The author of the recently published book, Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up , Rana Ayub, is apprehensive that the Bharatiya Janata Party will take legal recourse to block the circulation of her book, which, she claims, sold more than 30,000 copies without much of publicity.
The book, which was released last month, contains previously unpublished transcripts of sting operations conducted by Ms. Ayub during the eight-month undercover stay in Gujarat. The transcripts document the violence that took place prior to the consolidation of power of the BJP in Gujarat in the wake of the 2002 communal riots.
‘Under scrutiny’
At a recent event here, Ms. Ayub said her actions were constantly being monitored by the Centre. “Every word I write will be under the scrutiny of the Modi government. They are not silent but silently observing me. They are waiting for me to make the first mistake,” she said.
She claimed that her lawyer Vrinda Grover also shared her apprehension and cautioned her against developing a false sense of security imagining that the BJP-led government at the Centre was going to stay quiet regarding the book.
“She [Ms. Grover] often tells me not to think that nothing is going to happen. They [the ruling dispensation] are just buying time… not even for a minute assume that Mr. Modi and his dispensation, just because they are silent about it, have forgotten the book,” said Ms. Ayub.
In the almost hour-long discussion Ms. Ayub, who earlier worked for the news magazine Tehelka during the sting operations, also accused her former employer of not allowing her to publish her findings. She said that even though the then editor of Tehelka , Tarun Tejpal, initially agreed to her proposal of conducting a sting operation on Narendra Modi — who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat — he later on backtracked.
“I called Tarun and said that I have been invited for a lunch [by Mr. Modi]… He said ‘just take the next flight and come back’,” said Ms. Ayub. As for the reason for her editor’s decision, she said that Mr. Tejpal told her that when they conducted a sting operation on the then BJP president Bangaru Laxman, Tehelka ’s office was shut down. Following her employer’s decision and refusal by several major publishers to publish the book, Ms. Ayub published it on her own.
Mr. Tejpal could not be reached on the phone.