Author: Shashi Shekhar
Publication: Niticentral.com
Date: July 3, 2013
URL: http://www.niticentral.com/2013/07/03/ishrat-jahan-case-shamelessly-politicised-98713.html

The never-ending saga of outrage over ‘alleged fake encounters” in Gujarat is poised for yet another milestone today (Wednesday) as the CBI is expected to finally file a charge sheet in relation to the June 2004 encounter incident involving Ishrat Jahan and three others.

History is repeating on this ‘fake outrage’ for the number of times we have been at this point of endlessly debating if the encounter was real or staged and if Ishrat Jahan and her associates were terrorists or not. Back in November, 2011, I had written a column in Rediff on how the media focus on encounters and outrage has been disproportionate and lopsided lending itself to the charge of being politicised. In that column I had pointed out how a similar encounter in 2006, that occurred in Timarpur near north Delhi, and had involved two Muslim victims and Hindu cops. This fake encounter case in Delhi had received near zero media scrutiny and practically zero political outrage at the Sheila Dikshit-led Congress Government in Delhi.

Even further back in 2007, writing a blog post on the same case, I had pointed out the lopsided and politicised the focus on the Ishrat Jahan case. In that blog post, I had mentioned data put out by the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, on its website for the year 2004-2005. It was during this year that the Ishrat incident had occurred. To quote the NHRC from that report:

As regards the deaths which occurred in the police custody in the course of the year 2004-2005, the report indicated that there was a noticeable decline in such cases vis-à-vis the previous year in the States of Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan,Tamilnadu and West Bengal. There was, however, an increase in the deaths in police custody n the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Delhi, Jharkhand and Uttranchal.

It is stunning to note that the National Human Rights Commission, the apex body for Human Rights in India was pointing out that the national capital Delhi had seen a spike in police custodial deaths during 2004-2005, yet look where we are in 2013 – endlessly arguing over an incident in Gujarat that has been blown out of proportion.

Quoting further data points from the same report from 2004-2005 of the NHRC:

122 intimations were received from the various State Governments about killings in encounters during the year 2004-2005. These included 66 such intimations from the State of Uttar Pradesh, 18 intimations from Andhra Pradesh, 9 from Delhi and 5 each from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Separately, the Commission also received 84 complaints about alleged killings in fake encounters.

Just look at the large numbers of encounter deaths from States ruled either by the Congress or by States with Governments supported by the Congress during the same year 2004-2005. Here is another interesting statistical detail from NHRC on fake encounter cases disposed during of 2004-2005. Gujarat had just one fake encounter while Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh had six, SP-ruled UP had 54, Congress-ruled Haryana had four. Gujarat had only five encounter cases pending, Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh had 21, Congress-ruled Maharashtra had 29, SP-ruled Uttar Pradesh had 175, the national capital Delhi had 18 (despite Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh at the helm) and Congress-ruled Uttaranchal had 14.

Now that was the NHRC data from 2004-2005.

Interestingly, the current Minister of State for Home in Manmohan Singh’s Government, RPN Singh had, in a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha during March 2013, had this to say on encounter deaths:

State-wise details of the total 555 cases registered by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of alleged fake encounters by police, defence and paramilitary forces during the period 2009-10 to 2012-13 (as on 15.2.13) are placed at Annexure. Out of above 555 cases, 144 cases have been solved and the remaining 411 are unsolved.

In the same reply, the Annexure provide stats for alleged fake encounter deaths during three periods, 2009-2010, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. Manipur and Uttar Pradesh saw the highest number of fake encounters in 2009-2010 while Gujarat had ZERO. During 2010-2011 Uttar Pradesh had a whopping 40 cases while Congress ruled States Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana had together 30 cases. In the 2011-2012 period, Uttar Pradesh once again topped the list.

Data from an earlier period also points to a similar pattern (Source: Column by S Gurumurthy in the New Indian Express):

The National Human Rights Commission’s list of 440 fake encounters from 2002 to 2007 under inquest shows the share of Gujarat as just 5, almost the lowest. Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 231, followed by Rajasthan 33, Maharashtra 31, Delhi 26, Andhra Pradesh 22, Uttaranchal 19, Assam 12, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka 10 each, Tamil Nadu 9, West Bengal 8, Bihar and Haryana 6 each.”

Here is the most damning of all facts shared by the UPA’s RPN Singh — the National Capital, New Delhi, had, across the three-year period and the first three months of 2013, a total of 10 fake encounter cases. This, despite having a Congress Government at the Centre, a Congress Government at the State level in Delhi, the Union Home Ministry being responsible for Policing in Delhi and every conceivable taxpayer-funded conscience-keeper from the NHRC to NCMC being in Delhi.

Who should we put on trial for these 10 fake encounter cases in Delhi? The Prime Minister, the Home Minister, the Delhi Chief Minister or the NHRC — all of them would stand guilty of a crime of omission ?