Opinion One-eyed justice
The victims of the Bombay bomb blasts in March 1993 have got some measure of justice. But what about the victims of December 1992-January 1993?
Justice for Bombay,proclaimed the lead editorial in a prominent national daily a day after the Supreme Courts verdict in the March 1993 serial bomb blasts case. No doubt,the conviction of those found guilty of crimes as heinous as the blasts must be welcomed by all citizens who swear by the rule of law. But when the judgment is projected as justice for a city that was battered first by mob terror and then by bomb terror,a question needs to be asked: which Bombay,whose Bombay,are we talking about?
Where is justice for me? asked Kirti Ajmera,a businessman and survivor of the blasts,when we met in a TV studio on judgement day. Ajmera,who has lost count of the number of operations he has undergone in the last 20 years,has already spent over Rs 20 lakh from his own pocket. He obviously has not one kind word for the ruling Congress or the NCP. But his big disappointment that evening was the failure of the BJP spokesperson from Mumbai to show up for the discussion. This man claims to have done so much for the victims of the 1993 blasts. But I have yet to see his face,Ajmera fumed.
Ajmera is not the only survivor of the blasts left to fend for himself. Protecting the life and property of citizens is the constitutional obligation of governments. Having failed in their primary duty,should it not be incumbent upon state actors to rebuild battered,broken lives? But fair compensation and reparation,sadly,are never issues that trouble governments or agitate the media.
Also present in the TV studio that evening was Farooq Mapkar,a bank peon. He too is a survivor. Not of the bomb blasts,but of the Shiv Sena orchestrated,police-complicit targeting of the citys Muslims three months earlier,from December 1992 to January 1993. Mapkar was injured but lucky to have survived the bullets that sub-inspector Nikhil Kapse had let fly,unprovoked,inside the Hari Masjid at Wadala in central Mumbai. Kapse was indicted by the Srikrishna Commission for brutal and inhuman behaviour as well as unjustified firing,which killed six Muslims. It recommended his prosecution. Instead,Kapse got promoted while the victim was turned into an accused: Mapkar was charged with criminal offences ranging from rioting to murder. Mapkar was honourably acquitted by a sessions court in Mumbai in February 2009,16 years later.
Ajmera is one among the hundreds whose lives were devastated by the perpetrators of bomb terror. Mapkar is among the thousands whose lives were ruined by the perpetrators of mob terror: the same city under the watch of the same police and government. Retired police officer M.N. Singh,who headed the citys crime branch in 1993,is proud of the professionalism of the police,which ensured the conviction of over 80 per cent of the accused in the blasts case. But neither Singh nor anyone else in the state administration or police can explain how the very same professionals failed in procuring even 0.8 per cent conviction for the perpetrators of mob violence.
Sanjay Dutt has rightly been convicted for illegal possession of AKs and other arms in March 1993. Having already served 18 months in jail,he must now go back for a further 42 months. In January 1993,Shiv Sena leader Madhukar Sarpotdar was caught by the army while in possession of killer weapons,and handed over to the Mumbai police. Forget prosecution,Sarpotdar was not even put behind bars for a single day. Professional policing?
The Srikrishna Commission had severely indicted several police officers then joint police commissioner R.D. Tyagi and Kapse included and had recommended their prosecution. Instead,they all got promoted. The commission held Sena supremo Bal Thackeray guilty of acting like a veteran general in the January 1993 attack on Bombays Muslims. On his demise last year,he was accorded full state honours.
According to Justice B.N. Srikrishna,there appeared to be a cause and effect relationship between the two riots and the serial bomb blasts. Justice for the effect,no justice for the cause? None can fault the judiciary the TADA court in Mumbai earlier or the Supreme Court now for their verdicts in the bomb blasts case. But in a civilised democracy,the judicial process presupposes impartial enforcers of law-keepers the police. How,then,can one escape the conclusion that,in effect,the very verdicts that exonerate our judiciary damn the Mumbai police and successive Congress/ Congress-NCP governments for their partisan conduct?
Its not just a question of what the Maharashtra government and the police did or not 20 years ago. The same communal misconduct of the police was evident in Dhule in December 2012. Video recordings establish that the police shot to kill fleeing Muslims,broke open and looted Muslim shops. What is the message being sent out to society at large,some citizens in particular,in secular India?
When justice is blind it reinforces citizens faith in the system; one-eyed justice destroys that faith and nurtures alienation. The victims of March 1993 have got some measure of justice and that is a good thing. The victims of December 1992-January 1993 have been denied the same justice and that is a bad omen.
The writer is co-editor,Communalism Combat,and general secretary,Muslims for Secular Democracy
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