MUSLIM LEADERSHIP
Arun Shourie on C.M. Ibrahim
"It is because I happen to be an unfortunate person belonging to the minority," the minister declaimed, pasting a motive on those who were demanding that he resign. "Have there not been in the past as many allegations levelled against ministers belonging to major communities, but was any demand made for their resignation?" he asked. And there is always the invoking of Divine Wrath: "Time alone will furnish an answer to all those questions," the minister declaimed. "But one thing I want impress on every one of you: you may escape human justice, but never Divine Nemesis". There is always that declaration of one resolve. "I will root the BJP out from the very roots", the minister shouted through the din in the House. And in the end there is always the high purpose for which one is making "the supreme sacrifice", that is resigning one's position as minister: "I am seeking my freedom more cut of sorrow than anger to defend and vindicate myself in the public eye", the minister said finally as he announced his resignation. "After all, a person is answerable only to God and one's own conscience."
This was the other, equally luminous, star in Deve Gowda's government, C.M. Ibrahim. He had rejoined the Congress, and had become a minister in Gundu Rao's government. I had recalled at the time the words he had been using in public speeches about Mrs. Gandhi: "voh antar rashtriya vyabhicharini," "that international prostitute". A.K. Subbiah, then a BJP member of the Karnataka Legislative Council, had begun nailing Ibrahim on one thing after another. To everything Ibrahim had a standard answer: it is all a plot of the communal forces, he would say. But he wouldn't answer the specifics that Subbiah and papers like the Indian Express were bringing out about him. Subbiah nailed him on a watch: he had got it as a "gift" from someone in West Asia, Ibrahim acknowledged in the end.
Then came the episode of the flour mill licenses. Issuing licenses for setting up floor mills had become a very lucrative industry by itself. The Centre had sent telegrams to state governments instructing them not to issue any further licenses for flour mills. C.M. Ibrahim, then minister for food and civil supplies, had worked extra well past midnight! The matter had blown up into a big scandal. Ibrahim said it was all a concoction of the communal forces. Gundu Rao stood by him. But, eventually, Gundu Rao had to yield and entrust the inquiry to the CBI. That was the only way time could be bought, in a year everyone would have forgotten the matter. And, in any case, the government at the Centre was of their own party.
But then, came the terrible Padmakka episode. Therewas a gruesome murder in Bhadravati involving a man called Khader, the brother; it turned out of the same minister, C.M. Ibrahim. A 45-year-old woman was an eyewitness. She was abducted, brought to Bangalore. There she was subjected to thrashings and the rest. In the end she escaped. On coming out she lodged a complaint with the police that she had been held and tortured and raped at the house of Ibrahim, that she had been threatened by Ibrahim, among others, and warned that terrible consequences would follow for her and her entire family if she gave any evidence against Khader. The judicial magistrate at Bhadravati directed the state's Corps of Detectives to inquiry into the complaint. Based on its findings, the police at Bhadravati filed a formal FIR a few days later implicating Ibrahim, his brother and others in a case of abduction, rape, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation.
The usual things happened. Ibrahim again alleged that it was a conspiracy of the communal forces. Both the officers who had handled the case and done their job were cast aside: the superintendent of police, B.N. Nagaraj, was transferred out, and the DIG of the Corps of Detectives, N.B. Bhat, was ordered to proceed on leave. The action against the SP and the DIG blew up in Assembly. CM Gundu Rao declared, with the aplomb to which he was accustomed, that these actions were just administrative steps and were not matters of any "public interest". That enraged the legislators all the more. Assembly was having its Budget session. Devraj Urs, then President of the Congress (O), and S.R. Bommai led the charge in Assembly. They as well as 25 other MLAs were suspended by the Speaker for the rest of the Budget session. Once again the government of the day had triumphed, and the conspiracy of communal forces had been thwarted.
But, on June 30 1981, the Indian Express reported that the CBI had found that yes, Ibrahim had indeed given those licenses for the flour mills for collateral purposes. The Opposition demanded the man's dismissal. Gundu Rao declared that it was all a conspiracy, he said several things about us at the Express and declared that the Opposition, apart from just parroting what he paper was feeding it, was in the pay of excise contractors. But the defence didn't work. And, on 4 August 1981, Ibrahim had to resign in disgrace.
But time and secularism are great healers. Today the same Ibrahim is minister for information and broadcasting in the government of India. He can be seen always at the side of the Prime Minister, his trusted aide and counsellor.
Shyam Khosla on the Law and the Bukharis
The United Front Government is moving heaven and earth to save the skin of rabid communalist Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Naib Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, who is charged with sedition and inflaming communal passions by his anti-national speech from Jama Masjid in the wake of the demolition of the Babari Masjid.
Shri Bukhari has been evading court notices and made himself unavailable to stall the execution of the non-bailable warrants issued against him by a Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate.
The 'secular' Government headed by H.D. Deve Gowda instructed the Delhi Lt. Governor to move the court for the withdrawal of the case against Abdullah Bukhari's son on the specious plea that dropping of sedition charge against him would help create a peaceful environment in society.
Vinod Kumar Sharma, the Metropolitan Magistrate, was not impressed. He rejected the Center's contention which had sought to put the deputy imam above the law.
The Magistrate referred to the FIR No. 98/93 registered at the Jama Masjid Police Station and said the prosecution had alleged that the accused made attempts to overthrow the Government. He challenged the state's sovereignty. No individual could be allowed to do this. He cited several judgements of the Supreme Court to say that it was the court's duty to see whether withdrawal of a criminal case was in the interest of administration of justice. No interest of the administration of justice would be served by withdrawing the case against the junior Bukhari as no objective material to the effect had been placed before the court.
The police filed the charge sheet in the case without arresting the accused on the ground that it would cause a law and order problem. The court issued summons and later non-bailable warrants against the accused but these were never executed and the accused never appeared before the court. Bukhari has obtained a stay on the proceedings from the High Court.
Shyam Lal, resident of 3148, Lal Darwaza, Bazaar Sita Ram, moved an application in the Metropolitan Magistrate's Court opposing the withdrawal of the case. Three others said the same through their lawyers.
Shyam Lal, in his application, said people living in the Jama Masjid area, including he, were in terror following Bukhari's inflammatory speech. There was enough evidence and a strong prima facie case against the Jama Masjid employee. He prayed that the case should not be dropped.
The role of Delhi police in the case is also under a cloud. It never picked up the courage to serve warrants on Bukhari despite repeated orders by the Court. At one stage, there were heated arguments between the judge and SHO Amarjit Singh. The latter was later hauled up for contempt of court and escaped punishment by offering an unqualified apology.
In the High Court, another unsavoury aspect of the government's manipulation came to. Light. Bukhari's lawyers pleaded for stay and informed the court that the Government had decided to drop the charges. The standing counsel said he had no information on the subject. He had been bypassed and the Government had hired a senior lawyer instead.
Shahabuddin's Statement On Khilafat Movement, 23 January, 1997
The Khilafat Campaign sponsored by the Students Islamic Movement of India, initiated at Bombay, is spreading its poisonous tentacles all over the country. After its abolition by Turkey in 1924, no Muslim-majority State, by itself, not the Organization of Islamic Conference, not even a pan-Islamic NGO like the World Muslim Congress, Karachi, or Rabita al-Alam-al-Islami, Makka, have taken up the cause of revival of the caliphate. It passes all comprehension how a Muslim community which constitutes only 12% of the national population, can reestablish Khilafat in India. And the sponsors do not care to explain how such an India-based Khilafat, even if it were established, will exercise any authority over the 50 odd Muslim-majority States and about 250 million other Muslims in Muslim-minority States. One does not know who is behind this campaign but obviously it has its roots abroad.
There is no doubt in my mind that this is a pernicious and suicidal campaign. Its object is to alienate the Muslim youth from nationalism based on democracy and secularism and to create an avoidable conflict between Islam and the Indian State and to provide grist for Hindutva mills. It is time that the Government of India wake up to nip this mischief in the bud.
Despite our efforts, the United Front did not support us in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. They are more interested in anti-Congressism than in containing communal forces. Sitaram Kesri, Congress President
