By TwoCircles.net staff correspondent,
Kozhikode: Former Gujarat Additional Director General of Police RB Sreekumar released the Kannada translation of his book on the Gujarat pogrom. The book ‘Dharmada Hesarinalli’ was released at a function in Mangalore on Thursday.
The original version of the book is in Malayalam and it was translated to Kannada by writer Sara Aboobaker. Her own publishing house ‘Chandragiri Prakashana’ has published it.
The book gives a first hand account of the experiences of Mr Sreekumar during the pogrom in Gujarat in 2002. It gives an account of the role of the police and state government in the riots that resulted in the death of over 2000 Muslims.
Mr Sreekumar said that no riot could last more than two hours without the complicity of the police. That was what happened in Gujarat. He was troubled by the administration of Chief Minister Narendra Modi in many ways as he refused to obey the diktats. He opined that the communal situation in the country is more intense now than the 1980s since the secular forces are sleeping while the Sangh Parivar is working over time. He found time to glorify the rich culture of the country with tolerant secularism. He also criticized the religious leaders for making religion an exercise in ‘competitive communalism’. He added that the politicization of communalism is the real reason for trouble in the country.
Ms Teesta Setalvad shared her concern for the way Karnataka was moving in recent times. She said that the cultural policing and attacks on inter-community couples seen in Mangalore now was what used to be in Gujarat in the 1980s. She expressed her concern over the ‘communalisation of India’s security and intelligence agencies.’ She added that ‘we could not afford to allow them to turn into the flipside of the ISI of Pakistan.’She also blamed the media and the globalised corporate houses for helping Narendra Modi in his image makeover.