Those who invaded Capitol Hill broke the law. If Judges find them guilty of crimes and send them to jail no human rights violation has occurred. Even Mary Lawlor has to accept this. But America is White. India is Brown. What is true of America must not be true of India. White Judges can sentence people who break the law. Brown judges must not do so. This is Mary Lawlor and Amnesty International's position. My position is that they are a bunch of racist cunts.
But this has already been established by an independent inquiry.
According to 'Civil Society News'- Amnesty International UK “exhibits institutional racism” and previously “failed to properly embed equality, inclusion and anti-racism” throughout the organisation, an independent inquiry has said.
Mary Lawlor and Amnesty and other institutionally racist bodies are not barred from telling lies. All sorts of virtue signalling swindlers tell lies all the time. But it they go to court and tell lies in court then they may find their 'human rights' won't prevent them being sent to jail or being obliged to pay a hefty fine. This is true even if Judges are Brown not White.
Why do Judges dislike those who lie in Court? Why is fabricating evidence in a criminal trial- whether it is done by a senior police-man or an 'activist'- not praised and rewarded by the Bench? The answer, sadly, is that 'Authority' of any type- Judicial, Executive, Legislative- must punish those who deliberately seek to mislead and manipulate it to mischievous ends.
It appears that Teetsa Setalvad- also accused of stealing from the victims for whom she claimed to be raising funds- and the crackpot retired police-man, Sreekumar, have been arrested. Predictably, the UN Special Rapporteur who came up through Amnesty and who founded 'Front line defenders', has come out for Teetsa as have Amnesty and Front line Defenders. This is an echo chamber of an incestuous sort. Mary Lawlor is 70 years old. She is doubling down on an error her people made 20 years ago. Her job involved making accusations without evidence. The Indian Supreme Court took cognizance of those accusations and ordered a Special Investigation Team to investigate the matter. Considerable latitude was allowed to the prosecution and some people were sent to jail on fabricated evidence and perjured testimony. Those convictions were unsafe. Modi himself got a clean chit. He hadn't, as was alleged, been so crazy as to sabotage his own first term in office. The man was ambitious. He wanted to rise. He didn't want to create havoc and make himself unelectable. Teetsa and Shreekumar, by contrast, were incapable of rising. They had already peaked as liars and fantasists. They gained, as the Bench has damningly said, by 'keeping the pot boiling' by trying to re-litigate their stupid lies. In the short run this allowed them to profit and to pose as champions of some cause or the other. But their strategy was short-sighted. Sooner or later, the Bench would be angered by their brazen behaviour. But, they had already passed their sell-by date. They weren't really political animals. They were simply animals. Those animals will now be penned up- unless, of course, the prosecutor is useless, which can easily happen.
Meanwhile Sagarika Ghose, in an op-ed for NDTV, writes-
The timing was eerie. On June 25, 1975, Indira Gandhi imposed the Emergency.
Because she and her minions had lied to the Court. They denied that Indira and her goons had done anything improper during her election campaign. But Indira and Haksar and so on did not acquit themselves well in the witness box. The verdict went against her. She declared Emergency and jailed her opponents and rewrote the Constitution. Then she realized her son's cronies might bump her off. So, being a political animal, she held elections and showed contrition and though she initially lost, she prevailed within three years. Then she got shot. Being a political animal may keep you out of prison. But assassination tempers autocracy something fierce.
On that very day, over four decades later, on June 25, 2022, civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad was dragged out of her Mumbai home by the Gujarat police which barged into her house and marched her out into a waiting police jeep.
Because the Supreme Court said she was part of a conspiracy to pervert the course of Justice. In other words, the highest court in the land had declared her to be guilty of a very serious crime. The public prosecutor had a clear and indefeasible duty to frame charges and arrest, interrogate, and prosecute her. In her position, others may have sought anticipatory bail. The lady has certainly had plenty of time to prepare a defense. Now she must pin her hope on the prosecutor being shit. But, there's another way to play this. By doing a bit of time, she could turn into a politician rather than just a person paid for smearing politicians. Consider the case of Sadhvi Prayag. She was jailed on false charges. Now she is a Member of Parliament. Nobody cares that Teesta told lies. Stealing from victims wasn't cool but that sort of thing does happen. The problem with Teesta is that she made Modi stronger by attacking him. Sreekumar, even more stupidly, got elections delayed in Gujarat thus enabling Modi to score his first big victory at the polls. Modi has never looked back. Sreekumar destroyed his own career, credibility and now has compromised his freedom. There may be sympathy for Teetsa. There will be none for a crazy cop who went around framing innocent people like the ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan.
On the same day, former Gujarat police officer RB Sreekumar was arrested in Ahmedabad. As India recalled the 1975 June day when Indira Gandhi's police hauled dozens of Opposition politicians and journalists to jail, in a stark reminder, on the same day, India again saw state power bearing down on an individual citizen.
Indira defied the Courts. Teetsa and Sreekumar lied to the Bench and thus showed defiance to the Rule of Law. They will have to answer for their crimes.
There is a big difference between the Police following the direction of the Supreme Court and the police arresting people on the say so of a politician whom the Courts had found ineligible to hold office by reason of electoral offences.
Sagarika, no doubt, would be greatly incensed that 'Proud Boys' or other such people who invaded Capital Hill are victims of illegal Government persecution.
The chronology of events is chilling. On Friday, June 24, the Supreme Court passed an order upholding the findings of an SIT (Special Investigation Team) that absolved Prime Minister Narendra Modi (then Gujarat Chief Minister) of any criminal conspiracy during the Gujarat communal riots of 2022 "Court gives clean chit to Modi," ran the headlines. In the 453-page judgement, while the court said collusion and 'criminal conspiracy' of authorities could not be proven, it also made references to the law and order failures and incompetence of the Gujarat state administration.
We know that evidence was fabricated and forged. Perjured testimony was offered. There was a conspiracy. The attempt to re-litigate failed because no new evidence was presented. The Court's time was wasted. It, quite properly, took umbrage. Prosecutors would have been derelict in their duty if they hadn't framed charges. Will the prosecution build coherent case? I don't know. But they have a duty to do so.
The day after the Supreme Court judgement, a police inspector, quoting copiously from the Supreme Court order, filed an FIR against RB Sreekumar who was and is an outspoken critic of the Modi government during the Gujarat riots;
He lied and fabricated evidence. He is not any different than the publicity hungry goons who persecuted Aryan Khan. Police men must not be allowed to frame anybody they like.
Teesta Setalvad, who backed Zakia Jafri's petition; and former Gujarat cop Sanjiv Bhatt, already in jail in another case.
For custodial murder. What a sweetheart!
Around the same time that day, Home Minister Amit Shah gave an interview to news agency ANI which was carried by all news channels. In the interview, Shah named Teesta Setalvad's as one of the activist NGOs which "levelled allegations against BJP workers across Gujarat." Hours after the interview aired, the Gujarat police - the Anti-Terror Squad, no less - swooped down on Setalvad's residence. The Supreme Court judgement, registration of FIR, the Home Minister's interview and the Gujarat police action on Setalvad unfolded like a strategic chain of events.
What is even more sinister is that this happened hours after I farted. Who knew my fart had such power? It is obvious that when the Bench comments on egregious perjury and evidence fabrication, politicians will speak about it while, quite separately, prosecutors will get charges framed and arrest and interrogate those named by the Bench.
The judgement delivered rather superfluous and disturbing obiter dicta or opinionated comments,
in the opinion of a shitty little reporter who does not know the law
beyond the remit of an evidence-based ruling.
The ratio turned on perjured testimony and forged evidence. There was a conspiracy to defeat the ends of justice. Only the ratio matters.
The court referred to activists like Setalvad as people "sitting in a comfortable environment in their air conditioned offices." On the petitioners, including Zakia Jafri, widow of Ehsan Jafri who has fought this case for 16 years, the judgement had harsh words: "The present proceedings have been pursued for 16 years...including with the audacity to question the integrity of every functionary...to keep the pot boiling obviously for ulterior design." The court also said "All those involved in such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law."
This is a clear order from the Bench which prosecutors must follow.
The phrase "audacity to question" government functionaries is intriguing when the same court, in its Right to Privacy judgement in August 2017, held "those who are governed are entitled to question those who govern about the discharge of their constitutional duties."
To question specified functionaries on the basis of prima facie evidence is one thing. It is audacious to suggest that there is a massive conspiracy such that everybody and anybody who does not agree with you is corrupt or has been suborned. Vexatious litigation deserves no constitutional protection.
Last week's judgement seems to suggest that questioning government functionaries by victims of horrific communal violence is not an act of citizenship but of 'audacity'.
It is audacious to keep the pot boiling for 20 years on the basis of evidence which was disproved ten years ago.
To stifle, through force, if necessary, any questioning of the state or government reveals an "Emergency mindset." In fact, in Indira Gandhi's time, at least there was the pretence of trying to clothe state power in law and procedure, today, it appears that cloak has been shaken off.
Indira defied a Court order. Teetsa's prosecutors are obeying the Bench.
In 1976, at least one stout-hearted judge, HR Khanna, gave a strongly dissenting order in the infamous ADM Jabalpur judgement which suspended civil rights.
Indira settled his hash quickly enough. He resigned after being superseded. Charan Singh have him a Ministerial position. But Indira soon pulled the rug from under him.
Modi indulges in no such shenanigans. Some political animals evolve upwards as they improve administration and governance. Modi is a politician of that stripe.
Today, social media online armies build such an overwhelmingly powerful media narrative and create such an overwrought witch-hunting atmosphere that anyone questioning or critiquing the authorities is seen as an enemy of the state, an "anti-national" or an "urban Naxal."
The reverse is also true. Teetsa & Co had the upper hand at one time. But it was Modi who prevailed.
In 2015, environmental activist Priya Pillai of Greenpeace was barred from travelling to London. Aakar Patel, head of Amnesty International in India, has also been banned from travelling overseas while Amnesty, a globally-recognised organisation is being investigated by the enforcement agencies. Tribal rights activist Sudha Bhardwaj was jailed for three years in a case that has several loopholes and only now is out on bail. The peace campaigner Harsh Mandar was placed under investigation, other rights campaigners like Gautam Navlakha remain behind bars ,while the octogenarian Father Stan Swamy died in jail while charged under specious UAPA provisions.
And Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Maya Kodnani were jailed on false charges. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. What the country needs is to jail policemen and 'activists' who fabricate evidence and frame innocent people. But that's not what Sagarika wants. If Lawlor is Racist, Sagarika is Slavish. But the money for their line of work is running out. Sad.
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