November  2003 
Year 10    No.93

Editorial


Prosecute Togadia

Threats, filthy abuses, mud-slinging, accusations of being "anti-Hindu", charges of working under the influence of Islamic fundamentalism and ‘Arab money’ are nothing new to the editors of Communalism Combat. In the 10- year-old history of this publica
tion, we have had more than our share of such malicious fare and learnt to treat it not
only as a part of our professional hazards but also as a compliment. What better proof of our effectiveness? What else can one expect from guilty minds who know that they have no answer to our meticulously marshalled facts, intellectual imbeciles incapable of engaging in rational discourse, ethical abominations who peddle hate mongering as faith?

But now the foul-mouthed Praveen Togadia, international secretary general of the VHP, has crossed the Rubicon. At what was supposedly a "prayer meeting" for Godhra victims held in Ahmedabad on November 16, Togadia charged CC co-editor, Teesta Setalvad, "who has married a Muslim man" (CC co-editor Javed Anand) with a conspiracy to "malign" the VHP. How? By brainwashing family members (Hindus) of the Godhra victims!

How is it possible for Teesta, sitting several hundred kilometres away in Mumbai, to brainwash family members of the Godhra victims living in Ahmedabad, the very city that is home to adarniya Togadiaji and adjacent to the abode of his political mentor, Narendra Modi? The answer is simple: To date, no one from the sangh parivar, which claims to be the sole custodian of all Hindus, has had the honesty to publicly respond to the charges made by the four families of the Godhra victims before the national and international press – that they had been cheated and betrayed by the very people who masqueraded as their saviours. The charges were neither vague nor general; they were pointed and specific.

As soon as the railway authorities announced a compensation amount of Rs. 4 lakh to family members of each of the Godhra victims, the VHP was eager to claim credit for the same. Unfortunately for Togadia and his ilk, the family members, who have petitioned the Supreme Court against the treachery of the parivar, refused to grace the ‘prayer meeting’ and thus legitimise Togadia’s hollow boast.

We can understand Togadia’s discomfort. By his inability and the inability of his entire parivar, particularly in Gujarat, to respond to the charges hurled at them by the surviving members of those who died in the inferno at Godhra, they stand exposed as nothing but frauds. Togadia’s special ire at Teesta Setalvad is also understandable. For it was through her that the families of the Godhra victims approached the Mumbai-based Citizens for Justice and Peace (of which she is the secretary), requesting help in their quest for justice, just as it had done in response to the earlier plea of the Zahira Shaikh family in the Best Bakery case.

Togadia’s charge of Teesta being part of a "conspiracy" to "malign" the VHP is more than understandable. Imagine the plight of a man condemned to justify himself when in fact he is left with nothing to say. Teesta authored CC’s Genocide Gujarat 2002 report (March-April 2002), and was, moreover, convenor of the Concerned Citizens Tribunal which published the two-volume Crimes Against Humanity report in November last year. And in recent months, through petitions in the Supreme Court, CJP and Teesta have, through painstaking garnering of facts and through affidavits of the survivors and eyewitnesses in 10 pending trials, exposed the shocking subversions of the legal processes within Gujarat.

All this must be deeply disturbing from Togadia’s point of view; therefore his fulmination. It is another matter that in the course of his ranting the poor man ended up inadvertently adding a touch of hilarity to his absurdity by advising his foot soldiers not to speak to reporters… especially those of the English-language press as they… may be working for Teesta! The national press at our service, nothing less!

But finally, the fatwa from the Fuhrer: a diktat to his squads to ensure that Teesta does not enter Gujarat in future. After your outfit’s role in the genocide last year, we know that this is no laughing matter, we know exactly what this means. While we are not going to be cowed down by such threats, we take this open excitement of frenzied minds seriously. And for this brazen incitement to violence, adarniya Togadia, we will hold you to account. In a court of law, and very soon.

EDITORS.


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