Sanjiv Bhatt Needs A Bonfire, Candles Not Enough

On Tuesday night (Oct 11) it seems gas balloons burst on being singed by candle flames outside Sanjeev Bhatt’s house. It scared the small crowd there, Bhatt’s father-in-law fell down and rumours of a blast had a short life. Hard to fathom what the candle light activists were doing with balloons. I suppose gas balloons are symbolic of the gas bags that have pronounced Bhatt completely innocent of any crime and a victim of a witch-hunt.  Never mind. All the candles in the world are unlikely to end Sanjiv Bhatt’s troubles soon.

So who are these gas bags? All the usual suspects, of course! There is Teesta Setalvad, Shabnam Hashmi, Mallika Sarabhai, the leaders of the pack. All three are established and exposed liars. One can sympathise with Mrs.Shweta Bhatt (Sanjiv’s wife) and understand her dismay on these events. But instead of taking saner counsels to work for her legally she has allowed gas bags to holler and shriek mindlessly in defence of her husband. The three angels on her side have acquired so much disrepute that anything they now utter is suspect.

Shweta stated that her husband was not a criminal and does not have a history of offences. That Bhatt was being treated like a ‘terrorist’ in custody. That his life is in danger. She writes to P. Chidambaram and complains about the threats. None of these seem a natural response but more a tutored act that has all the ingredients of a drama that the media so loves. The story of Sanjiv Bhatt is not that of a ‘whistle-blower’ as the media so dearly likes to call him. It is an extraordinary case of how and why an IPS officer chose to reveal information and file affidavits against Narendra Modi, nine years after the Gujarat riots of 2002.

The one lesson that is lost on many activists is that whatever the media crooks hype usually turns out to be a huge propaganda of untruths. The SC order on September 12 sending the Zakia Jaffrey case to the lower court stunned many of these media mullas who had hoped the SC would rap Modi. It didn’t happen. Latest information also suggests that neither the SC nor the SIT had considered Sanjiv Bhatt’s affidavit in the SC. This only means that his affidavit does not contain reliable evidence against Modi. The motive of Sanjiv Bhatt to come out of the blue and file that affidavit incriminating Modi in the riots must remain under serious question. It doesn’t help that some Congress politicians have been revealed to have lent him support in his misadventure.

This document herechronicles the extraordinary history of offences by Sanjiv Bhatt. He is not the whistle blower or the angel that media has tried to portray him as. But he suits the huge anti-Modi industry propelled by the three stooges (Teesta, Shabnam, Mallika) and comedy channels like NDTV, CNN-IBN and TimesNow. It would also appear that much prior to his affidavit in the SC, Bhatt would probably have been extensively communicating with these activists. Since the exposure of fake affidavits of Teesta Setalvad the media didn’t really have much to shout about against Modi. The Bhatt affidavit gave the campaign a new lease of life for the anti-Modi propaganda.

It is not just Sanjiv Bhatt but the law will sooner or later catch up with Teesta Setalvad. Here’s more from DeshGujarat: Public prosecutor S.V.Raju says “.. Bhatt’s allegation against Modi was simply to divert the attention from the main offense he had committed. Raju also said that adding involving the names of Modi and late Haren Pandya in affidavits was to attract media attention….Bhatt had suppressed the fact that he had approached the Supreme Court for bail on the very next day of his arrest on October 1. The bail plea was later withdrawn from the SC registry on the same day and Bhatt’s lawyer Syed placed the fact on record only after filing bail application in local court here on October 3”.

And if that is not enough a case of murder has been registered against Sanjiv Bhatt for a custodial death in 1990 in Jamnagar (Guj).  The Jamnagar court will soon file a charge-sheet against Bhatt and other accused policemen in the case. Still, the defence for Bhatt continues to pour from none other than Team Anna. This Team Anna is slowly turning out to be a political tool for unknown elements. Suddenly, its member Shanti Bhushan announces Modi is the most communal person and he is willing to defend Sanjiv Bhatt as a lawyer. Bhushan goes on to add “Bhatt was being persecuted only because he had filed an affidavit against Modi”. No sir, he is not being persecuted, he is ACTUALLY being prosecuted. And as a lawyer, this moron should let the law prevail instead of  making political statements about the Congress or the BJP or Modi.

As for the media the best comment yet comes from Rajeev Srinivasan in an article at Firstpost. He describes how this cottage industry of hate and manufacturing consent operates: “Then there are the various characters who keep popping up like jack-in-the-boxes. The Fiction-Writers Posing As Journalists. The Activist Accused By Witnesses Of Tutoring Them To File False Affidavits. The Angry Dancer. The Police Officer 1.0. The Police Officer 2.0. That Police Officer 1.0, who was once the media’s favourite, has trashed Police Officer 2.0, its current favourite, does not seem to bother the media at all”.

Sanjiv Bhatt has spent 12 days in jail and is still fighting for bail. Whether he gets bail or not a long legal battle awaits him. Candles will not be enough, he may well need a bonfire.

Social Scientologist Dipankar Gupta's Advice For Gujarat Congress

This seems to be the season for celebrities to shower advice on the Congress party. In my previous post I tried understanding why ‘Shekhar Gupta is doctoring and nursing the Congress’. Rajdeep Sardesai in an article, “Insider, Outsider” laments  on Pranab Mukherjee never getting his due from the Congress because others have to be kept at bay. Another one, “Telling the wrong story” is what catches my attention though. It is written by Social Scientologist Dipankar Gupta. Alright, let me explain. This Gupta, a former professor with JNU, the coffee shop of communists, is supposedly a social scientist. My understanding was that social scientists do a lot of work on the ground with people on various issues to arrive at conclusions. But Social Scientologists in India are now a cult group that simply work on a pre-set body of beliefs and rituals created by fiction and fantasy. The supposed religion of Scientologyis described as a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard. It would have been unheard of but for prominent celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta being its followers. Scientology is also a very very secretive cult. Therefore, rather than being referred to as scientists who deal with facts, the term scientologists is more appropriate for people like Dipankar Gupta who write largely with no first hand research. After all, FAITH, is the key.

So Dipankar Gupta (DG) is his article in TOI “Telling the wrong story” (Quotes in blue) wonders why the Congress isn’t telling the right story. He writes: “Is the Congress afraid of winning in Gujarat? Nothing else explains why it lets Narendra Modi tom-tom development when it should have been the Congress banging the drums. The economic achievements of governments before Modi's read like an award citation, but too much secularism has since led the Congress astray. Instead of showcasing its past performance to regain Gujarat, it is obsessed with nailing Modi as a communalist-in-chief. Naturally, it is not getting anywhere fast”. Interesting, “too much secularism”? I give that much to DG, secularism has almost become synonymous with anti-development. It has come to represent pandering and appeasement and nothing more.

After those opening lines DG then goes on to reel off a healthy dose of statistics to reveal why Gujarat was a poster-boy for development even before Modi. I quite agree and have always maintained that Gujarat has been economically progressive historically and traditionally. As a state it has done far better on most fronts than a huge majority of states in India even before Modi. DG only fails in his reasoning why Congress is unable to counter NaMo. That is because he fails to understand the people of Gujarat. The most important ingredient in political and electoral battles is the public. As a social scientologist DG has completely failed to read the minds of the Gujjus. That’s the reason all the statistics and economic indexes he uses become academic nonsense for a Congress revival.

The story of Congress in Gujarat cannot be written without a mention of its divisive politics in the state. The one theory that most epitomises its deeply divisive tactic that meant to divide a ‘secular’ society has to be the one by former CM Madhavsinh Solanki. His KHAM theory is as much a Secular laboratory as the Hindutva laboratory that Gujarat is often called. KHAM stands for Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi & Muslim. The Congress believed creating and strengthening such vote-banks would keep them in power for good. Well, vote-bank politics is a traditional tactic for the Congress. To support that tactic the Congress also sprinkled its strategy with an abundance of reservations and subsidies. Surprised? Well that is still the strategy in most states for the ‘secular’ parties. DG perhaps overlooks an important turning point in the history of Gujarat.

In 1985 the Madhavsinh Solanki announced reservation policies which resulted in agitations and riots throughout the state. These went on for months and then suddenly turned into communal riots. A majority of people believe that the Congress turned it into communal riots to deflect the reservations issue. The Hindus in Gujarat believed they were at the receiving end of all social mishaps. Reservations, communal riots, subsidies etc. These are emotive issues and not the statistical nonsense that DG reduces the discussion to. And he’s supposed to be a social scientologist!  If one Congress leader can be held singularly responsible for the party’s sinking in Gujarat, it has to be Madhavsinh Solanki. And what’s his reward? He gets to be a minister in the Central Govt. later on.

Now, having all along fought their elections on fake ‘secularism’, garibi-hatao, aam-aadmi, reservations, caste and community divisions, minorities appeasement, subsidies and so on can the Congress suddenly jump to ‘Development’ as an electoral strategy? I am surprised someone as educated as DG cannot see the irony. By his own logic Gujarat was already on a development path, what the Gujaratis didn’t want was the other nonsense that the Congress party fought elections on. Get that DG?

DG goes on to write: “Now that Gujarat's economy is all grown up and good-looking, the Congress should admit its responsibility and submit to a paternity test. What is there to hide? Hefty anti-saffron helpings, on their own, will not do. With a stomach full of that stuff, the Congress can hardly catch up with Modi. In fact, Jawaharlal Nehru taught us that secularism does not win elections, development does. Why then is the Congress doing its best to come second-best by gagging its record of the 1990s? In politics, as in sports, winning is not everything, it is the only thing”. Well DG you and other colleagues of yours in the social club and the media are the ones who brought the Congress to such a miserable shape. Peddling lies only helps so much. Fighting elections by calling Modi a mass murderer, calling him communal and anti-muslim does not resonate with Gujaratis. The Congress hoped to benefit by permanently tagging Modi with the 2002 riots and with the support of corrupt NGOs, social clubbers and the media hoped to win elections. A first start would be to admit that this strategy has failed.Another first would be to admit that Jawaharlal Nehru did to India what Congress has mostly done to Gujarat.

Another important aspect in politics and society is not just about being a minister, winning elections or about the Chief Minister. It is about leadership. I repeat what I wrote in a previous post: "What a leader does for followers is..turn anxiety into confidence. They’ve always done that throughout time and in every different society and situation. When leaders lead well, it’s because they’re able to rally people to a better future and make people spirited when they were previously anxious." This is what NaMo provided to a state in a time of severe strife and anxiety brought about by the 2001 earthquake followed by the 2002 riots. Maybe yes, he would have played a communal card since he is and will remain a politician. So why did the secular card repeatedly fail then?

Another important issue that DG overlooks is that the Congress now wants to campaign against NaMo on issues of corruption for the 2012 elections. Would you believe that DG? Where’s your advice on that? You might find a lot to hurl at Modi but corruption can be related to Modi as much as Sarah Palin sees Russia from her lawns. An issue that DG does not acknowledge is that if Gujarat managed to make giant strides under Modi it is actually because of absence of or negligible corruption in the system and elimination of the red tape.

Another wrong example that DG draws on is that of Dhirubhai Ambani: “Most recently, Mukesh Ambani praised Narendra Modi for putting Gujarat on the world map. He seems to have forgotten that his father, and Reliance, prospered in Gujarat well before Modi properly entered politics”. Dhirubhai’s success is in no way connected with Congress rule in Gujarat before Modi. Dhirubhai was a Gujju and his first venture in textiles was when Gujarat was still the Manchester of India. It is state where labour unrest was minimal. DG might like to know that once public giant IPCL used to proudly put up a sign at its entrance that said to the effect “Since inception no strikes at IPCL”.  Reliance is now a stake-holder in IPCL and it still doesn’t see strikes. If the Sardar Sarovar project was started much before Modi he is credited with speeding up the canals and bringing the Narmada water to various parts of Gujarat, including Ahmedabad. The dam is only half the achievement, bringing water to the parched cities and villages counts for a lot more. Much of Gujarat was drought-prone, that’s a situation laid to rest in a very large measure.

While his sympathy for the Congress may not be misplaced, social scientologists like DG sometimes use the most spurious arguments as logic. In a discussion with Rajdeep Sardesai on Subramanian Swamy’s controversial article in DNA and the subsequent petition for his dismissal by some Harvard constituents, this is what DG had to say: “If anybody goes to teach summer school in Harvard he is obviously not top of the pops”! Well, I reserve my opinion on the professors of JNU but if DG really wants to revive the Congress in Gujarat he must sacrifice scientology and embrace facts.

The Value Of Modi's Skull

By Guest writer Ram Valmiki

Lot has been already said and written about the “Hate Modi Brigade”. One can clearly see that this brigade is suffering from Ostrich Syndrome. As their lies and misdeeds are being exposed, they find new ways to manufacture new lies. Even though they have been caught pants down with their lies, they still are seen on TV and even in print media, still trying to propagate hate against Modi.

When Modi refused politely to wear a skull cap, “seculars” saw an opportunity to take shots at Modi. They gleefully grabbed it and went around the town crying how it proved that Modi was not serious about “Sadbhavana”. Fortunately they did not get as much audience as they would have liked to. No one was interested in their rants this time. I would like to ask these “seculars” a simple question.  Could Modi wearing a skull cap have made him acceptable as Secular leader in their eyes?

There are no doubts that had Modi accepted the skull cap, these same set of loud mouth activists and journalists would have cried hoarse , accusing Modi of “Drama” to appease Muslims. Modi  and his government have always maintained that they believe in  – “Justice to all, appeasement of none”. He succeeded in proving again to the country that he is not a leader who would stoop down to the level of appeasement for political gains.

The brigade is currently active in undermining the spectacular growth and development of Gujarat under   Modi.  They have now come up with figures and want us to believe that Gujarat under Modi rule is no different from Gujarat under congress rule.  I am not interested in the figures or what statistics are being used to propagate this new lie. One has to just look at various programs the Gujarat government has undertaken to bring prosperity to the State and its people.  Had earlier congress governments achieved what Modi has now, would people of Gujarat have chosen Modi as their Chief Minister continuously? The activists and journalists who doubt the Gujarat growth story surely suffer from loss of mental faculties.  They are insulting the people of Gujarat by not acknowledging their prosperity.  The Supreme Court recently praised the way Public Distribution System works in Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. It even asked central government to use implement similar model across the country. None of the MSM reported or had panel discussions about this model.

When Modi was on fast, all the MSM channels had panel discussions and as expected the debates would feature the gruesome Gujarat riots. The MSM and “secular” Activists have succeeded in separating Gujarat riots from Godhra train burning.  The activists project as if one fine day Hindus of Gujarat decided to go on rioting spree and Modi gave them freehand. Never in the debates have we seen the panelists discuss the case of 57 charred bodies of kar sevaks.  We hardly see Hindu victims being asked for opinions. It is as if the whole Media has decided that Hindu victims and Hindu pain does not deserve to be discussed about.

There wee 740 Muslim and 250 Hindu deaths. Every death was unfortunate and riots should be rightly condemned. But selective projection of views and opinions is more dangerous for the country. By separating Gujarat riots from Godhra incident will lead to wrong conclusions.

Activists demand apology from Modi on moral grounds. Why not the same activists demand apology from congress whose municipality member and an MLA were accused of conspiring and actively taking part in Godhra carnage. Media should in fact be debating the conspiracy, planning and intent behind the Godhra which resulted in riots. Asking right questions lead to right answers and correct lessons learnt.

To cover the lack of ground support for their ill intended protests, like the one by Mallika Sarabai where she could gather only 20 or odd people, these activists accuse Modi government of intimidating the minority. They claim the minority community lives in fear and do not come out in open against Modi. Well, it’s a joke. If that is really the case, why not the dare devil Media and activists bring out those victims and give them assurance of full support if they open up? After all, with the kind of Media and Congress support they enjoy, activists are in better position to ensure safety of the “would be” whistle blowers.

Don't Cry For Gujaratis, Barkha Dutt

Journalists who are soaked in ‘Arts’ education usually forget some important learning they may have acquired in school or college. They have forgotten Mark Antony V Brutus. The most important lesson being that the public has an opposite reaction to anything that is excessively hyped or should I say ‘trolled’. I recall when Hrithik Roshan first burst on the scene with a superhit with his debut film the media had declared him the next superstar, almost the new Bollywood god. He followed it up with a string of flops. Not too far behind was Vivek Oberoi who was similarly hyped up but came crashing down. But Brutus is an ‘honourable’ man and so too Barkha Dutt is an ‘honourable’ journalist. After all, wasn’t she awarded the Padma Shri? So what drives her obsession with Narendra Modi? She analyses him psychologically but can’t see her own visible feeling of ‘rejection’ that she couldn’t get him.  And that’s what she writes about in another troll-like article titled “Only half the truth” (September 16)  on the Hindustan Times website.

What is amazing is that on the same date as her article, another one appears on the website of her own channel, NDTV, “Narendra Modi on politics, poetry and Rahul Gandhi as PM” by CSS Latha. I wonder if Barkha has managed to read it. Doesn’t matter. As always let’s try and figure what the psychologist’s problem is. (Quotes from Barkha’s article in blue).

Here’s her opening salvo: Much as I would like to borrow from this season’s style and write an ‘open’ letter to Narendra Modi, the Gujarat chief minister would probably make it a point to throw my missive straight into the bin. So you see, when a mind is already working on assumptions and presumptions the road to prejudice is already paved in the recesses of her mind. A journalist has the freedom to write, whether people read it or not is their freedom. Unfortunately, Barkha Dutt is yet to completely understand the concept of freedom. Everytime she talks about absorbing criticism she should read the blogpost by Chaitanya Kunte on her ‘Shoddy journalism’ during the 26/11 terrorist strikes. Her stupid response to that was a legal notice to silence him. And frankly, Kunte hadn’t written anything that was remotely untrue.

While on that topic I wonder if  Barkha has read my open letter to her. She can choose to read and respond. If she chooses the dust bin that wouldn’t surprise me either.

As a journalist who reported the riots from the ground on the stretch between Godhra and Vadodara and pointed out— like many others — the complete absence of police intervention, I have earned the permanent ire of Modi and his legion of followers… Not exactly true! At the time the riots happened Barkha Dutt wasn’t the only journalist reporting from the ground. There were many others too. Barkha lives in denial if she doesn’t recognise that she has earned this “permanent ire” not just because of her reporting in 2002 but more because of the sustained peddling of untruths about Modi by her and her channel. If it still hasn’t occurred to her that she is predominantly perceived as a Modi-hater and Modi-basher then she’s the one out of touch with people and not Modi.  She has earned this “permanent ire”  by hosting dubious characters on her channel to spam Modi with hatred. The honest fact is that when the riots were being reported Barkha Dutt and her colleague Rajdeep Sardesai were actually held in high esteem by the public. It is she who should be wondering how she managed to erode all that trust and credibility that a journalist so values. While the public has helped Modi go from strength to strength, Barkha has simply become a caricature of herself. She has depreciated her standing so much so that her mere appearance on the TV screen is now revolting for many people. The TRP ratings and financial performance of NDTV should give her some sound lessons on who has lost credibility.

By now, in the public imagination, We, the English Media, had become the hostile outsiders and Modi’s narrative had managed to successfully equate all criticism of him with criticism of the Gujarati people. Subsequently, Narendra Modi has resolutely refused to speak to me and a few other journalists for nine years. I have to laugh at this one, hahahaha! Modi is not the only issue why the English media has become hostile outsiders. The slanted and biased reporting on every issue concerning the Congress is what has led English media to its fate. Here’s an honest question for Barkha. Has NDTV covered any major event of significance in Gujarat? Did she cover the last Vibrant Gujarat event? Fact is, every step of the way the English media, NDTV in particular, has provided a platform to Modi-haters than a more balanced approach. Recommend that Barkha read this and check for herself:  “15 Lakh Crores &The Business Channels Don’t Find It Newsworthy!”

But now Modi is confronted with a deeper philosophical question. Does he want to be the chief minister of Gujarat for the rest of his life or a pan-Indian leader with national acceptability and the ability to build consensus across party lines….. Hidden in this stupid question is an agenda that somehow seeks to bring in ‘philosophy’ rather than rational argument. If Barkha cared to read Latha’s article on her interaction with Modi on the NDTV website she would find the answers to all her questions. My advice to Barkha is – stop worrying about what Modi wants or what he will become and start worrying what you had aspired to and what you have become. Journalists are expected to follow morals and ethics more than politicians. This is where Barkha Dutt has failed and therefore everything she says seems hollow and merely a literary exercise.

Barkha Dutt cites the pleading of J.S. Bandukwala seeking some regret or expression of that by Modi. Following the Radiagate episode it was clear that Barkha Dutt had brought more shame on Indian journalism than any other single journalist. In subsequent programs instead of accepting she had erred or was actually corrupt she refused to even acknowledge any wrong doing. With her credibility so completely eroded over the years the wonder is not that this troll even appears on TV or writes in magazines/websites. The real wonder is how or why she has been allowed to even keep her job. No mature media outlet in any democracy would have condoned her conduct.

But reconciliation is often about new beginnings as well. The question is not whether Modi can shed his history. The question is: Does he even want to?  So she writes. Start with  yourself Barkha. Acknowledge you were biased not just on Gujarat or Modi but a whole lot of other issues. These include Kashmir, Kandahar and the list can be lengthened. But as in the case of any compromised journalist, in Barkha’s case truth seems to be that skirt that keeps getting shorter and shorter. The question therefore for Barkha is not whether Modi can shed his history, the question is whether she will express regret and shed her past. Stringing along a crooked source can be managed for a while, stringing along the public won’t succeed forever.

Here’s the reconciliation deal for you Barkha. NDTV has consistently lied about the number of people killed in the riots. Would you correct it and apologise? Your one-time colleague and prominent ingredient of Radiagate, Vir Sanghvi, called Modi a ‘mass murderer’. Is that meant to be objective criticism? Would you ask him to apologise? Your one-time colleague, Rajdeep Sardesai, used the same ‘mass murderer’ term to attempt to humiliate Modi in an HT event in 2007 where Modi was invited as a chief speaker. Would you ask him to apologise. Before you accuse anyone, let alone Modi, take a look at yourself. If people coined the term Barkhagate, they aren’t the vindictive pricks that you imagine they are.

Barkha accuses Modi of shunning criticism. Politicians are used to criticism, gheraos and even heckling as Rahul Gandhi would have recently discovered. There isn’t much they can hide from the public. There are many senior journalists today in Ahmedabad reporting on the two fasts. Where are you Barkha? Fact is there is hardly any public event that Barkha Dutt can go to without being heckled and booed. And that painful truth hurts her into crocodile tears for Gujarat. Barkha has called Gujaratis “traditionally effete people” ! Well, Barkha, don’t cry for Gujjus… We are doing fine.

Update (18/9/2011): Since this post was made many senior journalists have conducted interviews with Narendra Modi at the Sadbhavna venue in Ahmedabad. The ones whose conscience is tainted were the ones missing from the scene. After years of spewing hatred and spreading lies about Modi Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai would be the ones facing the problems even talking to him. Instead, with no context at all, NDTV was busy airing a film about Sonia Gandhi during the initial hours of the Sadbhavna mission. Thereby hangs a tale.

Padma Shri Awaits Sanjiv Bhatt

Sanjiv Bhatt, the IPS officer who filed an affidavit in the SC against Narendra Modi, is back in the news again. First, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi police is investigating a complaint filed by him. This is what the Indian Expressreported on July 28:

In a complaint filed with the EOW, Bhatt said that his “Gmail account had been hacked into by some agents working on behalf of the administrative machinery of the state government of Gujarat with a view to tamper with certain crucial evidence, which could potentially incriminate certain highly placed persons”.

Bhatt lodged a complaint with the EOW on July 18, stating that he was contacted by a reporter of a leading English daily. He was told that around 300 pages from his e-mail account were delivered at the reporter’s office. The e-mail exchanges pertained to the affidavit filed by a freelance journalist, claiming that Bhatt had attended a meeting called by the Gujarat Chief Minister after the Godhra incident. The complainant said he was contacted on July 13 by the reporter, and the e-mail exchanges were dropped at his office in the latter half of June. Bhatt said the hacking of his e-mail account has to be investigated. Bhatt lodged a complaint four days after an article regarding the hacked e-mail account appeared in the English newspaper.

Hmmm! “email exchanges were dropped at his office”? I really don’t know how to figure that one yet. You might also like to read my previous post on this subject: “What is Sanjiv Bhatt angling for?”.

I didn’t know then but I am sort of able to make more sense of it all now. Here is another news report from JagranPost (Regular reader Poorva has also posted this in the comments section of the previous post I’ve referred.)

In a development that could put IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt in the docks, the trail of email exchange of the officer, accessed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), show that the officer has been in touch with the anti-Modi lobby including the Congress, rights activist Teesta Setalvad and others. The contents of the email exchanged even put a question mark on his claims of being at the meeting chaired by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the night of February 27, 2002…….

According to sources, the content of the emails not only expose Bhatt appealing for help from the anti-Modi camps including politicians and civil society members, it clearly establishes Bhatt as a mere pawn in a bigger game plan. In order to prove his claims against the Chief Minister, Bhatt had asked his IPS friend Rahul Sharma to help in managing evidences to substantiate his claims, but he failed in his endeavour.

In order to prove his claims about the February 27 metting, Bhatt in his affidavit submitted before the Apex Court and in his testimony before the Nanavati Commission has claimed that he met former Gujarat Minister Haren Pandya(who died later) at the meeting held at the Chief Minister’s residence. However, the call records of Haren Pandya on the eventful night contradict Bhatt’s claims. The trail of emails exchanged between Bhatt and Sharma between May 12-22, 2011 show that Bhatt tried his best to manage some evidence to support his claim on Pandya.

Rahul Sharma in his reply to Bhatt on May 22 at 7.42 am stated that Pandya received the last call on his number at 10.52 pm, which clarifies that he was not heading towards Gandhinagar. It’s clear that he was in his constituency Ellis Bridge and there was no chance of the minister being in Gandhinagar on the intervening night between February 27 and 28. The content of the email show Rahul asking Bhatt whether Pandya ever mentioned of being present at the meeting, to which Bhatt replied that he heard that spoke about it with some other people.The entire trail of emails between the two officers shows Bhatt trying to get a hand at some evidence to substantiate his claim on Pandya but he failed.The mails clearly show that after his testimony before the Nanavati Commission he was not only in regular touch with Teesta Setalvad, the rights activist who has filed a case against Modi in post-Godhra riots, but was also getting instructions from the Congress leaders.

Bhatt was in regular touch with Teesta, Congress state president Arjun Modwadhia and Leader of Opposition Shakti Singh Gohil on some pretext or the other in the month of April. Records show that Bhatt procured documents and a Blackberry phone from Gohil…..He wrote to Shabnam Hashmiof NGO ‘Anhad’ and Father Sedrick Prakash of ‘Prashant’…. On 9th May, Bhatt also requested them to run a signature campaign and help him in taking his fight against Modi to logical end.

Sanjiv Bhatt follows the footprints of illustrious people who have a reputation for filing false affidavits to tarnish Narendra Modi. I maintain that the Congress government at the centre is the most corrupt and the most dangerous government India has ever had. The campaign Bhatt desired from some already looks like a “signature” Congress campaign.

NDTV and CNN-IBN who made a huge noise about Sanjiv Bhatt and rang the death knell for Namo’s political future have so far had nothing to say about these fresh news reports. Well, don’t worry you will find them reporting about Sanjiv Bhatt in the very near future. By every indicator available Bhatt has only followed the path chosen by Setalvad and others and should be entitled to the same rewards they received.

He can rest assured in the new year he is sure to receive the Padma Shri. And if he can throw up some more muck, membership in Sonia Gandhi’s NACwouldn’t be an over-reach.