Dear All,
Dr.Mukul Sinha (63), an IITK Alumni with a degree in Physics, turned trade unionist, lawyer, civil rights worker, and a widely loved communist passed away on 12th May 2014. He was suffering from lung cancer. He fought for the cause of 2002 riot victims and victims of fake encounters in Gujarat. We requested Teesta Setalvad, a long time Associate of Dr. Mukul Sinha to write a tribute to Dr. Sinha for our members. We are thankful to her for writing this piece Farewell to a departed Comrade, Mukul Sinha which can be read in the linkhttp://parivarttan.blogspot.in/2014/06/farewell-to-departed-comrade-mukul.html
Farewell to a departed Comrade, Mukul Sinha
by
Teesta Setalvad
by
Teesta Setalvad
It is not easy to write a tribute for one who was so closely enmeshed with our own work and with the reality that was India and Gujarat, particularly since 2002. Separate yet together, the goal remained the same, accountability and transparency for the state’s failures, even culpability for the crimes caused under its watch. It is even more difficult to accept that he will no more be physically at least, part of that struggle. Mukul Sinha, an IITK graduate and scientist by profession, died at 62 on May 12, 2014, the last day of polling, after bravely battling cancer. Many then said that the timing was ominous given the results of the elections that were to follow three days later, on May 16. Mukul, I am sure would have rubbished this superstititious prescience, attributing the outcome –as surely we must all do – with a collective failure of the progressive traditions and struggles to foresee, and combat the dangers that loom.
In 2002, when the archival issue of Communalism Combat, Genocide 2002, not only was published but went into several editions, Sinha like others held it to be the sole substantive documentation of that bleak and dark period. In CC, we had systematically documented the statewide massacres including the cynical moves by the top leadership to freeze and polarise the police from performing lawful functions.
After the publication of the Concerned Citizens Tribunal Report, Crimes Against Humanity (November 2002), in which Sinha was one among the many expert testimonies, and which document authenticated the meeting at the chief minister’s residence on the late night of 27th February 2002 (through the testimony of a fellow minister, later assassinated, Haren Pandya), we went our different ways. Us at Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) to fight for preservation of testimonies and evidence, unearthing of official records and the transfer of investigations and trial and Mukul to actively involve himself in the Nanavati Shah Commission (officially appointed) on behalf of the Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM). The initial de-construction of the telephone records submitted by serving police officer Rahul Sharma before the Nanavati-Shah Commission was done by JSM (Mukul and Nirjhari) and drew attention to the possible criminal culpability of powerful politicians, policemen and accused. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team(SIT) did not thoroughly interrogate the telephonic evidence adversely commented upon by Judge Jyotsana Yagnik in her judgement dated 28.8.2012. It was the eye-witness testimonies of 16 brave Survivors and the corroboratory evidence of Ashish Khetan (Tehelka’s) extra judicial confessions that finally secured the convictions of both MLA and former minister Maya Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi.
The presence of Mukul Sinha at the Nanavati Shah Commission appointed to probe the 2002 carnage, strengthened the invaluable evidence placed by serving policemen and administrators against the powerful perpetrators of the 2002 Gujarat carnage on record, and this thereafter became the basis and strength of criminal prosecutions launched by the CJP in the Courts. The cross examinations of official and unofficial witnesses was conducted by Mukul. Former ACS Hone Ashok Narayan admitted that the decision to transport the bodies of the Godhra train burning to Ahmedabad had been taken at the highest level.
Mukul Sinha, apart from the struggle for justice for the survivors of 2002, strived hard for a better world order where the contribution and participation of the working class, artisan and agrarian peasantry and their contribution to the political economy central, and together with colleagues launched the New Socialist Movement (NSM), a political party. In 2007, Mukul Sinha and the trade unions associated with him decided to affiliate with the Trade Union Centre of India (TUCI). In 2010, he was elected the President of the TUCI at its 6th conference in Kanpur and was re-elected to the post in the 7th Conference in Kolkatta in 2012. He held the post till his demise. The Truth of Gujarat, a website launched by Mukul Sinha and colleagues contributed much to de-constructing the media hype and propaganda around Gujarat’s development and Narendra Modi. His demise is an immeasurable loss to the voice of resistance and sanity not just within Gujarat but all over India.
Advocate Mukul Sinha of the Jansangharsh Manch (JSM), an indefatigable champion of the voice of the dispossessed, especially those who became victims of the state’s extrajudicial killings in Gujarat post September 2002. Meticulously collecting the evidence, combating a hostile state in the Courts and raising the issue of structural injustice on the streets embodied the multi-layered combative strategist that was Mukul Sinha. Ever-focussed on the wider realities of the structural class struggle, Mukul became one of the brave symbols of the resistance to the state sponsored violence of 2002.
Mukul loved life, food and music and was closely involved in the lives of those who’s cause he espoused. More than ever before, he will be missed today, as the struggle for justice and truth in the face of all adversity, must continue. Any tribute to Mukul must include a detailed analysis of the JSM’s contribution on the Godhra Investigation. I enclose below a detailed account of this contribution as published by us earlier.
After the publication of the Concerned Citizens Tribunal Report, Crimes Against Humanity (November 2002), in which Sinha was one among the many expert testimonies, and which document authenticated the meeting at the chief minister’s residence on the late night of 27th February 2002 (through the testimony of a fellow minister, later assassinated, Haren Pandya), we went our different ways. Us at Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) to fight for preservation of testimonies and evidence, unearthing of official records and the transfer of investigations and trial and Mukul to actively involve himself in the Nanavati Shah Commission (officially appointed) on behalf of the Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM). The initial de-construction of the telephone records submitted by serving police officer Rahul Sharma before the Nanavati-Shah Commission was done by JSM (Mukul and Nirjhari) and drew attention to the possible criminal culpability of powerful politicians, policemen and accused. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team(SIT) did not thoroughly interrogate the telephonic evidence adversely commented upon by Judge Jyotsana Yagnik in her judgement dated 28.8.2012. It was the eye-witness testimonies of 16 brave Survivors and the corroboratory evidence of Ashish Khetan (Tehelka’s) extra judicial confessions that finally secured the convictions of both MLA and former minister Maya Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi.
The presence of Mukul Sinha at the Nanavati Shah Commission appointed to probe the 2002 carnage, strengthened the invaluable evidence placed by serving policemen and administrators against the powerful perpetrators of the 2002 Gujarat carnage on record, and this thereafter became the basis and strength of criminal prosecutions launched by the CJP in the Courts. The cross examinations of official and unofficial witnesses was conducted by Mukul. Former ACS Hone Ashok Narayan admitted that the decision to transport the bodies of the Godhra train burning to Ahmedabad had been taken at the highest level.
Mukul Sinha, apart from the struggle for justice for the survivors of 2002, strived hard for a better world order where the contribution and participation of the working class, artisan and agrarian peasantry and their contribution to the political economy central, and together with colleagues launched the New Socialist Movement (NSM), a political party. In 2007, Mukul Sinha and the trade unions associated with him decided to affiliate with the Trade Union Centre of India (TUCI). In 2010, he was elected the President of the TUCI at its 6th conference in Kanpur and was re-elected to the post in the 7th Conference in Kolkatta in 2012. He held the post till his demise. The Truth of Gujarat, a website launched by Mukul Sinha and colleagues contributed much to de-constructing the media hype and propaganda around Gujarat’s development and Narendra Modi. His demise is an immeasurable loss to the voice of resistance and sanity not just within Gujarat but all over India.
Advocate Mukul Sinha of the Jansangharsh Manch (JSM), an indefatigable champion of the voice of the dispossessed, especially those who became victims of the state’s extrajudicial killings in Gujarat post September 2002. Meticulously collecting the evidence, combating a hostile state in the Courts and raising the issue of structural injustice on the streets embodied the multi-layered combative strategist that was Mukul Sinha. Ever-focussed on the wider realities of the structural class struggle, Mukul became one of the brave symbols of the resistance to the state sponsored violence of 2002.
Mukul loved life, food and music and was closely involved in the lives of those who’s cause he espoused. More than ever before, he will be missed today, as the struggle for justice and truth in the face of all adversity, must continue. Any tribute to Mukul must include a detailed analysis of the JSM’s contribution on the Godhra Investigation. I enclose below a detailed account of this contribution as published by us earlier.
Teesta Setalvad
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