Author: Swapan Dasgupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 16, 2008
URL: http://dailypioneer.com/134801/Who's-the-new-Mogambo.html
There are seasons when the media's perception
of national priorities bear little relation to the average middle-class (I
cannot presume to speak for the much-invoked aam aadmi) concerns. My own impression
is that there is one overriding preoccupation: The economic downturn and the
threat of recession. The insecurity fuelled by jihadi terror comes second.
The media perception is markedly different.
Its main focus is on the Mumbai ATS' sensational unearthing of a "Hindu
terror" conspiracy. The Delhi edition of The Times of India on Saturday,
for example, had 10 reports on the subject and another three on the miscarriage
of justice in cases involving alleged jihadi terrorists.
To be fair to the media, the emerging story
is riveting. To begin with there was the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, the
owner of a motorcycle which was used to plant bombs in Malegaon on September
29. The dashing sadhvi was believed to be the "mastermind". The
plot then came to embrace the Army and led to the arrest of Lt-Colonel Shrikant
Purohit of the Military Intelligence. The shock of a serving Army officer
being the real "mastermind" of the terror plot was profound. But
even before this was fully digested, came the further revelation that a self-anointed
shankaracharya Dayanand Pandey, alias Sudhakar Dwivedi, with a penchant for
changing mobile phone numbers was the real divine inspiration behind Purohit.
In other words, he was this week's Mogambo. There is a suspicion that next
week's "mastermind" may well turn out to be the person who was all
along the intended target - a senior RSS functionary whose responsibilities
included J&K.
If all goes according to plan, this is a story
that will run till the last round of voting for the Lok Sabha election. It
is not merely the colourful conspirators that are of interest. Equally enthralling
is the plot that the ATS has supposedly unearthed through extensive drugging
and narco-analysis.
It would seem that a group of extreme Hindu
nationalists, exasperated by the Government's failure to control jihadi terror
decided that the Muslims must get a taste of their own medicine. The inspirational
shankaracharya supposedly requisitioned the services of the like-minded Purohit
who he had got to know during his own missions in J&K. Using the Military
Intelligence network and, may be, funds, he contacted jihadi groups to persuade
them to engage in friendly fire, i.e. bomb their own community. This filmi
plot did not succeed and Purohit had to settle for buying RDX from the "enemy".
With the assistance of a retired Territorial Army officer, a collector of
antique arms and, of course, Pragya's bike, the group killed six innocent
Muslims in Malegaon.
The ATS now believes the group could have
also triggered earlier blasts in Nanded, Kanpur, the first Malegaon blasts
in 2006 and even the Samjhauta Express bombing. The net is being cast far
and wide. The official spokesman of the Congress has even gone to the extent
of suggesting that even the other bombings were outsourced by the RSS to the
SIMI and Indian Mujahideen! It would also not be surprising if in the coming
weeks some bright secular spark or ridiculous tabloid comes to the startling
conclusion that the D-company is actually a covert RSS cell.
Before there is a formal request to the Obama
Administration to reopen the 9/11 inquiries in the light of the Mumbai ATS
unofficial disclosures to the media, it is pertinent to note a few features
of the Hindu terrorist case. First, in its submission to the courts, the Mumbai
ATS has pointed to 18 traces of RDX in Malegaon. Yet, it is curious that the
Central forensic teams that were despatched to the spot immediately found
no RDX. Obviously, both can't be right.
Second, is it the normal custom of authorities
to arrest anyone who has been remotely associated or had telephone links with
the accused, subject them to narco-tests casually and then rush to the media?
When nothing incriminating is unearthed, it is attributed to yogic skills.
In most countries narco-tests are sparingly used to fill in missing links
(usually the search for the murder weapon) after the bulk of the investigations
are complete. In this investigation, it has become the first act of an otherwise
clueless ATS.
Second, in its internal inquiry submitted
to the Defence Ministry submitted some 10 days ago, the Army ruled out the
involvement of any other officers. It has also refrained from dismissing Purohit
from service - a revealing piece of non-action.
The implications of what the ATS has leaked
to the media about the role of the Army are horrifying. It suggests that senior
MI operatives have no wider accountability and are routinely engaged in clandestine
activities with known jihadis. If Purohit had the ability to mount operations
without instructions and without the knowledge of his superior officers, it
suggests that the emergence of a rogue force like Pakistan's ISI cannot be
entirely discounted in India. Does the ATS and its political mentors in the
UPA have any idea of what they are casually implying? Are the media stenographers
who are faithfully reproducing every unattributable briefing aware of the
long-term costs of trying to establish a moral equivalence between jihadi
terror and Hindu terror?
Beleaguered Governments have made a habit of trying to bolster their electoral
prospects through dirty tricks. In 1989, there was the elaborate attempt to
discredit V P Singh through the discovery of fictitious accounts in St Kitts.
Both the agencies and senior journalists were part of the plot. In 1996, there
was the Jain hawala case which neither secured convictions nor won the Congress
the election. Let us see how far the invocation of Hindu terror takes those
who can't bear the idea of being out of power. Meanwhile, the jihadis are
sitting pretty, plotting their next move.
