A daring investigative journalism

Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover-Up (2016)

Author: Rana Ayyub

On one hand, she is celebrated as an exceptional journalist at the Washington Post and has received numerous awards for her courageous reporting of breaking news. On the other hand, she is labelled public enemy number one. The Indian courts accuse her of insulting Hindu deities and inciting racial discord, and there is even an ongoing trial concerning the misappropriation of public funds.

For background information, the cover-up in Gujarat referenced in the book pertains to the events that followed the Godhra train burning incident in 2002. In February 2002, 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya lost their lives in a train blaze. Multiple commissions failed to ascertain the true cause of the disaster. The Mehta-Nanavati report was employed to convict 31 Muslims for the train burning.

Communal riots erupted shortly after the fire. For years, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, and his party members faced allegations of orchestrating the riots. Repeated election victories seemed to strengthen public confidence in Modi's non-involvement. Nevertheless, the Western media continued their efforts to undermine Modi and the BJP's reputation, often disparaging them before major general elections through publications such as the BBC and its affiliates.

Following the riot, the police initiated a wave of arrests, and several high-profile police staged encounters occurred in Gujarat between 2003 and 2006. Rumours spread that these deaths were orchestrated by right-wing politicians, specifically Modi and Amit Shah. At one point, Amit Shah was also apprehended for his involvement in the staged encounters.

For approximately eight months, from 2010 to 2011, Rana Ayyub, who was then employed by Tehelka, went undercover as an American documentary maker. She adopted a fictitious Hindu name, Mthali Tyagi, complete with Sanskrit credentials. Accompanied by her purported cameraman, a 19-year-old French student named Mike, she conducted a sinister mission to interview various figures directly involved in the notorious fake encounters, employing her camera and, later, a concealed recording device when they wished to speak off the record.

With her charisma and the Indian public's susceptibility to foreigners, NRIs, and "goras", Ayyub successfully obtained recommendations by conducting counter-references to interview high-ranking police officers, intelligence officers, anti-terrorist squad personnel, former MPs, and even former Commissioners of Police in succession. Many of the interviewees have since retired, and while some were initially somewhat hesitant to open up, they eventually relented.

Rana Ayyub
https://tcij.org/person/rana-ayyub/

Through her research, she uncovers a significant amount of misconduct within the police force. Some individuals were conscientious and performed their duties diligently, without fear or favour. Nevertheless, a culture of subservience to both superiors and politicians prevailed. Rana suggested that police officers exhibited discrimination against their peers from lower castes. The extra-judicial killings carried out under the guise of police encounters were executed with indifference, according to her. Rana Ayyub, in so many words, implies that Modi is the mastermind behind the unrest in Gujarat, with Amit Shah as his trusted aide who carries out all his orders.

As her sting operation draws to a close, Rana Ayyub manages to secure an interview with Narendra Modi himself. However, the book concludes abruptly afterwards, leaving the outcome of the interview unexplored.

Ayyub's audacious attempt to uncover the root of the unrest in Gujarat raises ethical questions about such an operation. Betraying people's trust, exploiting their vulnerability, and inserting oneself into their lives under a false persona may not be moral. However, individuals are unlikely to volunteer information without prompting. This encapsulates the essence of investigative journalism; one cannot solely rely on official statements.

Whatever Ayyub attempted to unleash has evidently yielded no results. As time has shown, Modi must be doing something right. The BJP's successive victories in elections, its popularity, the current state of the economy, and the general mood of its citizens suggest that India is on the right trajectory. One must consider the broader context. However, checks and balances remain essential. 

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The pain equally painful!

Rain Town (Cantonese, English; 2024)
Director: Tunku Mona Riza 

Our needs, dreams, ambitions, and desires to ensure the best for our children and peace in the family are universal. We all yearn for the same thing. 

The most exciting thing about the movie is that it was produced and directed by two Malaysian Malays, but there was a single inkling of Malayness in its setting, spoken dialogue and props. It went on to premiere at the Silk Road International Film Festival in Fuzhou, China. 

Set in the wettest town in Malaysia, Taiping, hence the title Rain Town, it is a favourite pastime for the local retirees to bet on whether it would rain that day. It follows one of the betters, a proud Mr Choo, to his home. He is a disciplinarian, a domineering figure who runs his home like an army regiment. 

He is a father of 3 adult kids, two men and a lady. His wife, a former Ms Taiping, an Anglo-Chinese, had fitted into the family as a docile, all-embracing mother who is the stabilising figure snugged nicely between the silently rebelling children and the all-knowing father. Mr Choo scared the daughter’s suitor away because he was ill-qualified. The girl finds solace in baking cookies and selling them. The elder son is doing his medical internship and struggling to cope with a vocation that his father forced him into. His real love, however, is music. He resorts to recreational drugs to keep on going. The second son has not really settled on what he wants to do in life, but Mr Choo does not hesitate to tell him the obvious. In Mr Choo’s vocabulary, life is a race and the fast wins.

In the midst of all these, Mrs Choo is diagnosed with breast cancer. She keeps it away from the family and tries to handle it herself. Meanwhile, the elder son is expelled from work for stealing drugs. The family has to get together, put aside their differences and solve the problems at hand.

It does not matter who directs the movie or who acts in it. Cultural misappropriation may not be relevant at all. The dynamics of a family can be observed. The pain felt, the frustrations endured, the struggles fought, and the dreams shattered feel pretty equally devastating.

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Hey, eat your words!

He had heard of it all. At every corner, the naysayers were there. They were free with unsolicited advice that he should not forget where he came from, that the pinky would only grow to the size of the thumb, and that a sparrow should not dream of flying majestically like an eagle. 

As if the road ahead was not uncertain enough, these doomsday philosophers jumped on the bandwagon to sow the seeds of doubt. Already in turmoil, trying to pull oneself by the bootstraps, the negative vibes are the last that anyone wants to hear. But they yak on...

He was raised in an environment where he was told to respect others and not to tell somebody off on the face; he would just smile it off. 

The element of doubt still lingered, however. The quandary was whether he was indeed doomed to fail. With perceived divine guidance, he persevered. He had the grace of his family as well.

The answer to his doubt must have been answered finally. Not only has he proved his critics wrong, but he now has proof of the whole world’s accreditation to show. All the naysayers can now eat humble pie. The journey to the pinnacle had been fraud with shrapnels and heartbreaks, but what the heck. Hoisting the trophy was all that worth it.

GOPIO, Global Organization of People of Indian Origin, in its continued journey to open cooperation among the people of the diaspora, during its annual conference, honoured POI icons from various industries - security, logistics, telecommunications, etc., from the world over. 

Dato M. S. Murthi
GOPIO International Business Excellence Award 2023
Legal Practice

                         

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The attractions too hard to resist....

To Leslie (2022)
Director: Michael Morris

When you laugh, everyone laughs with you. When you cry, you not only cry alone, the whole world laughs at you. You also know that winning a lottery only solves a few of your problems. On the contrary, it creates more issues and shows who your real friends are. No one becomes rich after winning a lottery.

Another thing. The whole architecture of modern society is set up to make your life a decadent one. It makes partying enjoyable. Extragavance is revered. Alcohol is hailed as an indispensable social lubricant. The media promotes, and society encourages its usage. Nobody talks neither about its addictive nature nor of its destructive potential. But still, when a country is red and needs money, booze and cigarettes are the first things to be taxed under the heading of sin tax.

Society glamourises smoking as if it spurs the creative juices but fails to mention the respiratory ailments, the dependence and the expense that ensues. To top it up, many creative musical compositions were apparently composed under the influence of mind-altering substances. The media also advertises high-flying lifestyles and horse racing like a sine-quo-non of life. They conveniently omit the fine print of the danger of living in credit and bankruptcy.

Just how much can an average being can control his urges. One needs to have enormous willpower to remain sane in modern life.

'To Leslie' brilliantly tells us what happens after the money earned from a lottery goes dry. Reality hits the winner when the party lights dim and the money for drugs and booze fizzles out. Lack of prudence makes Leslie live door-to-door in a suitcase, and she loses the only love of her life, her now adult son. The film narrates how Leslie struggles to get her act together, stay sober and get in the good books of her beloved son. In the meantime, she finds love from a soul who truly understands her predicament.

Good acting and a good message, but we have all seen too many similar real-life instances to predict how everything will unfold.

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An unfair tale!

Madaathy, An Unfairy Tale. (Tamil; 2021)
Director & Writer: Leela Manimekalai

It is said there is a back story behind every village deity. Madaathy is one such goddess. A representative of the feminine powers of the Universe, it is said that she is the embodiment of the spirit of a wronged low caste adolescent girl. 

The first scene itself sets the mood for the rest of the movie. A newly-wed couple, in their best attire, goes on a joyful motorbike ride to Madaathy temple. En route, the bride realises that she just started her menstruation and insists that they stop to get some kind of sanitation napkin. It would flash upon viewers that we are into something taboo. Are they going to cancel their journey or continue to the destination? We are left to wonder.

The story revolves around a group of the lowest of the Dalit community, the Puthirai Vannars. Sometimes, I wonder whether these types of communities and such levels of oppression do actually exist. According to the director/writer, the story was well researched and based on actual events when she was interviewed during the film launch. The Puthirai Vannars comprise a particular group that clean garments. Not any garment but articles of clothing used by the sick, diseased or recently deceased. Sometimes they are summoned to clean the menstrual cloths of villagers. They are cleaners but are considered too polluted to be seen in public. They must never be in full view of others and even live at the edge of the village, delineated by a river. They are too cursed to be seen.

Being impure or outcast does not cross the men's minds when they lust for these Dalit women. They are regularly raped. The Dalits have no recourse to state their predicament.

The film tells the story of a rebellious adolescent girl who runs wild in the forest and builds a crush on one of the village boys. She builds sandcastles in the air only to be gang-raped by her crush and his friends on a drunken night of the Madaathy temple consecration. The girl dies, and her spirit lives in the deity.

Agreed the storytelling, characterisation and cinematography are world-class par excellence. But sometimes, I wonder if all the numerous accolades attached to the film were given not because of its quality but rather because it puts the sub-continent and its dwellers in a horrible light. They like to assume that India is still the same backwater as was depicted in Katherine Mayo's 1927 novel 'Mother India'. They find joy in continually degrading Indian society, religions and culture and portraying the whole of India as worse than the Dark Ages of medieval and savage Europe.

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Blinded!

A Billion Colour Story (2016)

History tells us that India used to be a welcoming land to any weary sojourner. It is proud of being the only country in the world where its people did not persecute anyone based on physical appearances or personal convictions. It stands proud of not harassing Jews. It ushered in visitors with such warmth, sharing their knowledge in the hope of finding meanings of life, so much so that they decided to overstay their welcome and so much as a rule over the roost.

Did the last of the visitors leave such a scar of conquest that can never heal? To ease their administration, the British, initially a band of looters in the form of East India Company and then later for the Crown, divided and subdivided their subjects by breed, colour, occupation, religion, etc., drilled in the idea that they were different. They mastered the craft of 'divide and rule' to its finest.

The divide became so pronounced that it carved out the limbs out of the tripartite sub-continent. The conquerors were happy to leave with such an arrangement that became cumbersome. It fitted very well with their intentions to destabilise the region by instigating brotherly skirmishes. As the Cold War was developing, political influence over the area was maintained. Destabilisation ensured the petroleum supply was kept in check with British aspirations.

The world was achanging. Ideas were spreading like wildfire. People became loyal not to the flag but to a belief of an invisible pink unicorn that was an oxymoron, but who dare ask. The representation transcended all rational thought and called for blood. A once peaceful existence has turned hostile. How do you expect the hosts to take things lying down? An eye for an eye, and I will instead be blind than do the blasphemous something, says one party. A tit for tat says the other in reply. The combatants are mired so deep in muck that they had forgotten who drew first blood and for what they are fighting for.

We encounter this award-winning film with this background that showcases an eternally optimistic trained in Australia movie-making couple who believes that the old India is very much alive. Despite the adverse publicity churned daily on the media, they believe that a billion colours that beautify India are there for taking. Reality sinks when they discover that their mixed marriage (Hindu and Muslim) is a big issue in modern India. They find dead end at every turn as they struggle to complete their movie. In the midst of all this is their son, Hari Aziz, trying to find his place in society.

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