Sinha slammed the Modi-led government in his speech on the second day of the two-day third national conference of Indian Association of People's Lawyers' at Vinoba Vichar Kendra on Sunday. The feisty lawyer, striving for social justice, described as flawed the Gujarat government's policy on anti-terror measures and malicious application of terror laws.
"Gujarat never had a violent movement until the government led by Modi generated fear among the masses regarding Islamic terrorism and Maoism. It was part of a ploy to keep citizens under fear and capitalise on such jittery feelings," said Sinha. He mocked efforts by Modi to equate the government's role in tackling terror to the repressive actions against minorities.
"Till 2002, there was no hint of any Islamic terrorism in Gujarat. Maoist movement too was unheard of till the Gujarat government claimed to have come across its presence in the state," said Sinha. He added that some staunch Hindutva activist like Praveen Togadia ushered the fear of Islamic terrorism into Gujarat, which paved the way for the Modi-led government to harp on the same tune.
Sinha also drew a parallel between the actions of Gujarat CM Modi and Union home minister P Chidambaram, who has launched a sweeping operation, loosely termed as Operation Green Hunt, to annihilate Maoism in India. The rightist and pro-Naxal groups have described Chidambaram's operation as a move to crush resistance of the son-of-the-soils in tribal hinterlands.
Cornering the BJP government of Gujarat, Sinha said the state machinery had arrested number of socio-political activists fighting for tribal rights after labelling them as Maoist guerrillas. "Activists were arrested on the basis of books by Karl Marx and Mao found on their bookshelves. One of the magistrates has asked an officer whether he would arrest him too because he possessed some communist literature too. No doubt, bail was granted to the activists in due course of time," said Sinha.
During his fiery speech, Sinha highlighted how Gujarat government misused the provision of terror acts like the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), 2002, to apprehend several members of a minority community dubbing them as terrorists, and ISI and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) agents.
Sinha also highlighted the string of false encounters in which innocent youths were gunned down in the name of eliminating terrorism. Sinha charged the Gujarat government with an unwritten policy of intolerance towards minorities and right movements. "There is no movement of trade unions and for tribal rights due to stiff opposition from the state," said Sinha.
"Gujarat has become a state of saffron laboratory, where rightist ideologies of Hindutva are strangling the voices of others," said Sinha. He urged his colleagues and lawyers from IAPL to render him support to carry on the fight for justice. "Judiciary is no more an independent wing of the government, but very much a part of it," said Sinha.
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