The Trial Show

Babar, with 10 wives and 6 children, was the first Muslim emperor from Central Asia – One who founded the Mughal Dynasty in India and ruled in the early 16^th Century. According to some texts, he was a great tormentor and a merciless killer – “Maut ka Maseeha - A messenger of Death”. Babar’s atrocities on Hindu women were to find special mention – He would order his soldiers to shave their braided hair with blades and choke their throats with dust.

Over 400 years later, on December 6, 1992, thousands of hardline Hindu activists had gone on rampage in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh to demolish one of the largest and oldest mosques in India built by and named after Babar – The Babri Masjid. The alleged reason was a Hindu belief that the mosque had been built by Babar after demolishing a temple existing in the same place to commemorate the birthplace of Rama.

The Muslim backlash in Uttar Pradesh post the demolition of Babri Masjid was instant. They came out with swords in their hands and slaughtered several Hindus in the streets of Ayodhya and numerous other villages all across the state and the nation. Military was deployed in several places. It took over one week and several lives to restore some kind of normalcy. Nearly a month later, a Hindu family of mill workers was sleeping peacefully in Radhabai Chawl of Jogeshwari, a Muslim dominated suburb of North Bombay. Someone locked the door from outside and threw a petrol bomb from outside. The family of 6 was roasted alive trying to crawl their way out from the door but to no avail. The flames were destined to set the whole city of Bombay on fire. The Hindus pledged to fight back and found able support from the police.

Mobs of Hindus gathered throughout the city – Both men and women – They were informed about the Radhabai Chawl massacre. They picked up any weapon they could and marched towards the Muslim areas of the city. A rioter later gives a first person account of one incident. He met a pav (Bread from the famous Bombay Pav Bhaji) walla on the highway riding his bicycle – The Muslim pav walla was well known to him since he had been supplying bread to his family since several years every morning. They poured petrol on him and burnt him alive while he kept crying “I have children! Have Mercy!”

A day later, Saamna, the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, a daily newspaper primarily popular amongst the lower middle class Maharashtrian Hindu population, carried a column by its editor Balasaheb Thackeray that read: “Pakistan need not cross the border and attack India. The two hundred and fifty Muslims in India loyal to Pakistan will stage an armed uprising – They form one of Pakistan’s seven atomic bombs. A Muslim, whichever country he belongs to, is a Muslim first – Nation is given secondary importance.”

Sheikh Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar was born in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra in 1955. He was one of ten children to police constable Ibrahim Kaskar, who, apparently, was a very honest man and continued to serve the police even after his son had become wealthy. He refused to receive any money from his son till he died. Dawood was in Dubai when the Muslims in Bombay were being targeted by the Hindus. He, along with several aides decided to reciprocate by an act of terror. They hatched a plan to rip the metropolis apart by planting powerful RDX bombs across key locations in the city. The bombs would detonate in a span of a couple of hours. The Intelligence had no inkling of such a plan since the infamous Bombay underworld had never been involved in terrorist activities. Before the bomb blasts, the city of Bombay was untouched by terror. Terror to Bombayites was a banal news item in daily papers restricted to Punjab and Kashmir.

15 Bombs exploded on Friday, March 12, 1993 between 1:30 pm and 3:40 pm in locations that represented Bombay to the world – Bombay Stock Exchange, The Air India Building in Nariman Point, Zaveri Bazaar, Plaza Theatre, Centaur Hotels near Santacruz Airport and Juhu Beach, Hotel Sea Rock at Bandstand, Bandra and several others. The attacks were the most destructive and coordinated in the history of the country. Grenades were thrown at Sahar International Airport. Majority of these blasts caused damage to life and property of Hindus but Muslims were not untouched by the misery.

There was uproar in the Indian parliament in New Delhi. The convicts had to be identified and put behind bars. The police was given a green signal to go on a man hunt and to discover the hand behind these blasts. What followed was unscrupulous high handedness on the part of Bombay Police, which, at the time was regarded as second best in the world to the Scotland Yard. Maharashtra, during that period, had the highest number of custodial deaths in the whole country – 200! This record outstrips many military dictatorships throughout the world.

“VOICES – From the Draconian Dungeons” was a document written by the suspects who were arrested under the TADA law and was sent to the UN and the press to draw attention to the sad state of human rights in Bombay. While most of the details presented in that document cannot be posted as part of this column (Self Enforced Censorship!), some *MILD* portions of the same are presented here. The document claims systematic torture by Bombay Police, not just of the suspects, but also of their wives, mothers, and infant children. There is a particular focus, with wounded relish, on the sexual torture of women. “A beautiful newly married convent-educated girl was stripped and her body was placed on an ice slab while drunk policemen violated her several times and inflicted cigarette burns. Najama was forced to eat up his father’s shit. Sons-in-law were undressed in front of mothers-in-law. Urine and feces were part of food. Spitting into mouth by specially bought leppers was normal”. This is just a very brief excerpt from a prosaic portion of this document. Ajay Lal, the then ACP of Bombay Police, candidly admits that parts of “Voices” are true; difficulty is in knowing which parts.

The saga of Religion versus Religion – Crime versus Punishment – Enforcement versus Encroachment is a never ending one. One that is omnipresent. The Government, Judiciary, Police, Press, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), Human Right Organizations are all cogs of a wheel that drives the world. And then there is also the farcical United Nations Organization, a world body aimed to facilitate cooperation in international law and security. On assessing the roles of each of the above, we see a big void – Perhaps a purposefully created ‘Bermuda Triangle’.

A majority of the Governments, the world over, in this day and age, are popular regimes, likely elected by the people of the country. These people’s representatives then become messiahs – With the power to rely on the consultancy services provided by bureaucrats and/or constitutional experts over law enhancement. The final decision to accede to their recommendations rests in the hands of these messiahs. It does not take rocket science then to understand that laws, many a time, are made keeping in mind their own vested interests. The Indian Penal Code, for instance, dates from 1861, over 150 years ago. But, that should not be of prime concern because we are still living in the Ba(r)barian era. Just like when Farhan Akhtar decides to remake the cult classic Don, the Don remains Don but the style becomes more today – more James Bondish. Likewise, while the world may have moved on from the era of Babar, we only want to think that the Barbarianism is over. But, it has only been converted to a stylized version of the same.

Judiciary is a system of courts that administer justice in the name of the sovereign or the state, and provide a so-called mechanism for the resolution of disputes. The judge/population ratio in the US is 107 judge/million people; India is at 13 judges/million. Disposal of suits proceeds at less than half of fresh filings – Filing lawsuits have no cost associated and an overwhelming majority are frivolous. In the world of manufacturing industry, judiciary, as an analogy, is the organization responsible for fixing up a batch of products that does not meet the QA standards set by the customer. It will not indulge to address the root cause of the problem that lead to the production of the faulty batch.

Definitely one of the most interesting characters in this grand conundrum is the Police. They are the Law Enforcers. As the name suggests, their job is to compel or force the people to abide by the laws. One wouldn’t need the help of a psychiatrist or a psychologist to lend proof to the theory that humans, by nature, like to tread the path they are not supposed to – A mother, a teacher or a preacher would always coax a child, a student or a disciple into believing a principle rather than enforcing it because it’s common knowledge that enforcement doesn’t always work on the long run.

Plus, as a separate issue, policing the police has, at best, become difficult to tackle. The Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case judgment by a trial court in Delhi (That blamed deliberate inaction by Delhi Police to protect the prime accused - son of the Inspector-General i.e. Second in Command of Delhi Police) acts as a testimony to the dismal ethics of our police force and IPS officers.

The Press, The NGOs, The Human Right Organizations, might all be critical pieces in the puzzle. But, the critical piece that is perhaps missing from this puzzle is an organization – an agency – a will – a commitment to continuously educate the people about the values of peace and non-violence – Very essential to bridge the theological differences. While the need for all the organizations, agencies and systems discussed here can certainly not be disregarded or dismissed, this single strong mission (Governmental on Non-Governmental) should take up this cause of sending across a fresh message. Agreed that an effort is made to preach these principles to the people fortunate enough to attend schools and universities – But, for the less privileged, this is left to …..?? (Left perhaps to the clerics and the netas – many of whom have enough given ample proof of their characters?!?!?)

Going back to the manufacturing industry analogy, this newly proposed organization would strive to ensure that faulty batch of products is never produced – The root cause of the issue will be addressed here. Like anything else, Certitude is not guaranteed – But, at least there is hope.

The Bombay Blasts case presented above is just a classical example of what we are and have been facing over the last few centuries. It just epitomizes the ever deteriorating ethics of the ruler, the ruled and the rule enforcer.

While the trials for the accused in the Bombay Blasts case draws to an end, we know that the illness is far from cured – Such occurrences will keep recurring.

So, perhaps, what we need (in parallel) is a Trial Show of a different kind – One for the enlightenment of souls and the betterment of all – A strong-willed mission to imbibe within the people’s consciousness the principles and values of peace, love and non-violence. It might take long but it may usher in an era of harmony!