Gujarat shows how to do it!

Shravan Krushna Sasthi

By Editorial Desk

New Delhi: The way the police in BJP-ruled Gujarat has cracked the case of the serial bombings in Ahmedabad and arrested most of the perpetrators of the crime, contrasts sharply with the failure of the Governments in Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra which have witnessed similar terrorist bombings. No one can claim that the police in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra are less efficient than the police in Gujarat. All of them receive the same standard training. So, what made the difference?
 
The crucial advantage the Gujarat Police has is the State Government’s backing. Two years ago when terrorists detonated bombs near the police headquarters in Hyderabad, the Congress Government constituted a special anti-terrorism squad, led by an able Orissa cadre police chief, to track down the culprits. Working on just one clue — slippers found at the scene of the explosions — the team trailed the culprits to the house of one of their associates. That person happened to be a Muslim.
 
Immediately there were protests from some Muslim leaders and the police was accused of indulging in a witch-hunt. The Government lost its nerve. The suspect was let off and the police officer was transferred. Thus demoralised, the anti-terrorism squad cannot be expected to deliver results.
 
In Gujarat many suspects were arrested. The entire trail of the conspirators was uncovered. Therefore, the police action has a considerable degree of credibility to it.
 
More notably, the ruling party leaders and Ministers have not jumped the gun to claim credit and have let the police do their work. This approach enhances police morale and makes police personnel as effective as they can be under the given circumstances. That the investigation into the serial bombings in Gujarat and elsewhere has uncovered an inter-State network of the Students Islamic Movement of India does not really come as a surprise.
 
The SIMI has been suspect for almost a decade now and has been banned since 2001. The organisation has not hidden its agenda which calls for the restoration of the caliphate, rejection of nationalism and the promotion of a pan-Islamic ummah, as well as the establishment of an Islamic state in India.
 
The organisation, which was founded in 1977, starting openly declaring its motives of opposing secularism, democracy, nationalism and polytheism as early as 1980 by distributing stickers and posters. In its Kanpur meeting in 1999, a seven-year-old was heard exhorting activists to hail Osama bin Laden as the "Lion of Islam". Its pamphlets distributed in the Muslim areas of Mumbai called for the return of Muhammad of Gazhani — the reference was obviously to the massacre of Hindus in the 11th century. Subsequently, SIMI developed links with terrorist groups in Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. It used its extremist platform to attract young Muslims and teach them the language of hate.
 
After the NDA Government banned the organisation, the review tribunal was provided with comprehensive dossiers on its activities. So convincing was the evidence that tribunal endorsed the ban immediately. However, in spite of this, the tribunal dealing with a fresh extension of the ban rejected the Government’s plea recently. Though the Union Government immediately approached the Supreme Court and got that order stayed, the complicity of the UPA and the open endorsement of the

SIMI by two of its leaders have exposed what informed opinion has long suspected — a velvet glove approach towards radical slamist organisations that openly preach treason and hate.
 
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as he did from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence day, may reiterate his Government’s intention to put down terrorism a thousand times. But why was his Government so sloppy in getting the ban on SIMI renewed? The tribunal made some acid comments regarding the UPA regime’s half-hearted approach. For instance, the notification of 2008 was largely a reproduction of the 2006 notification, barring some minor modifications.
 
Further, the Government first said that the last four paragraphs of the document explaining the reasons for continuing with the ban were important. However, three months later it said that only the first three paragraphs were important. A senior

official appearing before the tribunal admitted that he was not aware of the veracity of the Government’s contention. How could such a thing happen unless someone in the Government had coerced him to weaken the case for the ban?  Vital details regarding the documents filed in defence of the ban were missing, including dates of, and places where, meetings attended by SIMI activists. The tribunal, commenting on this lacklustre approach, said that the deposition by the Government witnesses "display utmost casualness". No wonder it found the allegations against SIMI not properly supported.

There is no denying the fact that the tribunal exposed several lacunae in the conduct of the case by the Union Government.
 
This entire episode bares the Government’s complicity in getting the ban lifted while pretending to get it extended.

Moreover, the enthusiastic welcome of the court order — rejecting the Government request for a continuation of the ban — by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his new-found friend Mulayam Singh Yadav, removes any doubt whatsoever. Home Minister Shivraj Patil has time and again refused to call a spade a spade and denounce Islamic extremists. He refers to terrorists as ‘boys’ who have been ‘misled’.
 
But those who planned and executed the serial bombings that rocked Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Bangalore cannot be ‘boys’ who have been ‘misled’ by zealots. Some of the meetings organised by the SIMI before it was banned in 2001 were attended by as many as 25,000 people. In any case, the hypocrisy of the UPA Government is evident when the administration calls for an endorsement of the ban and its Ministers hail the verdict of the tribunal rejecting that call! Clearly, the UPA is bothered more about its vote-bank than national security. If the Prime Minister is sincere about fighting terrorism, will he ask Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav to resign from his Cabinet? Also, will the swift and decisive action by the Gujarat Government in tracking down terrorists responsible for the July 26 bombings set an example for other political parties? Or will they continue to shortchange the nation for Muslim votes? Only time will reveal the answers to these questions.
 
Source: Daily Pioneer

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