ManishH wrote:If the allegation is so serious, it ought to be backed with more serious proof. Just that event X was a chain of events that led Indians to vote for entity A, doesen't mean A must have perpetrated X.
Are you saying INC actually planned the Godhra massacre ? I'm hoping I just misunderstood you.
For the record, this Tehelka reporter does not agree with the court.
http://www.countercurrents.org/kheta270211.htm
PS: further, whatever you may think of guilt, Haji Bilal seems to have been one of the 16 independent Muslim corporators (elected in 1999, when the BJP won 11 seats, independent Muslim candidates 16, the Congress five, and four seats were bagged by pro-BJP independents. )
The Indian Express story refers to Haji Bilal as an independent corporator.
http://www.indianexpress.com/oldStory/8846/
Tehelka refers to Haji Bilal as a Muslim corporator.
As the Tehelka story says:
In the December 1999 municipal council elections, the BJP won 11 seats, independent Muslim candidates 16, the Congress five, and four seats were bagged by pro-BJP independents.
Murli Mulchandani, one of the nine BJP men, had been the president of the municipal council. In 1999, he had contested but lost.
To form the house in the council, a party needs 19 seats. The BJP had formed the house, supported by five Congress and three Muslim corporators. Raju Darji, a BJP corporator (who claims to be a witness to the fire) was elected president. Deepak Soni, another BJP corporator (also one of the nine witnesses), was appointed president of the education board formed under the council.
But a year after the elections, 24 corporators — 16 Muslim, five Congress and three Hindu independents — joined ranks against the BJP and moved a no-confidence motion. The BJP lost the house. These 24 now elected Kalota as president of the municipal council.
The Hindu joins in:
http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/02/stories ... 860100.htm
The 11 convicts sentenced to death include Abdul Razzak Kurkur, owner of the Aman guesthouse near the Godhra station where the court believed the meeting to “hatch the conspiracy” was held the night before the incident; the former independent member of the Godhra Municipality, Ismail Suleja alias Haji Bilal, who was allegedly present at the meeting and hindered the fire fighters from reaching the burning train and dousing the fire;...