[Marxistindia] Joint Memo to President of India

[news from the cpi(m)]

September 17, 2020

Press Release
Congress Party Treasurer and MP Ahmed Patel, CPI(M) General Secretary  
Sitaram Yechury, CPI General Secretary D Raja, DMK leader & MP  
Kanimozhi, RJD leader and MP Manoj Jha met the President of India  
today and handed over a memorandum
The leaders impressed upon the President of India that instead of  
conducting an investigation into the communal violence in which 53  
lives were lost and instigating which hate speeches calling for  
violence were made by senior ruling party leaders including a cabinet  
minister, the Delhi Police under the direction of the Union Home  
Minister is orchestrating a script that is linking peaceful  
anti-CAA-NPR-NRC protests to this violence. Consequently, many  
innocent activists, well known intellectuals and political leaders are  
being targeted. Such a manufacturing of conspiracy by the Delhi Police  
is a diversion from identifying and punishing the perpetrators of this  
communal violence. The victims of this violence are being arrested  
while the perpetrators are let scot free.
The President heard the delegation, accepted the memorandum and said  
that he will have it examined.
Due to the Covid pandemic protocol, the Rashtrapathi Bhawan had  
restricted this delegation to consist of not more than 5 members.  
Hence other opposition party leaders who agree with this memorandum  
could not be part of the delegation.

*****
The full text of the memorandum is given below:

Shri. Ram Nath Kovind
Hon’ble President of India
Rashtrapati Bhawan,
New Delhi, Delhi 110004

Sub: Memorandum regarding Delhi riots investigation & enquiry by Delhi police

Respected Rashtrapati ji,

We are writing to you to express our deep concern about the manner in  
which the Delhi Police is investigating the incidents of communal  
violence which took place in North East Delhi between the 23rd and  
26th of February, 2020 in which 53 people lost their lives.
The Delhi Police has set up Special Investigation Teams (SITs) and its  
Special Cell is also probing the aspect of conspiracy behind the Delhi  
riots.
  There are, however, serious questions about the role played by the  
Delhi Police itself during the violence and also the manner in which  
the Police is harassing and attempting to falsely implicate activists  
and young people who took part in the anti-CAA/NRC/NPR movements as  
the perpetrators of violence.
Such a manufactured conspiracy theory has now begun to falsely  
implicate political leaders. The name of the General Secretary of the  
CPI(M), a national political party, Sitaram Yechury, a parliamentarian  
of long standing repute and also names of well known intellectuals,  
academicians and activists have now surfaced in material put out in  
the public domain. This is a disturbing trend that raises serious  
questions over the manner of such investigations.
There are several publicly documented accounts and videos of police  
being complicit in the violence, directing mobs pelting stones or  
looking the other way when mobs were indulging in violence. During the  
violence, disturbing video emerged showing uniformed policemen  
assaulting young men lying injured on the road and forcing them sing  
the national anthem while repeatedly beating them with lathis. One of  
the men, Faizan succumbed to his injuries a few days later. In another  
incident, a DCP stood mutely next to a BJP leader who was instigating  
violence against the protestors warning them that if they did not  
vacate the road, he would do it himself. Despite several complaints  
being filed alleging involvement of senior police officials in the  
violence, including a DCP, additional commissioners and SHOs, it  
appears no urgency has been accorded to identifying the policemen  
involved in violence and ensuring that they are brought to book.
There are also several documented accounts of police assaulting and  
torturing persons in their custody including that of Khalid Saifi who  
was picked up from Khureji on February 26, and had severe injuries on  
both legs when he was subsequently produced before the magistrate.
The notable silence in the chargesheets on the role of leaders  
associated with the BJP, who gave inflammatory speeches, raises  
serious concern about the impartiality of the probe. Since December  
2019, there are publicly documented speeches by leaders of the ruling  
party instigating and provoking violence against those involved in the  
anti-CAA protests, including that of a minister raising slogans to  
“shoot the traitors”. In fact even when people have courageously filed  
complaints against BJP leaders— Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur, Parvesh  
Verma, Satya Pal Singh, Jagdish Pradhan, Nand Kishore Gujjar and Mohan  
Singh Bisht— accusing them of participating in or orchestrating the  
violence, there has been no action by the Delhi Police.
While the Delhi police has turned a blind eye towards the role of its  
own personnel and BJP leaders in the violence, at the same time the  
probe appears to be pursuing a line of inquiry criminalising the  
protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and portraying  
them as a conspiracy which resulted in the riots in Delhi. The  
chronology described by the Police in the chargesheets, which are  
publicly available, chronicle the various sits-ins in Delhi and  
speeches by social activists as though each of these was a build up  
towards the riots. The entire investigation appears to be aimed at  
arriving at a pre-meditated theory about a conspiracy propounded by  
the Home Minister in Lok Sabha in March 2020, before any investigation  
had even begun into the riots.
The FIR (59/2020) regarding this ‘conspiracy’ being investigated by  
the Special Cell, in which the draconian Unlawful Activities  
(Prevention) Act (UAPA) has been invoked, is being used to carry out a  
fishing and roving inquiry against activists and young persons who  
were involved with the protests. Over the past six months, the  
supporters and participants of these protests continue to be summoned  
by the police, harassed and subjected to long interrogations including  
threats and coercion to extract false statements and fabricate  
‘evidence’ regarding this conspiracy. The Police has also been  
maliciously leaking disclosure statements (which have no evidentiary  
value) of those arrested about the role of various activists and civil  
society leaders in the ‘conspiracy’ in an attempt to influence public  
opinion and malign them.
The ongoing probe by the Delhi police, therefore, does not inspire  
confidence. There are serious questions about the impartiality of the  
probe, especially given the recent order of the Special Commissioner  
of Police (Crime) citing “degree of resentment among the Hindu  
community” regarding arrests of “some Hindu youth” from riot-hit areas  
in Northeast Delhi and directing that “due care and precaution” be  
taken while making arrests.
A credible and unbiased probe is crucial to restore public trust in  
the law and order machinery of the state. The investigation cannot be  
allowed to become fishing and roving expedition aimed at causing a  
chilling effect on dissent and protest in the country.
We therefore urge you to call upon the Government of India to  
institute an inquiry into this investigation under the Commission of  
Inquiry Act, 1952, headed by sitting/retired judge(s).

  Yours Sincerely,

D.Raja, CPI                     Sitaram Yechury CPI (M)                 
    Ahmed Patel, INC

Ms. Kanimozhi, DMK                            Prof. Manoj Jha,  RJD