See how Modi served the Gujarat and, likewise he wants to repay the debt to 'Bharat Mata'.

AHMEDABAD: Chief minister Narendra Modi's supporters may feel that he has served Gujarat enough and now wants to repay the debt to 'Bharat Mata', but Gujarat's actual debt has mounted from Rs 45,301 crore in 2001-02, when he first came to power, and is projected to touch Rs 1.76 lakh crore by 2013-14, when he plans his flight to New Delhi.
As on 31-03-12, the revised estimates of total debt stood at Rs 1,38,978 crore. While two other states - West Bengal (Rs 1,92,100 crore) and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 1,58,400 crore) - have a higher debt, they aren't claiming they are a "model state". Besides, if Modi leaves for Delhi after "settling his debt" with Gujarat, he is leaving behind the highest ever per capita debt of Rs 23,163 - if the population is taken at exactly six crore.
The Gujarat government is paying a mind-boggling interest of Rs. 34.50 crore every day. By 2015-16, the debt would mount to Rs 2,07,695 crore as per the state government's budget estimates. A large chunk of the state's revenues go towards debt servicing. The state's total debt was less than Rs 10,000 crore when the BJP first came to power in Gujarat in 1995.
Critics have pointed out that much of the spending is on show-piece infrastructure projects, while overall spending on key areas like health and infrastructure remains low. The debt has mounted despite Gujarat having one of the highest VAT on petrol and also being the one of the few states to have VAT on fertilizers.
The latest CAG report tabled in the assembly last week stated, "As of 31 March 2012, the government had invested Rs 39179 crore in areas where the average return on investment was just 0.27 per cent in last five years while the government paid an interest of 7.75 on its borrowings during the same period." It said continued use of borrowed funds to fund investment which do not have sufficient returns will lead to an unsustainable financial position.
Source:http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-06/india/38326369_1_capita-debt-gujarat-government-crore

Gujarat HC raps Modi govt. for ‘inaction’ during post-Godhra riots

Ahmedabad, February 8, 2012

PTI Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The Gujarat High Court rapped the Modi government for "negligence” during the 2002 post-Godhra riots. File photo

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The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday pulled up the Narendra Modi government for “inaction and negligence” on its part during the 2002 post-Godhra riots that led to large-scale destruction of religious structures.

A division bench of acting chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J.B. Pardiwala made these observations, while ordering compensation for over 500 religious structures in the state.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat (IRCG).

Inadequacy, inaction and negligence on the part of the State government to prevent riots resulted in large-scale destruction of religious structures across the State, the court observed.

The government was responsible for repair and compensation for such places, it further said.

The court said that when the government had paid compensation for destruction of houses and commercial establishments, it should also pay compensation for religious structures.

The court also ordered that principal judges of 26 districts of the state will receive the applications for compensation of religious structures in their respective districts and decide on it. They have been asked to send their decisions to HC within six months.

IRCG’s petition in 2003 had sought court’s directions to the government to pay compensation towards damage of religious places during riots on the ground that the National Human Rights Commission, too, had recommended and the state government had in principle accepted the suggestion.

The state government had opposed the IRCG petition, saying it was a violation of article 27 of the Constitution.

The government further said that there was no policy with regards to compensation for restoration/repair of religious places damaged or destroyed during the riots.

Lawyer for IRCG, M.T.M. Hakim hailed it as a “landmark judgement” in the country, in which compensation has been ordered for destruction of religious structures.

“This is also probably for the first time that a court has held the State government responsible for inaction and negligence during the 2002 riots,” Mr. Hakim said.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2871891.ece

Sunita Williams ignores Narendra Modi during Gujarat visit.

AHMEDABAD: Astronaut Sunita Williams hasn't spared time for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi during her current visit to Gujarat.

Instead, she was seen throughout the day in the company of Jagruti Pandya, wife of slain minister Haren Pandya and Sunita's first cousin.

Efforts were made by the chief minister's office to tie up a meeting between Modi and Sunita but she did not respond. As a result the Modi government has not extended her protocol as a state guest though police did provide her with a pilot vehicle.

Sunita declined offer by protocol officers to travel in a Gujarat government vehicle on her arrival at Ahmedabad airport on Thursday afternoon.

During her last visit to Gujarat in September 2007 after she returned from her first space flight, Modi had attended a civic reception organized by his government in Ahmedabad in Sunita's honour.

He had praised her then but relations have gone sour since apparently because of the family's belief that Pandya's murder was more political than communal. 

Source: http://m.timesofindia.com/india/Sunita-Williams-ignores-Narendra-Modi-during-Gujarat-visit/articleshow/19391675.cms

Delhi HC judge accused of “gross judicial misconduct”; Litigant approaches CJ Murugesan for initiation of enquiry proceedings

Delhi HC judge accused of “gross judicial misconduct”; Litigant approaches CJ Murugesan for initiation of enquiry proceedings

Deepak Khosla, a Noida-based litigant, recently approached the Delhi High Court Chief Justice, alleging “gross judicial misconduct” committed by a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court.  

 

On March 12, 2013, Khosla mentioned the matter in Court No.1 in the Delhi High Court, reading out from a typed out copy that he was seeking to file a complaint against the judge in question. Chief Justice Murugesan directed Khosla to submit the complaint; Khosla subsequently submitted his 91-page complaint to the High Court ‘s Registrar General.

 

The complaint lists amongst other things, “28 counts of judicial misconduct” and “11 criminal offences” allegedly committed by the Judge, and seeks a departmental enquiry into these allegations. The matter relates to an order passed in by the judge in question directing Khosla to be admitted to a mental health institute under police custody on the grounds that Khosla kept disobeying the court orders prohibiting him from recording court proceedings. This order was subsequently stayed by a Division Bench of the High Court, but not before Khosla spent three days in the metal health institute.

 

Apart from the initiation of a departmental enquiry, Khosla has also sought compensation to the tune of Rs. 25 crore to be “recovered jointly and severally” from the Ministry of Law and Justice and “personally” from the judge in question.

 

These acts of the judge are not the only grouse Khosla has against the functioning of the High Court; he has also written to Chief Justice Murugesan to reconsider the proposed elevation of a lawyer to the Delhi High Court. Khosla has claimed that the lawyer in question is currently facing perjury proceedings in the Delhi High Court itself, and hence should not be considered for elevation.

 

Speaking to Bar & Bench, Khosla said that he is either in the process or already has approached the President of India, the Chief Justice of India, the Speaker of the Parliament and the Leader of the Opposition. Khosla says that his goal is to fight the current process of appointing judges, a process which he claims needs a thorough relook.

Source: http://www.barandbench.com/index.php?page=brief&id=3306

Our Keystone Cops

Our Keystone Cops

When in doubt about a terror investigation, blame the most readily available Muslims. Within days of the Dilsukh Nagar blasts in Hyderabad on February 21, the police announced the suspects were the Indian Mujahideen (IM), that its founder Riyaz Bhatkal was the possible "mastermind", and that 'Imran' and 'Maqbool' had recced the area.

In the same week as the names 'Bhatkal', 'Maqbool' and 'Imran' swirled around in the media, two youths, journalist Muthi-ur Rahman Siddiqui, also once dubbed "mastermind" in a terror conspiracy by the media and DRDO scientist Aijaz Mirza were released after six months in jail.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) admitted it could find no evidence against them. Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde was made to apologise by the BJP for his remarks on saffron terror. But the Opposition did not ask the home minister to apologise for the wrongful arrest of two young men.
Why? Because they are Muslims? Why one set of standards for "saffron" terror and another for "Islamist" terror, when repeated pious declarations are made that terror has no religion?
Across the country scores of young Muslim men are being jailed and tortured for their alleged links to terror. The police are invariably unable to muster clear evidence except vague theories, the cases are thrown out by the courts and the security agencies are forced to let the youths go.
Imran Syed, a Hyderabad student arrested for the Mecca Masjid blasts in 2007, given third degree torture and electric shocks, was accused of spending 10 years training as a terrorist in Pakistan. Since Imran was 22 at the time of his arrest, it would mean that he had run away to Pakistan to become a terrorist at the age of 12! After 18 months in jail, Imran was acquitted.
A caricature narrative is born from a paranoid imagination. Sheer communal prejudice and a copycat "war on terror" mentality on the part of keystone cops busily chasing bearded look-alikes of Osama bin Laden in India's galis and mohallas, is leading to the bizarre phenomenon of hundreds of arrests yet no stoppage to the low intensity blasts in tiffin boxes or on bicycles.
Why have the Andhra Pradesh Police not been able to successfully investigate, bring to trial and secure a conviction in the many blast cases that have taken place in Hyderabad?
Social prejudice and religious discrimination must be separated from terror investigations. The police must resist the temptation to jump the gun, arrest Muslims and announce names of suspected groups within hours of a blast to satisfy the 'patriotic' media.
So far, with the exception of additional sessions judge Vijendar Bhat's scathing denunciation of police conduct in terror cases in February 2011, the courts have not reprimanded investigative agencies strongly enough. It is a positive sign that the NIA has developed a culture of admitting it was wrong.
But generally, there is an inability on the part of the police to be patient about collecting evidence carefully and painstakingly over a period of time.
Who are these 'terrorists' who bomb India's marketplaces without any stated objectives or demands? The Irish Republican Army had a stated objective to throw out English occupation of Ireland.
Al Qaeda is motivated by anti-Americanism; Lashkar is an anti-India outfit, Ulfa aimed for a sovereign Assam. Yet India's mystery 'low intensity' urban marketplace bombers have no stated objective, no demand, no identity, and no negotiating agendas.
They simply bomb in anonymity leaving security experts and police to engage in guesswork about motives such as "revenge-for-Afzal Guru."
When terrorists are anonymous and refuse to indicate why exactly they are repeatedly bombing markets, the police must proceed only on the evidence they are able to collect from the site and through patiently gathered intelligence about other such blasts.
Unless there is a clear separation of community from terrorist, unless a community-specific line of investigation is given up in favour of a hard-headed evidence-specific line of investigation, India's mysterious urban bombers will never be caught.
Without political leadership on the vexed Hindu-Muslim question, as the political class remains trapped in twin mentalities of 'communalism' vs 'appeasement', religious hatred and suspicion are growing by the day in urban India.
An assertive Hindutva nationalism on social media seeks to demonise the Muslim. Muslim victimhood results in a sense of separation from the cultural mainstream and creates further distance between the communities. Ghettoisation in housing and social segregation exists alongside assertive religious identities on both sides.
There is no political leader today with a vision of a modern, forward-looking contract between Indian Hindus and Indian Muslims.
No leader today is able to chalk out a vision which mounts a challenge to the undoubted radicalisation of Muslim youth in the global jihad, as well as create an ideological challenge to the radicalisation of Hindu youth in a copycat Hindu extremist war.
In a situation of sharply polarising religious identities, investigative agencies must make a distinction between what is a political opinion and what constitutes evidence in a criminal trial. Books on Islamism or Marxism (as with Binayak Sen) are not evidence of criminality. Muslims, tribals, Marxists, liberals, all have freedom of speech and an exercise of political rights does not translate into evidence in a terrorist trial.
Further, the police must be transparent on why the Muslim youths were caught and must openly state on what basis the youths were implicated. It is only when the cult of secrecy on flawed investigations is broken, that we can make sure that other innocents are not caught and those who are continuing to bomb with impunity are brought to justice.
The rise of Islamic radicalism, and its possible links with terror are concerns, but investigations need to be transparent and not end up as fishing expeditions where a person's faith or political beliefs determine his guilt in a criminal case.
Sagarika Ghose is Deputy Editor, CNN-IBN. The views expressed by the author are personal.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/editorial-views-on/SagarikaGhose/Our-Keystone-Cops/Article1-1025380.aspx

Manufacturing 'terrorists' the Indian way!!

Manufacturing 'terrorists' the Indian way!!

Almost every other day, newspapers are agog with stories about 'dreaded Muslim terrorists' being nabbed across the country. At the same time, savage violence unleashed by Hindutva groups continues unabated without any effective steps being taken against them. In the ongoing 'war on terror', globally as well as within India [ Images ], Muslims have come to be framed collectively as 'terrorists', while terrorism engaged in by people belonging to other communities is generally condoned or ignored altogether or, at least, is not described in the same terms. In India today, Muslim youths are being indiscriminately picked up and tortured by the police, in many cases falsely accused of being terrorists. Many of them have been languishing in jails for years now and yet no one ever seems to care.

Take the case of Muhammad Parvez Abdul Qayyum Shaikh of Gujarat. According to his aunt, Qamar Jahan, on April 2, 2003, while he was on his way to fit a water appliance, he was arrested by CBI officer Tarun Barot and others. For three days his family knew nothing of his whereabouts. On the fourth day, she says, 'We saw the news and realised that Parvez had been arrested under allegations of having a Chinese-made pistol and some gun powder. However, this powder is used for cleaning the Aqua Guard machines.'
Parvez, she says, was brutally beaten and tortured by the officers, with Officer Vanzara allegedly asking Parvez to refer to him as Khuda (God) and beating him ruthlessly. While in jail they forced him to sign on blank papers. He was reportedly taken by the CBI officers to Gandhinagar where he was further tortured for 21 days. He was then charged in the DCP-6 case, tiffin bomb blast case and in the Haren Pandya murder case (the last mentioned of which, incidentally, Pandya's own father accuses Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi [ Images ] as having instigated). He was sentenced to 14 years in jail for the last-mentioned case, although his aunt maintains that he is innocent.
27 year-old Sardar, a Muslim youth, works as a plumber in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He was arrested at the age of 17, some months after the February 1998 Chennai bomb blasts. The initial accusation against Sardar was that he had been involved in a street fight. He was apparently kept illegally imprisoned for a month, and only after that was an FIR was lodged against him. This time he was accused of carrying two pipe bombs and rioting. The offence was non-bailable. He was remanded and kept in the Vellore Jail for first 15 months, even though there were no witnesses against him. The special court set up for the bomb blasts refused to let him be tried as he was a minor.
Eventually, nine and a half years later, in the final judgment the court apparently found him not guilty of any of the charges put on him and he was acquitted, but only after having spent almost a decade languishing in jail, where he was brutally tortured. Even after his acquittal the police have allegedly not stopped harassing and hounding him, and they still restrict his movements.
Noor ul-Hoda, the son of a desperately poor daily-wage labourer from Malegaon in Maharashtra [ Images ], is yet another hapless Muslim man who has, so he insists, been falsely implicated as a terrorist by the police. In September 2006, he was picked up by the police from his home. On the same day, they brought him back, searched the house (without producing a search warrant), and, finding nothing, took him back into police custody. The next day the police charged Noor with possession of 20 books considered as 'illegal literature'.
While in police custody, he is said to have been forced, through torture and threats by his interrogators that they would kill his family, to sign a blank piece of paper, which was later used as evidence of a 'confession'. This was, it is claimed, used to charge him under the draconian MCOCA for allegedly being a member of the team that carried out the Malegaon bombings. This, he says, is completely false as he was at the local mosque on the day of the bomb blasts. The local special executive officer has given an affidavit validating this. Noor claims that Police Inspector Sachin Kadum had threatened him thus: 'Although I am aware of the fact that you are not involved in the bomb blast, we will still capture you and we will see if you can get out of this situation.'
In October 2006 Noor was taken to Bangalore for brain mapping and narco-tests. These proved negative, but the experience was harrowing. During the narco-test he was given powerful electric shocks and was badly beaten. His ribs were also battered. The doctor, Malti, asked him to say what the police wanted him to say or else he would be more deeply implicated in the bomb blast case. 'When I did not repeat the words electric shocks were given to my ear', he says. While he was in the custody of the Nasik police, they tortured him severely at the ATS office, saying that he should state what the police wanted him to -- in other words, to give a false 'confession'. 
'In the month of Ramzan while I was fasting I was beaten so much that I fainted', he says. 'Inspector Sachin Kadum and Inspector Khan Gekar used to abuse me and say that if you do not confess we will bring all your sisters here. We will make them naked and photographs will be taken and they will also be beaten,' he adds. They also threatened to implicate Noor's brother in the case. Finally, they were able to force him to make a false 'confession' by taking his signature on a blank piece of paper, but he later retracted this 'confession'.
Muhammad Hanif Adul Razzak Shaikh from Gujarat is yet another victim of state terrorism. On April 28, 2003, around two dozen men rushed into Hanif's house, but since Hanif was said to have been away attending a friend's funeral in Himmatnagar, they dragged his brother, Yasin, to the police station where he was beaten up. They picked him up without an arrest warrant and detained him for 12 days until May 3, when Hanif came back and presented himself at the Crime Branch. He was immediately put into detention and the CBI searched his factory but recovered nothing.
Mohammad Hanif was in the business of making bags. The police claimed that the bomb which was used in the tiffin bomb blast and in another such blast had been made in his factory. But when Hanif refused to accept these allegations, the police tortured him severely and even threatened to arrest his brother Yasin if he did not comply with their orders. After this, they allegedly forced a false 'confession' out of him to implicate him in the blasts. His interrogators tortured him mercilessly and he was then presented in court on May 10, 2003. There, Hanif refused to accept the charges against him, which allegedly prompted the magistrate to say that the police should take Hanif in for some more khatirdari ('hospitality'), by which was meant even greater torture.
During this remand, Hanif was said to have been subjected to third degree torture, brutally beaten and forced to sign numerous false statements. The forced 'confession' was apparently used as evidence to prolong his remand stay. He retracted his statement in the court but after appearing in court for the second time the judge ordered that he should be treated to some more 'hospitality'. After this, he is said to have been compelled to sign another 'confession', on the basis of which he was sentenced to 10 years in jail. During the five years he has spent in jail so far Hanif's wife as well as his mother died. A father of four, one of his daughters has tuberculosis. His small bag-making unit has been closed ever since he was put into jail and his family now lives in abject penury.
Maulana Mohammad Naseerudin of Hyderabad was arrested in August 2004 immediately after addressing a meeting of fellow Muslims at a local mosque. The Anti-Terrorism Squad accused him of conspiring to blow up a Hindu temple in Hyderabad, a charge that he denied. The next month he was released on bail, but on the condition that he would report to the CID office on a weekly basis.
On September 31, 2004, when the Maulana reached the CID office he found the Gujarat police waiting for him. They took him into custody, accusing him of incitement violence in Gujarat in his speeches in the mosque. In actual fact, so it is said, he had preached for relief and aid for Muslims in Gujarat who had been brutalised by the state, the police and Hindutva forces. The police failed to give any evidence at the time of his detention and subsequent trial, simply claiming that he was inciting communal hatred during his sermons.
The news of the Maulana's arrest spread quickly and he was put into a bus and given a drug to incapacitate him. The protestors asked the police for the arrest warrant. 23 year-old Mujahid Saleem Azmi, a friend of the family, started questioning the procedures during the arrest, and, after some prompting by the expanding crowd, the police released the Maulana. A heated exchange between Police Officer Narendra and Mujahid began. The officer shamelessly shouted at Mujahid, 'Have you people forgotten Gujarat? I will finish you all off.'  Mujahid replied that he was not scared of his threats and that the officer should conduct himself on the basis of the law. The police officer then said that if he was looking for a warrant he would show him a warrant and took out his gun and fired point blank at Mujahid. The rest of the police officers started firing in the air. They pushed the Maulana back into the van and drove off. The ATS provided safe passage for the police to flee Hyderabad. Meanwhile, Mujahid, 23, was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Thousands of people collected outside the hospital and they asked for a case to be filed against the police. Several different Hindutva organisations came together to try and disrupt the funeral procession the following day. The police used their special division -- the Greyhound Task Force – normally used to combat Naxalism to beat and tear gas the processionists. The Greyhound Task Force forced their way into Mujahid's house and attacked the family with sticks.
Meanwhile, the Maulana was transferred to a prison in Ahmedabad [ Images ], where, it is said, he was forced to make a 'confession'. He appealed against it, but the special POTA court denied the appeal and accepted the 'confession' of Maulana produced by the Gujarat police. His first bail application took four long months to be heard from the day of his judicial custody. A judgment on the bail application took another year. The application was rejected on the grounds that he was 'anti-American and pro Osama bin Laden' [ Images ]. Another year passed and the high court upheld the POTA court's order. Six months later, the Supreme Court asked for a swift trial, but rejected bail.
Two years have passed since the Supreme Court's order and yet nothing has happened. The Maulana continues to languish in jail and is presently seriously ill. He has only one kidney, a thyroid problem, and early signs of arthritis, none of which has been taken into consideration during his time in prison. His illnesses have worsened. He cannot walk or handle food that he has to chew, but yet, despite several appeals, the authorities continue to refuse to send him to hospital. In the meantime, the police have also arrested two of his sons for allegedly conspiring to take revenge for his arrest.
Scores of cases of innocent Muslims being deliberately targeted by agencies of the State, in addition to Hindutva forces, abound across the country, and the situation seems to be getting worse with every passing day. This is not to say that none of the several blasts that have occurred in India in the last several years could have been the handiwork of Muslims. Sympathisers of some fringe radical Islamist outfits or Muslims seeking to take revenge for the atrocities and large-scale slaughter of their co-religionists, as in Gujarat, might well have planned some of these, and Muslim leaders themselves have rightly called for stern punishment for their perpetrators.
However, the mounting indiscriminate arrests, torture and detention of vast numbers of innocent Muslim youth across the country in the name of countering terrorism not only makes a complete mockery of our claims to secularism and democracy but is a perfect recipe for making Muslim terrorism a self-fulfilling prophecy. And, to make matters worse, at the same time as the hounding of innocent Muslims continues, Hindu mobs are allowed to operate free of any effective restraint, lionised as ardent 'nationalists' as they continue to wreak murder, mayhem and naked terror on Muslims, and now, as in Orissa and Karnataka [ Images ], Christians. That, surely, is no way to combat terrorism. Far from it, it can only further exacerbate the problem.
Note: The details of the above-mentioned cases have been procured from the testimonies submitted to the jury of the People's Tribunal on the Atrocities Committed Against Minorities in the Name of Fighting Terrorism [ Images ] organised by Anhad and the Human Rights Law Network in Hyderabad, August 22-24, 2008.
Dr Yoginder Sikand is the editor of Qalandar, an electronic magazine on Islam-related issues, and also an author of several books on the subject.

Source: http://in.rediff.com/news/2008/sep/22yogi.htm

'A majority of the police force is biased'

 The police investigations into the Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blast cases have floundered. The investigation went in one direction blaming the Harkat-ul-Jihadi for two years and now it is going in another direction where the Abhinav Bharat and the Sanathan Sanstha are being blamed. Several persons have often wondered why the police bungled this probe so badly that the courts had to release all those who were arrested initially and in some cases even ordered the state to pay compensation.

S R Darapuri, a retired Indian Police Service officer has been fighting for several innocents picked up and tortured by the police in several cases of terrorism, including the Ajmer case. "Being a part of the establishment for 25 years, I fail to understand how the police can go so horribly wrong. The problem is that a majority of the force has a communal bias towards the minorities," the former top cop says.


What are your views on the shift in investigations into both the Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts case?
From day one, there was something fishy about the manner in which the investigations were being conducted. It looked like a complete frame up from the start. Many of us wondered why Muslims would blowing up their own shrines? Something did not add up from the beginning.
Are you saying that the same outfits carried out these blasts?
The Ajmer, Mecca Masjid, Malegaon and Goa [ Images ] blasts are all interlinked. I strongly suspect the role of Abhinav Bharat and the Sanathan Sanstha in these incidents.The uncanny resemblance in all these cases will tell you the story.
Do you believe that the police is on the right track now?
It looks fine at the moment. However, the biggest victory would be when innocents stop getting implicated in such cases. We must all thank (former Mumbai [ Images ] Anti-Terrorism Squad chief) Hemant Karkare [ Images ] who blew the lid off this phenomenon. The police were under the impression that it was the Muslims who were involved in all cases of terrorism. However Karkare exposed them. As a non-Muslim, I would like to say that while Muslim terror groups may carry out blasts in market places or other spots, they would never attack a mosque.
The police are largely to blame in such cases. They pick up the wrong persons and give a completely different spin to the case. Why does this happen?
There is a communal bias in the police department. I have seen that majority of the officers have a communal bias towards the minorities. This practice has been going on for a while now and no attempt has been made to stop this. Moreover there is no action against those police personnel who book innocent people in wrong cases. What has happened in Hyderabad? So many people were let off by the court. The police who booked the cases for reasons best known to them continue to remain unpunished.
What should be done to change this mindset of the police?
First the police should stop chanting the mantra 'Every Muslim is not a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim.' This generalisation needs to stop. Even at the training level, police officers should be instilled with the correct mindset.

At the lower rung it gets worse and each one is affected by personal prejiduces which ultimately affects investigations.
Is there any kind of political pressure to act in a particular manner?
Yes, political pressure does exist. In many cases police officers have acted on political pressure and this kind of malice among them has affected all ranks of the force. There is a need to change the composition of the police force and ensure that they work more for the society. Today the police appear to be working towards nurturing their own personal prejudices.
What about the influence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the force?
The RSS has been infiltrating the force and also the administration for a long time. You speak of changing attitudes of the police with the change in government. However that makes no difference due to this infiltration. They pretty much control a large part of the system.

In this interview with rediff.com, Darapauri explains how the police force is beset with bias and what needs to be done to tackle it.

 

Source: http://www.rediff.com/news/interview/interview-darapuri-majority-of-police-force-is-biased/20100615.htm