Author: The Pioneer
Publication: Editorial
Date: February 5, 2010
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/233846/Dangerous-duplicity.html
Digvijay undermines war on terror
In making a public spectacle of himself by
visiting villages in Azamgarh and meeting members of the families of 17 terror
suspects arrested for bombings in Ahmedabad, Delhi and Jaipur, Mr Digvijay
Singh has done a disservice to India. In a blatant act of sectional appeasement,
the Congress general secretary claimed his party leaders, Ms Sonia Gandhi
and Mr Rahul Gandhi, were "worried" that "educated" youth
had been so arrested. He implicitly discounted suggestions that these youth
were Indian Mujahideen operatives and that Azamgarh, in eastern Uttar Pradesh,
had become recruiting ground for religious radicals and jihadi entrepreneurs.
Mr Singh went to the extent of questioning the Batla House gun-fight in Delhi,
when a police posse bust a terrorist cell and lost one of its best men, Inspector
MC Sharma. Mr Singh has fuelled conspiracy theories about the Batla House
events by calling for a fresh inquiry and seeming to undermine the National
Human Rights Commission, which studied the incident and found the police action
above board. Ironically, Mr Singh chose to visit Azamgarh for his so-called
'fact-finding' mission only hours after a key IM member was arrested from
the very district. Shahzad Ahmed has confessed that he escaped from Batla
House that day after firing at the police and has been hiding in Azamgarh
for some time. He has apparently revealed details of an IM plot to attack
venues of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
For Mr Singh, and perhaps the Congress, the
big event in the near future is not the Commonwealth Games but the Uttar Pradesh
Assembly election of 2012. To be fair, the party has been recovering ground
in the State, having got back a chunk of Brahmin and middle class support.
Increasingly, it has also shown healthy results in constituencies and by-elections
with a strong Muslim component. There is nothing wrong with any of this and,
indeed, the Congress's rebuilding programme in Uttar Pradesh has been continuing
apace. That is what makes Mr Singh's recent round of political tourism so
mystifying and unacceptable. He has reduced political campaigning to garbage.
The Congress cannot have it both ways - it cannot have its Home Minister calling
for an immediate overhaul of internal security mechanisms to protect India
against imminent terror threats and, at the same time, have one of its most
senior party officials punch holes into diligent investigation done by officers
working within that very mechanism. Since Mr Singh has justified his irresponsible
behaviour as being somehow blessed by the Congress president and its most
important general secretary, this is perhaps not the maverick act of an individual.
Ms Gandhi and her son must clarify where they stand. If the BJP leadership
was wrong in defending those accused in Malegoan case - as the Congress has
often alleged it was - how does the ruling party explain the shameful and
recreant words of one of its own in regard to a terror-related inquiry that
has unearthed much greater evidence and has many more ramifications.
In the end, like Ms Mayawati in a sense, the
Congress thinks it can ride both horses in Uttar Pradesh. It can pander to
unlawful and terror-complicit sections by linking their fate to supposed Muslim
sentiment. On the other hand, it can promise the urban middle classes safety
and security. Trying to fool everybody at the same time, Mr Singh has only
revealed his party's essential hypocrisy.
