Vinita Deshmukh on Kasab’s Verdict

Guest Blogger Vinita Deshmukh on Kasab’s Verdict
http://blogs.rnw.nl/southasiawired/2010/05/08/guest-blogger-vinita-deshmukh-on-kasab-verdict/
8th May 2010
by Keerthana Nagarajan.
(My comments are below)
We’ve handed over our bloggers’ chair for the day to Vinita Deshmukh, a senior Indian journalist, activist and the editor of the weekly tabloid Intelligent Pune. Vinita Deshmukh has co-authored the book-To the Last Bullet, along with the Vinita Kamte, the wife of Mumbai Additional Commissioner of Police, Ashok Kamte, who died fighting the terrorists in the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai.
Ajmal Kasab has been awarded the death sentence. Well, it would have been surprising only if he had been given anything less than death. Going by the standards of the Indian judiciary, the case you can say was closed fast. Though this is only the Special Court’s verdict and the High Court, Supreme Court and perhaps the mercy petition is yet to go by.
But considering the leaps that technology has made, the verdict was indeed snail paced. The video clips of the 22 year old Kasab showering bullets from his AK47 at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus; all clad in jeans, sneakers and the knapsack was proof enough for the court.The killings in Mumbai are considered to be the worst of the so called Fidayeen attacks - such as those on the Indian Parliament or the co-ordinated bombings of Mumbai train stations. And popular sentiment found it could concentrate its hatred on Kasab - caught on camera with his machine gun moments before he opened fire on a random public at the CST station. From the station, he ran with his accomplice Abu Ismail, to the Cama Hospital and opened fire on patients and police.
Additional Commissioner Sadanand Date was injured in this attack and three constables lost their lives. The gunmen then freely walked into the Rang Bhavan Lane alongside and killed three more officers: Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner, Eastern Region, Ashok Kamte and Inspector Vijay Salaska.
The events of 26/11 have touched a deeply emotional chord in Mumbaikers and there has been public unrest at the cost of the gunman’s imprisonment and trial estimated at Rs200,000 per day, (US$ 4500). Unsurprisingly, there has been little opposition to Kasab’s recently awarded death sentence.
When I wrote the book `To the last bullet’ for Vinita Kamte, I was anguished that her voice was not being heard by the Mumbai Police and the Home Ministry.
Firstly, her ardent requests to the Mumbai police authorities to let her know the sequence of events that led to the death of her husband, Ashok Kamte, fell on deaf ears. Despite being the wife of a senior IPS officer, she was compelled to use the Right To Information Act (RTI) to procure all call log records; which revealed conversations between the Control Room manned by the then Joint Commissioner of Police Rakesh Maria and the police officers on Ground Zero on the night of 26/11.
She along with her twin sister Revati had to burn the midnight oil for nights on end to scrutinise and analyse the call log records only to find serious goof ups by the Control Room which kept the three officers in the dark of the movement of the two terrorists. This led to a triple tragedy that could probably have been avoided.
Mrs Kamte has heard many excuses from the police about the death of her husband and his colleagues: `The three officers went in a hurry” , “We don’t know how they went together’, “They did not understand the gravity of the situation”. “To the Last Bullet” is the story of the journey of Mrs Vinita Kamte undertook to find the truth behind the maze of mistakes and cover-ups behind the death of her husband.
And the widow of the hero of this tragedy believes that the killer Ajmal Kasab got a fairer public hearing than she did.
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(K B Kale's comments)
It is unfortunate that the gifted journalists like Mrs Vinita Deshmukh never go for the jugular even when they have many leads and have the ability to dig deeper and go for the kill.
I have read the book “To the last bullet”. It is a great original work by Mrs Vinita Kamte which has been embellished by Mrs Vinita Deshmukh.
So a wife has done her duty towards her slain husband. But it has opened a Pandora’s box and each lead that has been shown by Mrs. Kamte is crying to be taken up by journalists like Mrs. Deshmukh to the logical end either by pronouncing the wrong doers as victims of misunderstanding or by pronouncing them guilty, bared in front of the readers and punished for their failures.
Journalists should keep the two columnists from Washington Post as their role models. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein didn’t stop after scratcing just the surface of the Watergate scandal but kept digging in. They persevered till they forced President Nixon to resign.
I hope Mrs Vinita Deshmukh the jounalist doesn’t stop at surfacial scratching of this big event, but keeps digging till she sends the people who were responsible for the poor show by Mumbai Police, once considered on par with Scotland yard, on 26/11.
K B Kale

Arafat - a respected leader

Arafat - a respected leader
10th Dec. 2004
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2004/12/10/arafat-respected-leader.html
(Response of a JP reader to my earlier letter on this subject)
I wonder what kind of a world that K.B. Kale thinks he lives in. In his letter about Yasser Arafat's departure from this world (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 29), Kale stressed out that except for the nearest and dearest to Arafat, the rest of the world would be more likely to celebrate than mourn his passing. The world as in the eyes and mind of Kale does not seem to include the countries whose leaders paid their respects to Arafat and flew to Egypt, including Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
It is clear that in the opinion of a person such as Kale, what one should define as the world is those few countries that did express a kind of relief about Arafat's death. We all know which countries they are. It may be an arguable point to Kale, but to me a so-called superpower country and its allies do not constitute the entire world.
Kale also overlooked the Palestinian people, millions of them, who were heartbroken and emotional during Arafat's funeral in Ramallah. The event was often pictured on television and aired live on several TV stations. Who could have missed the images? I assume Kale did.
I would like to add that when President Susilo, a leader of more than 200 million people -- surely quite a significant part of the world -- took off immediately to Egypt to say his last goodbyes to Arafat, there was no palpable sense of relief here over his death. Susilo represented our country and many Indonesians do respect Arafat and mourn his death. Needless to say, I am proud that he went to the funeral because it is simply what a respectable national leader should do on the passing of another respectable national leader, no matter successful or unsuccessful they are (then again, ""unsuccessful"" is only Kale's opinion within his limited worldview).
IRMA FITRASARI Tangerang, Banten

Regulation on intake of artificial sweeteners

Regulation on intake of artificial sweeteners
1st Nov. 2005
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2005/11/01/regulation-intake-artificial-sweeteners.html

In response to the letter On artificial sweeteners from K.B. Kale in The Jakarta Post on Oct. 31, commenting on my previous letter Substitute for sugar (Oct. 20), I would like to inform him that he can read the book published by the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency in 2004 titled Peraturan Teknis Penggunaan Bahan Tambahan Pangan Pemanis Buatan (or Technical Rules governing the Use of Artificial Sweeteners).
This book sets out the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of sweeteners and maximum doses for different kinds of foodstuffs, including ice cream.
ADI is the amount of the substance in milligrams per kilogram that can be consumed daily over the course of a lifetime and which is safe according to the World Health Organization.
SUNARTO PRAWIROSUJANTO, Jakarta

The bus congestion conundrum

The bus congestion conundrum
09th March, 2006
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2006/03/09/bus-congestion-conundrum.html
(Response of a JP reader to my earlier letter on this subject)
K.B. Kale's recent letter in The Jakarta Post regarding making the busway open to all busses is right on the money. When I drive down Sudirman, I see an empty busway lane and a totally congested slow lane with crowded buses and many other types of public transportation vehicles that are trying to drop off and pick up passengers. This all completely fouls up the slow lane and makes it miserable for all regular traffic trying to enter and leave the buildings on Sudirman.
I challenge Governor Sutiyoso to logically explain to the public how he can basically take out a whole lane of traffic and not make the most of the busway lane.
If the entry points for the buses in the busway lane are not suited to non-TransJakarta buses, then change the system (easy to do) slightly to get all buses to use the busway lane on Sudirman. That will really ease congestion. Simple logic: If the traffic lane is called ""The Busway"", then make sure all buses use it.
Come on, let's make Jakarta a little more liveable!
DIAH HIKMAWATI, Jakarta

The year of the dream team?

The year of the dream team?
29th May 2008
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/05/29/letter-the-year-dream-team.html
(Response of a JP reader on my letter of 15th May 2008 re Dream Team)

This is to comment on K.B. Kale's letter on May 15, titled "Dream ticket", saying that if Hillary Clinton were to accept being Barack Obama's running mate, it would make for a "dream ticket".
I do agree with his idea, but the contest in the Democrat Party's nomination is still going on at least until June 3, after the last three primaries in Puerto Rico on June 1 and Montana and South Dakota on June 3.
What makes the dream ticket a possibility for Obama as he recently won in Oregon, is also, I think, a possibility for Clinton because she won earlier in Kentucky.
The reason is based on exit polls that Obama had difficulty with white working-class voters in Kentucky as he has in other states that gave Clinton 70 percent of those votes as well as three-quarters of votes from people who did not finish college. About 20 percent said race played a factor in their votes (The Jakarta Post, May 22).
If the above polls prove to be true, along with the CNN poll which says 75 percent of Americans are willing to accept a black president, the dream ticket may fall to either Obama or Clinton.
Whoever the Democratic Party nominee will be, to be decided in August by the superdelegates, a dream team, in my opinion, may be in sight because Clinton herself has said that whatever the end result is, she will maintain the party's unity.
Such a team would be a strong and tough contender, like the American basketball dream team playing in the Olympics. The Democrat's dream team would surely beat Republican nominee John McCain, whose ruling party has been preoccupied with the so-called war on terror for the past six years.
On which party will win this fall presidential election, I do agree that is the year of the Democrats because apart from the above-mentioned Bush policies, a California city has declared itself bankrupt (and may be followed by other cities) because it could not bear the expenditures as a result of the U.S. economic slowdown.
M. RUSDI, Jakarta

Bush, shoes, and Gaza conflicts

Bush, shoes, and Gaza conflicts
10th Jan 2009
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/01/10/letter-bush-shoes-and-gaza-conflicts.html
(Response of a JP reader to my letter of 6th Jan 2009)
I was amused to read K.B. Kale's letter titled "What a way to go!" (The Jakarat Post, Jan. 6).
He seems to admire Bush's agility very much and was mostly relieved that the Iraqi journalist's shoes missed the president's head.
K.B. Kale gives us an overview of Bush disastrous presidency, but curiously omits to mention the illegal and unjustified war on Iraq -- a war that has led to the death of a million of civilians, made thrice as much refugees.
He finished his letter by deploring and condemning Muntadhar's barbaric assault on the president.
This cartoon-like version of events (ignoring a great deal of facts and background) reminds me of the other version of the presently unfolding tragedy in Gaza where Hamas are attacking innocent Israelis.
IRA SUROSO, Jakarta

Don't blame other for your ills

Don't blame other for your ills
19th Dec. 2009
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/12/19/letter-don039t-blame-other-your-ills.html

It was quite interesting to read the letter, "Export Surplus" in The Jakarta Post of Dec. 15. The title was very carefully chosen and, in its economic garb, all kind of malicious denigration spewed at the country which for the last eight years has been engaged in the war on terror, not just for its own sake but for the sake of humanity.
Such type of propaganda only aims to belittle Pakistan's contribution towards global peace by sincere endeavors to eradicate the scourge of militancy. In the process, Pakistan has suffered immense loss of life and resources.
Without going into the gory details of the letter through which the writer implicates almost everyone in Pakistan for one misdoing or the other, I only wish to assert that one should keep one's own house in order before meddling in the affairs of neighbors. It is not wise to blame all of India's ills on her neighbor.
Frankly speaking, most of the ills India is facing today are of its own doing, the Kashmir issue topping them all. To cover up its atrocities in Indian-held Kashmir, India has never allowed an independent UN mission or human rights body to visit the area. But Kashmir is only the tip of the iceberg as there are a number of other mutinies brewing throughout the length and breadth of India.
Interestingly an article in The Post of Dec. 15 also pinpoints one such movement by the Naxalites. The article very prudently examines the issue of separatist trends in Asia and warns that viewing such tendencies as only the backdrop of religious motivation is totally wrong.
The ideology of the left is experiencing a renaissance which is particularly true of the largest democracy, India.
It is also pertinent to note that despite Pakistan's sincere efforts for resumption of the peace talks, India has not returned to the dialogue table.
It always finds one excuse or the other to stay away from the dialogue process. What moral ground does it have to blame Pa-kistan when it is refraining from talks?
India needs to do some soul-searching herself and answer as to why it has denied the Kashmiris their right to self-determination for the last six decades, why it is persecuting its minorities (read the Sachar Report) and why the countless independence movements are fast surfacing there. What are India's consulates strewn along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan doing? What are they up to?
K.B. Kale needs to do some research on that as well; I am sure that would make another good episode for the letters column.
Farhan Qutab and Faraz Liaquat
Islamabad