Dahyaji Gobarji Vanzara (DG Vanzara) former Deputy Inspector General, Gujarat, jailed from 2007 until 2015 on charges of having conducted a series of extra-judicial murders (encounters) while heading the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), has done it again. In a tweet a few days ago (screen shot below) he has said that not only should Mughals be removed from Books, endorsing the twitter hashtag #removemughalsfrombooks but he has gone several steps further. He says not only Mughals from books, but “those who fictitiously claim to be their descendants should be removed from India.”
(As this article is being posted, Zee News has reported the shocking news that a BJP youth has offered an award of Rs. 5 lakh to anyone who cuts off the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru Univeristy Student Union, Kanhaiya Kumar's tongue: March 5, 2016, 11.54 a.m.)
Sounds familiar? Union Minister Giriraj Singh and BJP President Amit Shah exhorting any and all who oppose the BJP “to go to Pakistan”(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8zete3Y2FU; http://www.ndtv.com/bihar/if-bjp-loses-bihar-elections-crackers-will-off…
Vanzara has been in a spate of television interviews on the Ishrat Jahan case recently and has announced that he will be interviewed by Sudharshan television (closely affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, RSS) on Saturday March 5 and 5.30 p.m.
Vanzara walked out of jail, on bail on February 18, 2015 and in a brazen echo of support for his political masters said these were now “Acche Din” for Gujarat policemen. (http://www.firstpost.com/india/vanzara-gets-bail-its-ethically-and-morally-wrong-to-reinstate-cops-accused-of-fake-encounters-2113691.html)
On March 2, 2016, the hash tag #removemughalsfrombooks was trending for the whole day (http://www.india.com/news/india/removemughalsfrombooks-bhakts-twitter-campaign-erase-mughal-history-school-books-998444/).
The banal stereotype of Mughal rule is a favourite with the sangh parivar, who’s ideological route is the RSS. The reductionist propaganda then equates all that is Mughal with all that is Muslim (sic). (http://scroll.in/article/804547/5-quintessentially-indian-things-that-will-have-to-go-if-we-removemughalsfrombooks)
Vanzara is an officer of the Indian Police Services (IPS) 1987 batch. One of the accusations int he chargesheet of the Sohrabuddin case relates to allegedly 331 calls from then minister of state for home, Amit Shah to Vanzara and other police officers, many of them around the time of these killings. Shah has since been discharged by a Bombay CBI Court (December 31, 2014) in the Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram Prajapati cases. Initially brother of Sohrabuddin approached the High Court in appeal but since has backed out of fighting the challenge (http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/fake-encounter-sohrabuddins-brother-takes-back-plea-against-bjp-president-amit-shah/).
In September 2013, there were as many as 32 police officers, including six IPS officers who were on jail for these encounters. Many of them had worked under Vanzara.These officers were also among those who had been highly rewarded under Modi and Shah. Vanzara himself had a meteoric rise since the early 2000s, when the encounters to eliminate terrorists began.
In his 2013 in a letter of resignation from the services, Vanzara had said about Narendra Modi, “ My God has betrayed me.” He had then been in jail for six years. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/DG-Vanzara-on-Narendra-Modi-My-god-has-betrayed-me/articleshow/22264684.cms?referral=PMs.
In this 10 page controversial resignation letter addressed to Additional Chief Secretary (Home) dated September 1, Vanzara, lodged in Sabarmati Central Jail in connection with a string of alleged fake encounter cases, said the accused officers and men "simply implemented the conscious policy" of the state government. In his hard-hitting letter, Vanzara said if policemen could be sent to jail for alleged fake encounters, the place of the state government "should either be in Taloja central prison at Navi Mumbai or in Sabarmati Central Prison at Ahmedabad."
"I would like to categorically state in the most uninquivocal words that the officers and men of Crime Branch, ATS and Border Range, during the period between 2002 to 2007, simply acted and performed their duty in compliance of the concious pro-active policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism of this government after Godhra riots," he said.
"Gujarat CID and Central agency CBI had arrested me and my officers in different encounter cases holding us to be responsible for carrying out alleged fake encounters.
"If that is true then the CBI investigating officers have to arrest the policy formulators also as we, being field officers, have simply implemented the conscious policy of this government which was inspiring, guiding and monitoring our actions from the very close quarters," Vanzara said.
"By this reasoning I am of the firm opinion that the place of this government instead of being in Gandhinagar, should either be in Taloja central prison at Navi Mumbai or in Sabarmati Central Prison at Ahmedabad," he said.
Vanzara accused the state government, particularly former minister of state for home Amit Shah of betraying him and 32 other officers, in jail in encounter killing cases being probed by the CBI. The suspended officer blamed Shah, currently a BJP general secretary, for shifting Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter killing case transferred outside Gujarat.
"The crux of the whole matter is that it was just to facilitate his trivial personal interest of fighting Gujarat Assembly Elections of 2012 that Amit Shah got the trial (Soharabuddin encounter case) transferred and betrayed our trust reposed in him whereby he forced us to suffer more and more…" Vanzara said.
He said in the letter that he used to adore Modi like God, who could not rise to the occasion under the "evil" influence of Shah, a co-accused in Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati encounter cases.
Vanzara, who was unsparing in his attack on Shah for the plight of policemen jailed in fake encounter killing cases, was sarcastic while referring to Modi… saying, "…but I am sorry to state that my God could not rise to the occassion under the evil influence of Amit Shah who usurped his eyes and ears and has been successfully misguiding him by converting goats into dogs and dogs into goats since last 12 years."
"Chief minister of Gujarat has very rightly been talking of repaying his debt which he owes to Mother India. But, it would not be out of context to remind him that he, in the hurry of marching towards Delhi may kindly not forget to repay the debt which he owes to jailed police officers who endowed him with the halo of brave chief minister among the galaxy of other chief ministers who do not bare the same adjective before their names," Vanzara said.
"I state with all my humility that, but for the sacrifices made by me and my officers in thwarting the onslaught of initial disorder in the state the Gujarat Model of Development which this government is so assiduously showcasing at the national level would not have become possible," Vanzara said.
Vanzara is a prime accused in the alleged fake encounter killings of Tulsiram Prajapati, Sadik Jamal, Mumbai student Ishrat Jahan, Javed Shaikh, and two alleged Pakistani nationals Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, dubbed the Gujarat government as "spineless" when it came to protecting its own officers.
"…I have to state in nutshell that this spineless government of Gujarat which is valiant only in words otherwise coward in deeds and impotent in actions has ceased to command my allegiance, trust and loyalty… and that is why this government has no reason to keep me continued in its service nor I have a reason to continue to be in the service of this government even for a single day," he said in his resignation letter .