Amit Shah is the chief guest at a function at Mumbai's Trident Hotel this evening. It’s the 42nd anniversary of Giants International, the global non-governmental organisation founded by Nana Chudasama. As part of the celebrations every year, Giants International “felicitates prominent personalities who have contributed immensely to our society in the field of business and industry, education, medicine, journalism, films, music, sports and social service”, according to its press release.
Giants International will recognise eight such prominent personalities tonight. Some names in that list are Helen (“Life Time Achievement in Films”), Anu Malik (“Music”) and Patangrao Kadam (“Education”). Top of the list, for his “Life Time Achievement in Sports”, is Sachin Tendulkar.
That is, Tendulkar and these others will be feted tonight at a function presided over by Amit Shah. Make of that what you will. Shah is a remarkable political operator who ran a consummately skillful election campaign for Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party earlier this year, in many ways the architect of their stunning triumph.
A brief recap
Still, for what it’s worth, let’s do a quick recap of some things about Amit Shah.
In 2010, Shah was arrested and charged with the murder in 2005 of Sohrabuddin Shaikh (and his wife Kausar Bi, and his associate Tulsiram Prajapati). Shaikh was called an underworld criminal who had hatched a plan to kill the then-Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi. Gujarat government, represented by advocate KTS Tulsi, told the Supreme Court this about Shaikh’s killing: “The preliminary inquiry has found that it was a fake encounter.” In other words, Tulsi told the country’s highest court that the Gujarat police killed Shaikh. For this crime, senior Gujarat police officers, among them DG Vanzara, have been in jail since 2007.
After investigations, the CBI charged Amit Shah – then Gujarat’s Minister of State for Home – with extortion, criminal conspiracy, kidnapping and murder in Shaikh’s case. The chargesheet said he ordered the police – Vanzara in particular – to kill Shaikh.
In July 2010, Shah was arrested on these charges. The CBI said it was worried that, given Shah’s power in Gujarat, he would use it to subvert the progress of justice in his case. Even though the Gujarat High Court gave him bail in October that year, the Supreme Court ordered him to stay outside Gujarat because of these apprehensions. Accordingly, he could not enter Gujarat until 2012.
Back in Gujarat that year, he won election to the state assembly. The cases against him, however, are still wending their way through our justice system. He applied for and was granted exemption from personal appearance in the hearings in these. By way of reason, he pointed out that he was president of a national party. Because assembly elections are due in several states this year, he was busy meeting political leaders from those states. Thus he could not find the time to be present during court proceedings in the murder case against him.
Letter from jail
For his part, police officer Vanzara, languishing in jail for his role in the murder of Shaikh, wrote a letter to the Gujarat Government in 2013. Bitter about being left to face the music on his own he certainly must be, as this excerpt from that letter shows:
“I have been maintaining my graceful silence only because of my highest respect for Narendra Modi, whom I used to adore like a God. I am sorry to say my God did not rise to the occasion under the evil influence of Amit Shah…Amit Shah introduced the dirty policy of us[ing] the officers and throw[ing] them [away] by deliberately spreading disinformation about them.”
There’s plenty more about Amit Shah that is worth discussing. But for now, let’s stop here.
It promises to be a glittering function this evening. There’s no way to tell what the event flow will be. But being Chief Guest, it seems to make sense that it will be Amit Shah who will hand out the various awards. So as he gives Sachin Tendulkar his lifetime achievement award, just maybe it will happen that India’s greatest ever cricketer, our beloved Bharat Ratna, will ask him: so, Mr Shah, what about that Sohrabuddin Shaikh killing?
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Giants International will recognise eight such prominent personalities tonight. Some names in that list are Helen (“Life Time Achievement in Films”), Anu Malik (“Music”) and Patangrao Kadam (“Education”). Top of the list, for his “Life Time Achievement in Sports”, is Sachin Tendulkar.
That is, Tendulkar and these others will be feted tonight at a function presided over by Amit Shah. Make of that what you will. Shah is a remarkable political operator who ran a consummately skillful election campaign for Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party earlier this year, in many ways the architect of their stunning triumph.
A brief recap
Still, for what it’s worth, let’s do a quick recap of some things about Amit Shah.
In 2010, Shah was arrested and charged with the murder in 2005 of Sohrabuddin Shaikh (and his wife Kausar Bi, and his associate Tulsiram Prajapati). Shaikh was called an underworld criminal who had hatched a plan to kill the then-Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi. Gujarat government, represented by advocate KTS Tulsi, told the Supreme Court this about Shaikh’s killing: “The preliminary inquiry has found that it was a fake encounter.” In other words, Tulsi told the country’s highest court that the Gujarat police killed Shaikh. For this crime, senior Gujarat police officers, among them DG Vanzara, have been in jail since 2007.
After investigations, the CBI charged Amit Shah – then Gujarat’s Minister of State for Home – with extortion, criminal conspiracy, kidnapping and murder in Shaikh’s case. The chargesheet said he ordered the police – Vanzara in particular – to kill Shaikh.
In July 2010, Shah was arrested on these charges. The CBI said it was worried that, given Shah’s power in Gujarat, he would use it to subvert the progress of justice in his case. Even though the Gujarat High Court gave him bail in October that year, the Supreme Court ordered him to stay outside Gujarat because of these apprehensions. Accordingly, he could not enter Gujarat until 2012.
Back in Gujarat that year, he won election to the state assembly. The cases against him, however, are still wending their way through our justice system. He applied for and was granted exemption from personal appearance in the hearings in these. By way of reason, he pointed out that he was president of a national party. Because assembly elections are due in several states this year, he was busy meeting political leaders from those states. Thus he could not find the time to be present during court proceedings in the murder case against him.
Letter from jail
For his part, police officer Vanzara, languishing in jail for his role in the murder of Shaikh, wrote a letter to the Gujarat Government in 2013. Bitter about being left to face the music on his own he certainly must be, as this excerpt from that letter shows:
“I have been maintaining my graceful silence only because of my highest respect for Narendra Modi, whom I used to adore like a God. I am sorry to say my God did not rise to the occasion under the evil influence of Amit Shah…Amit Shah introduced the dirty policy of us[ing] the officers and throw[ing] them [away] by deliberately spreading disinformation about them.”
There’s plenty more about Amit Shah that is worth discussing. But for now, let’s stop here.
It promises to be a glittering function this evening. There’s no way to tell what the event flow will be. But being Chief Guest, it seems to make sense that it will be Amit Shah who will hand out the various awards. So as he gives Sachin Tendulkar his lifetime achievement award, just maybe it will happen that India’s greatest ever cricketer, our beloved Bharat Ratna, will ask him: so, Mr Shah, what about that Sohrabuddin Shaikh killing?