annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Gujarat
about Father Prakash’s visit to London in
December 2003 where he allegedly made
some inflammatory statements related to
Gujarat riot victims. He was earlier
questioned on 26 April 2004 and then on 8
June 2004 after the Home Department
forwarded an e-mail from a Mumbaibased
IT professional Vishal Sharma, who
quoted Father Prakash as telling a
magazine that minorities in Gujarat feel
unsafe. Father Prakash was allegedly
threatened that his passport would be
impounded for his ‘anti-national’ act. 31
Vishal Sharma had earlier worked in the
Chief Minister’s Office during Modi’s
initial tenure in 2001. 32
V. National Security Laws
Gujarat extensively invoked the
Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act,
2002. Prior to the repeal of POTA, the
Gujarat Assembly passed the Gujarat
Control of Organised Crime (GUJCOC)
Act and referred to President A.P.J.
Abdul Kalam. 33
The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), set up
to counter terrorist and anti-national
activities, did not reportedly book a single
case under the POTA. All the arrests were
made by Crime Branch and ordinary police.
Of the 305 persons arrested under POTA,
only seven were Hindus and the rest were
Muslims. 35
On the night of 22 November 2004,
Crime Branch of Ahmedabad reportedly
arrested senior lawyer H N Jhala of the
Gujarat High Court and his junior Mustaq
Saiyed under POTA for their alleged
70
involvement in the ISI conspiracy case. The
police reportedly recovered two pistols from
Saiyed. The police claimed that the two
lawyers were involved in the conspiracy that
was planned to avenge the post-Godhra
communal violence of 2002. 36
VI. Atrocities against the Dalits
Oppression of the Dalits continueds
unabated in Gujarat. Stigmatization and
social boycott of the Dalits are common.
On 7 March 2004, 32-year-old Ishwar
Patni in Ruppur in Mehsana district was
allegedly beaten when he went to the
center of the village to start water supply.
Dahiyabhai Nai, another Dalit also met
with the same fate when he raised voice
against the social boycott of Dalits by
high-castes. Dalit women reportedly had
to bring grocery, vegetables and milk from
a place 2 km away from their village, as
they could not buy anything from the
village grocers following the social
boycott. Many of the Dalit women
working as housemaids in high caste
families were sacked. The social boycott
against the Dalits reportedly began
following their refusal to part with the
cremation ground, which they had been
using for several years before it was
handed over to private trust for
construction of a private school. 37
Dalits, irrespective of their posts or
positions, faced stigma and the same set of
problems ranging from temple entry to
drawing water from village wells. A lot of
high-ranking Dalit officials and politicians
reportedly continued to face