Recent developments in the Ishrat Jahaan fake encounter
case, which the CBI is investigating, point to a possible role the central
government, then led by the BJP, might have had in furthering the anti-Muslim
stance of Narendra Modi’s Gujarat government. There is no other possibility,
considering that the BJP has itself always cited the IB as being a hand-maiden
of the central government. If this is true, then the IB officer who “generated”
the intelligence report around Ishrat Jahaan, which led to her death, must have
been “instructed” by the BJP bosses in Delhi.
This is the problem with random allegations. They come back
to bite you someday! When the NCTC was being discussed, the BJP took took
offence to the fact that the NCTC chief would have to report into the IB, which
was under the central government and which was “unaccountable” to anyone except
the central government. If the BJP’s allegation about the IB being used by the
central government for political purposes is true, then surely the same must
have been true when it was ruling at the center. It is in this context that the
politics around the investigation of the IB official by the CBI should be seen.
What has been established as a fact is that the encounter
was a fake encounter, and the accused were butchered in broad daylight by state
cops. This proves that the state government was complicit in the act. But what
is now coming out is that the IB official, Rajinder Kumar, had supplied the
intelligence input that a “group of LeT terrorists” was coming to Ahmedabad to
kill Modi (source: today’s TOI). How the Gujarat cops linked that to Ishrat
Jahaan is unclear, nor has it been proven that she was indeed the mentioned
terror suspect. Even so she was gunned down. Today however, the issue is no
longer about whether she was a terrorist or not. It is about the way Narendra
Modi’s government and possibly, the central BJP government handled her case. Does
the BJP support shooting them in broad daylight, under an assumption that they
are guilty?
This obviously is not the only case in which Modi’s
government has behaved in this manner. The same DIG who killed Ishrat Jahaan –
Vanjara of the Ahmedabad Police – was also involved in another fake encounter –
the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh – for which he has in fact been arrested.
Vanjara’s – and by extension – Modi’s style was simple. Assume a muslim to be
guilty, take the law in your own hands, and bring instantaneous justice to the
alleged culprits.
Modi has been panned enough for this. And he is
unrepentant. His attitude is that this is the right way to handle matters. He is
unapologetic about his style, and in fact pushes such stories to underline his
“iron man” image. What is surprising – and damaging to the BJP nationally –
however is that the central government – headed by the “moderate” and “strong”
leader Vajpayee – could have been complicit in Modi’s disastrous pattern of
murders. Does Vajpayee even deserve the moderate tag if this is found to be
true? Would a moderate leader allow such killings? And considering that the
killings took place over an extended period of time (Jahaan was in 2004;
Sohrabuddin in 2005), is it at all possible that this was a mere one-time slip
on Vajpayee’s part? Or is it that Vajpayee could never control Modi? That in
spite of all the “raj dharma” talk, he could not prevent his own CM from acting
in this wayward manner? Is this evidence of Vajpayee being a strong leader? The
CBI’s investigation into the IB official is to be seen in this context. It’s
ramifications go way beyond Gujarat, and smear a person no less than the BJP’s
only “statesman” Vajpayee. It’s surprising that the political connection to the
investigation has not yet been brought out in the media.
The BJP – when it realizes what is going on here – will no
doubt claim that the CBI is acting on the Congress’s behest. As is its wont, it
will coin a few more abuses for the investigating agency. But it can not square
this against its insistence during the NCTC debate that the IB is part and
parcel of the central government, and officially takes instructions from it.
Nor will it be able to explain why the IB officer was present during the
investigation of Ishrat Jahaan in Ahmedabad – proving that the centre was
completely on-board with the way the matter was being handled. Besides, with
Modi now the almost-certain PM candidate of the BJP, it hardly matters whether
the issue stays limited to Gujarat and Modi, or extends to the center.
I would like to do a little bit of “connecting the dots”
as has become fashionable in India these days! The IB’s intelligence inputs
happened in 2004, the only time when the BJP was ruling both at the center and
in Gujarat. Everyone knows Modi is a hardliner. Everyone also knows that Advani
was the Home Minister at the center, and he had defended Modi and saved his
skin on the post-Godhra riots matter. It is also a known fact that Advani was a
hardliner as well, being most responsible for the Babri Masjid demolition.
Connecting the dots would imply that the complicity of the central government
is obvious. It’s truly an open and shut case. If one were to go by the BJP’s
style, one should declare Advani and Modi as convicts. But we’ll not do. We’ll
wait for the courts to decide!
The real truth is that the BJP’s central government
probably supported Modi’s hardline practices with respect to Muslims. Ishrat
Jahaan is a possible instance of this. This would indicate that the reign of
terror perpetrated by the BJP against the minorities in general, and Muslims in
particular, was spread throughout the country. It was part of the party’s
political strategy, egged on and supported by its parent RSS and siblings VHP
and Bajrang Dal. It would hardly be surprising then if its seniormost leaders –
including Advani and Vajpayee – were found to be part of the terror reign….
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