Author: Kumar Uttam
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 13, 2008
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/134040/More-propaganda-than-intent.html
The Mumbai Police call themselves "custodians
of your trust". But its probe in this year's Malegaon blast belies the
claim. The Anti-Terrorism Squad's "investigation" into the Malegaon
blasts has not only raised more questions than it answers, but, increasingly,
has also begun to look like a witch-hunt that revives the memories of Jain
Hawala scandal. The notorious scandal, scripted by Narasimha Rao, would always
remain a stark reminder to the fact that Congress could go any extent to stay
in power.
History seems to be repeating itself. The
Mumbai ATS has turned the Malegaon probe into a well-orchestrated propaganda
campaign. Through selective leak, an impression is sought to be created that
the Indian Army is infiltrated with the "Hindu terrorists" and behind
every sadhu and spiritual guru lurks a dreaded "mass" killer.
What started with Sadhvi Pragya Thakur's arrest
- an event that perhaps for the first time put right wing outfits and a majority
community on back foot on terrorism - is now looking every bit like a case
where police appears to be playing into the hands of their political bosses.
Few saner elements, except the "patrons"
of SIMI in the UPA, will endorse terrorism in any form. Even the main Opposition
has cautiously reacted to the Pragya Thakur episode despite the ATS giving
it enough provocation. But men on the streets have begun to ask questions.
In the past, the way the CBI was used as political tool by the Congress, even
the BJP has reason to be wary of the ATS move ahead of the assembly polls.
It is exactly a month to Pragya Thakur's arrest, but the ATS is yet to provide
any "evidences" to substantiate such large-scale operation spreading
across many states and involving so many well-known personalities, who shared
the right wing's ideology.
The big question confronting the ATS credibility
is obvious: Where are the evidences? Has the Mumbai police acted with the
same alacrity in other "politically" sensitive cases? "What
if it turns out to be ATS doing an Arushi on Pragya? If you have the proof
hang her otherwise let her go. To prove someone guilty of a crime you need
to have proofs. Sentiments and what you believe holds no value," says
a BJP general secretary.
And there are contradictory reports on number
of Narco tests conducted on Pragya. Was she administered Sodium Pentothal
or Sodium Amytal which puts a person in a state of Hypnotism just once or
she underwent the test five times in just one week? Mumbai ATS is tight-lipped.
The zeal with which Mumbai ATS conducted so
many Narco tests on her flies in the face of the fact that many arrested terrorists
behind serial blasts in different parts of the country have not been subjected
to similar tests.
Questions are being asked if names dropped
during "drugged" state should be enough to implicate a person in
the crime. Narco test and its finding are not legally tenable, but the interrogation
and detention flowing out from such investigation are being used to tarnish
images.
The Maharashtra police also must explain why
it did not act on the revelation made by Abdul Kareem Telgi in a similar Narco
tests in 2003. The kingpin of the mega Stamp Paper Scam had named dozens of
powerful politicians, including union minister Sharad Pawar, and bureaucrats
before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the same Mumbai Police. "Politicians
are the backbone of this business," he had disclosed. The Mumbai police
never acted on his revelations.
The Mumbai police is quick to subject Pragya
Thakur to a series of narco tests, but why are probe agencies reluctant to
carry out similar test on President Pratibha Patil's brother GN Patil, accused
of plotting the killing of a rival Congress leader of Jalgaon. When the matter
of narco test was raised in the Court, the CBI pleaded that the issues related
to the legality of subjecting anyone to Narco test was pending before the
Supreme Court.
Is it like one yardstick for President Pratibha
Patil's brother and another for Pragya Thakur? Why were the politicians named
by Telgi never quizzed? Tomorrow if a "drugged" Pragya Thakur were
to name a Constitutional functionary as her accomplice, will he or she be
arrested?
The evidences that Mumbai ATS is believed
to be relying on are unlikely to justify such politically sensitive exercise.
First, a motorbike of Pragya Thakur, which was allegedly used in the blast,
and second the transcript of the conversation between the Sadhvi and her associate
Rajaji, who allegedly planted bombs on these bike.
Mumbai ATS may find it difficult to bank on
just these two evidences when there are doubts whether Pragya was in know
of the whereabouts of her motorbike which she is said to have sold to someone
few years back. Moreover, there have been different media reports about the
source of the transcript of conversation between Pragya and her aide.
Incidentally, in the chargesheet of the first
Malegaon blasts of September 2006, the ATS told a local court that SIMI activities
had deliberately bought bicycles from Hindu shop owners to incite communal
violence. In its charge sheet the Mumbai Police wrote: "The blasts (carried
out by SIMI) were caused with the intention that they would be of loud intensity,
because the bombs hung against wall poles, while at the same time the loss
of life is comparatively less. This was mainly because the area had mainly
a Muslim populace." The ATS hinted there could be an attempt to divert
the attention from the real culprits and implicate Hindu individuals.
The timing of the ATS operation during the
campaigning for the assembly elections in four major states has inevitably
politicised the issue.
After a series of defeats in assembly elections,
minority appeasement is back on the Congress' agenda with full force. The
main opposition will love that situation. With Congress, its UPA allies and
the Bahujan Samaj Party joining the race for minority votes, BJP strategists
believe it would help them retain and expand their core votes.
