– by Kaleem Kawaja
Washington, D.C: The US-based Sikh Foundation for Justice (SFJ) in coordination with the American Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (AGPC), Tuesday held a citizens’ court in Lafayette Park, a small park in front of the White House to indict PM Narendra Modi for the human rights violations in 2002 in Gujarat. The hour-long trial was conducted following US legal procedures. SFJ organized a grand jury of 24 citizens comprising of people of various colors, white, black and Indian etc.
The proceedings began at 1:30 PM on Tuesday (Sept 30) when PM Modi was actually in the White House building, that is right in front of the citizens’ court and ended at 2:30 PM.
The prosecutor read out the charges against Modi and said that the charge sheet was handed over to an official of the Indian embassy in Washington DC a few days ago, and that Mr Modi has been given an opportunity to defend himself. But he has chosen not to attend even though right at this time he is in the White House building, just a couple of hundred yards away. The charges included abetting murder of more than 2000 Muslims, raping of a large number of Muslim women, destruction of their houses in February and March 2002.
The charge sheet filed in the Citizens’ court listed crimes of genocide; first degree murders; rapes and sexual assaults; torture; tempering with the witnesses, victims and informants; and obstruction of criminal investigations. The woman judge then turned the matter over to the grand jury and asked them to give their opinion by writing on pieces of paper in front of them.
The judge then polled the grand jury members and with their concurrence announced that Mr Modi has been indicted of all the charges leveled against him by the prosecutor.
The judge was a white American woman lawyer. An effigy of Mr Modi stood in the dock on the left side of the bench. The prosecutor was an Indian-American lawyer. The court was set up in the Lafayette park and it looked like a proper trial. The audience of about one thousand people consisting of men and women of all races and colors, but mostly Sikhs, stood behind the prosecutor’s desk in the park. Lots of TV cameras and media people were in attendance.
Explaining the reasons for the convening Citizens’ Court, attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal adviser to SFJ stated that starting from 1984 political leaders in India have a long history of organizing massacres of religious minorities with impunity.
Pannun said that on the one hand, the Citizens’ Court indicted Indian judicial system for its failure to convict a known human rights violator and on the other hand, it highlighted the plight and concerns of religious minorities in India, particularly victims of 2002 Muslims massacre.
Pannun said that on the one hand, the Citizens’ Court indicted Indian judicial system for its failure to convict a known human rights violator and on the other hand, it highlighted the plight and concerns of religious minorities in India, particularly victims of 2002 Muslims massacre.
Kaleem Kawaja, is an Indian Muslim scientist and community activist. He lives in the US.