False terror charges slapped on innocent Muslims, admits Sadananda Gowda

[email protected] (News Network)
June 1, 2016

Aligarh, Jun 1: For the first time a prominent BJP leader and a senior minister in Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the centre has admitted the fact that innocent Muslims were being framed in terror cases in India.

gowda“Cases of arrest of Muslim youths on false terror charges are a matter of concern,” said DV Sadananda Gowda, the Union Minister for Law and Justice during his Aligarh visit for the 'Vikas Parv' celebrations to mark two years of Modi government.

The law minister said this when he was asked about rising instances of false terror charges against Muslim youths and the problems of rehabilitation they face after their acquittal.

Mr Gowda, who was once known for his provocative speeches against Muslims, especially in coastal Karnataka, said that legal reforms were in the pipeline to address such cases.

“The law commission is working on a report in this matter to bring about reforms in criminal procedure, bail, prosecution lapses, etc. A Supreme Court judge is the chairperson of a panel preparing the report, and there are other legal experts who are helping in preparing this report, and it is being worked upon," he said.

Mr Gowda's remarks on the thorny subject have come barely a week after home minister Rajnath Singh said that "the government has settled for a calibrated approach to terror investigations, advising police to adopt a more sophisticated approach, including de-radicalisation strategies, rather than necessarily prosecuting all suspects".

Singh had then gone on to point out how the Delhi Police had recently released seven of the 10 suspects held for their alleged involvement in a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror plot. "You would have seen only three of the lot were arrested. We are working in a balanced manner. Earlier, all would be sent (to jail)," he had then said.

Slapped with untenable terror charges, many Muslim men have lost the prime years of their lives as they languished in jail. After their release they have found it difficult to adjust to a world that has changed in the interim, graduating from buses to metros, banks to ATMs, landlines to smartphones.

Recently, Nisaruddin Ahmad was acquitted in the Babri anniversary blast case after he spent 23 years in a Jaipur jail. There have been others too. Mohd Amir Khan was acquitted in 17 out of the 19 terrors charges he was fending off, but only after being incarcerated for 14 years. He had been charged with setting off 20 low-intensity bombs over 10 months during 1996-1997 in Delhi, Rohtak, Panipat and Ghaziabad. He told reporters on Tuesday: "The government has policies to rehabilitate surrendered terrorists, but nothing for those who are falsely charged."

In the past, six Muslim men accused of being trained operatives of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islam (HUJI) were acquitted of the terror charges for lack of evidence by a special court in Lucknow. Five Muslim youths who were arrested in 2006 by the Mumbai police from different parts of the city on charges of terrorism were also acquitted this year. Gulzar Ahmad Bani, an alleged Hizbul Mujahideen operative who had been in jail from 2001 in a blast case in Agra, was set free for want of evidence by a local court.

The problem runs deep. A film based on legal activist Shahid Azmi, who himself faced false charges and after his release fought to defend those accused wrongly in cases of terrorism, poignantly points that out. Mufti Abdul Qayyum, who had spent 11 years in jail and was later acquitted by the Supreme Court in the Akshardham attack case, wrote a book, 'Gyarah Saal Salakhon Ke Peeche', narrating the stories of trumped up terror charges.

Comments

Annu
 - 
Thursday, 2 Jun 2016

This statement is 100% true, \False terror chargers slapped on innocent muslims\". We all knew that why BJP leaders are show their sympathy/Love towards Muslims/Daliths/Christians/Poor, before they get into power in the State/Country, and also we knew about the things happening till now in BJP's GOVT. So Please Sadananda sir we Karnataka people are having faith on BROTHERHOOD, we love to remain as we are now- we are HINDU-MUSLIM brothers, don't make us to hate each other by bringing bad politics in our state. If you really having the Sympathy/love towards Karnataka people please change your party. We all together will make a New GOVT with right Minister."

SK
 - 
Thursday, 2 Jun 2016

Naren, why are you spoiling your health by shouting from Singapore....In Singapore you better enjoy Snake dishes , cat & rat dishes.....Good luck to you...... Remember How Bajpayee is suffering since 5 yeras, bed ridden, dumb and deaf.....Take care of your health...

Seedibath
 - 
Wednesday, 1 Jun 2016

Yes Mr. Kotian, Now Indians know very well who are the terrorists and who are innocent, Thoda Thoda parda hut raha he sir, jab poora hut jaayegaatho patha chalega kitna badsoorth hai, yeh so colled Raaashtreeeya vaaadeeees ......... Goonde,Badmash, smuglers, bevude, rapist saare deshbhakthonka mukhota pehenkar Ghoom rahe hai bhai.....

Naren kotian
 - 
Wednesday, 1 Jun 2016

Aithalakadi jummah sorry ummah...ley magane muchkondu irappa saaku ..keep your threatening to your ummah ..it doesn't work with us ..whether u take or leave it ..who cares. ..fact is well in front of us. ..jai Sri ram ..bholo Bharath mata ki jai ...even millions of traitors funded by Islamic countrie try s to back stab India ..we are there to protect our nation mama....because you know we are nationalist Indians community and uppu tinda manege droha bagedu gottilla maams ..haha

UMMAR
 - 
Wednesday, 1 Jun 2016

@ naren kotian,

shut ur mouth

we know who are terorists in india ..
one day alll drama will come infront of media

Shaad
 - 
Wednesday, 1 Jun 2016

Reasons behind this,
1. Preparation for UP election.
2. Releasing Innocent Muslims from jail to ignore Prajnya Singh's acquittal.
3. Minority appeasement for their \Congress Mukht Bharat\" agenda.
4. Control so called Sufism and to grow Sufism religion all over India.
5. To gain sympathy and encourage Muslims to join 'Rashtreeya Muslim Munch'"

Welwisher
 - 
Wednesday, 1 Jun 2016

He is fooling people by supporting muslims. Naam ka vasthe Aisa boltha hei kameena...

naren kotian
 - 
Wednesday, 1 Jun 2016

his statements are twisted by muslim organisations ...whether we agree or not , very big % of anti nationals and deshdrohis originate from one particular comunity ,which has its roots in saudi .:) haha... they are being acquitted not becoz of that ... their team is systematicaly might be threatening witnesses and some witness have died due to the delay in judicial process ... even third rated loafer rashid malabar played fake victimisation , but indeed he was a ISI sharp shooter . now khangrace govt is silent on him as his community members is their main vote bank .

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News Network
July 20,2020

Bengaluru, July 20: The Karnataka government has reiterated that no final decision has so far been taken on reopening of schools in the state.

The clarification comes after minutes of the July 15 HRD ministry meeting where Karnataka education department officials said schools are reopening on September 1 went viral on social media. 

“The state government has not decided yet on starting schools. That they will reopen in September was only a general opinion expressed by our officials at the meeting. At present, we have no plans to start schools unless there is a conducive environment. There’s no need for anxiety,” said primary and secondary minister S Suresh Kumar.

Kumar said the government is involved in meeting the education sector’s changed priorities in the current scenario.

The minutes were of a virtual conference on school-safety plans, with representatives of state governments and Union territories expressing views on reopening of schools. 

Against the name of Karnataka, “After September 1” was written. Similar datelines were given by Kerala, Ladakh, Manipur, Rajasthan, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, while in case of many other states it said “no decision”.

An education department official said Karnataka submitted to MHRD that it will be able to take a decision only after September 1, depending on the situation in the state.

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Ram Puniyani
February 4,2020

As democracy is seeping in slowly all over the world, there is an organization which is monitoring the degree of democracy in the individual countries, The Economist Intelligence Unit. As such in each country there are diverse factors which on one hand work to deepen it, while others weaken it. Overall there is a march from theoretical democracy to substantive one. The substantive democracy will herald not just the formal equality, freedom and community feeling in the country but will be founded on the substantive quality of these values. In India while the introduction of modern education, transport, communication laid the backdrop of beginning of the process, the direction towards deepening of the process begins with Mahatma Gandhi when he led the non-cooperation movement in 1920, in which average people participated. The movement of freedom for India went on to become the ‘greatest ever mass movement’ in the World.

The approval and standards for democracy were enshrined in Indian Constitution, which begins ‘We the people of India’, and was adopted on 26th January 1950. With this Constitution and the policies adopted by Nehru the process of democratization started seeping further, the dreaded Emergency in 1975, which was lifted later restored democratic freedoms in some degree. This process of democratisation is facing an opposition since the decade of 1990s after the launch of Ram Temple agitation, and has seen the further erosion with BJP led Government coming to power in 2014. The state has been proactively attacking civil liberties, pluralism and participative political culture with democracy becoming flawed in a serious way. And this is what got reflected in the slipping of India by ten places, to 51st, in 2019. On the index of democracy India slipped down from the score of 7.23 to 6.90. The impact of sectarian BJP politics is writ on the state of the nation, country.

Ironically this lowering of score has come at a time when the popular protests, the deepening of democracy has been given a boost and is picking up with the Shaheen Bagh protests. The protest which began in Shaheen Bagh, Delhi in the backdrop of this Government getting the Citizenship amendment Bill getting converted into an act and mercilessly attacking the students of Jamia Milia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University along with high handed approach in Jamia Nagar and neighbouring areas.  From 15th December 2019, the laudable protest is on.

It is interesting to note that the lead in this protest has been taken by the Muslim women, from the Burqa-Hijab clad to ‘not looking Muslim’ women and was joined by students and youth from all the communities, and later by the people from all the communities. Interestingly this time around this Muslim women initiated protest has contrast from all the protests which earlier had begun by Muslims. The protests opposing Shah Bano Judgment, the protests opposing entry of women in Haji Ali, the protests opposing the Government move to abolish triple Talaq. So far the maulanas from top were initiating the protests, with beard and skull cap dominating the marches and protests. The protests were by and large for protecting Sharia, Islam and were restricted to Muslim community participating.

This time around while Narendra Modi pronounced that ‘protesters can be identified by their clothes’, those who can be identified by their external appearance are greatly outnumbered by all those identified or not identified by their appearance.

The protests are not to save Islam or any other religion but to protect Indian Constitution. The slogans are structured around ‘Defence of democracy and Indian Constitution’. The theme slogans are not Allahu Akbar’ or Nara-E-Tadbeer’ but around preamble of Indian Constitution. The lead songs have come to be Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s ‘Hum Dekhenge’, a protest against Zia Ul Haq’s attempts to crush democracy in the name of religion. Another leading protest song is from Varun Grover, ‘Tanashah Aayenge…Hum Kagaz nahin Dikhayenge’, a call to civil disobedience against the CAA-NRC exercise and characterising the dictatorial nature of the current ruling regime.

While BJP was telling us that primary problem of Muslim women is Triple talaq, the Muslim women led movements has articulated that primary problem is the very threat to Muslim community. All other communities, cutting across religious lines, those below poverty line, those landless and shelter less people also see that if the citizenship of Muslims can be threatened because of lack of some papers, they will be not far behind in the victimization process being unleashed by this Government.

While CAA-NRC has acted as the precipitating factor, the policies of Modi regime, starting from failure to fulfil the tall promises of bringing back black money, the cruel impact of demonetisation, the rising process of commodities, the rising unemployment, the divisive policies of the ruling dispensation are the base on which these protest movements are standing. The spread of the protest movement, spontaneous but having similar message is remarkable. Shaheen Bagh is no more just a physical space; it’s a symbol of resistance against the divisive policies, against the policies which are increasing the sufferings of poor workers, the farmers and the average sections of society.

What is clear is that as identity issues, emotive issues like Ram Temple, Cow Beef, Love Jihad and Ghar Wapasi aimed to divide the society, Shaheen Bagh is uniting the society like never before. The democratisation process which faced erosion is getting a boost through people coming together around the Preamble of Indian Constitution, singing of Jan Gan Man, waving of tricolour and upholding the national icons like Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Ambedkar and Maulana Azad. One can feel the sentiments which built India; one can see the courage of people to protect what India’s freedom movement and Indian Constitution gave them.

Surely the communal forces are spreading canards and falsehood against the protests. As such these protests which is a solid foundation of our democracy. The spontaneity of the movement is a strength which needs to be channelized to uphold Indian Constitution and democratic ethos of our beloved country.

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News Network
February 21,2020

New Delhi, Feb 21: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the sedition case registered against a Karnataka school management for allegedly allowing students to stage an anti-CAA, anti-NRC drama that 'portrayed Prime Minister Narendra Modi in poor light'.

The petition seeks quashing of the FIR against the principal and other staff of the Shaheen School at Bidar who have been booked under sections 124-A (sedition) and 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the Indian Penal Code.

In the petition filed on Thursday, social activist Yogita Bhayana has also sought an apex court direction for a proper mechanism to deal with alleged government misuse of the sedition law.

Section 124A of the IPC says that "whoever brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards... the Government shall be punished with imprisonment for life...".

Bhayana, in the plea, has sought a direction to the Centre and the Karnataka government "to quash the FIR registered in connection of seditious charges against the school management, teacher and a widowed parent of a student for staging a play criticizing CAA, NRC, and NPR."

The petition claimed the police "also questioned students, and videos and screenshots of CCTV footage showing them speaking to the students were shared widely on social media, prompting criticism."

It further quoted the school principal, alleging that "on one occasion, police in uniform questioned students, with no child welfare officials present".

The plea said that the "proceedings were violative of Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution and abuse of process of law."

"Issue an order directing the Centre to constitute a committee to scrutinise complaints under 124-A IPC and adhere to judgments by the apex court before registering the FIR under the section 124-A IPC," the petition said.

The drama was staged on January 21 by students of fourth, fifth and sixth standard.

The sedition case was filed based on a complaint from social worker Neelesh Rakshyal on January 26.

The complainant has alleged that the school authorities "used" the students to perform a drama where they "abused" Modi in the context of the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens.

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