Rupang Bhatt, Ahmedabad

Presented below is list of those Indian citizens who requested President of India to consider mercy plea of terrorist Yakub Memon convicted in 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case. In other words these are the people who didn’t want a terrorist to hang.

Some of the people in this list from Gujarat are associated with Church, some with foreign funded NGOs. But then there are two members of parliament elected as BJP candidate too. They are Ram Jethmalani and Shatrughan Sinha.

Memorandum and petitions with long list of signatures of ’eminent persons’ is conventional and common practice of foreign funded NGOs-left eco system. Scores of such petitions were in circulation in Gujarat during the Narendra Modi years.

Do ask common citizens on street, and they would support hanging of a terrorist. But then there are vocal few who are positioned well in media, film industry, academic world and at other places. They keep creating alternative narrative, and bombard it so much and so craft-fully that their narratives take forefront position, leaving common man and common sense pushed to back seat in almost defensive position. So whether it’s Kashmir issue or relations with Pakistan or penalty to terrorist or building Narmada dam or electing Modi against Rahul or banning cow slaughter, a small vocal ’eminent’ brigade would attempt to make us common citizens believe the things that are unacceptable to us.

Popular author Rajiv Malhotra in his book breaking India calls them ‘Breaking India’ forces, popular twitter tag about them is #aadarshliberals, and this tag attracts thousands of tweets and retweets on regular basis. Event by event a group of well-connected, well-positioned, well-funded vocal few keep exposing self with ridiculous stands, beliefs and logic. Hanging of Yakub Memon was just one more in this series.

A list of those who signed a “Petition By Eminent Citizens Pleading Presidential Pardon For Yakub Memon”

Justice Panachand Jain (Retd) Justice H.S. Bedi (Retd)
Justice P. B. Sawant (Retd) Justice H. Suresh (Retd)
Justice K. P. Siva Subramaniam (Retd) Justice S. N. Bhargava (Retd)
Justice K Chandru (Retd) Justice Nagmohan Das (Retd)
Shatrughan Sinha MP Mani Shankar Aiyer, MP
Ram Jethmalani, MP Majeed Memon, MP
Sitaram Yechury, MP, G.S, CPI(M) D. Raja, MP, Secretary, CPI
K.T.S Tulsi, MP H.K. Dua, MP
T. Siva, MP
Prakash Karat, CPI(M), Member, Polit Bureau
Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary, CPI(ML)-Liberation
Brinda Karat, CPI(M), Member, Polit Bureau
N. Ram, Senior Journalist
Prashant Bhushan, Senior Lawyer
Jagmati Sangwan, General Secretary, AIDWA
Kavita Krishnan, Secretary, AIPWA
Annie Raja, General Secretary, NFIW
Tushar Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi Foundation
M. K. Raina, Film & theatre artist
Anand Patwardhan, Filmmaker
Naseeruddin Shah, Actor
Mahesh Bhatt, Filmmaker
Lalit Vachani, Filmmaker
Ram Rahman
Vivan Sundaram, Artist
Prof. Prabhat Patnaik
Prof. C. P. Chandrasekhar
Prof. Utsa Patnaik
Ritu Diwan, Former Director & Head Dept of Economics, Mumbai University
Jean Dreze
Pamela Philipose, Journalist
Achin Vanaik
Adv. Flavia Agnes, Director, Majlis Legal Centre, Mumbai.
Parthiv Shah
Prof. Irfan Habib
Prof. Arjun Dev
Prof. D. N. Jha
Prof. Kalpana Kannibaran, Hyderabad
Indira Jaisingh, Former, Addl. Sol. General
Kirti Singh, Former Member, Law Commission
Vrinda Grover, Lawyer
Prof. Abhijit Sen
Dr. Imrana Qadir
Dilip D’souza, Author
Ravi Chelam, Biologist and Conservationist Scientist, Bengaluru
Prof. Sohini Ghosh
Associate Prof. Sabina Gadihoke
Smita Gupta, economist
Prof. Jayati Ghosh
Prof. Jagmohan Singh, Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Ludhiana
Shabnam Hashmi, Anhad
Manisha Sethi, Academic
Prof. Ved Kumari
Biraj Patnaik
Virginia Saldanha
Prof.Madhu Prashad
Anees Azmi
Rahul Saxena
Anjali Mody
Dr. Nikita Sood, Oxford University
Rahul Roy, Filmmaker
Dr. Ayesha Kidwai
Prof. Harbans Mukhia
Adv. Kamayani Bali Mahabal
Binoo John (senior journalist, author)
Nachiket Udupa
N. Jayaram
Prof. Pulin Nayak
Prof. Kamal Mitra Chenoy
Angana Chatterjee
Deep Joshi
Mr. Tarun Bhartiya, Shillong
Ms. Angela Rangad, Shillong
Sanjay Karkala
Gitanjali Prasad
Vivek Sundara
Arundhati Dhuru NAPM
Sandeep Pandey, Socialist Party
Dr John Dayal, Member, National Integration Council
Chetan Mali
Vidula Ramabai
Nandini Sundar, Professor, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University
Suroor Mander
Rammanohar Reddy
Kiran Bhatty, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
Laxmi Murthy
Aruna Roy, MKSS
Rev. Kyrsoibor Pyrtuh, Shillong
Ms. Kalpana Kumar, Delhi
Asad Zaidi, Writer
Dunu Roy, Hazards Centre, New Delhi
Sohail Akbar
Mr. Napolean S. Mawphniang, Shillong
Ms. Gertrude Lamare, , Shillong
Ms. Janice Pariat, Shillong
Ms. Angela Rangad, Shillong
Mr. Tarun Bhartiya, Shillong
Ms. Mona Mishra, Delhi
Mr. Aflatoon, Varanasi, Secretary (Organisation), Samajwadi Janparishad
Mr. Manas Das, Bangalore
Ms. Amba Kak, Delhi
Kshetrimayum Onil, Imphal
Subrat Kumar Sahu, Delhi
Dr. Kranti Bhavana, Patna
Mr. Taru Dalmia, Delhi
Mr. Apal, Jaunpur
Mr. Mujibur Khan, Delhi
Ms Kanika Kamra, Chandigarh
Ms Neelima Goyal
Ms Brinda Bose, Delhi
Mr. Hossein Fazeli,
Mr. Jatinder Mauhar Singh, Chandigarh
Himanshi Rawat, Delhi
Dhruba J. Dutta
Abhinandita Mathur
Rahul Saxena, Bangalore, India
Muralidharan, Secretary, National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled
Ghazala Jamil
Sohail Hashmi
Prabir Purkayastha
Nikhil De, MKSS
Michael Noronha, (Mysore)
Ovais Sultan Khan
Abha Baiya
Ashok Chowdhury, AIUFWP
Bondita Acharya, Jorhat, Assam
Dr.Rosemary Dzuvichu, Nagaland University, Kohima
Kalyani Menon-Sen
Gita Sen
Vani Subramaniam
Saheli Women’s Resource Centre
Gabriele Dietrich
Niraj Malik
Javed Malick
Kiran Shaheen
Dyuti Ailawadi
Ramlath Kavil
Supriya Madangarli
Amrita Shodhan
Geetanjali Gangoli
Helen Saldana
Albertina Almeida
Pushpa Achanta
Kalpana Mehta
WSS Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression
Vineeta Bal
Malini Subramaniam
Sumi Krishna
Ratna Appnender
Sujata Patel
Chayanika Shah
Sadhna Arya
Asmita Basu
Johanna Lokhande
Pyoli Swatija
Mamta Singh
Ardhendu Sen
Parijata
Sakina Bahora
Juhi Jain
Meena Seshu
Vahida Nainar
Indira Chakravarthy
Anubha Rastogi
Soma KP
Abha Bhaiya
Runu Chakraborty
Shraddha Chickerur
Mihira Sood
Nisha Biswas
Ilina Sen
Preetha Nair
Rakhi Sehgal
Shoma Sen
Greeshma Aruna Rai
Uma Chandru
Shals Mahajan
LABIA Queer Feminist Collective
Sujata Gothoskar
Sandhya Gokhale
Forum Against Oppression of Women
Nikita Sonavane
Lalita Ramdas
Veena Shatrughna
Abhi Nandita Mathur
Freda Guttman
Vinod Mubayi, Co-editor, Insaf Bulletin
T K Raghunathan
Abby Lippman, PhD, Professor Emerita, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Martin Duckworth, cineaste
Shrikumar Poddar NRISAHI
George Abraham NRISAHI
Mohammad Imran NRISAHI
Kasim Sait Progressive Interactions, Chennai
Kareem Sait
Jai Sen
Prof.Praveen Jha
A K Ramakrishnan
Gitanjali Prasad
Rohan Dominic Mathews
Amod Shah
Shreya Agarwal
Anamika Lahiri
Rhea John
Kiran Bhatty
Vanita Leah Falcao
Ankita Aggarwal
Aashish Gupta
Avantika Dhingra
Radhika Jha
Seema Jha
Sridhar A
Farah Naqvi, Writer and Activist, Delhi
Radha Holla Brar
Vinay Kulkarni
Veena Shatrugna
R Srivatsan KS Jacob
Ravi Duggal
Indira Charkavarti
Sulakshna Nandi
Amar Jesani
Dhruv Mankad
Manisha Gupte
Renu Khanna
Sarojini
Saraswathy Ganapathy
Anant Phadke
Chinu Srinivasan
Ygesh Jain
Dr. Mohan Rao
C Sathyamala
Pallavi Gupta
Sukla Sen
Veena Johari
Ajaya Kumar Singh, Social Activist, Odisha Forum for Social Action, Bhubaneswar
Amalendu Upadhyaya, Editor, hastakshep.com
Anjali Monteiro, Mumjbai
Anubha Rastogi, advocate, Mumbai
Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, Jamwal
Apoorvanand, Teacher, DU
Capt. Tauseef H. Mukadam, Airline Pilot – Air Asia India, Bangalore
Darryl D’Monte, Chairperson, Forum of Environmental Journalists of India (FEJI), Mumbai
Devangshu Datta, New Delhi
Farah Naqvi, Writer and Activist, Delhi
Fr. Cedric Prakash sj, Director, PRASHANT, Gujarat
Francis Parmar.Gujarat
G. M. Sheikh, artist, Vadodara
Gagan Sethi, development professional, Gujarat
Geeta Seshu, Journalist, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Ghanshyam Shah, academician, Gujarat
Githa Hariharan, writer, New Delhi
Harsh Kapoor, New Delhi
Harsh Mander, social activist, writer, Aman Biradari, New Delhi
Hussain Indorewala, Asst. Professor, Madhta Pradesh
Indira Chandrasekhar, publisher, New Delhi
K.P. Jayasankar, Mumbai
Manan Trivedi, Social Activist, Gujarat
Manoranjan Mohanty, New Delhi
Mitul Baruah, Syracuse University, NY
Mukul Mangalik, Ramjas College, DU
N.D.Jayaprakash, Social Activist, New Delhi
Nasreen Fazalbhoy, Mumbai
Navaid Hamid, MOEMIN, New Delhi
Nilanjana S Roy, New Delhi
Nilima Sheikh, artist, Vadodara
Priya Pillai , Environmental Activist , Greenpeace India.
Radha Khan, Freelance development consultant.
Ram Puniyani, writer, Mumbai
Rohit Chopra, Associate Professor Santa Clara University
Rupa Gulab
S.Q.Masood, activist, Hyderabad
Sadanand Menon, Chennai
Sanjiv Bhatt, IPS Gujarat
Shankar Singh, MKSS, Rajasthan
Sheba George, Director , SAHR WARU , Gujarat
Vineet Tiwari, Progressive Writers Association, Indore
Swarna Rajagopalan, Researcher, Chennai
Isha Khandelwal, Lawyer, Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group
Shalini Gera, Lawyer, Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group
Nandini Rao, women’s rights activist, New Delhi
Y J Rajendra, GEneral Secretary, PUCL – Karnataka
Irfan Engineer, Mumbai
Prof Archana Prasad
Dr. Dinesh Abrol