A License to lie

A mob surrounded the house of former Congress MP Iqbal Ehsan Jaffri. His phone calls to the Director-General of Police, the Police Commissioner, the Chief Secretary, the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) were ignored. The mobile police vans around his house did not intervene. The mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters and burned them alive. Then they beheaded Ehsan Jaffri and dismembered him. Of course it’s only a coincidence that Jaffri was a trenchant critic of Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, during his campaign for the Rajkot Assembly by-election in February

 OUTLOOK, 6 MAY, 2002

Personally, I feel that the most nefarious and fiendish crime which can be perpetrated by a human being is rape. Therefore, stripping women, which is just short of the act is also something I find unforgivable. The graphic details and careful choice of words does have the tendency to accentuate the gravity of the offence.

Now just revisit the item and go over the bold part:

They stripped his daughters and burned them alive.

Since the article appears in English magazine, it must be true. It becomes all the more newsworthy if a Booker Prize winner and glamorous lady like Arundhati Roy is the author. The classical symbiotic arrangement; both increasing the news value of each other.

If you have not guessed so far, suzzane Arundhati Roy is talking about the Godhra riots.

The exact number of these daughters is not given in the item but the plural use of the term ensures us that there were at least two. So, let us ask the son of the hapless killed MP, thus the brother of the victim daughters who have been humiliated and burnt alive. His name is T.A. Jafri. This is what he told the 'Asian Age':

Among my brothers and sisters, I am the only one living in India. And I am the eldest in the family. My sister and brother live in the US. I am 40 years old and I have been born and brought up in Ahmedabad

What did he say? He says he has only one sister and she is alive and kicking in the land of opportunities. I am taking a little digression from the article but I think that in the last 64 years, if some place has to be labeled as 'Land of opportunities for scoundrels", then we will be a front runner. Back to the article.

Look at the audacity of this guy! He is trying to contradict a Booker Prize winner. Definitely such an honorable and beautiful recipient can not be wrong. She must be right. In fact, if any one of you has a doubt about the number of your siblings, you know whom to talk to about the real numbers. Did someone ever give her an idea to place an ad in the yellow pages. It will be something like -

"Completing your family tree. Do not trust your parents. We are here."

Daughters! Stripped! Burnt alive!

Brilliant imagination. And I always thought that the creator of 'Tom and Jerry' has been the most imaginative. Some of my friends, who know how much I appreciate her, try to put venom in my ears saying that her aim was to defame 'that Hindu bigot Narendra Modi' because she is a deadly combination of christianity (Suzzane Arundhati Roy), Marxism (Brinda Karat) and media (Prannoy Roy). The first two forces are anti humanity and the third is in their control. But the secularist that I am, I turn a deaf ear to this venom.

What is funny is that this Jafri guy, whose sisters were supposed to have been stripped and burnt alive had given the details of his siblings on 02/05/2006. i.e. four days before the write up of our 'Goddess of small truths' appeared. Had she not been discussing the Gandhian values with Mahatma Syed Ahmed Shah Geelani and अहिंसावादी Yaseen Malik, she might have come to know about the mix up. 

One must bear in mind that those who are in such peaceful company are not only intellectually sharp but also honest. That is why she apologized promptly. Her prompt clarification came about three weeks later, on 27/05/2002. Here it goes:

There is a factual error in my essay Democracy: Where’s she when she’s at home? (May 6). In describing the brutal killing of Ehsan Jaffri, I have said that his daughters had been killed along with their father. It has subsequently been pointed out to me that this is not correct. Eyewitness accounts say that Ehsan Jaffri was killed along with his three brothers and two nephews. His daughters were not among the 10 women who were raped and killed in Chamanpura that day.

 Naughty girl. Still trying to hold the upper hand. She further tells us about her sources. These are even more interesting.

I apologise to the Jaffri family for compounding their anguish. I’m truly sorry.

My information was cross-checked from two sources. Time magazine (March 11) in an article by Meenakshi Ganguly and Anthony Spaeth; and “Gujarat Carnage 2002: A Report to the Nation” by an independent fact-finding mission which included K.S. Subrahmanyam, former IGP Tripura, and S.P. Shukla, former finance secretary. I spoke to Mr Subrahmanyam about the error. He said his information at that time came from a senior police official.

Had someone hammered it into me that TIME is a prestigious magazine. Just like OUTLOOK. Notice how she passes the buck onto two experienced guys. They further talk about a senior official. This is a report to the nation. हे राम!

In the same illustrious essay, our eminent author had decorated another gem. It stated

Last night a friend from Baroda called. Weeping. It took her fifteen minutes to tell me what the matter was. It wasn’t very complicated. Only that Sayeeda, a friend of hers, had been caught by a mob. Only that her stomach had been ripped open and stuffed with burning rags. Only that after she died, someone carved ‘OM‘ on her forehead

 OUTLOOK, 6 MAY, 2002

I have read more ghoulish details before, therefore, I was not shocked by reading this news item but was angry nonetheless. What kind of pervert would do that to a dead body. Carving a word, which is considered to be sacred by so many people on the forehead of a victim is as barbaric and as rabid as it can get.

So, the picture to be painted has been given the final touches by ॐ!

If you have to tarnish the image of the oldest surviving civilization, can there be a better way? You don't get Booker for nothing. Being a secular, it is our duty to denigrate everything Hindu and clap with glee when some such act is reported with the air of 'I told you so'. The advantage is you do not have to worry about a fatwa. On the contrary, you are welcomed in the fashionable circles.

But one such bigoted Hindu named Balbir Punj was moved after reading the plight. Since he has been a Rajya Sabha member, he thought of bringing out the truth. In this case, since a friend of Suzzane Arundhati Roy was a party, thus she could have pin pointed the victim, which, could help the law enforcement authorities to proceed.

Did she help?

Do not be so naive. She said that the Police had no authority to question her. Of course, she is right.

Helping a Hindu bigot to bring justice in a state ruled by another bigot, NEVER. 

Remember Sayeeda, the victim of the story?

She was a figment of fertile imagination of a secularist, just like stripped and burnt alive daughters of a hapless Muslim.

Do you get the picture?

This is known as generating 'atrocity literature' which can be used to tarnish the image of Sanatan Dharm. Who is going to cross check the facts? Most of the people will believe any balderdash dished out to them.