Someone passed me a copy of the DISSENT, August 13 article, "Genocide in Gujarat: The International Community Looks Away" by Martha Nussbaum.

Professor Nussbaum is described as the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, appointed in the Philosophy Department, Law School, and Divinity School. She is an affiliate of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies and a Board member of the Human Rights Programme.

There is an excellent reason why the "international community" has in fact "looked away" from the various incendiary allegations about what happened/is happening in Gujarat. That is the utter dishonesty of those who claim to represent "human rights", "communal harmony" and in general, infest the title of "South Asia experts".

Nussbaum has reason to be frustrated – the lies are not as effective as she and her ilk tried to make them, to destroy India. This is all the more sad because there are many people like me around the world who do want a competent, thorough investigation and prosecution of those who committed violence on my fellow citizens, and to ensure that never again will these medieval terrors be visited upon my people. But don't look to Nussbaum and her ilk for help here – revelation of the truth would render them utterly irrelevant, and lay them open to prosecution for inciting hatred with their lies.

Two examples, out of that whole load of filth in her article.

"At least one Muslim vendor was beaten up when he refused to say "Jai Sri Ram" ("Hail Ram"), and a young Muslim girl narrowly escaped forcible abduction. As the train left the station, stones were thrown at it, apparently by Muslims. Fifteen minutes later, one car of the train erupted in flames. "

Nussbaum's account, in utter contradiction of all reports on the incident, shows blatant, malicious dishonesty. It does parrot the version put out by the Indian Muslim Council (an anti-India propaganda outfit based in Maryland, USA) through their website www.imannet.org to incite violence against Indians in the Middle East – an effort which failed because most Arab media recognised that they were lying.

The account of that horrible incident as best reconstructable from media and official accounts is the following, as anyone can verify by going to "Google" and exercising due diligence involving some minimal level of intelligence:

The driver of the Sabarmati Express apparently ignored two different signals to stop the train after it left Godhra station by someone pulling on the emergency chain (from inside) – because he could see a big mob waiting with petrol containers a mile beyond the station. A third chain-pull caused the guard, at the back of the train, to apply emergency brakes, and the train driver complied to prevent a derailment.

The mob then blocked the tracks, shattered the windows and threw petrol inside the sleeper coaches on sleeping passengers, then lit them – and barricaded the doors from outside to prevent passengers escaping. Most of the dead died of asphyxiation or smoke inhalation, or petrol-flame burns – because they woke up too late. Several survivors (they did manage to get one or two doors open, or some sort of help arrived as the mob ran away) recounted waking up to smoke and the sounds of stone throwing, and desperately seeking a way out.

They were people like you or me – and contained a large proportion of women and kids. Ordinary Indians who were sleeping on an overnight express, going about their peaceful, ordinary pursuits.

To-date, unless Nussbaum's buddies determined their religion before burning them to death, there has been no publication of the religious affiliations of the victims. In all probability, from my experience as a frequent Indian Railways long-distance passenger, they believed in every religion on the planet – and those dying screams were probably to every version of the Almighty.

Nowhere has there been any credible report of this "attempted abduction of a Muslim woman" nor any corroboration of any altercation with any vendor. These are incendiary lies put out by Nussbaum and her ilk to "justify" the callous, deliberate burning to death of all those innocent people – an incident obviously planned and calculated to set all Gujarat aflame.

Why do I say that it was deliberate and pre-planned? A simple question for the editors and Nussbaum: The average stop time of an Indian express train at a station like Godhra is two to 10 minutes. How does a mob of an estimated 1,500 gather, armed with petrol cans and torches, one mile beyond a rail station, with people assigned to get the train stopped with emergency chain pulls, at 7.00 am on a winter morning – all immediately triggered by some supposed altercation inside the station platform during the time that the express was stopped there?

This makes sense to the editors of "DISSENT", which according to Jason Blair's 'New York Times', "ranks among the handful of political journals read most regularly by US intellectuals"???

Really? And this is what passes for "reasoning" by Distinguished Furniture of the University of Chicago School of Law? I think I better not comment on the "Ethics" part of that school's name...

When you've finished laughing at that, please consider Nussbaum's Item 4, ignoring, for lack of time to waste, the garbage in between.

"The connection of these charities to the funding of hatred has now been amply documented in a report entitled 'The Foreign Exchange of Hate: IDRF' and the American Funding of Hindutva that may be accessed online (IDRF being the acronym of the India Development and Relief Fund, the chief charity in question). What this report shows (and other sources have confirmed) is that almost no money from this allegedly charitable organisation goes to fund welfare or general poverty relief. Funds are targeted, first, at organisations for Hindus only. Second, the money is largely used for cultural activities that are highly inflammatory in character, in particular for the camps of the Bajrang Dal, where young Hindu boys are taught the ideology of Hindutva and where hatred and fear of Muslims are openly advocated. "

I am an IDRF (India Development and Relief Fund) donor, and I investigated the "charges" in this "report" with intense interest over a period of six months.

Nussbaum is caught in a whole set of blatant falsehoods again. And at this stage (Summer 2003) I have to assume that she knows that these are falsehoods – its utterly deliberate and malicious. I too have read that report, and considered its contents in depth. It has been thoroughly discredited for the garbage it contains. There is not one single allegation of any sort against the IDRF, for which they have provided any evidence. The activities of the IDRF are a matter of complete transparency and in complete compliance with the laws of India and the US, both of which nations, incidentally, do have stringent laws and requirements for such fundraising and disbursement.

Do a simple web search on IDRF, and you can confirm for yourself (or Nussbaum for herself, should any trace of a conscience ever compel her) the truth on this. May the Almighty, whatever version one believes in, damn these "academic" fat-cat furniture with their pompous titles, who tried to destroy an organisation, which is the only source of hope for thousands of orphans, leprosy patients, street sweepers, tribal kids, and thousands of others, the poorest of the poor in India, from all religions...

But don't take my word for it. Go check the facts, and the complete and total rebuttal of the lies propagated by Nussbaum's Communist/Pakistani terrorist-loving buddies – and now hawked by her in an act of pure malicious frustration at seeing their efforts rebutted and laughed off. Laughed off by – you got it – the international community, and the United States government and Congress.

Nussbaum neglects to mention that this very same favorite "report" of hers also condemned IDRF for sending money to the families of dead New York firefighters after the 9/11 terrorist attack because, according to them, it demonstrated bias against Muslims – the "victims being non-Muslim and the attackers Muslim".

That alone ought to demonstrate to concerned Americans, the academic standards of Professor Nussbaum and, by association, those of the unfortunate university, which she infests. Her repeated endorsement of the lies in this report, published under her university affiliation and furniture titles, is a clear case of academic fraud. Is this what is acceptable in DISSENT as fodder for "real intellectuals"? Is this what passes for academic discourse in the South Asia Studies Departments of American Universities? Ever heard of a strange concept called academic honesty, and the responsibilities that come with those furniture titles?

As for DISSENT, well... enough said.

I will agree with one statement by Nussbaum: “Some, and these days the larger number, give to the IDRF because they know exactly what the money will be used for, and they think these purposes are good."

I do exactly that. I donate after investigating and finding out exactly what IDRF does. Not by believing lies from those with pompous chair or commode or stool titles - with their abysmal "standards" of integrity and research competence.

Yes, and if you, dear editors, investigate honestly and responsibly, instead of believing garbage spouted by hollow titles, so would you agree that you should donate to IDRF. To help those who need help the most. Despite the lies and the malice and hatred from these frustrated idiots.

The donation address can be found at www.idrf.org. You owe IDRF a big donation, at least to salve that part of your brain, which might include those conscience cells, for publishing Professor Nussbaum's nauseating tripe.