In a book,Religious Politics and Communal Violence(Oxford University Press, New Delhi) a place of pride was given to a person of dubious integrity. I am speaking of none other than Teesta Setelvad whose essay "Gujarat, Crime against humanity" has been included in taht book. In the Best Bakery case, the special court had previouslyt observed that the tutoring of Zahira Sheikh [the prime witness] was obvious. http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_print.asp?id=379118
Now, The fact of Setelvad's diabolical political agenda has been confirmed by the Special Investigation Team responsible for the arrests of those accused in Gujarat riots which has severely reprimanded NGOs and social activist Teesta Setalvad who campaigned for the riot victims. The team led by former CBI director R K Raghavan told the SC on Monday that the rights activist cooked up macabre tales of wanton killings.Besides, false charges were levelled against then police chief P C Pande and false witnesses were tutored to give evidence about imaginary incidents.
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=CAP&showST=true&login=de\fault&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&GZ=T&AW=1239685925625 [Times of India 14.3.2009]
On enquiry, the SIT found that all the 22 affidavits were drafted, typed and printed from the same computer, giving sufficient grounds to believe they were “tutored”. When the SIT questioned those who signed the affidavits, it was shocked to learn that these complainants were not even aware of the incidents.
Referring to another instance that exposed the Citizens for Justice and Peace’s much ‘trumpeted’ charges, Rohtagi said the SIT investigation found untrue allegation about a gangrape of a pregnant woman Kauser Bano, whose stomach was allegedly pierced by sword and her foetus killed.Even the instance of dumping of bodies into a well at Naroda Patiya and a charge of the police allegedly shielding accused persons in murder of a British national was found to be untrue, Rohtagi said. Firing a salvo at the NGO, Rohtagi said, “It is clear from the report that the horrendous allegations made by the NGO were false. Cyclostyled affidavits were supplied by a social activist and the allegations made in them were untrue,” he added, with an obvious reference to Setalvad.
http://dailypioneer.com/169490/Gujarat-riot-myths-busted.html
The Gujarat Riots were triggered by the mass Jihadi attack on the Sabarmati express which killed 58 Hindus, mostly women and children. The consequent riots, saw over 1000 dead of which 258 were Hindus (as per the UPA Government figures released in 2005) Then, how could anyone passively elevate this figure to twice this figure and construct a so called overnight state sponsored pogrom out of a riot is just beyond comprehension. I am afraid both you and Oxford by giving opportunities to scamsters like Setelvad who make a living out of otherpeople's misery have shown yourself in extremely poor light, and have actually given credence to the charge that yours is a heinous political and not academic project.
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