Law of the land differs for different communities?

The sentencing of actor Sanjay Dutt to six years imprisonment in the 1993 Mumbai bombings on Tuesday brought to an end one of the world's longest terror trials during which 12 people were sent to the gallows and 20 got life imprisonment.

It was 14 years and four months ago on March 12, 1993, when a string of powerful blasts killed 257 people in Mumbai and injured hundreds.

Many believe that the blasts were a conspiracy by Mumbai's so-called Muslims. But what of the so-called Hindu riots before the blasts in which 900 people died?

As the 1993 blast accused are punished, riot-accused from all over India are often acquitted or not charged at all.

That was the issue discussed on CNN-IBN show Face The Nation: Does the law discriminate between riot and blast accused?

To debate the question, on the panel were social activist and Secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace Teesta Setalvad, Maharashtra’s Additional Director General of Police Arup Patnaik (he was the deputy commissioner in Bandra when the riots took place in 1992), senior Supreme Court lawyer, Kamini Jaiswal and columnist and member of BJP Sheshadri Chari. The discussion was moderated by Sagarika Ghose.

Blasts vs riots

What is the difference between the riots and the blasts in Mumbai in ’92-’93? Aren’t riots also an act of terror?

“No, riots are not acts of terror. Terrorism is a very definitive. It is a conspiracy against a nation and people. Riots are subject to cause and action theories. Here the TADA court judge has ear-marked why he has punished the people concerned,” said Sheshadri Chari.

Disagreeing with the argument, Teesta Setalvad said that Chari should read the Srikrishna Commission report properly.

“Justice Srikrishna says that the serial blasts were a reaction to the totality of Ayodhya and Mumbai. The Shiv Sena, led by Bal Thakeray, along with Madhukar Sarpotdar, Gopinath Munde and Ram Nayak functioned with the impunity of the street and Sudhakar Rao Nayak’s Congress government turned the other way. The riots were acts of mob terror and the blasts were acts of bomb terror. There is no difference between the two but the law treats it differently,” Setalvad said.

School start age 'should be six'

The age at which pupils start school should be raised to six or seven, a teachers' association suggests.

The Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) says many who begin formal schooling aged just four are not ready for an academic curriculum.

Deborah Lawson from PAT said it was vital that children should have more freedom to play in nurseries without being told what to do by adults.

The government said primary schools followed an age-appropriate curriculum.

Speaking at the PAT annual conference, in Harrogate, Ms Lawson said: "There is evidence that by starting school earlier, our children are not better off than those children who are starting later.

"As practitioners and parents we have all seen children who really were not ready to start school."

Time and space

She said toddlers developed social and language skills by playing in a way that was natural to them.

"We are not giving children sufficient time and space to learn for themselves - child initiated play activities.


The formal school starting age of five has served children well for decades
Department for Children, Schools and Families

"When they are playing outdoors, we talk about children letting off steam," she said.

"Actually they learn about the world around them by playing in the street or the park. They are learning those life skills that they need."

But some affluent parents want to know how their children are developing and request detailed reports from nursery staff, she said.

"Some parents like the worksheets because they are solid evidence that their child is progressing. They really want to see it," she said.

"Sometimes parents say 'Little Johnny is bringing back flash cards and my Billy isn't'. Actually, Billy isn't quite ready for it.

"When our children are going to be pressured academically and tested academically to destruction, why should we be putting that pressure on them?"

Age-appropriate curriculum

But a spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "The formal school starting age of five has served children well for decades and standards in our primary schools have never been higher.

"All the evidence - key stage results, international comparisons and Ofsted reports - make this clear.

"We want all children to make progress in literacy and numeracy at an early age, as these skills are critical to their ability to get the most out of learning later on.

"The first years of schooling focus on play-based activities in addition to formal learning - the curriculum is age-appropriate and we actively support teachers to adapt their teaching to the needs of children."

Jailed Bollywood star 'in tears'

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt has spent a troubled first night in a Mumbai jail, according to a fellow prison inmate.

The prisoner, who said that he sleeps near Dutt's cell, told a prison visitor interviewed by the BBC's Zubair Ahmed that the actor is often in tears.

He said that Dutt is too hot in his cell, has not been eating and finds his bed and prison clothes uncomfortable.

Dutt was jailed for six years on Tuesday for buying weapons from bombers who attacked Mumbai (Bombay) in 1993.

The fellow convict said that Dutt appeared not to enjoy food served to him by the prison authorities, which consisted of daal, chapattis, rice and vegetables.

The actor was reported only to have eaten when the inmate who shares a cell with him offered him two apples. The star told fellow inmates to pray for him.

Dutt's first night in prison has received saturation coverage in the Indian media which have gone into great detail about the conditions he faces in Cell Number One in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail.

Clothes 'too rough'

Our correspondent says that the cell has three rooms - with an attached toilet and shower - as well as a hall.

Scene of Mumbai blast, 1993
Crowded Mumbai places were targeted in the attacks

Dutt's neighbour in the adjoining cell is his friend, Yousuf Nullwalla, who was also convicted along with him in the 1993 bombings case.

Another inmate told the BBC that Dutt had been summoned by the jail superintendent who asked him if he was comfortable.

The star was wearing a white striped jail uniform but was in some discomfort, complaining that the cloth was too rough.

The authorities agreed to allow him access to medicine and cigarettes.

That concession follows an unusual conversation between the trial judge PD Kode and the Bollywood star after he was sentenced on Tuesday.

Dutt told the judge that he was "more than family for all of us".

The judge replied by saying that Dutt had "shot for movies, doing remarkably well in the film line".

He urged Dutt not to be sentimental, and to "be calm and quiet".

Gangster roles

The star's lawyers plan to appeal against his sentence. They argued on Tuesday that he should remain free on bail because of good behaviour, but the judge ruled against leniency.

Dutt, 48, is the most high-profile of 100 people convicted in connection with the blasts which killed 257 people.

The actor was cleared of conspiracy, but found guilty of illegally possessing a rifle and a pistol.

Dutt found fame playing gangsters and anti-heroes. His trial generated huge interest among Bollywood fans across India.

The son of a Hindu father and Muslim mother, he said the weapons were necessary in order to defend his family during Hindu-Muslim rioting of 1993, which followed the destruction by Hindu zealots of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

The Mumbai blasts were allegedly carried out by Mumbai's Muslim-dominated underworld in retaliation for the riots in which most of those killed were Muslim.

Coimbatore blasts case verdict

Nine years after the 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts, a sessions court today (August 1) began delivering the verdict on the 166 accused. Syed Ahmed Basha, founder of the Al-Umma and the main accused has been found guilty along with Mohammed Ansari, Tajuddin and Fazal.

Key accused Abdul Nasser Madhani, accused of conspiring with Basha, has been acquitted of all charges. Madhani is the Chairman of Kerala-based People's Democratic Party. Madhani's lawyer, Akbar Ali reflects his clients relief as he confirmed the exoneration, and said Madhani and him were very satisfied and grateful to the judiciary, media and all their well wishers.

A series of 19 blasts took place on February 14 1998, that claimed 58 lives and left over 167 injured. The sessions court is handing out the verdict to the 166 accused, a majority of whom are members are Al-Umma.

The main accused included the founder of Al Umma Syed Ahmed Basha who has been found guilty, its general secreatry Mohammed Ansari and Abdul Naseer Mandhani who has been acquitted. All the accused have been lodged in jails across Tamil Nadu for the past 9 years.

Acquittal leaves BJP unhappy

BJP Ravi Shankar Prasad, spokesperson for BJP, said that the BJP demands in light of the acquittal of Abdul Naseer Mandhani, accused in the '98 Coimbatore blasts case, every effort be made to file an appeal against the special court judgement acquitting him.

Even as the court pronouces the verdict in the 9-year old case, the memory of that fateful day has come back to haunt those who witnessed the blasts.

Says eye-witness R.S. Puram in Coimbatore, "The first blast killed 3 people, and a tempo was found parked here. As soon as I heard a blast, I came here and saw bodies and people were screaming. I took my auto towards the theatre and saw more bodies."

Meanwhile Khurshid, the mother of an accused in the case from Karunanidhi Nagar, told TIMES NOW her son was innocent.

"It's been 10 years since they took away our sons, for an accident that happenend somewhere else. They just caught my children and took them away. I have faith that they'll come back. I pray to Allah," she said.