Bole toh?

Secularists' doublespeak
Jyoti Punwani

Secularists and human rights activists have not covered themselves with glory over the Malegaon episode. Till a few weeks before the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya, these groups, as well as Muslims, were pouring scorn on the police, especially the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS).
Investigations into the Ahmedabad and Delhi blasts had seen the ATS feed a credulous media with details of various ‘masterminds'. More disturbing was the trial through the media being carried out by the police. Mumbai's Muslim leaders even met former ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who was slain by terrorists in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, to protest against the raid on a Muslim mohalla, where policemen dragged a hakim out of bed at 3 a.m. at gunpoint and abused his family. To his credit, Karkare apologised and ordered an inquiry. That, however, didn't spare Karkare from the wrath of the Indian Mujahideen, who, in an e-mail sent immediately after the September 23 Delhi blasts, warned the "entire Mumbai ATS" that "we are closely keeping an eye on you and just waiting for the proper time to execute your bloodshed." (sic) Two months later, the Maharashtra ATS chief was killed in a terrorist attack. From all accounts it appeared that his killers didn't know who they were shooting. But immediately, secularists and Muslims declared that Karkare's killing was a conspiracy not by the Indian Mujahideen, but by the RSS. For just a day before his death, he had received an anonymous death threat for his role in the investigations into the Malegaon bomb blasts of September 29, in which the suspects had links with the RSS. Why give credence to one threat and not to the other? The answer to that lies in the willing suspension of disbelief in the Malegaon blasts investigation. As was done with Muslim terror suspects, details of the interrogation of Malegaon's Hindu suspects were leaked to the media.
But this time, no scepticism was expressed by the Left-secular brigade, nor did they scream "trial by media". No human rights organisation objected to the triple brain tests conducted on Sadhvi Pragya, though they had all along maintained that such tests were a form of torture. The BJP alone protested, raising exactly the same objections against the Malegaon investigation that human rights activists had raised against previous terror investigations, which had focused on Muslims and alleged Naxalites. Such protests were expected from the BJP. It was not surprising either, for Muslims to swallow the Malegaon findings hook, line and sinker. But such a deafening silence was certainly not expected of human rights activists and secularists. One crucial difference must be acknowledged between the Malegaon investigations and those that preceded it, and it was voiced by Karkare himself in an interview: "When we want to question a suspect and if he or she has any Hindutvawadi connections, we make sure once, twice, thrice, that we have enough reason and evidence to even question. Normally it is not like that. We are able to freely question anyone we suspect." There was also the incriminating evidence of the 2006 Nanded blasts, in which two RSS men had died while making bombs. Indeed, had the Nanded investigation been allowed to run its logical course, much of what was unravelled during the Malegaon investigations may have come out. Who knows the Malegaon blasts may not even have taken place. Ironically, the same powers that thwarted the Nanded probe gave the green signal for the Malegaon investigations because the time was right. Astute Muslims acknowledged this, even as they rejoiced at the findings. Surely the Left/secular brigade realised this too? Yet, for them, the Malegaon inquiry became a cause celebre. Karkare's career wasn't just about Malegaon. He'd dealt with Naxalites as an SP, Chandrapur, during 1991-93, and as ATS chief, was in charge of the case now against Mumbai's alleged Naxalites. Yet such was the effect of the Malegaon probe that Naxalite sympathisers, secular stalwarts and Muslim leaders, all turned out in force at Karkare's funeral, probably the first time they had paid homage to a police officer.

The writer is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist