Ehsan Jafri's daughter Nishrin writes an open letter to Shweta Sanjiv Bhatt
Dear Shweta Sanjiv Bhatt,
Fighting for Justice and human rights in India is a long and lonely battle. Once Teesta Setalvad mentioned this in an interview and for days I kept to myself trying to understand the depth of her sentence. I felt this loneliness from day one but I didn’t know how to express myself. So let me tell you how lonely this road that your husband has taken is and how long, lonely and difficult is the road ahead for you, your children and family, just in case you have not figured it out yet.
My mother was just 23 when she moved to Ahmedabad sometimes in 1960 and in 2002 at the age of 60 that night when she left her house and walked on the streets with the same saree she had on from the morning of Feb 28th, and on the same streets that she walked for 40+ years there was not a single door from her home in Chamanpura all the way to Gandhinagar where she ended up in a family friends house the next day that was open for her, open to take her with open arms.
-- You think that the city you call home and the people you call “mere desh wasi” even care of what you are going through.
None of the big wigs who live in Ahmedabad and were my father’s long- time friends came for her. Even those, who sat in her kitchen and ate meat curry and Biryani with my father, A million people in Ahmedabad with whom my father worked, fought elections, fought court cases, walked in rallies, sat on protests, played Holi, celebrated Eid, Diwali and any number of things they did together. Even when she was found in Gandhinagar and the news of my father’s brutal murder along with hundreds from his community was spread.
-- You think because your husbands work in this state and city, your husband’s education and service, his dream to serve his country, honesty and dedication is going to be considered here and these people will join you in your struggle.
If an incident with such magnitude took place in Canada and an Ex Member of Parliament was so brutally burned and murdered with 169 others in his home, Justin Trudeau and his entire cabinet would have shut down the parliament and stood to help each one of the victim. Most of the big businesses would have started the work on Gulberg Society and other areas to rebuild the homes and resettle the homeless. In 2002 and even now three richest businessmen of India are from Gujarat but even the women of those families who take pride in charity work did not come out to help or gather other rich and famous women to line up and show their talent of unity and love.
-- You think just because you wear a saree and put a beautiful bindi on your forehead that they will consider you a human being and think of what you are going through as a mother, a wife and a daughter and will join you in your struggle.
Over a million Indian women in the early morning of their day go to a place of worship in our cities, towns and villages, but none thought that day, that in city they share together, an entire community is on streets looking for a place to sit and sleep with young children and old parents. Schools of Gujarat full of teachers, colleges and Universities full of lady professors, businesses full of working women went by their day to day when a section of a community was not only thrown out of their home but some of them where carring their injured children or parents in the same clothes for days, some were looking for their loved one’s dead bodies among the thousand charred bodies dumped, and some were sitting and trying to sleep on hard floors of schools in the Muslim areas now converted as a refugee camp and or some who were trying to find a place and adjust in a corner of a Kabrastaan.
--You think these same people are worried about what you are going through while your husband is in Jail fighting with the fascists.
In any other era or country not only all the IPS Officers but all government officers of not just state of Gujarat but entire India would have gone on strike and demanded a stop to this harassment that Sanjivji is being put through. But you are in India my friend; here we are raised with a daily dose of hate on number of things that work on dividing us. If disaster has to strike us I pray it is a natural disaster and not a religious or politically based hate disaster. Only those who are victims of such hate truly know how lonely this road is.
With all my love, prayers for you and your determined husband, Sir Mr. Sanjiv Bhatt.
Yours truly,
Nishrin Jafri Hussain.
The original facebook post of Nishrin Jafri Hussain Is here below:
Sanjiv Bhat
Shweta Bhat
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Trump administration says its war in Iran has been 'terminated' before 60-day deadline
Washington (AP): The Trump administration is arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval.
The statement furthers an argument laid out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during testimony in the Senate earlier Thursday, when he said the ceasefire effectively paused the war. Under that rationale, the administration has not yet met the requirement mandated by a 1973 law to seek formal approval from Congress for military action that extends beyond 60 days.
A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's position, said for purposes of that law, “the hostilities that began on Saturday, Feb 28 have terminated.” The official said the US military and Iran have not exchanged fire since the two-week ceasefire that began April 7.
While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the US Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran's oil tankers from getting out to sea.
Under the War Powers Resolution, the law that sought to constrain a president's military powers, President Donald Trump had until Friday to seek congressional authorisation or cease fighting. The law also allows an administration to extend that deadline by 30 days.
Democrats have pushed the administration for formal approval of the Iran war, and the 60-day mark would likely have been a turning point for a swath of Republican lawmakers who backed temporary action against Tehran but insisted on congressional input for something longer.
“That deadline is not a suggestion; it is a requirement,” said Sen Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted Thursday in favour of a measure that would end military action in Iran since Congress hadn't given its approval. She added that “further military action against Iran must have a clear mission, achievable goals, and a defined strategy for bringing the conflict to a close."
Richard Goldberg, who served as director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction for the National Security Council during Trump's first term, said he has recommended to administration officials to simply transition to a new operation, which he suggested could be called “Epic Passage,” a sequel to Operation Epic Fury.
That new mission, he said, “would inherently be a mission of self-defence focused on reopening the strait while reserving the right to offensive action in support of restoring freedom of navigation.”
“That to me solves it all,” added Goldberg, who is now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.
During testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Hegseth said it was the administration's “understanding” that the 60-day clock was on pause while the two countries were in a ceasefire.
Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel at the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program and an expert on war powers, said that interpretation would be a “sizeable extension of previous legal gamesmanship” related to the 1973 law.
“To be very, very clear and unambiguous, nothing in the text or design of the War Powers Resolution suggests that the 60-day clock can be paused or terminated,” she said.
Other presidents have argued that the military action they've taken was not intense enough or was too intermittent to qualify under the War Powers Resolution. But Trump's war in Iran would certainly not be such a case, Ebright said, adding that lawmakers need to push back against the administration on that kind of argument.
