How the Congress’ ‘Cottage industry of propaganda’ on Gujarat riots came crashing down, again!

There is a proverb in Hindi – “Satya pareshan ho sakta hai, parajit nahi” (You can trouble the truth for a while but ultimately truth alone triumphs ) . For 2 decades this is exactly what we have seen in the case of the Gujarat riots of 2002 and PM Narendra Modi who was the chief minister back then .

For 20 years, we have seen a cottage industry of propaganda , fake news and hate- being run in the name of Gujarat riots. With the Supreme Court ruling on the petition of Zakia Jafri, widow of the late Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, yet another body blow has been dealt to the “hand of conspiracy “ that has been instrumental in operating this cottage industry of propaganda.

A bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justice Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice CT Ravi Kumar, after detailed hearing in the Zakia Jafri petition, ruled that this petition,which hinted at a larger conspiracy behind the riots involving state machinery led by the then chief Minister Narendra Modi court , was “devoid of merits and deserved to be dismissed”, essentially concurring with the judgement of the Metropolitan magistrate who had accepted the SIT closure report and had come to the same conclusion. The judgement of the Metropolitan magistrate had also been challenged in the Gujarat High Court which had also concurred with the decision of the lower court In according to complete clean chit to then Gujarat government. The Supreme Court in this matter also observed how proceedings are pursued for the last 16 years to keep the pot boiling obviously for ulterior designs and While confirming with their wars no perceivable linked to show the hatching of a criminal conspiracy at the highest level, it slammed those who abused the process of law, evidently for political purposes.

A timeline of this case explains the series of similar findings as far as the involvement of the state government of Gujarat who is concerned in the 2002 riots

– In 2007, the Gujarat High Court was approached by the same ecosystem via a petition, which was rejected and was sent to the magistrate
– In 2008 it was the Supreme Court that constituted the current SIT whose report has been upheld by the honourable Supreme Court
– In 2010 , the SIT give its report to the Supreme Court saying that it found no evidence of involvement of the state government of Gujarat in the 2002 riots and allegations to this effect baseless
– In 2011 on insistence of the Supreme Court the SIT Considered certain other doubts and aspects that has been raised
– In September 2011 the Supreme Court sent the matter to the magistrate’s court
– In 2013 after hearing all sides, the Lower court concurred with the findings of the SIT and dismissed the petition filed by Zakia Jafri. Petitioners approached the High Court of Gujarat which also concurred with the findings of the lower court and the SIT on October 5, 2017

From the above chronology it is clear that the investigation took place while there was a congress government at the Centre and reach the Supreme Court , High Court and lower court on multiple occasions. The latest vindication from the Supreme Court comes in a petition which was argued by senior lawyer and until recently a senior member of the congress party Kapil Sibal, who has now allied himself with the Samajwadi party. The “fix Modi” lobby as it were, led by the likes of Teesta Setalwad and other so called activists, lawyers, certain media personalities and backed by political masters who unleashed every agency at their disposal between 2004-2014, was dealt several such blows from various courts. In 2015 the Supreme Court dismissed a petition by Sanjeev Bhatt, whose wife contested on a congress party ticket, and while dismissing the petition said “the plea was an attempt to influence the court to politics and activism“. It further said “Sanjiv Bhatt was an active touch with leaders of rival political parties, NGOs, lawyers who tried to play the media card.” In a connected matter relating to Haren Pandya, the Supreme Court in its ruling said that a book by the name of Gujarat Files, allegedly written by a so called journalist , was “based on surmises, conjectures and suppositions and had no evidentiary value”

In the last 20 years, many of these political interest litigations/prayojit interest litigations Became the basis of an all out political propaganda to target Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In doing so, some found it Kosher to target the state of Gujarat and even India, once CM Modi became the prime minister. Right from Maut Ka Saudagar two other personalised jibes were made at Narendra Modi and Gujarat was painted as a state seeping in Islamophobia. Today the same ecosystem continues to peddle pretty much the same propaganda at a much larger scale against India especially on international platforms. Ironically, those behind this narrative were responsible for some of the biggest riots in Mumbai, Jalgaon, Nellie, Hashimpura, Bhagalpur, Meerut, Maliana and Delhi in 1984. Thousands were massacred and the victims of these riots never got justice. In fact in the Delhi riots, the High Court while convicting congress leader Sajjan Kumar, exposed the level of political patronage given to the accused by the top most in government and the manner in which cases were suppressed to deny justice.

For the last 20 years, an ecosystem tried to profiteer, both politically and monetarily, using the 2002 Gujarat riots. In the process , just to target one individual, they attempted to tarnish an entire state and the people of Gujarat. Politically this lot has been punished by the people of Gujarat and India but the question remains, will they come out and apologise or will their “cottage industry” continue to find new ventures ?