Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: Vijayvaani.com
Date: November 18, 2008
URL: http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=248
There is now little doubt that the bizarre
Malegaon Hindu Conspiracy Case is fast fizzling out, if ever it had any steam.
This may be a relief for the individuals caught in the dragnet of "Hindu
Terror," but it is no consolation for the Institutions of State diminished
in this contrived controversy - the Police, the Army, and the Judiciary.
Realization seems to be finally dawning in
New Delhi and Mumbai that the levelling of daily allegations without substantiating
a single charge after weeks of interrogations, narco-analysis and related
hocus-pocus on "key" suspects, is proving counter-productive in
the election-bound nation!
The search for the nearest exit has probably
begun, with palpable anger rising in the armed forces over the manner in which
a serving officer was hauled over the coals for mere association with nationalist
families whose existence causes current rulers to break into cold sweat. There
is dismay that a fishing expedition was launched to catch any retired or serving
officers who could be netted, without thought to the damage to the morale
of the armed forces, and the confidence of the nation that holds them in such
high repute.
Mumbai's Anti Terror Squad was doubtless politically
pressurised to cook up the narrative of "Hindu Terror," picking
up pre-selected "culprits" to prove the script. Most likely the
Congress-dominated UPA, failing or not daring to use the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI), pushed the Congress-dominated coalition in Maharashtra
to do something to "secure" the Muslim vote in the aftermath of
the outcry against the Batla House encounter and the crackdown in Azamgarh,
UP.
In the process, a section of the nation's
police force [which was cooperating across State boundaries to tackle the
growing menace of jihad] was used to target the pre-eminent national institution
- the Army. Not only has this shocked and demoralized the defence forces which
are fighting multiple threats against the nation daily, it has put a spanner
in the growing inter-State coordination between the police and intelligence
agencies. This could be a diabolical response to the Delhi Police's success
in shooting a terrorist at Ansal Plaza, the Gujarat Police's success in shooting
Mumbai's Ishrat Jehan and her associate and its success in nabbing three wanted
men from Andhra Pradesh!
The construction of an entity called "Hindu
Terror" is thus a wicked move to frustrate the institutional response
to jihadi attacks on civilian targets nation-wide. It creates suspicions among
Police officers that the political party ruling their respective States may
act vindictively against them for cooperating with officers of a State ruled
by a different political party. With the era of one-party dominance over,
this is a recipe for the total paralysis of police response to terror.
Another aspect of the faux controversy over
the Batla House encounter in which Inspector M.C. Sharma sacrificed his life
is that it is giving a message to one community that henceforth Police will
be hindered from locating and smoking out terrorists. Even more insidious
is the message to Muslim citizens cooperating with the Police and giving information
on suspected terrorists and their movements - henceforth they need not bother
to cooperate with the State!
In this scheme, the institution whose prestige will suffer most in the long-term
is the Judiciary - hitherto an institution on which the common man pinned
his hopes in these troubled times. Mumbai judges have been giving a long rope
to the ATS, and seeking no evidence in return for long incarcerations of accused.
Thus, though no worthwhile evidence has been furnished against Sadhvi Pragya
and others after so many weeks, the judicial remand of eight out of ten accused
has been extended till 29 November.
This is contrary to a recent ruling by the
Supreme Court that an individual's reputation is an inseparable part of his
fundamental right to life and liberty, and hence Police should be very sure
of their facts before taking a person into detention and lodging him/her in
jail. In the present context, it is pertinent that some accused such as Sadhvi
Pragya have submitted to repeated narco and other tests, and despite sustained
interrogation, the police have not been able to furnish corroborative evidence
of their guilt.
Unfortunately, just as the Mumbai ATS narrative
began to get interesting from the viewpoint of Ripley's Believe it or Not,
the Army turned spoilsport and started puncturing the balloon. Hardly had
Bollywood scriptwriters switched on their computers, than "Indian Army
insiders" began debunking the alleged confessions of Lt. Col. Purohit,
especially the claim that he sourced RDX from the Army's stock. It seems the
Army does not use or store RDX; it uses TNT and plastic explosives (PEK),
a detail the civilians who wrote the Hindu Terror plot could not be expected
to know.
It gets worse for the ATS. Lt. Col. Purohit
could not have made off with 60 kg. of RDX even if he had indeed seized it
in Jammu & Kashmir - because explosives seized by the Army are either
destroyed on the spot or handed over to the police. So he could not have put
the RDX into his pocket while pretending to have thrown it into the Jhelum!
It goes without saying that he would need a rather large pocket to stuff 60
kg. of RDX.
To further rub salt into the wound, the Army
has revealed that as 60 kg. of RDX is a huge quantity, it cannot go missing
without a major inquiry being held. As an ordinary Major when posted as a
Military Intelligence officer in Kashmir, Srikant Purohit was too junior to
manipulate such huge quantities of explosives. In any case, seizures are made
by infantry and not by intelligence personnel. Purohit also never received
bomb-making training; his acquiring RDX from Army stores is simply ruled out.
As the story began to come unstuck even before
it could be fully developed [some accused have yet to be arrested], the ATS
was forced to deny that the 60 kg. of RDX allegedly stolen by Lt. Col. Purohit
[denied by the Army] was used in the Samjhauta Express blast in February 2007.
This was because the forensic report of the blast said that the material used
was a highly flammable cocktail of fuel oils, potassium chlorate and sulphur.
No RDX.
Then, former Jammu & Kashmir Governor
S.K. Sinha rubbished allegations by National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) leaders Farooq Abdullah and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed that he had
links with Malegaon blast accused Dayanand Pandey.
Finally, UPA's nefarious design to create
a bogey of "Hindu Terror" forced the somnolent Hindu elephant to
rise, and now Hindu religious leaders are up in arms against this conspiracy
against a community that has been at the receiving end of jihad for decades.
A gathering of hundreds of sadhus and sants under the aegis of the Dharma
Raksha Manch at Panipat on 16 November has threatened a nation-wide agitation
on the lines of the 'Amarnath movement.' It will show its strength in New
Delhi on 26 November - before the capital votes! No wonder BJP president Rajnath
Singh eagerly joined the bandwagon, promising the seers that his party would
not allow them to be defamed!
The decision to malign and arrest Hindu saints
has so incensed the community that even Yoga guru Swami Ramdev has leaped
into the fray. His invincible popularity combined with the eloquence of Sadhvi
Ritambhara cannot but convince the Indian public that a "regime change
at the Centre" is a national imperative.
- The author is Editor, www.vijayvaani.com
