Some inaccuracies and some elaboration of the facts
mentioned in the following Tehelka article - How Shahid Siddiqui bagged the
Narendra Modi interview:
1. Shahid Siddiqui, in strict official terms, was neither a
member of Samajwadi Party, much less its spokes person. Give this credit to
Electronic Media, especially NDTV who choose their own favourites to bring in
and anoint them as answering for one party or other. NDTV brought in, both
Shahid Siddiqui and Kamaal Faruqui to comment on SP current news. Kamaal
Faruqui was correct enough to declare that whatever comments he is making on
TV, it is his personal view and he does not represent Samajwadi, even though SP
has gone through summery public endorsement of both these Muslim names, as
joining their ranks in a rank political exercise. It appears, it was NDTV that
made them both SP spokespersons of their (NDTV’s) choice.
2. According to NAI DUNIYA text, Shahid Siddiqui did not mention in his introductory remarks that he was at Zafar Sareshwala's place. He just mentions that he was in Mumbai for Esha's wedding and joined a get-together where Salim Khan and Mahesh Bhatt were there. The suggestion to interview came from Mahesh Bhatt, as Shahid writes in the Urdu text. Zafar was given the task to use his connection to forward the request for an interview.
3. Zafar Sareshwala belongs to a sharebroking group headed informally by Arshad Vahidna, who was very close to Dhirubhai Ambani and handled some of his stock market operations. When Modi visited London, Zafar sought an appointment and asked for the rehabilitation and compensation of his office in Ahmedabad, ruined in the riots. Modi was quick to respond and got a Muslim name that only cared for his own personal rehabilitation and was in turn obligated to Modi to promote his name in Muslim community. The entire Muslim community has condemned his moves. But as a very ambitious businessman and points man, he persists in trying to fix up deals for his contacts.
4. Zafar Sareshwala appears a practicing Muslim with proper Muslim beard and performing all his religious duties with feelings and sense of commitment. For that a section of the Muslims, especially the business community of Memons, do give him public hearing, but his moves on Modi is appreciated only by business community in a manner of opportunism. His pushing of Maulana Ghulam Muhammed Vastanvi towards the good books of Modi, too was believed widely as a separate deal for Maulana Vastanvi's genuine needs of his sprawling madarsa. It is not clear if Modi in anyway obliged him publically. He might have eased on some government restrictions. It is on public record that Vastanvi missed the most prestigious post at Darul Uloom, due to his soft words for Modi. Maulana did not realize that Muslim community is not ready to forgive, much less forgive Modi's alleged involvement in state sponsored genocidal riots against Muslims in Gujarat.
Incidentally, Brijesh Pandey is wrong, when he writes Vastanvi to be a Bohra. Maulana Vastanvi is a Sunni Muslim from Gujarat.
5. Shahid Siddiqui's most damaging aspect of the interview was that it was not a cross examination like that of Karan Thaper. Shahid asked question and let him reply -- right or wrong. Shahid never crossed him, if he felt Modi is all making up and treated him like a child listening to his grandmother's fairy tales. Thus Shahid gave Modi the chance to project a false and questionable account of what actually happened. That is tantamount to a dubious journalistic coup. As people rightly felt, Shahid was merely ingratiating himself with Modi for any future political moves of his own. He therefore cannot expect any sympathy from his Muslim readership or the Muslim community at large.
6. If and when Modi said those now famous words of bravado: Hang me if you find me guilty'; Shahid had no guts to ask him to step aside from his post and face the law and only when he is cleared, to take up official duties. After all Modi's own leader, LK Advani had set a precedent earlier. Shahid should have hanged him then and there over his slogan and asked for his resignation. He could only then claim to have been brave and not otherwise for asking pat questions that Modi has faced again and again during last so many years.
7. In short, Shahid Siddiqui has sold Muslim victims short. He should apologize not only to Muslims, but all those across all communities that have condemned Modi and hold him to be an unfit person to hold any public office.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com
2. According to NAI DUNIYA text, Shahid Siddiqui did not mention in his introductory remarks that he was at Zafar Sareshwala's place. He just mentions that he was in Mumbai for Esha's wedding and joined a get-together where Salim Khan and Mahesh Bhatt were there. The suggestion to interview came from Mahesh Bhatt, as Shahid writes in the Urdu text. Zafar was given the task to use his connection to forward the request for an interview.
3. Zafar Sareshwala belongs to a sharebroking group headed informally by Arshad Vahidna, who was very close to Dhirubhai Ambani and handled some of his stock market operations. When Modi visited London, Zafar sought an appointment and asked for the rehabilitation and compensation of his office in Ahmedabad, ruined in the riots. Modi was quick to respond and got a Muslim name that only cared for his own personal rehabilitation and was in turn obligated to Modi to promote his name in Muslim community. The entire Muslim community has condemned his moves. But as a very ambitious businessman and points man, he persists in trying to fix up deals for his contacts.
4. Zafar Sareshwala appears a practicing Muslim with proper Muslim beard and performing all his religious duties with feelings and sense of commitment. For that a section of the Muslims, especially the business community of Memons, do give him public hearing, but his moves on Modi is appreciated only by business community in a manner of opportunism. His pushing of Maulana Ghulam Muhammed Vastanvi towards the good books of Modi, too was believed widely as a separate deal for Maulana Vastanvi's genuine needs of his sprawling madarsa. It is not clear if Modi in anyway obliged him publically. He might have eased on some government restrictions. It is on public record that Vastanvi missed the most prestigious post at Darul Uloom, due to his soft words for Modi. Maulana did not realize that Muslim community is not ready to forgive, much less forgive Modi's alleged involvement in state sponsored genocidal riots against Muslims in Gujarat.
Incidentally, Brijesh Pandey is wrong, when he writes Vastanvi to be a Bohra. Maulana Vastanvi is a Sunni Muslim from Gujarat.
5. Shahid Siddiqui's most damaging aspect of the interview was that it was not a cross examination like that of Karan Thaper. Shahid asked question and let him reply -- right or wrong. Shahid never crossed him, if he felt Modi is all making up and treated him like a child listening to his grandmother's fairy tales. Thus Shahid gave Modi the chance to project a false and questionable account of what actually happened. That is tantamount to a dubious journalistic coup. As people rightly felt, Shahid was merely ingratiating himself with Modi for any future political moves of his own. He therefore cannot expect any sympathy from his Muslim readership or the Muslim community at large.
6. If and when Modi said those now famous words of bravado: Hang me if you find me guilty'; Shahid had no guts to ask him to step aside from his post and face the law and only when he is cleared, to take up official duties. After all Modi's own leader, LK Advani had set a precedent earlier. Shahid should have hanged him then and there over his slogan and asked for his resignation. He could only then claim to have been brave and not otherwise for asking pat questions that Modi has faced again and again during last so many years.
7. In short, Shahid Siddiqui has sold Muslim victims short. He should apologize not only to Muslims, but all those across all communities that have condemned Modi and hold him to be an unfit person to hold any public office.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com
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Modi reaches out and finds empty space
Who swung his unexpected interview in an Urdu daily? Who all stood to gain? And what’s the BJP cadre saying in Gujarat? Brijesh Pandey on Shahid Siddiqui’s Modi scoop
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WHEN URDU weekly Nai Duniya came
out with a four-page, interview of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi, it kicked up a storm in political circles. The headline on the
front page screamed: “Hang me if I am guilty.” The interview was done by
editor-in-chief Shahid Siddiqui, who also happened to be the
spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party (SP).
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The
timing of the interview, six months prior to the Assembly elections in
Gujarat, has led many to call it Modi’s political gambit. With this, he
is seen to be reaching out to the Muslim community without compromising
on the core issue of Hindutva, a stance that many in the Gujarat BJP are
unwilling to accept.
Such
has been the impact of this interview that within 48 hours of its
publication, SP leader Ramgopal Yadav came out with the statement that
Siddiqui had nothing to do with the party. “Forget being a spokesperson,
he is not even a member of the Samajwadi Party,” said Yadav.
SP
spokesperson Rajendra Chowdhary has even accused Siddiqui of using
journalism to further his political ambitions. While that may be true,
it cannot be denied that Siddiqui was well within his rights as a
journalist to interview Modi. In fact, he is vocal about his dislike for
the Gujarat CM. “This is like shooting the messenger,” he fumes. “I
have always maintained that Modi is a criminal and he should be
punished. The Samajwadi Party and Congress are getting Muslim votes by
raising the bogey of Narendra Modi.”
So how did this interview happen?
According
to Siddiqui, it was all made possible because of Zafar Sareshwala, an
Ahmedabad-based businessman close to Modi. Doing television debates on
issues such as the denial of a US visa to Modi, to how Muslims should
get over the 2002 riots, to backing Ghulam Vastanvi, a Bohra Muslim who
was forced to quit as the vicechancellor of the Darul Uloom in Deoband
because of his pro-Modi utterances, Zafar was a familiar face on TV,
telling the world how things have changed for the better for Muslims in
Gujarat. Along with his brother Owes, Zafar belongs to that select group
of people who have direct access to Modi.
It
was Zafar who suggested that Siddiqui interview Modi. “I was at Zafar
Sareshwala’s place with Mahesh Bhatt and Salim Khan, when Zafar said
that Muslims are being treated properly in Gujarat,” says Siddiqui. “I
got very angry, called him (Modi) a murderer. Zafar was convinced that
the situation was different. Anyway, Modi doesn’t give interviews to
anybody. He then enquired whether I had approached Modi for an
interview. I gave him my mobile number and email id, and asked him to
give it to Modi’s office and let them know that I was interested in
interviewing him. Soon enough, I got a call from Modi’s office asking me
about the nature of questions that I was going ask. I told them that my
questions would be spontaneous and that the interview would be
completely open. They said then you have to publish every word of it. I
agreed. That’s how the interview was fixed.”
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Not everyone is buying Siddiqui’s story. According to Zafar Islam, editor of The Milli Gazette:
“I get that newspaper through my hawker but I didn’t get it that day.
However, the interview was everywhere, on every channel. Even The New York Times published
the extracts. It’s very clear that a lot of work has gone behind it.
Otherwise, tell me honestly, who notices the Urdu press in India? Being a
journalist, it is his right to interview anybody but it should not
become a public relations exercise. The way Modi’s photo was printed on
the cover surely smacks of something else. Otherwise in the same Nai Duniya, Modi has always been shown as something of a devil.”
Criticism
has also been levelled at the intent of the interview. “It’s laughable
that Modi hopes of reaching out to the Muslims through an interview when
over a lakh Muslims are still languishing in camps and living a life
worse than animals,” says Khan Mohd Aatif, a renowned Muslim
intellectual and former two-time BJP MLA from Lucknow. “Some kind of
give-and-take must have happened between Modi and Siddiqui. But they
don’t realise that the Muslim awam is not a fool.”
A
senior Muslim leader of the Samajwadi Party admits that the party,
especially the Muslim leadership, was taken aback by the interview.
“When Muslims form a core of your votebank and one of your spokespersons
goes ahead and interviews Modi, what more needs to be done to rile the
community?” he says on condition of anonymity. “Modi might have thought
of this as a wise move, but I don’t think the community that has seen
such a massive pogrom, is going to be fooled by this interview. Just
saying I am ready to be hanged, does not change anything. You are ruling
the state with an iron hand, who will hang you?”
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Interestingly,
the interview has not only incensed the Muslims of UP, the Gujarat BJP,
too, seems upset and has gone to party president Nitin Gadkari over it.
Party insiders feel that in an attempt to portray an inclusive image
for himself, Modi has risked the party’s votebank in Gujarat. Senior
leaders in the state unit have asked Gadkari to instruct Modi to chalk
out a strategy for the upcoming Assembly elections, and not concentrate
on the general election. A senior minister known to be a Modi rival has
told Gadkari that they risk losing the Gujarat election if Modi carries
on with his campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha election, as the BJP will
then be seen to have compromised on its Hindutva stand.
In
fact, Gadkari has reportedly told a senior RSS leader close to Modi
that he should first save his chair in the state. Only then can he have
the luxury of appeasing the minorities in 2014.
While
many in the capital are hailing this interview as a Modi masterstroke,
Khan Mohd Aatif says the wounds are too deep to be healed by interviews
alone. “If it is a question of Modi hoping to appease, then he is up
against it,” he says.
Brijesh Pandey is a Special Correspondent with Tehelka.
brijesh@tehelka.com
brijesh@tehelka.com
