UPA's Zero Success In Solving Blast Mystery
By Easwaran Nambudiri
Ten days after horror struck the throbbing business capital of India, police and other investigating agencies continue to grope in the dark about the identity of the perpetrators. While Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Home Secretary V.K. Duggal pompously declared the day after the blasts that the investigators have got “leads”, nothing concrete has surfaced so far.
“A breakthrough is expected as early as possible,” Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had boasted in a much-publicised television interview but at the end of the day, the one billion strong nation could hear only about the wild goose chase after fake e-mails sent by pranksters and tom-tommed by television channels to increase their TRP ratings.
As one leading newspaper rightly put it: “Behind the breaking news bulletins and racy accounts of suspects being tracked down and the country being combed to unravel the terror chain—from Kashmiri apple merchants, Islamic social workers from Tripura and Kathmandu and closer home at Mahim—one thing is clear: hardnose investigators have not ventured beyond educated guesses and surmises.”
Over 100 super specialist investigators from different wings of the Mumbai Police have been attached to the Anti-Terrorism Squad to pursue leads but so far, they have only been able to raid hundreds of places, detain scores of people and dish out few names of suspects like Sayyad Zahibuddin Ansari and Mohammad Fayyaz. The involvement of SIMI and Lashkar-e-Toiba, the usual names associated with terror in the country, are the other “major leads” found by the investigators after 10 days of probe.
While it is a foregone conclusion that the act is the handiwork of terrorist groups backed by Pakistan’s ISI, it is sad that the besieged Manmohan Singh government chose to hide its failures on the internal security front by choosing the easier option of blaming Islamabad for the act. Pakistan’s hand is known to every Indian but what the country wants to know from the Prime Minister is whether we have a fool-proof policy to combat terrorism.
In a bizarre and ridiculous statement, the Prime Minister also declared that the India-Pakistan peace process has “suffered” but “there is no setback”. Only Singh and God would be able to explain whatever that meant.
Singh appeared more in a hurry to assert the needlessness of POTA than the determination required to fight the menace. It was with great expectations that the nation looked forward to hear Singh during his visit to Mumbai but sadly, as a Mumbaikar put it, “he failed to inspire the people to instill confidence that we are here. This would be the last time this happened. He appeared more like a bureaucrat sans emotions or sentiments and did not display any collective national will.”
Contrast this with US President George W Bush’s address to the nation in the aftermath of 9/11 and his declaration of the global war against terror. Why go thus far? Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, though vehemently opposed by the pseudo-secularists, served to provide a ray of hope to the denizens of the western metropolis, who have over the years become sitting ducks for the underworld and the terrorists.
Even as investigators continue to grope in a blind alley, the country failed to make any progress on the diplomatic front as well. While the G8 meeting, attended by Prime Minister Singh, did mouth condemnatory references to the Mumbai blasts, the leaders of the world’s most powerful and influential nations avoided mentioning Pakistan.
Rather, virtually giving a ‘clean chit’ to Pakistan, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said, “I know there’s speculation. That happens in these cases. But I think we need to be led by evidence before we start trying to draw conclusions and make policy pronouncements on it.” So much for our diplomatic initiative.
Grudgingly though, even the so-called secularists and the authorities in Mumbai have acknowledged the involvement of the ‘local people’ in the blasts.
Was it sheer coincidence that Uttar Pradesh’s rabidly communal Minister Azam Khan chose the timing to demand a separate Muslim Pradesh for the minority community? Of course, there was a deafening silence on the part of the secularists to this demand.
Instead of accepting their failures, Congress leaders are working overtime to recall the terrorist incidents during the NDA government. True, there were attacks at the Akshardham, Red Fort and Parliament House but mind you, they were all foiled, the terrorists killed and yes, the maximum number of ISI modules were busted during those six years of BJP-led governance. The perpetrators of the Godhra carnage are cooling their heals in prisons.
The need of the hour is a tough anti-terrorist law on the lines of similar laws the world over. And as Narendra Modi rightly put it, if the Centre does not want to do it, let the states do it. After all, law and order is a state subject. And the Centre would do well not to sit over such legislations passed by state assemblies—Gujarat for instance.
Over 100 super specialist investigators from different wings of the Mumbai Police have been attached to the Anti-Terrorism Squad to pursue leads but so far, they have only been able to raid hundreds of places, detain scores of people and dish out a few names of suspects like Sayyad Zahibuddin Ansari and Mohammad Fayyaz.
Ten days after horror struck the throbbing business capital of India, police and other investigating agencies continue to grope in the dark about the identity of the perpetrators. While Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Home Secretary V.K. Duggal pompously declared the day after the blasts that the investigators have got “leads”, nothing concrete has surfaced so far.
“A breakthrough is expected as early as possible,” Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had boasted in a much-publicised television interview but at the end of the day, the one billion strong nation could hear only about the wild goose chase after fake e-mails sent by pranksters and tom-tommed by television channels to increase their TRP ratings.
As one leading newspaper rightly put it: “Behind the breaking news bulletins and racy accounts of suspects being tracked down and the country being combed to unravel the terror chain—from Kashmiri apple merchants, Islamic social workers from Tripura and Kathmandu and closer home at Mahim—one thing is clear: hardnose investigators have not ventured beyond educated guesses and surmises.”
Over 100 super specialist investigators from different wings of the Mumbai Police have been attached to the Anti-Terrorism Squad to pursue leads but so far, they have only been able to raid hundreds of places, detain scores of people and dish out few names of suspects like Sayyad Zahibuddin Ansari and Mohammad Fayyaz. The involvement of SIMI and Lashkar-e-Toiba, the usual names associated with terror in the country, are the other “major leads” found by the investigators after 10 days of probe.
While it is a foregone conclusion that the act is the handiwork of terrorist groups backed by Pakistan’s ISI, it is sad that the besieged Manmohan Singh government chose to hide its failures on the internal security front by choosing the easier option of blaming Islamabad for the act. Pakistan’s hand is known to every Indian but what the country wants to know from the Prime Minister is whether we have a fool-proof policy to combat terrorism.
In a bizarre and ridiculous statement, the Prime Minister also declared that the India-Pakistan peace process has “suffered” but “there is no setback”. Only Singh and God would be able to explain whatever that meant.
Singh appeared more in a hurry to assert the needlessness of POTA than the determination required to fight the menace. It was with great expectations that the nation looked forward to hear Singh during his visit to Mumbai but sadly, as a Mumbaikar put it, “he failed to inspire the people to instill confidence that we are here. This would be the last time this happened. He appeared more like a bureaucrat sans emotions or sentiments and did not display any collective national will.”
Contrast this with US President George W Bush’s address to the nation in the aftermath of 9/11 and his declaration of the global war against terror. Why go thus far? Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, though vehemently opposed by the pseudo-secularists, served to provide a ray of hope to the denizens of the western metropolis, who have over the years become sitting ducks for the underworld and the terrorists.
Even as investigators continue to grope in a blind alley, the country failed to make any progress on the diplomatic front as well. While the G8 meeting, attended by Prime Minister Singh, did mouth condemnatory references to the Mumbai blasts, the leaders of the world’s most powerful and influential nations avoided mentioning Pakistan.
Rather, virtually giving a ‘clean chit’ to Pakistan, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said, “I know there’s speculation. That happens in these cases. But I think we need to be led by evidence before we start trying to draw conclusions and make policy pronouncements on it.” So much for our diplomatic initiative.
Grudgingly though, even the so-called secularists and the authorities in Mumbai have acknowledged the involvement of the ‘local people’ in the blasts.
Was it sheer coincidence that Uttar Pradesh’s rabidly communal Minister Azam Khan chose the timing to demand a separate Muslim Pradesh for the minority community? Of course, there was a deafening silence on the part of the secularists to this demand.
Instead of accepting their failures, Congress leaders are working overtime to recall the terrorist incidents during the NDA government. True, there were attacks at the Akshardham, Red Fort and Parliament House but mind you, they were all foiled, the terrorists killed and yes, the maximum number of ISI modules were busted during those six years of BJP-led governance. The perpetrators of the Godhra carnage are cooling their heals in prisons.
The need of the hour is a tough anti-terrorist law on the lines of similar laws the world over. And as Narendra Modi rightly put it, if the Centre does not want to do it, let the states do it. After all, law and order is a state subject. And the Centre would do well not to sit over such legislations passed by state assemblies—Gujarat for instance.
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