Ram Puniyani
Hidden in the back pages of some
major dailies, there was news that the third Samjhauta bomber was held in MP
(16, Dec 2012). National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Rajender
Choudhary, near Ujjain
in MP. He has been named as one of the bombers in the supplementary charge
sheet submitted by the agency. One recalls that in the blast in Samjhauta
Express, way back in 2007, resulted in the death of 68 persons, including 43
Pakistanis. The investigation showed that there were four brief-case bomb
planters, who allegedly acted on the instructions from RSS pracharak Sunil
Joshi, Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra. Of these Sunil Joshi was later
murdered. Many others’ from this camp, who are cooling their heels behind the
bars in jails, are Swami Aseemanand and company. This series of blasts like
Mecca Masjid, Malegaon ,
Ajmer etc. were planned at times when religious conglomeration of Muslims at
major festivals was there, so that the casualty is large.
The first striking point of this
news is the under projection of the arrest. If we remember in earlier phase,
when for the same incidents of blasts the innocent Muslim youth were arrested,
there were banner headlines in all the news papers and anchors of TV channels
were screaming to the highest pitch. In this projection the language press
added all the necessary spices to highlight the religion of the arrested
culprits. This was followed by the under reporting of the judgments, which
found these Muslim youth innocent and then these youth were let off. Such news
was again hidden in the back pages as small news items if at all. The pattern
of media reporting showed a clear-cut bias in the nature of reporting.
Unfortunately the media pundits have also ignored this major phenomenon of the
pattern of reporting in case of communal violence and terrorist violence. In
case of communal violence the large section of media accepted the version from
police or dominant prevalent versions in an uncritical manner. In case of
terrorist violence the media reported events with the underlying theme as if
all terrorists are Muslims.
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| Courtesy: The Hindu |
The attitude of police also was
on these patterns in both communal and terrorist types of violence. In
terrorist violence the arrest of Muslim youth was done with striking
regularity, till the motorcycle of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an ex ABVP
worker, was discovered by Hemant Karkare. Till that time the earlier chiefs of
ATS in Maharashtra and other states where
blasts took place, were playing it cool. In most these cases the involvement of
those associated with RSS ideology was not given a serious thought. When in
April 2006 the blast took place in Nanded in the house of RSS activist
Rajkondavar. In front of the house there was a board of Bajrang Dal and the
saffron flag was fluttering. There was enough evidence to take the
investigation further, which might have led to arrest way back of those who are
currently in jails. Since large section of police preferred to be guided by
biases rather than professionalism, the investigation remained half way and the
series of blasts kept taking place. To arrest the Hindus for acts of terror was
an ‘unthinkable thought’ for most investigating officers. To highlight this in
media was not might not have been thought appropriate by the media. The police
and media, both, focused on the ‘thinkable thought’ and projected Muslims as
the culprits. This thinkable thought was product of the US propaganda
duly taken up by the National media. As per this ‘All Muslims are not
terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims’.
When Hemant Karkare decided to go
ahead in a professional way, the path was not easy for him. He soon faced the
political pressure from some sections. Bal Thackeray in his paper Saamna wrote,
that we ‘spit on the face of Hemant Karkare, while Narendra Modi said that
Hemant Karkare is Deshdrohi (Anti National). The death of Hemant Karkare was a
big setback to the investigation of blast cases. But the path was paved for
thinking on these lines which were unthinkable earlier. With confession of
Swami Aseemanand in presence of a magistrate, which he later retracted, the
evidence cam forth clearly on which Rajasthan ATS and now NIA and other police
agencies may be working meticulously to bring out the truth of these blasts.
While the arrest of Muslim youth
was going on recklessly, some social activists tried, in vain, to draw the
attention of the state and investigating agencies, about the arrest of
innocents. That the real culprits are being overlooked was the underlying
statement. These social activists were ignored till the people’s tribunal
“Scapegoats and Holy Cows’ held in Hyderabad (August 2008) brought forward the
truth for public and states’ attention to the tragic reality of blasts and the
reality about the culprits who were getting away and the innocents were being
arrested. Needless to say that due to such arrests, the social life and careers
of those innocents who were arrested was ruined. Even now lot of questions
persist; about Batla encounter and the alleged role of Azamgarh youth in the
acts of terror. Some political leaders have been raising the issue but state so
far has been very apathetic to the plight of Muslim youths and their families
who have been implicated in this incident. Now some hope is being rekindled
that these innocents may get justice as on one hand the professional attitude
of NIA is nabbing the real culprits and hopefully will ensure that the guilty
are punished by the court of law.
At the same time, though
painfully late, the delegation led by Ram Vilas Paswan met the Prime Minister
and submitted the memorandum on the issue. The Prime minister has promised that
“The government will soon constitute a mechanism to stop arresting innocent
youth, providing justice to them and their rehabilitation.” Dr. Singh also
assured that he will talk to the Home Minister in this regard. One does not
know how the state is planning to compensate the innocent youth, who have
suffered immensely at the hands of the insensitive state machinery. Will
Government gather courage to institute an inquiry into Batla encounter and
bring forth the truth?
One presumes after the Nanded
blast (April 2006), which was an accident in which the Bajrang Dal activists
making the bombs were killed, had the investigation been taken to its logical
conclusion many a blasts might have been prevented and many an innocent lives
saved. That’s a conjecture, which sounds to be a strong possibility in the
hindsight. Will this be a lesson to our concerned authorities to learn from and
a pointer to adopt a more professional attitude in future?
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