1999, Gupta, then a media professional, began talking about clothing the poor with dignity and making a difference in their lives through his NGO Goonj – the reason why the prestigious ‘Asian Nobel’ has been awarded to him today – people found the idea weird.

He, however, continued on his mission of collecting old clothes from urban India and supplying them to the rural poor. The number of people working with him only grew (it is now 300 plus) and his wife too joined him soon. Goonj tied up with local organisations in various states to help reach out to the needy. The initial channel that took only clothes to rural India widened over the years to include a wide gamut of other used things of daily use such as utensils, books, stationery, shoes, toys, furniture, furnishings, suitcases, bags, et al.

A visit to Goonj’s processing centre in Delhi’s Madanpur Khadar only evokes admiration for Gupta’s lateral thinking, vision and drive. About 80 women employees gathered from the area can be seen making the initial segregation of heaps of used clothes and things and dropping them in big cartons. The sheer variety of the things that comprised those heaps is mind blowing. From needles to pins to old stilettos to bathroom tiles, washing machines, computer keyboards, board games, audio and video cassettes, suitcases, newspapers and bags, the list is endless. And so many old books! From Naipaul’s An Area of Darkness to the Lonely Planet Guide to Florida, one can spot quite an assortment.

The specific cartons go to specific corners thereafter. Clothes that need re-sizing, or fixing with new zips and buttons go to an altering unit; utensils that could make a kitchen or dinner set are clubbed together along with bed sheets and bedcovers and saris and salwar kameezes in fairly better condition than the rest to make up a possible wedding package for a poor bride. Old toys and shoes are separated as per age and size; zips of suitcases and bags go for a check and are kept ready for despatch. Clothes which are torn and of no use are made into sanitary pads to be sent to villages and slums. In fact, Goonj is the first to think of this solution through its initiative Not Just a Piece of Cloth.

Besides, old audio and video cassettes that are of no use otherwise are also put to use at the centre. The reels are used along with thread and wool to weave patches of textiles used to make attractive bags, key chains, dhurries, pen holders, etc. to be sold in a small shop put up at the centre to raise funds. The books that can’t be sent out are neatly put together in a room and turned into a reference library for visitors.

The reason why things that are of no use to the rural poor also land up at the Goonj collection centres, says Gupta, is because people don’t donate their used things, they just discard them. “So when I am asked to collect them, I refuse because their interest is only to get rid of them,” said Gupta.

Therein comes his core focus: We will not distribute anything to the poor for free simply because it would then not be given with dignity. This led Goonj to introduce the scheme Cloth for Work where people are asked to do community service to earn clothes. During my conversation with him, he talked about how in Assam, villagers built bamboo bridges in their blocks for clothes. And in Bihar, they made a foot bridge in lieu of clothes. With the help of a discarded generator, Goonj had helped provide power to an entire village in Assam. Through its presence now in 21 states with work spread across 10 offices and collaborations with 250 local organisations, hundreds of such stories of success directly related to rural development and infrastructure have been added to the list. It also reaches out to natural calamity-hit areas through its relief and rehabilitation initiative, Rahat.

Today, as the world stops to acknowledge Gupta’s achievements and shower accolades on him, the man of the moment says “Goonj helped highlight a basic need that remained unaddressed and which deserves a place in the development agenda.”

Memon Plea Rejected, Court Urged to Uphold Rule of 14-day Wait Before Hanging

New Delhi: With President Pranab Mukherjee rejecting the mercy petition filed by Yakub Memon – given the death penalty for his role in the 1993 terrorist bombings in Bombay – lawyers representing him are moving the Supreme Court to insist his execution, set for July 30, must be delayed by 14 days as required by Supreme Court guidelines or at least 7 days, as mandated by the Maharashtra jail manual.

After lawyers met with Chief Justice H.L. Dattu after midnight, a special hearing of the same three-judge bench which rejected Memon’s curative petition hearing on Wednesday morning – Justices J. Dipak Misra, J.A Roy and J.P. Pant – has been set for 2:30 am. Unusually, the hearing will be held at the Supreme Court itself rather than at the home of one of the judges.

As recently as January 14, 2014, the Supreme Court in the Shatrughan Chauhan case framed a number of “guidelines for safeguarding the interests of death row convicts”. Among the guidelines is the stipulation that a convict cannot be executed until at least 14 days have elapsed from the time he is informed about the fact this mercy petition has been rejected:

7. Minimum 14 days notice for execution: Some prison manuals do not provide for any minimum period between the rejection of the mercy petition being communicated to the prisoner and his family and the scheduled date of execution. Some prison manuals have a minimum period of 1 day, others have a minimum period of 14 days. It is necessary that a minimum period of 14 days be stipulated between the receipt of communication of the rejection of the mercy petition and the scheduled date of execution for the following reasons:-

a) It allows the prisoner to prepare himself mentally for execution, to make his peace with god, prepare his will and settle other earthly affairs.

b) It allows the prisoner to have a last and final meeting with his family members. It also allows the prisoners’ family members to make arrangements to travel to the prison which may be located at a distant place and meet the prisoner for the last time. Without sufficient notice of the scheduled date of execution, the prisoners’ right to avail of judicial remedies will be thwarted and they will be prevented from having a last and final meeting with their families.

It is the obligation of the Superintendent of Jail to see that the family members of the convict receive the message of communication of rejection of mercy petition in time.

This guideline framed by the Supreme Court a little over a year ago, lawyers believe, means it will be illegal to hang Yakub Memon as scheduled on July 30.

Yakub Memon Submits Fresh Mercy Plea Citing B. Raman Disclosure

Protesters demanding that Yakub Memon’s death sentence be commuted. Credit: PTI

New Delhi: A group of eminent citizens seeking the commutation of Yakub Memon’s death sentence are seeking an urgent 11th hour meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee to urge that he consider a new mercy petition the death row prisoner has filed on the night of July 28.

In this petition, Memon refers to the sensational disclosure made by the later RAW officer, B. Raman, in an article he had written for rediff.com back in 2007 but later withdrawn from publication in which he said the cooperation Memon had shown after his return to India was “a strong mitigating circumstance to be taken into consideration while considering whether the death penalty should be implemented.”

The full text of Yakub Memon’s petition follows:

July 28, 2015

MOST URGENT

To,

His Excellency,
The Hon’ble President of India
Rastrapati Bhavan,
New Delhi

Subject: Mercy Petition Urging Stay on My Execution (i.e. Yakub Abdul Razak Memon) Scheduled on 30 July 2015 i.e. day after tomorrow

May it Please Your Excellency:

This is with reference to my execution scheduled on 30 July 2015 i.e. day after tomorrow. I, the undersigned, through this Mercy Petition filed under Article 72 of the Constitution of India seek urgent intervention of the Hon’ble President of India to stay the imminent execution such that the substantive pleas raised herein can be considered on merits.

Present Petition Meets Procedural Requirements

A.1. First Mercy Petition filed by the Petitioner

This is the first ever Mercy Petition filed by the Petitioner. Earlier Mercy Petition which was dismissed by Your Excellency on 11.04.2014 was filed by my brother, Suleiman Memon and not me. Filing of Mercy Petition by Suleiman Memon does not take away my last right as a death row convict to invoke Your Excellency’s mercy jurisdiction under Article 72 of the Constitution of India. I humbly submit that under Indian law, an execution cannot be permitted to take place when a Mercy Petition filed by the death row convict in his own name for the first time, is still pending.
Further, I did not prefer a Mercy Petition until now as I have been availing various judicial remedies available to me under law. It is only on 21.7.2015 (i.e. a week ago) that my Curative Petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court and hence I am now petitioning you under Article 72.
I also prefer this Mercy Petition as per the course suggested in the letter dated 21.4.2015 addressed to me by Superintendent, Nagpur Central Prison, Nagpur intimating me that pursuant to the dismissal of my Review Petition by the Supreme Court, I have an option of filing a Curative Petition and a Mercy Petition before the President.
I have also filed a Mercy Petition before the Governor of the State of Maharashtra some days ago which may have been referred to you. Since I am scheduled to be executed day after tomorrow, I am petitioning you directly through this Mercy Petition.

A.2 Present Petition Raises Fresh Grounds which have not been taken in the Mercy Petition dismissed on 11.04.2014

This Mercy Petition is filed as per the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Krishta Goud v. State of A.P., (1976) 1 SCC 157[1] and clause VII-(A)[2] of the Procedure Regarding Petitions for Mercy in Death Sentence Cases prescribed by the Home Ministry, Government of India (annexed and marked as Annexure 1). My Mercy Petition invokes fresh grounds applicable to my case and therefore, satisfies clause VII-(A).
I humbly pray before the Hon’ble President of India to consider new material which is presented through this Mercy Petition. I bring Clause VII-(A), Procedure Regarding Petitions for Mercy in Death Sentence Cases, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India to the attention of the His Excellency which requires the Hon’ble President of India to consider new grounds contained in this petition on merits before my scheduled execution day after tomorrow.
I also submit that while this is the first Mercy Petition made by me, this Mercy Petition agitates fresh grounds and new material which has so far been not placed before Your Excellency in the Mercy Petition dismissed on 04.2014.
I humbly submit that under Indian law, an execution cannot be permitted to take place when a Mercy Petition filed by the death row convict in his own name for the first time, is still pending.

Preliminary Grounds for a Immediate Stay on Execution

B.1. Mitigating Circumstances pertaining to My Return from Pakistan to face trial concealed from Court

An article written by Shri B. Raman, who as head of Pakistan desk, counter-terrorism division of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) (published posthumously on July 24, 2015) has disclosed some shocking facts pertaining to my case. Raman laments that “the cooperation of Yakub with the investigating agencies after he was picked up informally in Kathmandu and his role in persuading some other members of the family to come out of Pakistan and surrender constitute” is a strong mitigating circumstance which seems to have been hidden by the prosecution in their urge to secure death penalty (Article titled “Memon brothers and the Mumbai blasts” by B. Raman and other related articles annexed and marked as Annexure 2). The aforementioned article, which has come to light 4 days ago has caused considerable disquiet around the country including an article written by Justice HS Bedi (retired Supreme Court judge) where he has urged the Supreme Court to consider the new material and take a re-look at the case. (articles annexed and marked as Annexure 3).
The author who oversaw the entire operation as head of the counter-terrorism division of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) during the relevant years, in his account has completely exposed the opportunistic, unethical and illegal conduct of the prosecution in concealing information from the court which would have led to a more complete understanding about the case and would surely have helped me escape the noose.
Shri B. Raman’s narration of my case has also been corroborated by others in the intelligence community who have firsthand knowledge of the field operations relating to my case (article annexed and marked as Annexure 4). Shri Raman’s story has since been substantiated by number of articles written by investigative journalists who have been following my case for many years. (articles annexed and marked as Annexure 5).
I pray before Your Excellency to call for all the material from the relevant departments including the RAW, IB and CBI, and consider my case afresh in light of the same. It is my submission that the disclosures made in Shri Raman’s article is new material having a direct bearing on my case and the implications arising from the same favour my case and need urgent consideration before I am dispatched to the gallows. This material contains facts which are at variance from the judicial record and therefore, the courts including the Supreme Court have not had an opportunity to consider the same and therefore, the material needs to be gone into by Your Excellency.

B.2. Issuance of Illegal Death Warrant fixing the date of Execution

A death warrant has been issued against me as per which I am scheduled to be executed at the Nagpur Central Jail on July 30 at 7 am. It is my submission that the instant death warrant has been issued in contravention of the principles of natural justice. I was not provided an advance notice of the death warrant hearing and as a result I could not contest the issuance of the death warrant during the hearing. The Supreme Court in the recent decision of Shabnam v. Union of India & Ors, Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 88 of 2015 (decided on May 27, 2015) (judgment annexed and marked as Annexure 6) has laid down extensive guidelines so as to impose constitutional discipline on the procedure of death warrant hearing. The Court has categorically affirmed the following in the last paragraph of the judgment:

“We are affirmatively of the view that in a civilized society, the execution of the sentence of death cannot be carried out in such an arbitrary manner, keeping the prisoner in the dark and without allowing him recourse and information. Essential safeguards must be observed. Firstly, the principles of natural justice must be read into the provisions of Sections 413 and 414 of Cr. P.C and sufficient notice ought to be given to the convict before the issuance of a warrant of death by the sessions court that would enable the convict to consult his advocates and to be represented in the proceedings.”

The death warrant issued in my case squarely fails the due process standard arising of Shabnam’s case and is therefore void. As a result, I pray before the Hon’ble President of India to immediately take the present Mercy Petition on record for consideration under Art. 72 of the Constitution of India and issue a stay such that all contemplated measures in execution of the said illegal death warrant may be abated.

B3. Death Warrant issued by TADA Court Deliberately Concealed to Deny Me Time to Explore Judicial and Executive Remedies

I wish to draw the attention of Your Excellency to the fraud committed by the state authorities by keeping information regarding the issuance of death warrant by the TADA court and the date of my scheduled execution, for a period of 1.5 months. It is submitted that the TADA court issued the death warrant in my case on 30.4.2015. The TADA court in the said warrant had set 30.7.2015 as the date of execution and thereby giving me 3 full months (90 days) to explore legal remedies etc. In a deliberate act of malafide on the part of the state, the state government only informed me of the issuance of death warrant and the date of execution on 14.7.2015 i.e. 1.5 months (43 days approx.) after the date on which the death warrant was originally issued. The state government by disclosing the date of execution to me only 15 days before the scheduled execution date, has severely limited my chances of effectively accessing judicial, executive and other legal remedies. I pray to Your Excellency to stay the scheduled execution on this ground alone.

B.4. Have Not Exhausted Judicial Remedies as Yet

I submit before Your Excellency that I am currently in the process of filing and pursuing judicial remedies including mounting a challenge to rejection of mercy petition on 04.2014 by Your Excellency. On account of malafide concealment of scheduled date of execution by the state government, I have been severely hampered in my ability to access constitutional courts in time. Your Excellency, I plead before you to grant me some time such that I can exhaust all the judicial remedies I am entitled. A hasty execution in blatant disregard to cherished principles of access to court and rule of law will be a blot on our democracy.

B.5. Mentally Unfit for an Execution

I submit before Your Excellency that I have been suffering from schizophrenia for the last 20 years which makes me unfit for execution. Jail doctors have certified my deteriorating mental condition. Schizophrenia as a medical condition has been recognized by the Supreme Court to be a medical illness which renders a convict unfit for execution. The Hon’ble Supreme Court in Shatrughan Chauhan v. Union of India, (2014) 3 SCC 1 noted the following in this regard:

” The above materials, particularly, the directions of the United Nations International Conventions, of which India is a party, clearly show that insanity/mental illness/schizophrenia is a crucial supervening circumstance, which should be considered by this Court in deciding whether in the facts and circumstances of the case death sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment. To put it clear, “insanity” is a relevant supervening factor for consideration by this Court.

In addition, after it is established that the death convict is insane and it is duly certified by the competent doctor, undoubtedly, Article 21 protects him and such person cannot be executed without further clarification from the competent authority about his mental problems. It is also highlighted by relying on commentaries from various countries that civilized countries have not executed death penalty on an insane person. Learned counsel also relied on United Nations Resolution against execution of death sentence, debate of the General Assembly, the decisions of International Court of Justice, Treaties, European Conventions, 8th amendment in the United States which prohibits execution of death sentence on an insane person. In view of the well established laws both at national as well as international sphere, we are inclined to consider insanity as one of the supervening circumstances that warrants for commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment.”

I pray before Your Excellency to apply the abovementioned Supreme Court ruling to my case and issue a stay order on my execution.
Grounds for Mercy

C.1. Case is not yet Closed and potential for my Exoneration

I plead before your Excellency to inquire from the State Government and the Union of India about the steps being taken for the arrest of masterminds of 1993 bomb blasts i.e. Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim. I make this submission to Your Excellency in light of the fact that my conviction is entirely based on retracted confessions of my co-accused before the police which are unfortunately admissible under TADA. It has been my stand from the very beginning that I am a complete outsider to the bomb blast conspiracy and that I am innocent of the crimes I have been convicted of. In the event, the main conspirators are brought to stand trial, they may offer to be witnesses and give testimony under oath in court which will prove my innocence. It is my submission that such evidence will be of very high evidentiary value and will dissolve the value of compromised police confessions of my co-accused (since retracted) which is the basis of conviction for which I am being sent to gallows. I plead before the Hon’ble President to not treat this case as closed because the main conspirators are still absconding and as the recent disclosures from B. Raman tell us, the complete truth in this case is yet to come out.

C.2. Formation of a New Government at the Center

The only Mercy Petition relating to my case was rejected by the Hon’ble President on 11.04.2014 on the basis of advice he received from the government of the day. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has observed in Maru Ram v. Union of India, (1981) 1 SCC 107 that the Hon’ble President in his exercise of Art. 72 powers is bound by the advice of the Council of Ministers he receives on the matter. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has said so in categorical terms in Maru Ram v. Union of India, (1981) 1 SCC 107 in the following paragraph:

“61. Are we back to square one? Has Parliament indulged in legislative futility with a formal victory but a real defeat? The answer is “yes” and “no”. Why “yes”? Because the President is symbolic, the Central Government is the reality even as the Governor is the formal head and sole repository of the executive power but is incapable of acting except on, and according to, the advice of his Council of Ministers. The upshot is that the State Government, whether the Governor likes it or not, can advice and act under Article 161, the Governor being bound by that advice. The action of commutation and release can thus be pursuant to a governmental decision and the order may issue even without the Governor’s approval although, under the Rules of Business and as a matter of constitutional courtesy, it is obligatory that the signature of the Governor should authorise the pardon, commutation or release. The position is substantially the same regarding the President. It is not open either to the President or the Governor to take independent decision or direct release or refuse release of anyone of their own choice. It is fundamental to the Westminster system that the Cabinet rules and the Queen reigns being too deeply rooted as foundational to our system no serious encounter was met from the learned Solicitor-General whose sure grasp of fundamentals did not permit him to controvert the proposition, that the President and the Governor, be they ever so high in textual terminology, are but functional euphemisms promptly acting on and only on the advice of the Council of Ministers have in a narrow area of power. The subject is now beyond controversy, this Court having authoritatively laid down the law in Shamsher Singh case [Shamsher Singh v. State of Punjab, (1975) 1 SCR 814 : (1974) 2 SCC 831 : 1974 SCC (L&S) 550] . So, we agree, even without reference to Article 367(1) and Sections 3(8)(b) and 3(60)(b) of the General Clauses Act, 1897, that, in the matter of exercise of the powers under Articles 72 and 161, the two highest dignitaries in our constitutional scheme act and must act not on their own judgment but in accordance with the aid and advice of the ministers. Article 74, after the 42nd Amendment silences speculation and obligates compliance. The Governor vis-à-vis his Cabinet is no higher than the President save in a narrow area which does not include Article 161. The constitutional conclusion is that the Governor is but a shorthand expression for the State Government and the President is an abbreviation for the Central Government.”

It is to be noted that the order of the Hon’ble President dated 11.04.2014 rejecting the Mercy Petition was based on the advice tendered by the UPA Government which has since demitted the office. After the general election of 2014 in the 16^th Lok Sabha, the NDA has formed the government. I plead before the Hon’ble President to consider my case afresh and obtain opinion of the Home Ministry under the current dispensation. As per settled practice, any change in Home Ministry leave alone the Government results in sending of the pending files back to the Home Ministry. The practice to send the files back to the Home Ministry such that fresh advice can be obtained from the current dispensation holding the office is a salutary one. After all, the power to grant or withhold mercy in a death matter is the pre-eminent exercise of political sovereignty and the government of the day must afford itself an opportunity to exercise such power either in my favour or against me as the consequences of such a decision will unfold during the tenure of the current government.
Further, in light of the new material which has come to light in relation to my case (mentioned earlier in this mercy petition) and that this is the first mercy petition preferred by me, the Home Ministry should take this Mercy Petition on record and consider the same.

C.3. Death Sentence of Convicts in other Terror Cases Commuted

It is also worthwhile to note that death sentences imposed on the aides of Veerappan (convicted and sentenced to death under TADA), Rajiv Gandhi killers and Devender Pal Singh Bhullar have been commuted recently by the Hon’ble Supreme Court. While the mercy petitions of Verappan’s aides, Rajiv Gandhi’s three killers and Devender Pal Singh Bhullar were decided belatedly thereby giving them the claim of delay jurisprudence, the Home Ministry has moved swiftly to reject my mercy petition. Likewise, the Mercy Petition filed by Balwant Singh Rajoana,the prime accused convicted for the assassination of Beant Singh (former Chief Minister of Punjab) also has been kept pending by the Home Ministry. It seems that machinations of law and its bureaucracy favour a class of people over the other. Secret hangings of Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab and now my impending execution begs the conclusion that the heavy hand of punishment and legal misery, somehow, is reserved for muslims in this country.
I pray to Your Excellency to exercise his power of grace and mercy in commuting my death sentence and thereby letting everyone know that the solemn and merciful notions of pardon and commutation are available to all sections of the society including the minorities.

C.4. Long Duration of Trial and Incarceration Suffered Till Date

I have served more than 20 years in prison since my arrest. I have never been released on bail. My trial took 14 years to complete. This is a punishment in itself, and a relevant consideration for Your Excellency as per the published guidelines for the adjudication of mercy petitions. Moreover, while the Hon’ble Supreme Court used this long period of incarceration as a mitigating circumstance to commute the death sentences of the other 10 co-accused persons, it applied a different yardstick to my case. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has repeatedly held that lengthy incarceration during pendency of appeal in death cases is a significant mitigating circumstance which ought to be considered in determination of sentence. This prolonged detention (mostly under solitary confinement) under sentence of death has exerted exceptional physical and mental torment and suffering on the prisoner. While the Supreme Court erred in disregarding without good reason this relevant fact, the Government of India must in the interests of justice give it due importance. The government to that extent is not bound by the conclusions arrived at by the Supreme Court [See Shanker v. State of U.P. (1975) 3 SCC 851; Vivian Rodrick v. The State of West Bengal (1971) 1 SCC 468); Kehar Singh v. Union of India (1989) 1 SCC 204 para 10].

C.5. Death Sentence awarded under TADA, a law which was repealed for being Unfair and Discriminatory

I have been tried and sentenced to death under TADA, a special law which was repealed by the Parliament on account of it having been used to target the minorities. The Supreme Court in Vijaykumar Baldev Mishra v. State of Maharashtra, (2007) 12 SCC 687 para 30 also doubted the legality of prosecutions pursued after the repeal of TADA. The Court observed the following in this regard:

“30. As regards those who have already undergone the entire sentence for which they were convicted under TADA obviously nothing can be done, but regarding those who have undergone only part of the sentence or regarding those who are facing prosecution or investigation under TADA such prosecution or investigation are liable to be quashed in view of the opinion expressed above.”

Given the highly compromised rule of law credentials of TADA, my execution will perpetuate the dark legacy of this law. After all, nothing challenges the majesty of law and the hallowed institutions of justice more than an execution arising out of an unsafe conviction under a suspect law which was repealed for being discriminatory, excessive and out of line with established principles of criminal law.

C.6. Impending Execution will Vitiate Communal Peace and Harmony

The Hon’ble Supreme Court has taken note of the role of Pakistan in the 1993 blasts by observing:
In the relevant scenario, the accused arrived in Pakistan for training and they were received by ISI operatives who took them out of the airport without observing any immigration formalities. Meaning thereby, they had a green channel entry and exist in Pakistan. Another confession reveals that they received training from the ISI officials themselves on some occasions. These events unveil the tolerance and encouragement shown by Pakistan towards terrorism.

…457. A careful reading of the confessional statements of convicted accused exposes that large number of accused including the absconders received training in making of bombs by using RDX and other explosives, handling of sophisticated automatic weapons like AK-56 Rifles and handling of hand grenades in Pakistan which was organized and methodically carried out by Dawood Ibrahim (AA), Anees Ibrahim, Mohd Dossa and Salim Bismillah Khan (since deceased). The training received in Pakistan materialized in the unfortunate serial blasts in Bombay, India on 12^th March 1993. A responsible state owes an obligation not only to another state but also to the international community as a whole. We sincerely hope that every State will strive towards the same.”

In the interest of fairness and justice for those who have been made to pay with their lives for the 1993 bomb blasts, it is pleaded before the Hon’ble President that Pakistan continues to remain a cynical and perverse link to the 1993 bomb blasts as it is presently providing safe refuge to those who have been called the lynchpin for these bomb blasts. I was a complete outsider to the actual operations which led to the bomb blasts. My execution, with unfairness and miscarriage written large on it, would send a very cynical message to the minority community. By unfairly executing me, we are conveying to some sections of this country, that the machinery of justice in this country does not care for equity and facts, and is willing to perpetrate death sentence and torture just to appear tough on crime. It strengthens the belief that the rule of law and fundamental rights remain irrelevant and exist only on paper for a particular community. One of the main objectives behind the 1993 bomb blasts to which Pakistan was the main contributor, was to put our country into a vicious cycle of communal restlessness and insecurity. My hanging will precisely serve that purpose.

Final Plea: My Constitutional Right to be Considered for Mercy on Substantive Grounds

The Petitioner who is a death row convict most humbly submits that His Excellency is duty bound under the law of the land to consider the miscarriage of justice in how my case has been treated by the judicial system and executive government of this country. Supreme Court in this regard has held in Kehar Singh v. Union of India, (1989) 1 SCC 204 at page 210:

“7…To any civilised society, there can be no attributes more important than the life and personal liberty of its members. That is evident from the paramount position given by the courts to Article 21 of the Constitution. These twin attributes enjoy a fundamental ascendancy over all other attributes of the political and social order, and consequently, the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary are more sensitive to them than to the other attributes of daily existence. The deprivation of personal liberty and the threat of the deprivation of life by the action of the State is in most civilised societies regarded seriously and, recourse, either under express constitutional provision or through legislative enactment is provided to the judicial organ. But, the fallibility of human judgment being undeniable even in the most trained mind, a mind resourced by a harvest of experience, it has been considered appropriate that in the matter of life and personal liberty, the protection should be extended by entrusting power further to some high authority to scrutinise the validity of the threatened denial of life or the threatened or continued denial of personal liberty. The power so entrusted is a power belonging to the people and reposed in the highest dignitary of the State. In England, the power is regarded as the royal prerogative of pardon exercised by the Sovereign, generally through the Home Secretary. It is a power which is capable of exercise on a variety of grounds, for reasons of State as well as the desire to safeguard against judicial error. It is an act of grace issuing from the Sovereign. In the United States, however, after the founding of the Republic, a pardon by the President has been regarded not as a private act of grace but as a part of the constitutional scheme. In an opinion, remarkable for its erudition and clarity, Mr Justice Holmes, speaking for the Court inW.I. Biddle v. Vuco Perovich [71 L Ed 1161] enunciated this view, and it has since been affirmed in other decisions. The power to pardon is a part of the constitutional scheme, and we have no doubt, in our mind, that it should be so treated also in the Indian Republic. It has been reposed by the people through the Constitution in the Head of the State, and enjoys high status.It is a constitutional responsibility of great significance, to be exercised when occasion arises in accordance with the discretion contemplated by the context.”

More pointedly, the Supreme Court in Kehar Singh v. Union of India, (1989) 1 SCC 204 at page 212 held that “it is open to the President in the exercise of the power vested in him by Article 72 of the Constitution to scrutinise the evidence on the record of the criminal case and come to a different conclusion from that recorded by the court in regard to the guilt of, and sentence imposed on, the accused. In doing so, the President does not amend or modify or supersede the judicial record. The judicial record remains intact, and undisturbed. The President acts in a wholly different plane from that in which the Court acted. He acts under a constitutional power, the nature of which is entirely different from the judicial power and cannot be regarded as an extension of it.”

I plead that Your Excellency considers my case for mercy with an open mind. I pray to Your Excellency for allowing me time to exhaust judicial remedies (detailed above in section B.3 and B.4). Your Excellency I dare to ask for this relief because I think we live in a modern day democracy bound by the promise of guaranteeing rule of law to one and all including a condemned death row convict.

Yours Sincerely,

Yakub Abdul Razak Memon

[1]G. Krishta Goud v. State of A.P., (1976) 1 SCC 157 at page 161

“10. Before parting with this special leave petition — which we reject — we visualize the contingency of the petitioners invoking the merciful jurisdiction of the President or Governor, as the case may be, setting out various factors with which the Court may not be concerned while imposing judicial sentence but may still have persuasive value before the concerned Executive. The rejection of one clemency petition does not exhaust the power of the President or the Governor. The circumstances pressed before us about the political nature of the offence, the undoubted decline in capital punishment in most countries of the world, the prospective change in the law bearing on that penalty in the new Penal Code Bill, the later declaration of law in tune with modern penology with its correctional and rehabilitative bias emphasized by this Court in Ediga Anamma, the circumstance that the Damocles’ sword of death sentence had been hanging over the head of the convicts for around 4 years and like factors may, perhaps, be urged before the President.” (Emphasis supplied)

[2] VII-(A). In cases of death sentences where a petition for grant of pardon etc. has earlier been rejected by the President of India in exercise of his powers under Article 72 of the Constitution of India, it would not be open for the Government of a State to seek to exercise similar powers under Article 161 in respect of the same case. However, if there is a change of circumstances or if any new material is available, the condemned person himself or anyone on his behalf may make a fresh application to the President for reconsideration of the earlier order. Once the President has rejected a mercy petition, all future applications in this behalf should be addressed to and would be dealt with by the President of India.

Islamic State Recruitment Document Warns of Major Attack in India

An apparent Islamic State recruitment document found in Pakistan’s lawless tribal lands reveals that the extremist group has grand ambitions of building a new terrorist army in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and triggering a war in India to provoke an Armageddon-like “end of the world.”

The 32-page Urdu-language document obtained by American Media Institute (AMI) details a plot to attack U.S. soldiers as they withdraw from Afghanistan and target American diplomats and Pakistani officials.

AMI obtained the document from a Pakistani citizen with connections inside the Pakistani Taliban and had it independently translated from Urdu by Harvard researcher and translator Mustafa Samdani.

The reference to India in the document comes in the following paragraph:

Puri dunya se bayt, hijrat, aur al-daulat-al-khilafa-tul-islamiya ke saaye talay jihad ka silsila jari hai. Al-daulat-al-khilafa-tul-islamiya ek hi waqt main siraf Iraq aur sham main darjanon mahazon par paishqadmi kartay huay aagay barh rahi hai, isi tarhan uss kay ilawa Khorasan, Yemen, Misr, Libya, Jazeera-tul-arab, al-jazair, Qoqaz, aur Nigeria samait kayee vilayaton main bhi Allah ki nusrat ko samait rahi hai. Aur Hind main Ghazva-i-Hind ki tayyarian jari hain, jis havalay se kuch hi arsay mein ummat khushkhabri sunay gi, inshallah.

There is a global pledge and migration to the Islamic State Caliphate (ISC) to wage jihad. The ISC is advancing on dozens of fronts in Iraq and Syria, and in numerous regions like Khorasan, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Arabia, Algeria, the Caucasus, and Nigeria as well as numerous other territories. In Hind, preparations for Ghazva-i-Hind are in full swing and soon the ummah will hear tidings of victory on that front as well, Allah-willing.

The word ‘Ghazva’ refers to a battle in which Prophet Mohammed personally participated. According to Samdani, the phrase ‘Ghazva-i-Hind’ is a reference to a Prophetic quote in which a “final” battle with India is discussed. The relevant sentence, therefore, means preparations are underway for the final battle in India about which there will soon be very good news.

The document was reviewed by three U.S. intelligence officials, who said they believe the document is authentic based on its unique markings and the fact that language used to describe leaders, the writing style and religious wording match other documents from the Islamic State, also known as ISIL and ISIS. They asked to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The undated document, titled “A Brief History of the Islamic State Caliphate (ISC), The Caliphate According to the Prophet,” seeks to unite dozens of factions of the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban into a single army of terror. It includes a never-before-seen history of the Islamic State, details chilling future battle plans, urges al-Qaeda to join the group and says the Islamic State’s leader should be recognized as the sole ruler of the world’s 1 billion Muslims under a religious empire called a “caliphate.”

“Accept the fact that this caliphate will survive and prosper until it takes over the entire world and beheads every last person that rebels against Allah,” it proclaims. “This is the bitter truth, swallow it.”

Retired Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who also reviewed the document, said it “represents the Islamic State’s campaign plan and is something, as an intelligence officer, I would not only want to capture, but fully exploit. It lays out their intent, their goals and objectives, a red flag to which we must pay attention.”

Alistair Baskey, deputy spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, told AMI, “we are aware of the presence of ISIL-affiliated militants in Afghanistan, and we are monitoring closely to see whether their emergence will have a meaningful impact on the threat environment in the region.”

The Taliban is another radical Islamic group that ruled Afghanistan until ousted during the U.S. invasion in 2001. It continues fighting the current Afghan government and also trying to thwart the Islamic State’s expansion into Afghanistan.

The document warns that “preparations” for an attack in India are underway and predicts that an attack will provoke an apocalyptic confrontation with America: “Even if the U.S tries to attack with all its allies, which undoubtedly it will, the ummah will be united, resulting in the final battle.” The word “ummah” refers to the entire global community of Muslims.

Striking in India would magnify the Islamic State’s stature and threaten the stability of the region, said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution who served more than 30 years in the CIA. “Attacking in India is the Holy Grail of South Asian jihadists.”

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said the Islamic State threat in Pakistan was discussed with White House, State Department and Pentagon officials in June. He told reporters at the Pakistani Embassy in June that successful allied military operations have scattered the Pakistani Taliban.

Chaudhry denied there is an Islamic State presence in Pakistan. It could be “a potential threat for the whole world, for our region too, for our country too,” he said. “We believe that all countries need to cooperate, and Pakistan, yes.”

Unlike al-Qaeda, which has targeted terror attacks on the United States and other western nations, the document said Islamic State leaders believe that’s the wrong strategic goal. “Instead of wasting energy in a direct confrontation with the U.S., we should focus on an armed uprising in the Arab world for the establishment of the caliphate,” the document said.

So far, the U.S. strategy has been limited to fighting the militant group in Iraq and Syria, ordering limited airstrikes and deploying trainers to strengthen Iraqi security forces.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State has recruited tens of thousands of fighters and sympathizers from around the world.

The failure to target the radical Islamic ideas behind the group has given its fighters the opportunity to spread, Flynn said. “If I were in their shoes, I would say,’We are winning, we are achieving our objectives,’” Flynn said. “They have demonstrated an incredible level of resiliency and they will not be defeated by military means alone.”

You can reach Sara A. Carter @SaraCarterDC
Richard Miniter contributed to this story. You can reach Richard Miniter @RichMiniter
American Media Institute is an independent investigative journalism organization.

The Wire contributed to the editing of this article.

Gujarat HC Begins Final Hearing in Naroda Patiya Riot Case

Earlier, Kodnani’s advocate Nirupam Nanavati told the court that her appeal against the conviction should be given priority

The skyline of Ahmedabad is filled with smoke as buildings were set on fire by rioting mobs in February 2002. Credit: Aksi_great/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday began final hearing on appeals in the Naroda Patiya riot case, in which 97 people, mostly from minority communities, were killed in 2002.

A two-judge bench of the high court, comprising justice Mohinder Pal and justice R.D. Kothari, heard the submissions made by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which probed the riot case on the directions of the Supreme Court.Special Public Prosecutor for SIT Prashant Desai on Tuesday made a submission before the bench about the role of the apex court-appointed probe agency.

Desai read out the apex court judgement which directed to form the SIT and said before the court how the SIT was constituted to probe the Naroda Patiya case.On Wednesday, Desai will read the FIR of the case before the high court.

In this case, cross appeals have also been filed by the convicts, survivors and the prosecution agency SIT on the issue of enhancement of the sentence or for challenging the punishment awarded by the special trial court.

A division bench comprising justice M.R. Shah and justice K.S. Jhaveri had on July 15 recused themselves from hearing the appeals of the case and said they were approached by some of the accused persons. A special trial court had, in August 2012, convicted 31 persons and awarded life term to 30, including an ex-state minister Maya Kodnani for killings and criminal conspiracy, while it had also awarded ‘imprisonment till death’ to former VHP leader Babu Bajrangi.

Two convicts, including Kodnani and Kirpalsingh Chhabra, were granted bail in this case. Kodnani was released last year by the high court division bench comprising justice VM Sahai and justice RP Dholaria. The hearing was earlier conducted before a division bench headed by justice Ravi Tripathi. However, the survivors of the case pleaded before the Supreme Court to not allow the final hearing to be conducted before the bench.

Meanwhile, justice Tripathi retired on May 6 and the case went before another division bench.The Naroda Patiya riot incident had taken place a day after the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002.

Earlier, Kodnani’s advocate Nirupam Nanavati told the court that her appeal against the conviction should be given priority and said that her name was not there in the first FIR of the case. On this, the high court said that it would not give priority to anybody and will conduct hearing step by step.

A Little Memory Can Go a Long Way

Rioters in Bombay, January 1993. Credit: Sudharak Olwe

It is the silences that attend media coverage of Yakub Memon’s impending execution and not the Shiv Sena’s aggressive calls for his hanging that hold a mirror to Indian democracy most clearly. Leading national dailies carry photos of mangled bomb blast sites and interview those affected, as if to justify the imposition of the death penalty; none ask why other victims must continue to suffer silently the indignity of watching their attackers go scot-free.

The 1993 blasts were a heinous act of terror that came at the end of an equally heinous set of communal killings that tore Bombay apart in December 1992 and January 1993 but you would be hard pressed to find any mention of this context in any reporting of Yakub Memon. Memon is indeed guilty as charged and nothing can justify his involvement in the bombings. For the benefit of Indians under the age of 30-35, however, the media ought to have provided the background to the 1993 bombings: the destruction of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, the celebration rallies held by the BJP and Shiv Sena in Bombay, the complicity of the Bombay police and the Congress-led Sudhakarrao Naik government in the targeted killing of Muslims, the subsequent appointment of the Srikrishna Commission, and its indictment of the Hindutva forces and police involved in the 1992-3 Bombay riots. This background is essential not in order to lessen the guilt of Memon but to remind us of the other crimes that are crying out for punishment.

That the government itself felt there was a connection between the mob terror and bomb terror of that period is shown by the extended terms of reference given to the Srikrishna Commission: to explore whether the 12 March 1993 blasts had anything to do with the 1992-93 riots.

The Srikrishna Commission concluded:

“One common link between the riots of December 1992 and January 1993 and bomb blasts of 12 March 1993 appear to be that the former appear to have been a causative factor for the latter. There does appear to be a cause and effect relationship between the two riots and the serial bomb blasts. …

“Tiger Memon, the key figure in the serial bomb blasts case and his family had suffered extensively during the riots and therefore can be said to have had deep rooted motive for revenge. It would appear that one of his trusted accomplices, Javed Dawood Tailor alias Javed Chikna, had also suffered a bullet injury during the riots and therefore he also had a motive for revenge. Apart from these two specific cases, there was a large amorphous body of angry frustrated and desperate Muslims keen to seek revenge for the perceived injustice done to and atrocities perpetrated on them or to other members of their community and it is this sense of revenge which spawned the conspiracy of the serial blasts. This body of angry frustrated and desperate Muslims provided the material upon which the anti-national and criminal elements succeeded in building up their conspiracy for the serial bomb blasts.” (emphasis added)

The Bombay bombings are a cruel reminder of what can happen when state institutions fail to protect citizens from violence (or worse collude in the violence) and then deny them justice as well. Till justice is even-handed, coming down as heavily on the perpetrators of crimes against minorities, adivasis and dalits, as it does on individuals from these communities when they commit crimes, it will always be justice denied.

When Teesta Setalvad is harassed and persecuted for taking up the cases of the victims of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 while those who committed the crimes are out on bail, what message are we sending? When the National Investigation Agency fails to seriously prosecute cases of terrorism involving Hindutva extremists, when files involving Hindutva terrorists conveniently disappear from a Jammu police station, will the cause of ‘justice’ really be served by hanging Yakub Memon but not even ensuring a day’s prison for others?

If the Indian state cannot be trusted to deliver justice, B. Raman’s revelations – and the CBI’s admission that Yakub was ‘induced’ to return to India – tell us it cannot also be trusted to keep its word. The interlocutors who secured IAS officer Alex Paul Menon’s release from the Maoists realised this when no ordinary adivasi was released in exchange despite the government’s promises; now any insurgent who wants to surrender or negotiate will think a hundred times before trusting the Indian government. Yakub Memon’s hanging will not help India find closure. Terror cannot be fought by the state selectively honouring its commitments, least of all its obligation to provide justice regardless of who a victim is and who the perpetrators are.

Nandini Sundar is a Professor of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics and a security analyst.

Harassed by Modi Government for Exposing Corruption, Whistleblower Wins Magsaysay

Bureaucrat Sanjiv Chaturvedi with his mother after getting news of his Magsaysay Award on Wednesday. Credit: Subhav Shukla, PTI

New Delhi: Whistleblower Sanjiv Chaturvedi, the Indian Forest Officer who took on the land mafia in Haryana and exposed scams running into crores of rupees at the capital’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences during his stint as Chief Vigilance Officer, has been awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award in the ‘Emergent Leadership’ category.

Incidentally, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who had sought to appoint Chaturvedi to a job in the Delhi government in February, had also received the award in this category in 2006.

Chaturvedi has been awarded for “his exemplary integrity, courage and tenacity in uncompromisingly exposing and painstakingly exposing corruption in public office, and his resolute crafting of program and system improvements to ensure that the government honourably serves the people of India.” The other winner from India for 2015 is Anshu Gupta, founder of the NGO, Goonj.

Incidentally, Chaturvedi had recently taken on Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda for his unceremonious ouster from the post and then for forcibly trying to write his Annual Performance Appraisal Report which had “already attained finality with ‘outstanding’ grade” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for deliberately stalling his request of change of cadre in violation of the established norms.

Speaking to The Wire, Chaturvedi said he has been told that the award would be presented in Manila on August 31.

So far, 48 Indians have been conferred the Magsaysay award – which is considered the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize – in six different categories. Chaturvedi is the fourth Indian to win the award in the category of “emergent leadership”.

Chaturvedi has been in the news of late for the manner in which he has taken on corruption at AIIMS and for the attempts by the NDA government to virtually keep him out of work.

In May, the Central Administrative Tribunal quashed an order of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by Modi which declined Chaturvedi’s cadre change from Haryana to Uttarakhand.

Chaturvedi has also moved the CAT against orders of the Union Health Ministry and AIIMS which sought to nullify or tried to re-write his Annual Performance Appraisal Report for the period from April 1 to July 15 for which he claimed to have “already attained finality with ‘outstanding’ grade”.

“The instant order is solely aimed to finish the career of the applicant and to teach him a lesson for his lawful actions against powerful vested interests. Already the applicant has been rendered without any assignment by the respondents and his cadre transfer/deputation proposal to Uttarakhand and Delhi Government has been blocked illegally as part of this victimisation strategy and more and more such moves on the part of [the government] are in offing against the applicant,” Chaturvedi has submitted before the Tribunal.

Chaturvedi, who before being posted at AIIMS had been transferred 12 times in five years as he had alleged widespread corruption in the Haryana Government, had during his stint as CVO of AIIMS initiated action in a record number of cases. He managed to get penalties imposed in 78 cases (out of which, in 21 cases, the penalty of compulsory retirement/removal from the service was imposed) and chargesheet issued in 87.

As he was repeatedly targeted by the Haryana Government for taking on the corrupt, Chaturvedi had on at least four occasions found support from the President of India between 2008 and 2014. And when Chaturvedi had filed a criminal writ petition before the Supreme Court in 2012, it had also issued notices to the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe his charges of corruption against the then Congress Chief Minister and Forest Minister of Haryana, and senior state officials.

Earlier this month, the Central Information Commission had also slammed the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Chaturvedi’s parent ministry, for denying information under the RTI Act on how the officer was being harassed.

Dismissing the ministry’s argument that the information sought by RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal was “personal”, Information Commissioner Madabhushi Sridhar held that “denial of information in this case is not legally correct.”

“The information sought is not at all personal information of Mr Chaturvedi,” he said, adding that it was only a “lame excuse” put forth by the Chief Public Information Officer, who if confident that it was private information, should have initiated the process of obtaining Chaturvedi’s views in the matter.

Going a step further, the CIC had even made a call to Chaturvedi to learn if he had any objection to divulgence of the information sought. The IFS officer had replied in the negative and said the information was not his personal information and he does not have any objection to its disclosure. He also told the PIO that he had no objection to the disclosure, as it was neither personal information nor something given in fiduciary capacity, because the matter was concerned with public activities.

The Information Commissioner then held that “the request of appellant clearly pertains to the public activity of the public servant working at top level of Government and the matter relates to his performance of duty, leading to harassment from the embarrassed leaders in the political government, such as frequent transfers or being dumped in loop line with unimportant assignments etc.”

As such, he said, “the issue pertains to protecting the honest officers who are fearlessly performing their duties, inviting the wrath of political bosses, and fighting against corruption, as revealed by the news items referred in RTI application, and the disclosure of information will serve the public interest.”

In a democracy, Sridhar observed, “people have right to information about working of or obstruction to both the political executive and bureaucratic machinery” and so public interest will overweigh protection as ordained under various sections of the Right to Information Act.

An Architecture of the People, by the People, for the People

The proliferation of cement concrete in our rural hinterland in connivance with industry and the state has sounded the death knell for the skill of the human hand

Building in rural Uttar Pradesh is always a massive challenge. With its feudal backdrop where caste and politics share a powerful relationship, people’s issues and concerns become only buzz word that are whipped up by guileful politicians to drive the plebeians into frenzy come election season. The ground realities are completely different with deep socio-economic inequality, degradation of the traditional socio-cultural fabric, rising population and destitution, crime and violence borne out of religious intolerance, and a pathetic state infrastructure that provides negligent youth employment and retainment opportunities.

Credit: Siddharth Menon

In this context, using an indigenous building material like sun dried mud brick (adobe) or kacchi inth to build a rural community centre for the organisation Anubhuti Seva Samiti has multiple effects. Apart from its obvious ecological benefits, its production requires the use of intensive labour to churn and mix mud and water together in huge quantities to be shaped into 9 by 4.5 by 3 inch sized bricks that are then dried under the sun. Adobe walls being 18 inch thick require huge amounts of mud bricks to be produced. By intelligently converting the problem of burgeoning population into an asset, one can easily engage the local village community and youth in the building process for a longer period of time without increasing overall costs of building. This also gives the community and equitable stake in the process.

The proliferation of cement concrete in our rural hinterland in connivance with industry and the state has sounded the death knell for the skill of the human hand. The loss of pride and dignity in one’s work and a lack of incentive to produce good workmanship are followed subsequently by loss of skill of the craftsman. At this moment, there are thousands of such indigenously refined knowledge and skills slowing dying a pain full death in different parts of the countryside.

Here in Uttar Pradesh, a rich legacy of building with arches and vaults due to a dearth of natural tensile elements is following the same fate. Care had to be taken and time spent on site working with local masons to relearn, imbibe and adopt basic principles of building with compressive masonry forces over spans and distances.

Credit: Siddharth Menon

As compared to the now ubiquitous reinforced cement concrete (RCC); these masonry techniques help in simply redistributing resources spent on building elements from the material side to the labour side without increasing the overall economic cost of the building. Time is the only casualty here with the increase in man days required to produce excellent workmanship using brick and cement-lime mortar. In this way, an architect can easily ensure that the limited resource and funding available is justifiably spent on local masons and craftsmen as an incentive to produce better workmanship rather than it being siphoned away into the global economy through the procurement of subsidised cement bags and expensive steel in a resource scarce India.

The gains for the local village economy are easy to notice as small changes here have amplified impacts in terms of education, health and better basic amenities. Moreover this helps in preventing the shepherding of labour, like cattle in overcrowded tractors from one RCC building site to the other at the mercy of fly by night upper caste building contractors or thekedaar. The decrease in scare fossil fuel energy use and carbon emissions is one of the other important benefits of using these techniques.

Credit: Siddharth Menon

An example of the above can be seen in the use of masonry 9 inch thick brick arches to span lengths up to 7.5 feet long. Brick work is left un-plastered to emphasise on the need for better workmanship on behalf of the skilled masons and to decrease the conventional use of economically and ecologically expensive cement plaster to cover poor and shoddy brick work. In this way the economic cost of cement plaster is transferred directly to the masons who now have a stake in the building process to use their skills to produce fine brick work in which each individual brick will weather differently over time to produce a unique and pleasing aesthetic. The process delivers the product and not the other way around.

Similarly the use of a 12-foot span brick masonry vault to carry built-up stair treads above and nine-foot span Nubian vaults to roof spans and spaces without the use of expensive formwork for the latter act as a catalyst to gently shift the balance from market material to local labour thereby producing fantastic results both socio-economically and aesthetically.

Credit: Siddharth Menon

Lastly, after carefully studying and identifying local crafts of the region, the skills of the local village potter, or kumhaar, and local baan craftsmen who produce khats and khatiyas have been incorporated into the built environment. Clay pots or kulhads are used as filler material for RCC filler slabs to decrease the dead weight of cement concrete and baan, a local hemp that grows in waterbeds and harvested in the months of May, is used to produce indoor screens and lattices. Both craftsmen are socio-economically invested in the building process, the intangible benefits of which will bear fruit over a period of time through the goodwill of the local indigenous community.

Siddharth Menon is an independent travelling architect who builds in different parts of rural India using local materials like mud and bamboo, traditional building techniques and indigenous craftsmen.