Jayesh Salgaonkar's promise to his voters

 

My edit on Herald publications dated 15th March has got the backing of a Video by Prudent news and Mr. Rodrigues who has brought it out today. People have lost faith in politics of honesty and selflessness. Its more of lies and self interest now.
 https://www.facebook.com/aires.rodrigues.10/videos/811125639041246/

 

Unfolding of political games - my letter on herald people edit dt 15.03.2017

Unfolding of political games

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GOa Forward Party slogan got them the votes but have they come up to the peoples aspiratioins

The political games unfolded since the declaration of the  poll results has given heart burns to the electorate  who had put in sincere trust in the Goem Goemkar Goemkarpon  party. For the first time people had put in their trust in them with high hopes of Goan-ness which the party had promised. In run up to the elections the candidates had promised the voters that they will never join at any circumstances  the then ruling party which was BJP  and would sit in the opposition,  This confidence of the novice contenders had given them the much required votes of both the major party's, loyalist. Voters had put in the faith in these youngsters who were to be the guardians of secularism and fight for goan issues so dear to us . The lone ranger who fought tooth and nail  against the anti Goan policies of the BJP govt. instead of undoing the past  wrongs has gone and sat with the same people responsible for destroying GOA in the name of development  The Goa forward party had a very long journey to embark upon in taking Goa forward along with the people  and their aspirations. The party  was looked upon by the goan populace as a true goan party that is truly of the  Goans by the Goans and for the Goans .  If only the power race had not been gone to the head of these elected representatives their objectives derailed out of track on the issues and ethics that they fought the elections  then they had bright future as the sole Goan regional party with a  difference  but with the move to support the BJP in getting a back door entry on the ruling benches have indeed severely damaged their image. Standing with the same  party who is rejected by the Goan people instead of accepting the peoples verdict you have helped them in forming a govt. which has put your reputation at stake  This treachery is more then just to convince us of being our  watch dog in the ruling dispensasion as the miss trust is a huge thing to recover from. Your short term aspirations have put an end to the long term power you could have had in the future Goan political scenario as a goan party for the Goans.

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Sangolda
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-Fr. Cedric Prakash sj article of 28the feb 2017

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TODAY: FIFTEEN YEARS AGO!

                                                                                                                   -Fr. Cedric Prakash sj*

 

 

It’s fifteen years today! How soon the years fly by. Some things however, are never forgotten. The memories are still fresh. The pain, the suffering, the trauma – though not visible – still lingers on. Only those who have gone through it know deep down, what it means to lose a loved one. That too through such inhuman brutality.Rupa and Dara Mody still wait for their only son Azhar, who went missing on February 28^th 2002, to come home. The nightmare for many continue. The masterminds: the main culprits still roam with impunity and immunity. It was, indeed one of the bloodiest chapters of post-independent India. Certainly, the only one presided over and engineered by those responsible for protecting the lives and property of ordinary citizens. Sadly, it is still not a closed chapter. It was no ordinary riot: it was the Gujarat Genocide of 2002!

 

Today after fifteen years, many may agree that there must be healing; but for that to take place, the victim-survivors have to experience the triumph of truth and justice. A painful reality can never be swept under the carpet. The wheels of justice have moved in some cases but the judiciary has still to prove that it serves the cause of justice alone; a good section of the media in India has been bought up and compromised and can no longer be impartial and objective. Fatigue does set.Moreover, (as we see in Delhi University today), the fascist and fundamentalist forces responsible for what happened in 2002 and are still blatantly  at work in the country. True there have been several convictions, thanks to the dogged determination of human rights stalwarts like Teesta Setalvad and others.

 

Very ironically, the one who presided over the Gujarat Genocide, ‘rules’ the country today. That is  a sad and bitter truth. The mayhem and murder of innocent men, women and children; rapes, arson, loot, displacement and denigration of thousands of Muslims- just does not seem to have mattered. It all seemed part of a game in which one scores brownie points. Your dastardly deeds gain legitimacy through the ballot box. After all, Hitler succeeded immensely because of the lies, myths and half-truths dished out by Goebbels, his Propaganda Minister. Tragically, a similar story here!

 

It was certainly very unfortunate that fifty-nine persons lost their lives when the S-G coach of the Sabarmati Express caught fire on February 27^th 2002, just outside the Godhra Railway Station. The whole truth on what caused the fire is still not out. Nothing else happened for more than twenty-four hours after that; not in Gujarat, not anywhere else in India. Sadly, enough from the afternoon of February 28^th, began those dark and violent days, which would make any human being to squirm and to hang one’s head down in shame.

 

In December 2003, the then Chief Justice of India V.N. Khare presiding over a Divisional Bench of the Supreme Court criticized the Government of Gujarat saying, “I have no faith left in the prosecution and the Gujarat Government. I am not saying Article 356. You have to protect people and punish the guilty. What else is raj dharma? You quit if you cannot prosecute the guilty. “Some years later in February 2012 in a landmark ruling, the Acting Chief Justice of Gujarat Bhaskar Bhattacharya, very emphatically stated, “Gujarat government’s inadequate response and inaction (to contain the riots) resulted in an anarchic situation which continued unabated for days on…the state cannot shirk from its responsibilities”.

 

In the context of the many cases and the fact that several fingers were pointing to the connivance of the Modi Government, the Supreme Court of India appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into certain cases, very specially a complaint made by Zakia Jafri with regard to the murder of her husband, the former Member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri and several others. It is common knowledge that the SIT played a very dubious and partisan role in key cases. The SITs Final Report was also challenged. It had just too many grey areas with gaping loopholes. It went all out to protect the masterminds of this carnage. Whatever that Report said or did not say, the complicity and the culpability of the powerful and of certain vested interests, has never ever been doubted.

 

There have been numerous efforts to consign Gujarat 2002 to the fires of history. Efforts have been made, by the most powerful in the land to buy up people and to coopt others, to denigrate those who fought relentlessly for justice on behalf of the victim survivors.There are certainly the loud, shrill voices, who try to legitimize what happened in those bloody days. They provide all kinds of justification(however, weak)  “2002 was just an aberration in fact a distraction”; “look at the way, we have progressed since; the roads, the shopping malls, the riverfront, the flyovers...in fact all the industrialists want to come only to Gujarat”; “didn’t they deserve it, after all, they are but terrorists”; “why is the same importance  not being given to the massacre of the Sikhs in 1984 and for that matter, to the Hindu pundits in Kashmir?”; “We Muslims need to move on…” The rationalisations are typical.  They come from the unaffected, the ‘educated’ elite and from those who are afraid to deal with the past. Statements like these are often enveloped in a fear, which stills rules the roost. There are reprisals, there is revenge, and the powers stop at nothing. Remember the murder of former minister Haren Pandya, who testified before the ‘Citizens Tribunal’? A sizeable section of the population is terribly afraid of the plain truth. Many also suffer from selective amnesia!  However, Gujarat 2002 is not forgotten

Human Rights Defenders, who have taken up cudgels on behalf of the victim-survivors and take a stand for truth and justice – have been hounded and harassed no end. What is still happening to Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand is a case in point. False cases are foisted; all kinds of lies and half-truths are fabricated. Teesta however, has been relentless. Last month her memoirs, ‘Foot Solider of the Constitution’- was published. It makes compelling reading: of how one woman in the pursuit of justice and truth has taken on the might of the State. It is a must-read for all wish to preserve and promote the sanctity of our Constitution

In New Delhi today several concerned citizens gathered together as a REMEMBERANCE of 15 Years of the Gujarat Genocide. Zakia Jafri and her daughter Nishrin were there –reliving painful memories; Teesta Setalvad and Shabnam Hashmi; Harsh Mander and Apoorvanand; Manoj Jha and several others who have stood resolute in their struggle for justice.

One thing is clear, that the resilience of several victim-survivors and the heartaches and cries of strong women like Zakiaben and Rupaben will never go unheard! They will be vindicated! Fifteen years to date; but history has proved that however slow things are, truth, is always a non-negotiable! Above all, it is not for nothing our national motto is ‘Satyameva Jayate!’ Truth will triumph!

 

 

 

                                                                                                                         28^th   February 2017

* (Fr Cedric Prakash sj is a human rights activist. He is currently based in Lebanon, engaged with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in the Middle East on advocacy and   communications. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com)