Just as during the festival of Holi, people take a lot of liberties with
each other saying “Bura na maano, Holi hai” (please don’t mind, this is
Holi), so also the new mantra of the Congress party is to respond to charges of
heinous corruption, murders, mayhem, rapes and instigating riots is: “Bura
na mano, we are Secular”. However,
the pranks people play on Holi are relatively innocent and the play is with
colours. But the Congress is playing a very divisive and bloody game which has
life and death consequences for India
and its people.
The mask of “secularism” is what allows numerous Kamal Naths to continue
to reign supreme in the Congress Party despite their involvement in the 1984
massacre of Sikhs; this is how Congress Party can overlook thousands of
communal and caste riots under its regimes;
this is how Lalu Yadav and Mayawati as valued partners of UPA brazen out
corruption cases against them; this is how a goonda infested party headed by
Mulayam Singh Yadav, charged with massive scams retains the badge of honour
reserved for “secular” allies of Congress party; this is how Abhishek Manu
Singhvi returns as Congress party’s official spokesman despite the most revolting
evidence of him demanding sexual favours from a woman lawyer aspiring to be a
Judge of the Delhi High Court; this is how the Party can justify its alliance
with Muslim League in Kerala; this is how Sonia Gandhi and her relatives get
away with using the state machinery to protect them from countless charges of
corruption and crime; this is how Omar
Abdullah keeps getting good character certificates from the Congress High
Command despite having been personally
implicated in humungous corruption, large scale human rights abuses and
killings under his regime, including
alleged murder of a senior party colleague. The list of all sins, all
crimes justified/forgiven to the Congress Party and its allies because of the
mask of secularism are endless.
A good illustration of this mind set is the sudden
propping up of IPS Officer Sanjiv Bhatt as one of the prime stars of anti Modi
Brigade in 2009.
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R.K Raghavan
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On 23rd March 2008, in response to a petition
filed by Ehsan Jafri’s widow, Zakia Jafri along with Teesta Setalvad, alleging criminal conspiracy by Narendra
Modi’s government, a "deliberate and intentional failure" to protect
life and property, and failure to fulfill their constitutional duty, the
Supreme Court appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by
former Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief R K Raghavan, to "inquire and investigate" cases
relating to the various incidents connected with 2002 riots. In 2009, the Court
directed the SIT to investigate the actions of Modi and 62 other people named in
Jafri’s petition. (I will write about this petition later). It is at this
point that Bhatt was brought in as a prime witness against Modi.
Sanjiv Bhatt made three allegations against
Modi in 2009. The Special Investigative Team appointed and monitored by the
Supreme Court of India dismissed each one of those allegations to be false and
motivated. After prolonged and thorough inquiries among several other reasons
cited by the SIT to dismiss Bhatt’s charges, they noted:
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Sanjiv Bhatt has not been able to give any satisfactory explanation
why he did not file an affidavit before Nanavati Commission and also did not
appear as a witness in response to the Govt. circular before any legal
authority when he was in possession of plethora of information and was an
eyewitness to some of the important events.
He fails to explain why he did not respond to a public notice issued by
SIT on 11-04-2008. His silence for a period of more than nine years without any
proper explanation appears to be callous and gives an impression that he is
trying to manipulate things to his personal advantage to settle his service
matters.” (SIT report page no.35-36)
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On being questioned, as to why did he not appear as a witness in
response to a public notice issued by SIT on 11-03-2008, he claimed that he did
not disclose the same to anyone, as it would not have been appropriate on his
part to divulge any information that he was privy to as an Intelligence Officer
unless he was under a legal obligation to do so.
-
He also stated that he did
not file any affidavit or appeared before any commission or body enquiring into
the communal riots of 2002, because he was not asked by the Govt. of Gujarat,
DGP or Addl. DG (Int.) to do so. However, he denied knowledge as to whether the
so called instructions given by the Chief Minister were passed on to the field
units by any of the officers, who had attended the meeting on 27-02-2002. [He needs to explain who put him under "legal obligation" to make common cause with anti Modi NGOs and Congress party to personally target Modi after 9 years of silence].
Instead of succeeding in getting Modi implicated, Sanjiv Bhatt
ended up being seriously indicted by the SIT for his mischief. SIT also took note of criminal cases against
Bhatt which are incidentally all from pre-Modi days. They include charges of recruitment
scam under his charge as SP Banaskanta, abduction, killings and planting
narcotics with a view to blackmail. The SIT report not only lists his past
criminal record and dubious credentials but also concludes after investigating
his charges that Bhatt lied and brought in tutored witnesses to implicate Modi.
Gujarat Vigilance Commission recommended twice on 15-07-2002 and 19-10-2006
that Sanjiv Bhatt should be placed under suspension for his professional misconducts,
but Bhatt managed to get stay orders from the court each time. SIT concludes: “…it can be inferred that Sanjiv Bhatt is facing a lot of
problems in service matters and has got an axe to grind against the Govt. of
Gujarat and, therefore, his evidence is ill motivated and cannot be relied
upon.”
But since the media either ignored the SIT report or joined Teesta
Setalvad in attacking SIT and continued repeating the same old hackneyed
charges against Modi even after he was cleared by the SIT report, Bhatt
continued being treated as a hero who had taken on the “Hitlerian tyrant” Modi.
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Shweta Bhatt with Sanjiv Bhatt during an election campaign rally
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Congress rewarded Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife Shweta Bhatt with a Congress
ticket to fight the 2012 election against Narendra Modi. Shweta Bhatt’s
campaign was run by a colourful coalition that included Shabnam Hashmi’s Anhad,
Teesta Setalvad’s CJP, Togadia’s VHP, Vinay Katyar’s Bajrang Dal and elements
of the RSS!
Glimpse into Bhatt's Past History
A batch mate of Sanjiv Bhatt who has known him from the days of their
training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy in Mussoorie told me that from the
very start he had acquired such a notorious reputation that no self-respecting
trainees wanted to engage with him. Even after he joined the service, he was
shunned by the honest among officers because of his dirty deals and high handed
behaviour.
This is what former Additional Director General Police; AI Syed who was
his direct boss for some time and wrote his first “Annual Confidential Report”
(ACR) had to say about him:
“When I was Superintendent
of Police in Mehsana, Sanjiv Bhatt was my supernumerary. I wrote his first ACR
in which I said: ‘He acts first and thinks later’. He really needed to be kept
under control. Before he left Mehsana I told some officers, his actions are so
wild he will be in jail someday. That was my prediction in 1990. He would open
fire over petty things. For example, at one time he fired at a group of
youngsters simply because they were gambling. At the time of 2002 riots, he was
nowhere on the scene. He had so many cases and complaints against him including
charges of abduction, extortion and unprovoked firing that he was not getting a
promotion. The Vigilance Commission had recommended his suspension. But DG
Pandey took pity on him. He corrected his ACRs and promoted him as DIG. He was
sent as a training officer near SRP, Junagarh. But Bhatt wanted to be posted in
Ahmedabad. So he decided to create a ruckus. He is known for using blackmail
any time he is in trouble or denied a promotion. Had he been posted in
Ahmedabad, he would have not filed false cases against Modi and his officers.
He is a sirfira (crackpot) type. A man who is callous with his own
parents is not going to be loyal to anyone else. I know him inside out (rag-
rag jaanta hoon main iski). When his father was lying critically ill in
hospital, he never went to see him once.
When Sanjiv Bhatt was
posted as SP, Rajpipla in Narmada district,
the prince of Rajpipla invited him to stay for free in a part of his Palace.
Even after her got transferred out of Rajpipla, he refused to vacate the palace.
What is worse he had started an affair with the wife of his benefactor. That
was another reason for his refusal to vacate the Palace. He is essentially a namak
haram- never true to the salt of his benefactors. The DG Police as well as
Congress leader Ahmed Patel had to intervene to get him to vacate the palace.
This is the kind of life
he has lived and now he pretends to be the new Mahatma Gandhi. This is all
dirty politics. They are not going to get honest officers to make false
complaints. Only compromised people will do so. The reason is they have their
share in everything. They have gobbled up enormous loads of money in the name
of helping riot victims. For that they need to keep the Muslim community in a
state of siege.”
A senior official told me: “Sanjiv Bhatt was always given
inconsequential postings to minimise his nuisance value and harmful
tendencies.” Another senior bureaucrat said:
“Bhatt has a long track record of blackmailing
not just people under his charge but also his fellow officers and bosses. Every
time he gets into trouble, he resorts to blackmail. In all his postings, he
committed plenty of high handed acts. Most people are terrified of filing cases
against police officers because they have the power and clout to ruin your
life. But three serious criminal cases
filed against him reached the courts. But Bhatt is a past master in getting
stay orders in cases against him. That is why action could not be taken against
him; despite a very unsavoury track record and even after the Vigilance Commission
ordered his suspension. Since Bhatt is a Gujarati and there are very few
Gujarati’s in bureaucracy, Bhatt is able to play on Gujarati connections to
escape punishment. This time round Supreme Court came to his rescue by giving a
stay order on Bhatt’s trial.”
I provide relevant sections of the SIT report indicting Bhatt for
his pre-2002 misdemeanours that resulted in criminal cases against him as well
as his testimony against Modi. Sections marked in blue are my comments. The rest of the paras are staright from SIT report with minor editorial changes in the interest of brevity.
