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Full and translated text of JNUSU president Kanahiya Kumar’s ‘seditious’ speech for which he was arrested.
They are the ones who burnt the Tricolour. They are followers of Savarkar who apologised to the British. They are the ones who, in Haryana, have changed the name of one airport. There was one airport named after Bhagat Singh. The Khattar government has now named it after one Sanghi (a person associated with the RSS).
What I mean to say is that we don’t need the certificate of patriotism from the RSS. We don’t need a nationalist certificate from the RSS. We belong to this country. We love this country. We fight for the 80 per cent of the poor population of this country. For us, this is nation worship.
We have full faith in Babasahab (Ambedkar). We have full faith in the Constitution of India. We want to say this very forcefully that if anyone tries to challenge the Constitution, be it the Sanghis, we will not tolerate.
We have faith in the Constitution. But we don’t have faith in the Constitution that is taught in Jhandewalan (RSS headquarters in Delhi) and Nagpur. We don’t have faith in Manusmriti, we don’t have faith in the caste system in this country.
The Constitution and Babasahab Ambedkar talk about corrective measures. The same Babasahab Ambedkar talks about abolishing capital punishment. The same Babasahab Ambedkar talks about freedom of expression. And we want to uphold the Constitution, we want to uphold our right.
But it’s shameful and sad that the ABVP, in association with their media friends, is running an orchestrated campaign.
Yesterday, the ABVP joint secretary said that we fight for fellowships. How ridiculous it sounds! Their government, Madam ManuSmriti Irani is ending fellowship and they accuse us of fighting for fellowships. Their government has reduced the higher education budget by 17 per cent.
Our hostel has not been built for the past four years, there is no Wi-fi. BHEL gave us one bus but the administration has no money for oil. And ABVP people stand like Dev Anand claiming that they will get hostels built, they will get Wi-fi and they will get fellowships.
They will be exposed if there is a debate on the basic issues in this country. We are proud of being JNU-ites because we discuss and debate the basic issues concerning this country. We raise issues related to the dignity of women, Dalits, tribals and minorities in this country. And so, their Swamy (Subramanian Swamy) says that jihadis live in JNU, that JNU students spread violence.
On behalf of JNU, I want to challenge RSS ideologues. Call us and hold a debate. We want to debate the concept of violence. We want to raise questions about the frenzied ABVP’s slogans, their slogan that they will do tilak with blood and aarti with bullets. Whose blood do they want to spill? They aligned with the British and fired bullets on the freedom fighters of this country. They fired bullets when poor people demanded bread; they fired bullets when people dying of hunger talked about their rights; they have fired bullets on Muslims; they have fired bullets on women when they demand equal rights.
They say that five fingers are not equal. They advocate that women should emulate Sita and give agnipariksha. There is democracy in this country, and democracy gives equal rights to all – be it a student, a worker, the poor or the rich, Ambani or Adani. And when we talk about equal rights of women, they accuse us of destroying Indian culture.
We want to destroy the culture of exploitation, the culture of caste, the culture of Manuwad and Brahminism. Till now, the definition of culture has not been resolved. They have a problem when people of this country talk about democracy, when they give blue salute along with red salute, when people talk about Ambedkar along with Marx, when people talk about Asfaqulla Khan (the freedom fighter). They can’t tolerate. It is their conspiracy. They were British stooges. I dare them to file a defamation case against me. I say that the RSS’s history is of siding with the British. These traitors today are distributing certificates of nationalism.
Check my mobile phone, friends. Dirty abuses are being hurled at my mother and sister. Which Mother India are you talking about? If my mother is not part of your Mother India, your concept of Mother India is not acceptable to me.
My mother is an Anganwadi sewika, my family runs with the Rs 3,000 she earns and they are abusing her. I’m ashamed that in this country, the mothers of the poor, Dalit farmers are not part of Mother India. I will hail the mothers of this country, I will hail the fathers of this country, I will hail the mothers and sisters of this country, I will hail the poor farmers, Dalits, tribals and labourers. I will tell them that if they have courage, then say ‘Inquilab zindabad’, say ‘Bhagat Singh zindabad’, say ‘Sukhdev zindabad’, say ‘Asfaqulla Khan zindabad’, say ‘Babasahab Ambedkar zindabad’. Only then will I believe that you have faith in this country.
They are enacting the drama of celebrating Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary. If they have courage, they should raise the issues Ambedkar raised. Caste system is one of the biggest problems in this country. Talk about caste system, bring reservation in every sector, bring reservation in the private sector. Raise these questions, then I will believe that you have faith in this country.
This nation had never been yours and will never be yours. A nation is made by its people and if there is no place for hungry and poor people in your idea of the nation, then it is no nation.
Yesterday, I said in one TV debate that we are in difficult times. The way fascism is coming in the country, even the media would not be spared. The media would be provided with written scripts from the RSS office, just as written scripts came from the Congress office during the Emergency.
Some media friends told me that JNU runs on taxpayers’ money, on subsidy. Yes, it is right that JNU runs on subsidy. But I want to raise the question: what are universities for? Universities are there for critical analysis of the society’s collective conscience. Critical analysis should be promoted. If universities fail in their duty, there would be no nation. If people are not part of a nation, it will turn into a grazing ground for the rich, for exploitation and looting.
If we don’t assimilate people’s culture, beliefs and rights, a nation would not be formed. We stand firmly with the country, we stand for the dreams of Bhagat Singh and Babasahab Ambedkar. We stand for equal rights. We stand for the right to live. Rohith (Vemula) had to lose his life to stand for these rights.
But we want to tell these Sanghis – “shame on your government”. We challenge the central government – we will not allow in JNU whatever it did in the case of Rohith. Rohith will not lose his life here. We will not forget Rohith’s sacrifice. We will stand for freedom of expression.
Leave aside Pakistan and Bangladesh, we call for unity of the poor and the toiling masses of the world. We hail the humanity of this world, we hail the humanity of India.
We have identified those who are against humanity. This is the biggest issue before us today. We have identified that face of casteism, the face of Manuwad, the face of the nexus between Brahminism and capitalism. And we have to expose these faces. We have to usher in real freedom, and that freedom will come through the Constitution, through Parliament. And we will achieve it.
I want to appeal to you friends that despite all the differences, we have to safeguard this freedom of expression, we have to safeguard our Constitution, we have to safeguard the unity and integrity of this country. For this, we have to remain united and fight the forces trying to divide our country, the forces that give shelter to terrorists.
One last question before I end my speech. Who is Kasab? Who is Afzal Guru? Who are these people, who are in a state to wrap bombs around their body and kill? If these questions are not raised in universities, the existence of universities becomes pointless. If we don’t define justice, if we don’t define violence and how we see violence? Violence is not only about killing somebody with a gun. There is violence when the JNU administration denies the constitutional rights guaranteed to Dalits. This is institutional violence.
They talk about justice. Who will decide what justice is? Brahminism did not allow Dalits to enter temples. The British did not allow dogs and Indians to enter restaurants. That was justice then. We challenged that justice and today we challenge the justice of the ABVP and the RSS because their justice does not accommodate justice for us. If their justice doesn’t accommodate justice for us, we will not accept their justice and this freedom. We will accept this freedom when every person gets his constitutional right. We will accept justice when there is equal rights for all.
Friends, the situation is very serious. Under no circumstances does the JNUSU (the JNU students’ union) support any violence, any terrorist, any terror incident and any anti-India activity. I want to reiterate that the JNUSU strongly condemns slogans of “Pakistan zindabad” raised by some unidentified people.
I want to share one thing with you, friends. It is a question related to the JNU administration and the ABVP. Thousands of things take place on this JNU campus. Listen carefully to the slogans being raised by the ABVP now. They are calling us ‘communist dogs’. They are calling us ‘Afzal Guru’s dogs’. They are calling us ‘children of jihadis’. If the Constitution gives us the right to be citizens, then is it not an attack on our constitutional right when they call our parents dogs? We want to ask this question to the ABVP and the JNU administration.
We want to ask the JNU administration for whom, with whom and on what basis it works. It is now clear that the JNU administration first gives permission and then withdraws it on receiving a call from Nagpur. This thing of first giving permission and then withdrawing, it has intensified. First, they will announce fellowship and then tell that it has been withdrawn. This is the RSS and ABVP pattern with which they want to run this country.
We want to ask the JNU administration. Permission (for the February 9 programme where eventually the anti-India slogans were shouted) was granted despite the fact that posters had been put up and pamphlets distributed. When it gave permission, on whose directive was it withdrawn? We want to ask this to the JNU administration.
At the same time, understand the truth of these (ABVP) people. Don’t hate them. I feel sad for them. They are jumping today because they feel that the way they got Gajendra Chauhan (in the FTII), they would get people like him in every institution. They feel that with people like Chauhan everywhere, they would get jobs. Once they get jobs, they will forget nation worship and Bharat Mata. What to tell of the Tricolour, which they have never respected? They will also forget the saffron flag.
I want to know what kind of nation worship they are talking about? If an owner doesn’t behave properly with his employees, if a farmer doesn’t do justice with his workers, if a highly paid CEO of a media house doesn’t behave properly with the meagrely paid reporters, then what is this nation worship?
Their nation worship ends with an India-Pakistan cricket match. After that when they go out on the road, they misbehave with the person selling bananas. When the person selling bananas tells them that a dozen comes for Rs 40, they abuse him and accuse him of looting customers. They demand a dozen for Rs 30.
The day the person selling bananas turns and tells them that you are the real looters, they will term the poor fellow anti-national. Nation worship begins and ends with wealth and facilities. I know a number of ABVP people and I ask them whether the fervour of nationalism moves them? They tell me: “What to do, brother, this government is for five years and two years are already over. Three years’ talktime is left and whatever has to be done, should be done in this period.”
But I ask them what will happen if, tomorrow, one of their own members, who is going around in trains checking for beef, holds them by the collar and accuses them of being anti-national since they are from JNU? They could be lynched. I ask them whether they realise this danger?
They tell me that they realise this danger and so are opposing #JNUShutdown (a Twitter hashtag). First, they build an atmosphere against JNU and, then, oppose it when they realise that ultimately they have to live in JNU only.
This is why I want to tell all JNU-ites that elections are coming in March. The ABVP people will seek your votes with the “Om” flag. Ask them: “We are jihadis, we are terrorists, we are anti-nationals and by taking our votes, will they also become anti-national?” Do ask them these questions. I know when you ask them these questions, they will tell you, “not you but a few people are anti-nationals”. Then ask them, “why did they not tell this in the media then”? Ask them why their vice-chancellor and registrar too did not tell then?
Tell them that those few people too are saying that they did not raise slogans of “Pakistan zindabad”, nor did they support terrorism. Those few people are asking why at first permission was granted and then withdrawn and this is an attack on their democratic right? These few people are saying that if somewhere a democratic struggle is being fought, they will stand for it.
They will never understand this. But the people, who have gathered here on short notice, understand the issue. They will go around the campus and tell the students that the ABVP is not only breaking this country but also JNU and we will not allow this to happen.
Long live JNU. JNU will continue to actively participate in all democratic struggles taking place across the country, continue to strengthen the voice of democracy, the voice of freedom and freedom of expression. We will struggle and win and defeat the traitors of this country. With these words, I thank you all and appeal for unity.
Jai Bhim, Lal Salaam.
The original speech was in Hindustani and has been translated into English by J.P. Yadav. This translation was first published in the Telegraph, Calcutta.
On 9th February 2016, a student organization DSU, short for ‘Democratic Students Union’ had called for a cultural meeting of a protest against what they called ‘the judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat’ and in solidarity with ‘the struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self-determination.’ A lot of Kashmiri students from inside and outside the campus were to attend the event.
‘Democratic Students Union(DSU)’ is an ultra-leftist group in the campus that believes in the ideology of Maoism. It’s a very small group of very well read students. They are not terrorists.
According to an eye-witness account by a JNU student Harshit Agrawal, “A lot of Kashmiri students from inside and outside the campus were to attend the event.” But things got ugly when some students began shouting anti-India slogans, like “Bharat ki barbaadi tak, jung rahegi, jung rahegi!” and “India, Go Back”, “Tum kitne Afzal maaroge, har ghar se Afzal niklega!”
Hours after Home Minister Rajnath Singh condemned the “anti-national” slogans that some people shouted during an event at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University on February 9 and warned of “strongest possible” action against them, the Delhi Police swung into action.
JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested by plain clothes police charging him with sedition.
Male police have been breaking into and entering hostels including women’s hostels, in a blatant violation of the rule of law.
The case was filed directly by BJP MP Maheish Girri, who is proudly taking forward the deadly persecution of marginalised people that has come to characterize BJP MPs and MLAs – other examples include Sangeet Som who incited the Muzaffarnagar riots and the lynch mob against Aqlakh Ahmad (despite himself being a beef exporter), and Ramchander Rao and Bandaru Dattatreya who hounded dalit student Rohith Vemula to death.
Kanhaiya Kumar’s speech hours before his arrest:
Kumar, who is now being blamed for being “anti-national”, has vociferously spoken against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological fountainhead – the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh – in the past. On Friday, a few hours before being arrested by Delhi Police personnel dressed in plain clothes, he addressed a gathering on the campus in the midst of protests by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad demanding action against the students who participated in the event on February 9.
Kumar took to the stairwell and slammed the BJP government for targeting dissenters with police brutality and not doing enough for the students.
The video above shows him criticising the government for “saffronising” the country and increasing dominance of the RSS in the country.
“We don’t need a patriotism certificate from the RSS”, he says. “We love this country. We fight for the 80% poor population of this country. We trust the constitution of this country. If anyone challenges the constitution, be it the Sanghis, it won’t be tolerated,” he says, while exhorting students of exercising their democratic and constitutional rights, while working for the unity of the country.
He repeated the sentiment expressed in an earlier statement by JNUSU, the union he heads, that had categorically said, “At the outset, we condemn the divisive slogans that were raised by some people on that day. It is important to note that the slogans were not raised by members of Left organisations or JNU students.”
Sedition Law:
Sedition law was first introduced by the British, specifically Lord Macaulay in 1870, 10 years after the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was introduced. The sedition law, interestingly, was not part of the original IPC. The first case under this section was a case, now famously referred as the Bangobasi case (Queen Empress vs Jogendra Chundur Bose), in 1891. Among the more prominent convictions include freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who was convicted and sent to prison in Mandalay, Burma in 1908. Mahatma Gandhi too was arrested and tried for sedition. In 1946, Sheikh Abdullah was also tried on sedition charges by Raja Hari Singh.
Sedition, in India, is covered by Section 124A of the IPC. As it stands today, it reads,
“Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite dissatisfaction towards the Government established by law in [India], shall be punished with [imprisonment for life] to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine.
Explanation 1 — The expression “disaffection” includes disloyalty and all feelings of enmity.
Explanation 2 — Comments expressing disapprobation of the measures of the attempting to excite hatred, contempt or disaffection, do not constitute an offence under this section.
Explanation 3 — Comments expressing disapprobation of the administrative or other action of the Government without exciting or attempting to excite hatred, contempt or disaffection, do not constitute an offence under this section.”
Interestingly, the country which gave India its sedition law, the United Kingdom, repealed the act in 2009. Sedition, which was a common offence in England and Wales, was abolished by Section 73 of the Coroners and Justice Act of 2009.
Why Kanhaiya Kumar Did Not Commit Sedition
It is almost certain that Kanhaiya Kumar won’t get convicted for sedition.
In 1962, the Supreme Court had added a caveat to the sedition law–it must be accompanied by violence, or direct incitement to violence.
Raising anti-India slogans to protest the hanging of Afzal Guru, even if this charge is true against Kanhaiya Kumar, does not amount to incitement of violence. The threat of violence has to be real and credible.
Governments love Sedition law as a political tool because it is a non-bailable and cognizable offence. In other words, spending a few nights a jail is certain.
The “logic of the situation” is nothing but the need to suppress political dissent, silence voices we don’t want to be heard.
In 2012, cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was charged with sedition for drawing cartoons that commented on corruption scandals of the Manmohan Singh government.
Writer Arundhati Roy was charged with sedition for advocating right to self-determination in Kashmir.
As early as 1953, the Bihar government used the sedition law against tribals demanding a separate state. That state exists today, called Jharkhand.
Granting bail to Dr Binayak Sen, who is being tried under the sedition law, the Supreme Court said in 2011,
“We are a democratic country. He may be a (Maoist) sympathiser. That does not make him guilty of sedition.”
The court said that the Chhattisgarh government had failed to make out a case for sedition. That is, it had failed to prove there was incitement to or involvement in violence. Merely possessing Maoist literature, the court said, did not make him a member of the banned CPI (Maoist). The court asked if keeping Gandhi’s autobiography at home made one a Gandhian.
The British gave India the sedition law in 1860, to be able to detain those who spoke against the colonial government. In 2009, the British parliament repealed the sedition law. It is time for India to rethink sedition law, too.
Are They Anti-National? Let’s look at them with eyes wide open
They Spoke on Kashmir Issue
Is it wrong to organize a meeting on Kashmir Issue? If I do, will I be labelled as terrorist and will be ordered to live India and go to Pakistan? So who is a patriot? BJP? Who fielded 37% candidates with pending criminal charges for Lok Sabha election, 2014? These criminals, mass murderers who instrumented Gujrat violence in 2002 will decide who is a patriot and who is anti-national?
They called Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat’s execution ‘judicial murder’
After Afzal Guru was hanged, a lot of human rights group condemned the hanging.
The political party PDP with whom BJP has formed a government in Jammu and Kashmir itself called Afzal’s hanging ‘travesty of justice’.
Arundhati Roy condemned it. Shashi Tharoor called it wrong. Markandey Katju has severely criticized it.Praveen Swami, Indian journalist, analyst and author specialising on international strategic and security issues wrote in The Hindu,
“The Supreme Court’s word is not, and ought not to be, the final word. Indeed, the deep ambiguities that surround Guru’s case are in themselves compelling argument to rethink the death penalty.”
Former Delhi High Court chief justice, Justice AP Shah, said that the hanging of Afzal Guru and Yakub Memon were politically motivated.
Now were all these people anti-nationals, terrorists, jihadis?
“Tum kitne Afzal maaroge, har ghar se Afzal niklega!”
This group of students believed that he did not deserve capital punishment and also have their skepticism about his involvement in the parliamentary attack.
It has to be noted, that in its judgement of 5 August 2005, the supreme court admitted that the evidence against Guru was only circumstantial, and that there was no evidence that he belonged to any terrorist group or organisation.
Let me quote directly from the Supreme Court judgement:
“The incident, which resulted in heavy casualties, had shaken the entire nation and the collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if the capital punishment is awarded to the offender.”
So it is quite possible that Hanging of Afzal Guru and was politically motivated.
(We will be discussing the terror attack in Parliament and death penalty of Afzal Guru in details at a later part.)
So, a group of students believe that Afzal Guru was framed, had no role in the attack on the parliament and his capital punishment was wrong. Big deal?
And were therefore shouting, “Har ghar se Afzal niklega!”
And mind you, these people are not carrying any arms, all they are carrying are ideas.
So, in such a case, what should the state do? Charge them for conspiracy against the state? Or maybe merely try to engage with them, debate with them about a difference of opinion?
And was this some secretly organized meeting about overthrowing the government smuggling in bombs and grenades? No, this was a public meeting. Everyone was invited. You were free to disagree with them. They are not doing it in hiding. If they were terrorists they would not come out in public! But didn’t you see them all at your TV channels courageously defending themselves and their right to have a difference of opinion? Tell me, which traits of terrorists do you find in them?
Anti-National Slogans
Harshit Agarwal. a present student of JNU and an eye witness of 9th Feb says,
“20 minutes before the meeting was going to start, ABVP, who consider themselves to be the sole harbingers of nationalism, wrote to the administration asking it to withdraw the permission of organizing the meeting as it was ‘harmful for campus’ atmosphere’. The administration, feeling afraid of clashes, denied the permission. Now, for those who do not know, JNU is a beautiful democratic space where all voices are heard, all opinions however radical, respected. And ABVP was scuttling that space.
DSU asked for help from JNUSU (Jawaharlal Nehru Students’ Union) and other left student organizations like SFI(Students Federation of India), and AISA(All India Students Association) to gather in support of their right to democratically and peacefully hold meeting and mind you, NOT in support of their ideology or their stand on Kashmir. DSU, JNUSU, and other student organizations decided they would not let the administration and the ABVP scuttle their hard-earned democratic space to debate and discuss, and decided to go ahead with the meeting.
The administration sent security guards to cover the badminton court where the meeting was supposed to happen, and denied the permission to use mics. The organizers agreed.
They decided they would continue the meeting around the dhaba itself and without the mics. However, the ABVP mobilized its cadres and started threatening and intimidating the students and organizers. They started shouting cliched slogans like
‘Ye Kashmir Hamara hai, saara ka saara hai.’
The organizers as a response to them, and to create solidarity among the students attending the meeting started shouting,
“Hum kya chaahte? Azaadi!”
Do you think there was something highly inflammatory and dangerous in this statement? Think about it. Nations break all the time. We were chanting the same slogan under Britishers. Soviet Union disintegrated. Secession is neither good nor bad. It depends on the precise circumstances of the place.
They were not planning a conspiracy to overthrow the government and seize Kashmir from India. They were simple students who read, travel and learn about socio-political issues and have a stand about it.
Slogans against India
The eye witness of the incident, Harshit Agarwal says,
“In the meeting, there was a whole group of Kashmiri students which had come from outside JNU to attend the meeting. If you would even look closely at the video that is being circulated, you will only see these students who had formed a circle in the center of the gathering. And trust me ,not one of whom was from JNU! I was present during the event for some time, and I could not recognize a single face from that group as being from JNU.
This group of students, who belonged to Kashmir, and had faced the wrath of the AFSPA for decades, were angered to see ABVP disrupt their meeting, and started shouting the slogans against India, like:
“Bharat ki barbaadi tak, jung rahegi, jung rahegi!”
“India, Go Back”
In my almost 2.5 years of stay in JNU, I have never heard these slogans shouted anywhere. These are nowhere even close to the ideology of any left parties, let alone DSU.”
In 1996 Amnesty International prepared a report after carrying out investigation on 150
countries. Out of this, 82 nations have been found to carry out terrorist activities themselves. Here the government conducts atrocities like kidnapping, detention without charge, raiding houses without proper warrants, arresting under fictitious charges where no witnesses are kept in support of charges of holding objectionable items or papers. Here the soldiers are given a freehand to loot, rape and kill common people. The purpose is to create an atmosphere of terror.
Among these 82 countries, our Great India is one.
The AFSPA, which is operative in “disturbed areas”, including large parts of the Northeast region of India and Jammu and Kashmir.
The reign of terror created by a ‘terrorist nation’ is many times more grim and horrific than the terror created by terrorist groups within the country. It is impossible to fathom the depth of this gruesome reality from outside. Those who survive, suffer from fear psychosis and many lose mental balance in the long run.Continuous, acute tension gives rise to heart diseases, diabetes, frigidity, impotence, asthma, ulcers, stammering, nervousness and even depression and suicidal tendencies. Many become complete mental patients.
It is not easy for an outsider to gather the horrid details or even imagine them when the state carries on terrorism on a particular area or a group of people. It is mainly because the media of a ‘terrorist country’ are never impartial in their reporting. So the other citizens never come to know of the terror created on an isolated ethnic group.
Kashmiris are victim of that. So they are against India.
These Terrorist States often push their terror-struck victims towards
counter ‘terrorism’.
About the slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, it is disputed. Harshit Agarwal says that he did not hear any such slogan while he was present there.
ABVP members went to JNU at midnight disguised as JNU students and shouted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. Whole motive was to term JNU students protesting against Smriti’s role in Rohith Suicide as Anti National.. Only BJP’s fav news channel Zee News was there to cover it and next day all of the students of JNU were termed as Anti Nationals.
See this video.
Same person spotted in ABVP Protest and also shouting ‘Pakistan Jindabad’ on 9th Feb.
Indian Parliament Attack in 2001 and Death Sentence of Afzal Guru
On 13 December 2001, five terrorists infiltrated the Parliament House in a car with Home Ministry and Parliament labels.[6] While both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha had been adjourned 40 minutes prior to the incident, many members of parliament (MPs) and government officials such as Home Minister LK Advani and Minister of State for Defence Harin Pathak were believed to have still been in the building at the time of the attack.[
More than 100 people, including major politicians were inside the parliament building at the time. The gunmen used a fake identity sticker on the car they drove and thus breached the security deployed around the parliamentary complex.[8] The terrorists carried AK47 rifles, grenade launchers, pistols and grenades.[9] Delhi Police officials claimed that gunmen received instructions from Pakistan and the operation was carried out under the guidance of Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.[9]
The gunmen drove their vehicle into the car of the Indian Vice-President Krishan Kant (who was in the building at the time), got out, and began shooting. The Vice-President’s guards and security personnel shot back at the terrorists and then started closing the gates of the compound.
The perpetrators were Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists claimed Indian government
The attack led to the deaths of five terrorists, six Delhi Police personnel, two Parliament Security Service personnel and a gardener, in total 14.
Investigation and Trial. Why do some people believe Afzal Guru was innocent?
On the 14th of December 2001 the Delhi Police Special Cell claimed it had cracked the case. On the 15th of December it arrested the ‘master mind’ Professor S.A.R Geelani in Delhi and Showkat Guru and Afzal Guru in a fruit market in Srinagar. Subsequently they arrested Afsan Guru, Showkat’s wife.
The media enthusiastically disseminated the Special Cell’s version. These were some of the headlines: ‘DU Lecturer was Terror Plan Hub’, ‘Varsity Don Guided Fidayeen’, ‘Don Lectured on Terror in Free Time.’ Zee TV broadcast a ‘docudrama’ called December 13th , a recreation that claimed to be the ‘Truth Based on the Police Charge Sheet.’ (If the police version is the truth, then why have courts?)
Then Prime Minister Vajpayee and L.K. Advani publicly appreciated the film. The Supreme Court refused to stay the screening saying that the media would not influence judges. The film was broadcast only a few days before the fast track court sentenced Afzal, Showkat and Geelani to death. Subsequently the High Court acquitted the ‘mastermind’, Professor S.A.R Geelani, and Afsan Guru. The Supreme Court upheld the acquittal. But in its 5th August 2005 judgment it gave Mohammed Afzal three life sentences and a double death sentence.
Did Afzal Guru go through an exhaustive legal procedure before being hanged?
Contrary to the lies that have been put about by some senior journalists who would have known better, Afzal Guru was not one of “the terrorists who stormed Parliament House on December 13th 2001” nor was he among those who “opened fire on security personnel, apparently killing three of the six who died.” (That was the BJP Rajya Sabha MP, Chandan Mitra, in The Pioneer, October 7th 2006). Even the police charge sheet does not accuse him of that.
The Supreme Court judgment says the evidence is circumstantial: “As is the case with most conspiracies, there is and could be no direct evidence amounting to criminal conspiracy.” But then it goes on to say: “The incident, which resulted in heavy casualties had shaken the entire nation, and the collective conscience of society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender.”
At the most crucial stage of a criminal case, when evidence is presented, when witnesses are cross-examined, when the foundations of the argument are laid — in the High Court and the Supreme Court you can only argue points of law, you cannot introduce new evidence — Afzal Guru, locked in a high security solitary cell, had no lawyer. The court-appointed junior lawyer did not visit his client even once in jail, he did not summon any witnesses in Afzal’s defence and did not cross examine the prosecution witnesses. The judge expressed his inability to do anything about the situation.
The lawyer who was appointed for Afzal was not said to be too articulate, and she admitted to the evidence against Afzal, even without consulting him. The next lawyer he got bargained for a lethal injection death in case he was being awarded a death row, without consulting Afzal again.
Afzal Guru’s Confession
After his arrest, Guru made a confessional statement which bore his signature, recorded by the DCP, special cell. It was recorded in the preamble of the confession that DCP had asked policemen present there to leave the room.The Supreme Court was angered by the act of police officials, who, in their over-zealousness, had arranged for a media interview.
However, after seven months, Guru disowned this confession and the Supreme Court did not accept the earlier confession as evidence against him.
This interview can be watched here.
In this video, Afzal confesses to helping the terrorists. Yet a lot of people seem to believe that he was forced to respond like that. Otherwise, why would anyone go on record stating something that would kill him. When asked “why he had helped them”, he had to search for an answer. A hard-core fundamentalist would not need so long to answer such a question.
Sushil Kumar, Guru’s advocate later claimed that Guru had written a letter to him where Guru said that he had made the confessions under duress as his family was being threatened. Journalist Vinod K. Jose claimed that Guru had told him in an interview in 2006, Guru had said that he had been subjected to extreme torture which included electric shocks in private parts and being beaten up for hours along with threats regarding his family after his arrest. Between the time of his arrest and the time when initial charges were filed, Guru was told that his brother was held in detention. At the time of his confession, he had no legal representation.
The case had number of loop holes. A few examples out of many:
How did the police get to Afzal? They said that S.A.R Geelani led them to him. But the court records show that the message to arrest Afzal went out before they picked up Geelani. The High Court called this a ‘material contradiction’ but left it at that.
The two most incriminating pieces of evidence against Afzal were a cellphone and a laptop confiscated at the time of arrest. The Arrest Memos were signed by Bismillah, Geelani’s brother, in Delhi. The Seizure Memos were signed by two men of the J&K Police, one of them an old tormentor from Afzal’s past as a surrendered ‘militant’.
The computer and cellphone were not sealed, as evidence is required to be. During the trial it emerged that the hard disc of the laptop had been accessed after the arrest. It only contained the fake home ministry passes and the fake identity cards that the terrorists used to access Parliament. And a Zee TV video clip of Parliament House. So according to the police, Afzal had deleted all the information except the most incriminating bits, and he was speeding off to hand it over to Ghazi Baba, who the charge sheet described as the Chief of Operations.
A witness for the prosecution, Kamal Kishore, identified Afzal and told the court he had sold him the crucial SIM card that connected all the accused in the case to each other on the 4th of December 2001. But the prosecution’s own call records showed that the SIM was actually operational from November 6th 2001.
It goes on and on, this pile up of lies and fabricated evidence. The courts note them, but for their pains the police get no more than a gentle rap on their knuckles. Nothing more.
Hanging of Afzal Guru politically benefited the UPA
One of BJP’s main agendas against the Congress was the lack of determination in executing terrorists who have been awarded death sentences.
Now that the Congress decided to execute Ajmal Kasab, the BJP had one less thing to blame them about. Also, since such mercy petitions are generally supposed to be attended to in their chronological order, it becomes imminent that the President now also looks into other pending mercy petitions. By executing Afzal Guru, they might have lost some support in Kashmir, but had silenced the BJP- which was a larger threat to their coming back to power in 2014 given the recent scams and governance failures. This was a chance the Congress decided to take and they were so far successful in silencing the BJP.
On 3 February 2013, his mercy petition was rejected by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee and he was secretly hanged at Delhi’s Tihar Jail around 08:00 am on 9 February 2013 and afterward buried inside jail ground.
Guru’s wife, Tabasum, had sought to claim his body which was buried in the Tihar Jail. However the Central government is likely to reject the request citing the Jail manual. The Delhi Jail manual states that the body may not be transferred to family/friends “if there are grounds for supposing that the prisoner’s funeral will be an occasion for a demonstration”
Anyone who was really interested in solving the mystery of the Parliament Attack would have followed the dense trail of evidence that was on offer. No one did, thereby ensuring that the real authors of conspiracy will remain unidentified and uninvestigated.
“Fury said to a mouse,
That he met in the house,
‘Let us both go to law:
I will prosecute you.—
Come, I’ll take no denial;
We must have a trial:
For really this morning
I’ve nothing to do.’
Said the mouse to the cur,
‘Such a trial, dear sir,
With no jury or judge,
would be wasting our breath.’
‘I’ll be judge, I’ll be jury,’
Said cunning old Fury;
‘I’ll try the whole cause,
and condemn you to death.’ “
Indian Parliament Attack: Looking from a different angle
Who attacked Parliament?
Indian Government says it was a joint operation of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Whenever these organisation does any such terrorist attack, they take the ownership. That is because they feel it is an achievement and they prefer to tell the world about it, also to encourage their members.
But both the organisation denied their involvement with this attack.
We cannot accept their denial beyond question, neither can we accept the claim of Indian Government.
How did Indian Government get to know?
From the mobile phone of the dead terrorists. The mobile 9811489429 was given as a contact number in all the identity card. This number was in touch with the mobile found on the dead terrorists and two other Delhi numbers, 98811573506 and 9810081228. The number 9811489429 and the mobiles found on the death terrorists were in touch with numbers in Pakistan, Dubai and Switzerland. Out of all the numbers listed in the mobile, only one number, 9810081228, was a regular mobile card of Airtel, in the name of Sayeed Abdul Rahman Geelani, a resident of 535 Mukerjee Nagar, Delhi.
Geelani was arrested from his house on Dec 15. Geelani accepted his knowledge and participation in crime. He also told that 9811489429 belonged to Md Afzal and 9811573506 to Shaukat Hussain Guru.
In Shaukat’s house, police found Shaukat’s wife Afsan Guru along with the mobile number 9881157306. Afsan informed that Afzal and Shaukat were in Srinagar. Srinagar police arrested Afzal and Shaukat and seized a laptop, Rs 10 lacs and a mobile phone without a sim card, assumed to be bearing the number 9811489429.
That was the time when, to get a prepaid card, u were not required to submit your ID or any documents. One could purchase a prepaid card just like purchasing a candy over the store. If the sim card is destroyed, it was impossible to track who used it. But these people did not do that. They used a number which was registered under the name of Geelani. Looks like these terrorists were really eager to get tracked by the police.
To secure the details of communication between mobiles used by the dead terrorists, a request was made to Airtel. Airtel could not furnish the same due to technical non-feasibility. (Annexure 1, pg 129_130)
To obtain the details of international telephone numbers and satellite phone, a request was made to Interpol. But the report is still waited. (Annexure 1, pg 130) No report from the Interpol or any from any other relevant international agency was ever submitted.
In the absence of any other corroborating evidence, the entire weight of the planning part, rests on the credibility of Afzal’s confession. Afzal’s confession is the only evidence regarding the identity of the five dead terrorists. their names and the terrorist organisation they belong to. Since all the attackers died during the attack, the attack itself could not be linked to any prior conspiracy without this crucial information. The problem is, Afzal himself denied the knowledge of the identity of the dead terrorists in his statement u/s Sec 313 Cr.P.C.: “I have not identified any terrorist. Police told me the names of the terrorists and forced me to identify.” (Annexure 5, pg 165)
The Attack
Consider some of the feature of the attack itself. The attack was so embarrassingly flawed that the police had to come up with some explanation of why it failed. Thus, according to a very senior police officer, “clearly, the militants were inexperienced, especially the driver of the Ambassador.”
First, the militant driver alerted the guards as he drove too fast. Then he mistook a vacant area for a parking lot. On being challenged by the security guards, “he lost his nerve, took a U-turn to return to the main carriage way and in doing so, rammed into one of the cars in Vice President Krishan Kant’s convoy.
“Thankfully.” the officer continued, “the impact loosened the wires of the detonator in the Ambassador which was to be used to blow up the porch of parliament.”
This clearly suggests that the wiring up of the car with the explosives was a job poorly done such that a mild collision loosened the entire detonating system.
“With their plan going awry,” the officer hypothesized, “the suicide squad panicked, jumped out and started firing, thus revealing their deadly game prematurely. Moreover they made the mistake of splitting up, becoming easy targets.”
Finally, although the terrorists were laced with explosives, they did not blow themselves up as they died, enabling the police to recover active mobile phones, ID cards and paper slips with phone numbers written on them.
Is this explainmation credible?
The attack on Parliament was supposed to be a joint operation of two dreaded terrorist organizations, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba, under the overall guidance of ISI (Annexure 1, Annexure 2).
We can form some idea of the sophistication in planning and operation of these organizations by recalling the hijacking of IC-814 in December 1999. In fact, according to Afzal’s confession (which is the only evidence at issue) Mohammad (also known as Burger), who was the leader of the parliament attack team, was involved in the IC-814 operation as well (Annexure 1, pg 131).
The phone calls made by the terrorists during the attack
The terrorists got in touch with Afzal over mobile phones just prior to and during the attack. When the terrorists were in the vicinity of Parliament House, they wanted to find out about the presence of various VVIPs inside the Parliament House. Afzal failed to do so as he was in Azadpur market where there was no electricity. After 25 minutes Mohammad called again with the same demand. Only then Afzal informed Mohammad about the lack of electricity and asked for some more time. At this point of time Afzal instructed Shaukat to watch TV and call him back with the information. However, Shaukat states in his confession that, “by the time I switched on the TV, I received a call from Afzal that the mission is on.”
Apparently the terrorists had decided to go ahead with the attack even before they received the information they were insisting upon.
What was the relevance of this piece of information for the terrorists just minutes before the attack?
Why should they bother about this detail when they were planning to secure the entire parliament which was in session in any case?
Could Afzal (or Shaukat) have gleaned this specific information on demand on TV?
What was Afzal doing in Azadpur market at a time like this?
Why wasn’t this supposedly crucial task pre-arranged?
Finally, if the information was so crucial for the success of the attack, why did the terrorists go ahead without it?
Action of Afzal and Shaukat after the attack
Afzal and Shaukat were found guilty of conspiring in a terrorist act and waging a war of horrendous proportions. Now, according to the police, they behaved after the attack as follows.
Afzal and Shaukat drove out of Delhi in an easily identifiable vehicle, namely, a truck registered in the name of Shaukat’s wife, to reach Kashmir via the difficult mountain roads filled with the slush and snow of winter.
Were these plausible choices of vehicle and immediate destination for terrorists escaping from such a high-profile crime? Since the news was immediately on TV, Afzal and Shaukat knew that the attack had failed and the terrorists had been found intact and dead. So, there was every likelihood for the police to recover the mobiles, trace the numbers and post surveillance. Yet, according to transcripts of phone-conversations produced by the police, Shaukat called his wife 36 hours after the attack to tell her that he had reached Srinagar Mandi.
The transcripts suggest that Afzan tried to warn her husband. Even after being warned by Afzan, they did not flee but stayed put in the Mandi. In the morning, they casually drove out of the Mandi in the same truck with the laptop and the huge sum of money on display, and proceeded onwards to meet Ghazi Baba when they were picked up near a police station.
The Background of the Incident
By early 1999, the NDA government lost its majority after the AIADMK withdrew its support. President Kocheril Raman Narayanan dissolved the Parliament and called fresh elections – the third in two years. Public anger against smaller parties that jeopardised the NDA coalition and the wave of support for the Vajpayee government in the aftermath of the Kargil War gave the BJP a larger presence in the Lok Sabha. The NDA won a decisive majority with the support of new constituents such as the Janata Dal (United) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
But by Oct 2001, it was not a very good situation for NDA. Sharad Power was dreaming to get support from AIADMK and BSP to become the next PM.
Election in Uttar Pradesh was round the corner.
That was the time M. F Hussain painted the nude Saraswati giving BJP a chance to tickle the Hindu sentiment.
One might be apprehensive that it was a got up game and Hussain painted Saraswati nude as was instructed by BJP, so that they get an issue.
However BJP failed to milk the holy cow.
But after that happened the attack in Parliament. BJP got a chance to encash the anti Pak sentiment.
The NDA government initiated a full- scale mobilisation for war against Pakistan, saying that the terrorists were Pakistanis sponsored by the Pakistan govern- ment. The war-effort, which was sustained for nearly a year, had very serious consequences.
The Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA) passed by the Parliament of India in 2002, with the objective of strengthening anti-terrorism operations. The Act was enacted due to several terrorist attacks that were being carried out in India and especially in response to the attack on the Parliament.
A planned criminal act is carried out by the one who has a motive or in other words who get benefited from the act.
BJP got the maximum benefit out of this incident.
Let me tell u story.
Some criminals who were serving life sentence were given the arms and were told by our government to carry out an attack on Parliament. They were promised that they would be able to escape through a particular route. Where as security guard were ordered to kill them.
can this story be true?
Could it be possible that it was BJP who orchestrated the Parliament attack?
A member of a Special Investigating Team (SIT) of India’s Central Bureau of Investigation had accused incumbent governments of “orchestrating” the terror attack on Indian Parliament and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The Times of India reported on Sunday.
A former Indian home ministry officer submitted his declaration in the Supreme Court of India which said that he was told by a former member of the CBI-SIT team that both the terror attacks (Parliament and Mumbai) were staged “with the objective of strengthening the counter-terror legislation(sic).”
The affidavit also included reference to the attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 which was followed by the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota), and the 2008 Mumbai attacks which led to amendments in the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
We are patriots. A patriot is one who loves the people of the country, the oppressed class.
Loving your country and loving the government is not synonymous.
As mark Twain says Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
We are against any kind of terrorism. We are against any kind of violence.
We demand that the Union Government must take immediate steps to prevent the intimidation of students and to immediately withdraw this patently false case that tramples on Kanhaiya and others’ Constitutional rights. We demand that the police should immediately leave JNU campus, and that all other campuses across the country should be demilitarized, which includes the revoking of all anti-democratic circulars and bans on student activities in educational institutions. The Sedition Act, and other such colonially imposed draconian laws, must be immediately revoked by anyone who claims to have national interests in mind.
OPPOSE THIS UNDECLARED EMERGENCY BY FASCIST COMMUNAL BJP!
To silence the rising protests against ‘failed’ education minister and *fav* Smriti Irani, Modi Govt played a very dirty trick.. Read it futher if you want to know how low these crooks can fall for power!!!
ABVP [BJP student wing] members went to JNU at midnight disguised as JNU students and shouted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. Whole motive was to term JNU students protesting against Smriti’s role in Rohith Suicide as Anti National.. Only BJP’s fav news channel Zee News was there to cover it and next day all of the students of JNU were termed as Anti Nationals… HM ordered Delhi Police to raid hostels and arrest all the students who were protesting against Smriti Irani.
See this video.
Same person spotted in ABVP Protest and also shouting ‘Pakistan Jindabad’ on 9th Feb.
RATIONALIST DEBASHIS 