CONCEPT – RANGANATH MISRA COMMISSION

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CONCEPT – RANGANATH MISRA COMMISSION

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• Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission of Enquiry, 1985: Ranganath Mishra headed the investigation of 1984 riots and produced a controversial report. The 1971 War hero Lt. Gen. Aurora said of it that "The terms of reference of the commission were biased against the victims, the victims were forced to come to the investigation with the burden of proof on them.”
• PM Rajiv Gandhi: He was appointed by Rajiv Gandhi, and it was a single member committee, He gave the clean chit to congress party, and later became an RS member. Even when it was appointed, independent observers had predicted that it would turn out to be a useless investigation. A tough inquiry would have caused important heads to roll. And then-PM Rajiv Gandhi was not too eager to order an official probe into the large-scale killing of Sikhs during the riots following Mrs Gandhi's assassination in October 1984. He had referred to the riots as a "dead issue," and had argued against "opening up old wounds.”
• Appointed despite reluctance: The commission was finally appointed due to public pressure and the exigencies of the Punjab accord. Later, the Citizens Justice Committee (CJC) - which had been invited to assist the Commission in its fact-finding - withdrew from the Commission's hearings after bitterly criticising its procedures in a petition addressed to Justice Mishra.
• Allegations: The CJC alleged that the Commission was failing to protect witnesses who were testifying on behalf of the victims, and that the witnesses were subjected to continuing threats. Justice V.M. Tarkunde, retired judge of the Bombay High Court, had said that "We did not feel there was any point in our participating any more. This has been a one-sided investigation. We were never given a chance to participate in it as we had been promised.”
• What happened after that? The CJC's withdrawal from the commission's proceeding removes the only body that was actively representing victims and survivors of the November 1984 violence. The CJC had got more than 600 affidavits from victims alleging participation by the police and politicians in the carnage.
• Avoiding calling the real officers responsible: Also, while the CJC produced hundreds of witnesses who have been subjected to rigorous cross-examination within the commission, "not one officer from the government or the Delhi administration has been invited to step into the witness box," the CJC said. And even though a total of some 2,900 affidavits have supposedly been filed until now, "no copy of any of the affidavits filed by people other than CJC witnesses has been provided to the CJC for scrutiny."
• Soli Sorabjee speaks: A CJC member, advocate Soli Sorabjee, said that key interviews had been conducted behind closed doors and "we were not given an opportunity to cross-examine anybody." The CJC's list of complaints against the commission was long and weighty.
• Secrecy all around: Vital government documents, including police reports on the riots, summoned from the government at the CJC's behest were kept secret from the CJC despite repeated requests for disclosure. Another request that nine senior government officials responsible for maintaining law and order during the riots be summoned was turned down on the grounds that their statements had already been recorded by the commission.

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