Terrorism, Anti-Terrorist Laws, And Judicial Decisions-Niloufer Vishnu Bhagwat

It is difficult to find   words to pay  homage to so many of our colleagues who did not retreat from their  professional duty,  undeterred in the legal defence of citizens in an ‘Age of Terror ‘ worldwide, though  aware that they lived  in times,  which would extract the ultimate in sacrifice,  for   voices raised   for  truth and justice. Ebru Timtik, our   Turkish colleague , was  one of   the brave  hearts and souls , whose memory we are  here to honour ; to remind ourselves, that we carry the responsibility of  moving  wheels of justice forward  , in difficult  and dangerous times .

Before giving you an appraisal of  Anti- Terrorist Laws, and  judicial  decisions  from  India  , it  is necessary  to briefly  reflect  on   the nature of   ‘Terrorism ‘,   and  the  role   of  covert agencies   and military intelligence  and agent provocateur organisations in terrorist acts against   citizens,  and the use of terror  waged through hired saboteurs and mercenaries as an alternative to conventional warfare ; as no   continent  remains  unaffected .  Whereas innocent citizens are arrested under Anti-Terrorist Laws, covert agencies are initiating terror attacks across borders and within countries, with impunity.

Terrorism is the waging of a secret and cruel war,   not against a conventional army; a terrorist attack or a terrorist war is waged against civilians, citizens and society of one’s own country, or citizens of another society, who are the real targets; with specified and secret objectives. To  cause fear and  apprehension ; to politically destabilize or   implode a society from within for better political and economic control ; to manipulate a false political narrative advanced ; to justify a  political course of action which would not be acceptable to democratic and constitutional functioning ; to fragment, divide and fracture a society as a diversion from real , social , political and economic issues.

It   is necessary to recall  ‘Operation Gladio, ‘ a coordination of  terrorist activities by  clandestine forces and intelligence agencies  from  the 1950s to the  1980s in Europe,  directed against citizens,  resorting to   kidnappings , mass shootings and bombings ,and the use of political assassinations, among other acts of violence ,  to alter   the composition and formation of governments in Europe.

In 1990 ,  Italian Prime Minister,  Guilio Andreotti  made a statement  to the Italian parliament on these covert  operations in which  some of the world’s prominent intelligence agencies  were involved   . In November 1990, the European Parliament published a   ‘Resolution on the Gladio Affair’,    The Resolution   disclosed   :

“….in certain Member States military secret services or uncontrolled branches thereof were involved in serious cases of terrorism and crime as evidenced by , various judicial inquiries.”

   “…these organisations operated and continue to operate completely outside   the law since they are not subject to any parliamentary control …”

   “…various Gladio organisations have at their disposal   independent arsenals and military resources which give them an unknown strike potential,   thereby jeopardizing   the democratic structures of the countries in which they are operating …”

  The resolution emphasized  that  European governments  must  :  “Protest  vigorously at the assumption by certain US military personnel at SHAPE( Supreme Headquarters  Allied Powers Europe) and in NATO ( North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ) of  the right to encourage establishment in Europe of a clandestine intelligence and operation network.”

  The resolution   recommended that all governments in Europe, “…dismantle all clandestine military and paramilitary networks.”

Significantly “NATO, the CIA and MI6 did not counter   the   findings of the Italian   and EU Parliament “1.

Very recently,   citizens lived through the   terror of the ‘Lockdown’  and other measures  imposed during   the ‘Pandemic. ’Finally the  International summits  of   experts, scientists and doctors convened in 2023 on  Pandemic response  by the European Parliament  at Brussels  2 ,  concluded that  the lockdown among   other  measures forcibly imposed ,  did nothing to reduce the impact of the Pandemic.  Citizens,  including  doctors and   lawyers,  attempting to explain the real nature of  and the  science behind  the Pandemic   faced threats of arrest , some were  arrested , and some  doctors lost their licenses to practice .

A critical question which investigators of terrorist acts, including prosecutors,   must raise in the context of all terrorist attacks is: Qui Bono? Who   benefits   ? The answer to this key question,   supplies the lead .This applies  equally  to the recent terrorist attack in the Crocus hall in  Krasnogorsk , Moscow Oblast , where approximately 137  Russian civilians , children, women and men were  brutally murdered ,   and  almost 200 were  injured,  as    the entire concert hall  was  set on fire.  Preceding the terrorist attack in   Moscow, “the sentiment in Washington was that   Russian civilians needed to feel the impact of the war.”  This was evident from the discussion on the ‘impact of the war on the Russian Federation’, at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.  Emily Harding ,  a member of the US  government and Arms industry funded  CSIS,  a former employee of the  CIA,  focused on how  the  civilian population of Russia  could be made to  feel the pain of  war.Two weeks earlier,  the government of the   United States alerted   its citizens ,   about a terrorist attack   which was to take place  in Moscow,  at a public place .Fifty   minutes  after the attack,   before investigations had  began,  Washington announced that ISIS/ISIL were the attackers and that Ukraine was not  responsible . ISIS/ISIL/ Daesh/Jabhat ul Nusra ,  are   mercenary terrorist   organizations ,or foreign legions of US led  NATO forces  and their  allies, recruited and trained  for  imperialist  terrorist war and attacks on the people of   West Asia ,  for   pillaging of hydrocarbons,  among other resources. Independently   of NATO,   these organisations   have no    strategic   objectives whatsoever in the Russian Federation. Victoria Nuland, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs,   observed  :  “there are nasty   surprises ahead for President Putin.”  From the nature of  statements from Washington , it would prima facie appear ,  that the terrorist attack   was   prepared and planned   by    ‘Special Forces’, to bleed  the civilian population of the Russian Federation ‘behind the frontlines”  , for the Ukrainian and NATO  defeat; irrespective of who pulled the trigger . A replay of the murderous  attack on  the civilian population   of the  former Soviet Union and occupied Europe , by the Nazi Army .

Against this backdrop ,  it  is not our stand that terrorism does not exist,  the real issue  before us is , whether   Anti-Terrorist Laws   and the manner in which cases have  been investigated ,  the laws  enforced  and interpreted , have  fulfilled  the objective of countering “terrorism” in our societies ; or whether these laws have been used to terrorise innocent citizens  who   belonged to the wrong ethnic , religious or political  group, and have been   unjustly and for political purposes,   labelled as “ terrorist”. There is evidence that  terrorist laws  have been used against  citizens  supporting  policies or advancing economic and political  issues,  interpreted  as opposed to the dominant economic and political discourse  of ‘neoliberal globalism’ and its policies ,    premised on  the seizure of all public  resources,  by a miniscule fraction worldwide and  indiscriminate privatisation of public assets and resources .

General Leonid Ivashov,   Chief of Staff of the armed forces of the Russian Federation on 9/11,    a former Vice President of the Russian Academy for geopolitical affairs, gave this analysis   at the Axis of Peace 2005 Conference held in Europe, on the terrorist attacks of   9/11 in the United States of America:

“ …  what is perceived as  terrorism  is an instrument of global and national  political control “… and ” combines the use of terror by the state and non –state political structures… through peoples intimidation, psychological and social destabilization……and the creation of appropriate conditions for the manipulation of the countries’ policies and the behaviour of people  ….at the same time … what is perceived as “ international terrorism in complicity with the media , becomes the manager of global processes … Generally  secret services create , finance , control extremist organizations . Without the support of secret services such organizations cannot exist – let alone carry out operations of such magnitude inside countries so well protected….…The September 11 operation modified the course of events in the world … the use of the term “ international terrorism”  by these forces has the following objectives “:

  1. Concealing the real objectives of the nature of forces deployed all over the world in the struggle  for dominance and control ;
  2. Diverting peoples issues into a struggle of undefined goals against an invisible enemy – “terror’;
  • Solving economic problems … using  the war of terror as a pretext ;…..

“If we analyse   what happened on September 11, 2001,   we can arrive at   the following  conclusions :

  1. The organizers of the attack were the political and business circles interested in destabilizing the world order and who had the means necessary to finance the operation ;
  2. We have to look for the reasons of the attack in coincidence of the interests of big capital at global and transnational levels…… Unlike traditional wars, whose conception is determined by generals and politicians, the oligarchs and politicians submitted to the former, were the ones who did it this time. ”  3

   This is one viewpoint. Our  experience in South Asia is  that whereas  imperialism extensively funded  and  used cross border terrorism  and other terrorist activities , using neighbouring countries as proxies ,  in an attempt to restructure societies and politics in countries of  South Asia and for regime change  in their  global political interests; the local elite of the countries of South Asia while opposing cross border terrorism,  are  not above using the same  ‘terrorism’ to pursue  their own  internal political policy  agenda,  for internal take over of resources   and as a diversion from vital development and   economic issues .

In a leading case colloquially known as the “ Salwa Judum “ case , Nalini Sundar Vs State of Chhatisgarh  4,    decided by  the Supreme Court of India  on 5 July 2011 ;  the Supreme Court disbanded the civilian  vigilante organizations  recruited in the Dantewada district of the Indian province of Chhatisgarh in the heart of Central India  , under the provincial  Chhattishgarh  Police Act 2007 ,  to counter the insurgency of the tribal people , as constitutionally illegal ;  attributing  the conditions of unrest among the tribal or indigenous people ,  to   the amoral economic policies of the state and the culture of unrestrained selfishness and  greed spawned by modern neoliberal ideology “; and  to  the  disproportionate  action on the part of the State government, reducing the tribal people of the district to ‘sub-human existence’;  and  the dispossession of tribal land ,  to take over the resources of an entire region belonging to the Indigenous people ,  and the creation and arming of a civilian vigilante group for this purpose. A specially constituted subcommittee of the   then Planning Commission of India (now substituted by the Niti Aayog), held the same view. A   high level   committee constituted by the   Minister for Rural Development of the Union of India,   named the   companies involved in exacerbating the ‘extremist’   unrest,   related to   seizure of    land and mineral resources of the indigenous people. Worldwide it is observed that   among those   frequently   categorised as   “terrorists”, are indigenous communities whose natural resources and habitat, including water resources, are targeted for takeover by companies. Those categorised as terrorists are also  minority religious or ethnic  groups in many countries in this age of ‘ neoliberal ’ economic policy;   soft targets for  anti-terrorist campaigns , to divert public attention from policies not in the interest of majority of citizens, with the support of corporate media groups orchestrating a shrill  and manipulated  “anti-terrorist’ campaign, to create and project  an ‘ internal enemy’ ; in reality a phantom, to appease  and politically control the   majority while public resources are taken  over. These are examples of the nature of internal terrorism,   as distinguished from cross border terrorism.

Objectively more than one political party in the period of ‘ neoliberal globalization’  in many countries,   have      been involved in the  political use  and manipulation  of “ terrorism” and  arbitrary  implementation of anti-terrorist laws, through Special Branches  of Intelligence Agencies or through Anti-Terrorists Squad, often in cooperation with a consortium of the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies.  A   global pattern was   established,  to camouflage the  seizure of surpluses of people and  societies, and escalating  capital flight to powerful  global financial centres ,  by diverting attention to terrorism; though the impact of anti-terrorist laws  under some governments have been more arbitrary, indiscriminate , draconian   and wider,  than under others,  directly  related to the degree of  the political  proximity  of the government to special financial  and corporate  interests global and local .

The examples of the geopolitical use of terrorism in South Asia,  would not be complete,  without a reference to the use of a global  international mercenary terrorist organization , the ‘al Qaeda’ and similar organizations,  to  defeat sovereign and  democratic governments. The reference to terrorism would also not be complete without reference to the use of cross border terrorism in   two provinces of India,   in   Kashmir and Punjab.  People of these two provinces were the worst sufferers of these terrorist attacks. Tragically after the defeat of cross border terrorism in these two states ;  this cross  border ‘terrorism’ was turned around and  used for  partisan political gain in both these regions , a setback to the more important issues of development , of legitimate local grievances,  and democratic and  constitutional functioning .

     Sustained and organised   cross border   terrorism   in India began when India was broadly aligned with the anti –imperialist   policies of   the former   Soviet Union. This   cross border   terrorism  did not end because of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act  1987,  now repealed; or other  Anti-Terrorist laws,  such as  the National Security Act 1980,  or the earlier  Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967,  which are still enforced .Cross border terrorism in both provinces of Punjab and Kashmir,  was  reduced to a trickle ,  when the people of the two provinces were determined in their own interest along with provincial governments and local forces,   to counter violent attacks on civilians and government personnel , carried out by  mercenaries hired by a neighbouring state, and  certain governments in North America and UK,  to end the  terrorist violence  bleeding the people of the two regions.

A touchstone to  investigate  whether  Anti-Terrorist laws in our countries  are    serving the objective and  purpose for which these laws were enacted  , is  the background and character of those  arrested and detained ; and  the rate of conviction under these laws, as against the adverse impact of the existence of such laws   and their chronic misuse,  targeting specific sections of society; a  form of “ state terror’ on   socially and economically marginalized groups ; on  religious and ethnic minorities ; and on  those defending the socially and economically marginalised sections of society and  religious and ethnic minorities ,against injustices,  whether journalists,  lawyers, academics,  or social science researchers,  among others.

  There is however a difference between cross border terrorism and internal political terrorism. The latter are mainly fabricated or   false flag operations,  for internal political purposes. “Internal terrorism” is a highly exaggerated phenomena in countries of South Asia as distinguished from” cross border terrorism”     which has extensive foreign financing. The recruits   for cross border terrorism are mercenaries serving the geopolitical interests of Imperialist States ,  to fracture and reorder existing political states. The    miniscule conviction rate of 3 percent of those arrested in India under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act , 1967 and charged with internal terrorism  and  being members of unlawful terrorist or banned organisations,  is evidence that internal terrorism has been politically  magnified.

Justice  Abhay  Thipsay , a  ‘ learned ‘Judge of the Mumbai High Court,  observed  in 2012 ,  that the nature of charges and arrests under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,  should not be such as to make the task of working for democratic political change impossible. This  observation was made  while hearing  a bail application on behalf of  members  and  cultural activists of the ‘Kabir Kala Manch’ , a harmless  scheduled caste and working class cultural  group,  focussing  on issues of the marginalised;  their real  crime was  writing and singing songs against poverty, inequality, gender injustice , environmental degradation , corruption and superstition . Undoubtedly, there are constitutionally enlightened  rulings by a few courageous  benches  of different High Courts in India ,  including the Mumbai and Delhi High Court  granting bail to those arrested under Anti-Terrorist Laws  5 , in prima facie cases of lack of evidence, where those charged had  been languishing in jail , due to the  draconian  provisions of  Section 43( D) 5 ,   of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act ,1967, India’s ‘ umbrella anti-terrorist legislation ‘.   UAPA as it is known,  severely  restricts  the grant of bail  if the Court on a perusal of the case diary or report made under section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, is of the opinion that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accusation against such person is prima facie true. “In simple language,   this means that if on a bare   , un-contradicted   surface   reading of the police’s   version of events, the accusation appears to be true, the court is statutorily prohibited from granting bail.”6

The   decisions granting bail under the Unlawful Activities Prevention  Act   are few and far between ,  and have not  altered   the  overall   judicial  interpretation of this Act from the trial court to the Supreme Court  in India ,  which is , that if charged with terrorism under this statute and other Anti-Terrorist Laws  , unless acquitted , those charged shall  be confined to jail custody   until their  trial concludes ,    years later ,  when the case is finally heard . Those charged have languished in jail,   without bail, in some cases for more than 8 to 10 years, only to be acquitted. At the very minimum those charged under Anti-Terrorist Laws spend four years and more on an average,    in jail ,  without bail, and without a trial.

In recent years the Supreme Court of India’s   interpretation of the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, is even more oriented towards supporting the State, “adjusting to it and accommodating “state agencies 6, as against a person unjustly charged. In   April 2019, in a leading case, National Investigating Agency   vs Zaroor Ahmad Shah Watali 7, the Supreme Court of India, forbade courts from ascertaining whether those charged were guilty or not at the preliminary stage from the report and papers submitted by the prosecution. This is prima facie an unjust direction by the Supreme Court , prohibiting  Courts from assessing  the nature of evidence presented by the police and prosecution at an earlier stage when bail is being applied for by those charged, in particular  in cases when there is really no prima facie evidence,  or when the  evidence procured by the prosecution is prima facie   tainted and fabricated ;   This results in  years of incarceration in jail in high security cells ,  pending trial, for the innocent  , as there is no provision for expeditious trial under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The  legal data indicates that   97    percent of those arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act are   acquitted,  as there is no evidence against them , as they are innocent;   but not before they and their families are  adversely impacted and   some destroyed,   by unjustified lengthy incarceration in prison without bail, which is now   the primary objective of  Anti-Terrorist Laws.

Significantly, there has been a worldwide orchestration of   the threat of internal   terrorism by   governments   facing   serious   financial and debt crisis;   and   in   countries targeted   by global corporations and investment companies in collaboration with local oligarchs, for pillaging of resources and outward financial flows and financial drainage, similar to the outflow during colonisation. Worldwide, democratic rights and civil liberties of citizens are adversely impacted. The covert assaults on the independence of the Judiciary is a matter of overwhelming concern in   South Asia  and in  other countries .The Judiciary has been unable to roll back  the widespread misuse of Anti-Terrorist laws,  and the weakening of all institutions of the State for the protection of citizens .

Consequently those   arrested under anti-terrorist laws in India  are  people participating in peaceful agitations ; the   indigenous or “ first people” opposing unconstitutional  takeover of  their land and  water rights ;  scheduled castes opposing caste  atrocities of the upper castes and classes;  Muslim minorities derogatively referred to as  “ Jehadis” or “ Mian”,  scapegoated after declaration of the  global “ war of terror”   by Imperialist powers  after 9/11,  on countries inhabited by adherents of Islam ,  to seize   hydrocarbon resources and other resources ; Christian minorities in resource rich tribal regions of India; journalists, professors , lawyers,  academics, social scientists, a management expert ; member of  the Legal Aid Committee  of  a High Court and  a visiting Professor of Law ; a member of a state committee on health policy ;  and even a  82 year old Christian priest, Father Stan Swamy,  suffering from Parkinson, unable to drink from a  glass without a sipper,  who contracted Covid -19 while in jail custody;  was  denied medical  bail by the  Mumbai High Court,  because  he was arrested under an Anti-Terrorist Law, though medical bail is a legal right;  and consequently  died   in custody. This case is   referred to   by sections of the media as   “judicial murder”. The   perceived    crime of the priest   was,   that he had organised legal aid for the indigenous tribal people resisting land seizure by companies,  in a natural resource rich province.

The Anti-Terrorist   Laws now being enforced in India,    are   the National Security Act 1980   and   more particularly the    Prevention   of Unlawful Activities Act 1967, among related legislation in the financial and monetary sphere.  The   enforcement of these acts proceed  without a declaration of any ‘Emergency’, replicating conditions which are far  more regressive than the previous constitutional  emergency declared in 1975 for two years, after which a free and fair election was held in 1977.   It is   true that both these enactments were enacted when a different political party was in power in the Central Government and not the present government ; this does not absolve successive governments of different political parties and   their   alliance partners, who have used these laws, to restrict democratic debate ,  freedom of speech, to crush dissent , roll back   political opposition  to policies; and to curb the desire for  federal autonomy  in federal states of the Indian Union,  in keeping with earlier autonomy  constitutionally  guaranteed, as in the case of Jammu  and Kashmir and Ladakh;  and in  regions inhabited by Scheduled Indigenous tribes, for protection of scheduled tribes ,  as in the province of  Manipur,  where society has been fractured and  there are conditions of  serious civil strife , primarily related to the   seizure of resources of the Indigenous tribes . These are not   demands for secession from any region, but for federal autonomy,   and the protection of  the resources and habitat of  Scheduled tribes constitutionally guaranteed, within the   Union of India.

Democratic rights and civil liberties are not luxuries. Nor are they    bestowed   by benevolent rulers.  These are   rights we have   fought for through centuries of political struggle and revolutions worldwide   and in    national liberation movements against imperial and colonial rule.   Anti-Terrorist laws are   against the spirit and substance of what we refer to as democracies   and   republics, now   hollowed out    by the misuse of such laws, with hundreds of thousands coerced and threatened with arrests. Aware of the  demand  from Indian  citizens  for the abolition of Anti-Terrorist  laws in India,  to circumvent this  demand,   terrorism as an offence  has now been included in Section  113 of  the new and   amended Indian Penal Code,  ( renamed Bharatiya  Nyaya ( Second) Sanhita Code) ,  punishable by  the death penalty or life imprisonment and  without parole for terrorist acts , very widely defined and adopts the provisions of Section  15 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act  . This provision is even more draconian and serves the same objective as Anti-Terrorist Laws. Whether   guilty or not, the person arrested for committing a terrorist offence,   will be incarcerated   for years, until acquitted at trial.  The   arrest and incarceration   is the   punishment, without a trial.

Recently a disabled Professor of Delhi University Professor Saibaba charged under the Anti –Terrorist   Unlawful Activities Prevention Act,   was acquitted, after having spent almost 8 years in jail custody; despite the fact that his disability rendered him unfit to perform the most basic functions for himself in jail  8 .  In another high profile case,  known as the ‘Bhima-Koregaon case’  9 ,  in a Pan India operation in 2018  , the police arrested  16 persons from different parts of India and    charged them under the anti-terrorist Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Among those arrested are lawyers, professors, social science researchers, journalists, a management expert, members of cultural troupes, and a priest.  One third of those arrested are Senior Citizens,   suffering from health disabilities, incarcerated in jail since 2018. . From 2022 onwards a few of those charged were released on bail by the Supreme Court ,  while   others are still languishing in prison ,  for the offence of   attending a political  meeting known as  the ‘ Elgar Parishad’, allegedly funded by an extremist terrorist organisation. The truth  is and there is   documentary evidence,  that the convenors and  organisers  of this meeting ,  were a retired Judge of the Supreme Court and a retired Judge of the Mumbai High Court , who raised  resources for the meeting, to protest against  caste discrimination  and  atrocities , among related issues , to be discussed and condemned  . Very few of those charged,  had actually attended the meeting.These persons  were framed as most of them had worked on various  issues in their professional and academic capacity and  as social activists and   social science   researchers;   on  the  social and economic conditions of the Indigenous tribal people and the scheduled castes,  who are at the bottom of the social and economic caste structure of society; the lawyers arrested  had given legal aid to those  castes and classes , among others ,   arrested under Anti-Terrorist Laws.

Louis the XIV,   drowning in the megalomania of power, famously   said:  “I am the State “; ignoring    millions who tilled the land , laboured   and paid taxes,   the real foundation of any State . What followed later, shook the foundations of monarchy,   an absolutist political   system crushing   millions.  Whether absolutist political    systems   are    imposed through monarchy or an   oligarchy    of   special   financial and    corporate   interests, it makes no difference;   both are antagonistic to democracy and to   republics.

A company is   a creation of   legal fiction, intended to further   the    commercial concept of limited liability, while raising finance for   commerce, trade and industry, for profits. The corporation or   a company,   banks and   other   financial entities, were never    conceived of as instruments of political governance, which requires the nurturing of millions within a society. The focus of a company or financial entity   is    limited   to    profits and losses, other issues are peripheral to a company’s existence. An eminent   Judge of   the United States of America’s  Supreme Court, Louis Brandeis , with extensive experience of corporate decision making and ‘Anti-Trust’   legal  action,    in a dissenting judgment,  pronounced :  “  Through size,  corporations once merely an efficient tool employed by individuals in the conduct of private business,  have become an institution  which has brought such concentration of economic power, so that so called private corporations are sometimes able to dominate the state …..The changes thereby wrought …..are so fundamental and far-reaching as to lead scholars to compare the evolving Corporation system with the feudal system,   and to lead  other men  with  insight and experiences to assert that this  material institution  of civilized life is committing it to  the rule of plutocracy….. there  has occurred a marked concentration of individual wealth and  the resulting disparity is a major cause of the   existing Depression. Such is the Frankenstein monster which states have created by the  corporations.” 10 (dissenting Judgment of Justice Brandeis in Louis K. Liggit Co. V Lee 288 U.S. 517, 1933). The Learned   Judge with extraordinary legal    insight perceptively observed   as early as in the nineteen thirties  : “ You can have either democracy in society , or individuals with unlimited wealth, not both.”

Political systems must be accountable and enhance civilization.  No   political system,   however brutal and tyrannical ,  is eternal,  despite   attempts   being made to render  societies politically stagnant, by incarceration of political dissenters   under  Anti-Terror Laws  and other  similar statutes ;  and the strategy to convert  citizens through  media conglomerates  and tech companies into mere consumers of commodities, by  technocratic or police  states,  controlled by absolutist  corporate and financial entities.

We   have lived through a very   dark period.  The tens of thousands opposing  terrorism and war in Gaza   worldwide ,  among  other mass movements,  may be   the beginning   of an understanding of  the  leading question of our times,  raised by Academician  of the Russian Federation , Andrey Fursov , to understand    where  political  power  really resides  11,   in hollowed out   democracies and republics. The answer to this question is   critical to our   understanding of the nature and functioning of our governments;  and in   whose interest   policies are made and implemented, after the unlimited financing of the electoral process.

Yet,   this   is not the “Not the End of History.”

 References:

  1. Ian Davis,” Operation Gladio – Hard Evidence of Government Sponsored  False Flag Terrorism”,  May 12 ,2018 , Iandavis.com
  2. Thomas O’ Reilly , “EU  Parliament Covid  Conference Slams Pandemic Response” , May  5, 2023 , The European Conservative
  3. General Leonid Ivashov ,” International terrorism  does not exist: September 11 attacks were the result of  a set up”,  org/article133909.html;http://www.axisforpeace.net
  4. Nalini Sundar and Ors  Vs State of Chhattisgarh , AIR 2011 Supreme Court 2839 ;
  5. (i)  Ms Jyoti Babasaheb Chorge vs State of Maharashtra  ,Criminal bail applications No.1020 of 2012  ;(ii)Asif Iqbal Tanha vs State of NCT of Delhi , Criminal Appeal 39 of 2021 , 15June 2021;(iii)  Iqbal Ahmed Kabir Ahmed vs State of Maharashtra, Criminal Appeal No.355/2021 ,13 August 2021;
  6. Gautam Bhatia , “ Unsealed Covers : A Decade of The  Constitution, The  Courts and The State, ‘ HarperCollins Publishers ,2023 .
  7. National Investigating Agency Vs   Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali, AIR 2019 Supreme Court page 1734.
  8. .G.N.Saibaba vs State of Maharashtra, Bombay High Court, Nagpur Bench, Criminal Appeal Nos: 136 and 137 of 2017.
  9. Bhima Koregaon Case, Romila Thapar vs Union of India, 28 September 2018, AIR Supreme Court 4683.
  10. Louis K. Liggett Co. Vs Lee, 288 U.S. 517 (1933)
  11. Andrey Fursov,’ An Asymmetrical Answer to the British Empire’, New Paradigm Conference of the Schiller Institute, Frankfurt, Germany April 13-14, 2013.