Sushilkumar Shinde says he is serious about fighting terror but can’t get Delhi Police to slap traffic charges on Shab-e-Barat revellers. Giving Rohingyas a base and then expecting them to keep their issues out of India is hardly a counter-terrorism policy
Just sample these. On the night of Shab-e-Barat, mayhem was unleashed on several important roads of New Delhi. Delhi Traffic Police, which boasted of making 10,399 prosecutions for errant
driving (including 3,967 for not wearing helmets and 973 for triple riding on two-wheelers) on Holi (2013), was conspicuous by its absence. A handful of prosecutions was done when some bikers banged some cops at barricades. But there was neither any bandobast nor advanced notification. This is despite the fact that Shab-e-Barat revellers had such a field’s day (or night) in 2012. Taj Hassan, the Special Commission of Police (Traffic) was believed to be busy celebrating Shab-e-Barat as well.
Now take the second case. Anandabazar Patrika, largest circulated Bengali newspaper, carried two despatches (on June 21 and 23 respectively) of forced migration of the Hindu community from a village Koijuri, North 24 Parganas. The reason for their migration is a scandal.
Cattle traffickers in league with Bangladeshi anti-socials from across the international border regularly raid households. A woman in her twenties received knife injuries on her private parts as she resisted rape. Another woman was dumped in a pond after her abductors from across the border were given a chase by the villagers. These did not court as much bhadralok attention as the Kamudini rape case. But the villagers have lost the courage to stay on.
How did the situation deteriorate to such an extentIJ The BSF’s hands have been tied after the Union government rigorously imposed ‘no-firing’ order on Indo-Bangladesh border. During the last few years there were several causalities in BSF firing. Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) claims in the last five years alone 214 persons had died and 323 wounded. But even BGB could not deny that those shot at were cattle smugglers. Now with BSF’s power fire maimed, the cattle traffickers syndicate on both sides of the border feel emboldened.
Interestingly the ‘no firing’ order does not apply to Indo-Myanmar border that is India’s most vexed frontier as far as smuggling is concerned. The highest quantum of narcotics, arms and fake Indian currency comes in through Indo-Myanmar border. But since there is no ‘border’ politics involved with Myanmar, Yangon has not pressurised India to lower its guards on that front. But it is believed that a tacit understanding between Dhaka and New Delhi is responsible for BSF’s muted policy. The economy of Bangladesh survives to a great extent on smuggling. The forlorn BSF now apparently wants to cut deal with smugglers syndicate.
Earlier this year, Naparajita Chattopadhyay, DG, West Bengal Police in his report to the Home Department of West Bengal had accused that a section of BSF was colluding with the cattle traffickers and infiltrator mafia. He said that parts of frontier districts in West Bengal have tuned into haven for cattle-narcotics-human traffickers with connivance of the BSF. This made front page news of Anandabazar Patrika on January 26, 2013.
It is a decrepit authority’s low point in governance. It communalises even traffic discipline, waiving even the most secular of rules for the sake of its vote bank. It haplessly witnesses India’s sovereignty nibbled away 100-Km away from Kolkata. An emasculated state which cannot discharge its core functions (internal & external security) can hardly rise up to the challenges of terror. The first act of the UPA-I on returning to power in 2004 was rescinding of POTA. But after the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai the same UPA-I government brought in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2008 which included even more draconic provisions. You cannot address electoral and governance obligations at the same time.
There has been a motivated subversion of the authorities under Congress rule. last November at an election rally Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had stated, ‘“look, we have made a Muslim the first Central IB head, something which no Government of Independent India including those of Pandit Nehru and Mrs Gandhi had ever done”. Mr Shinde seems correct because the decision to make Asif Ibrahim the IB Chief was to a great extent political. He superseded three IPS offiers — V Rajagopal, R N Gupta and Yashovardhan Azad — but Ibrahim’s decision to defend his colleague Rajendra Singh against the CBI’s attempt to frame the latter in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case has perhaps dismayed Congress.
The Ishrat Jahan encounter case is Congress’ last ditch attempt to frame Modi; the means adopted are dangerous - it is indulging in the abuse of the investigative bodies. For the UPA, it might mean countering its own official affidavit in the Gujarat High Court where it said Ishrat Jahan and Javed Sheikh were
terrorists. Congress wants to prevent Modi in his Mission Delhi at any cost. This is not actually because of his ‘communal’ track record. They fear Modi would vigorously prosecute cases of corruption against them.
If one looked at the statistics of fake police encounters put out by the National Human Rights Commission, Gujarat features far below others. Between 2009 and 2013 Congress-ruled Assam witnessed 52 alleged fake encounters; Uttar Pradesh 138; Manipur 62; West Bengal 35 and Odisha 27 whereas Gujarat reported only eight. This was informed to the lok Sabha by MoS (Home) RPN Singh on March 4, 2013 in a written answer.
Following the Mahabodhi Temple serial blast at Bodhgaya,
several shops functioning in the temple complex have been shut down. However, no investigation has been conducted into the affairs of the mosque that has come up behind the temple. There is still no headway in the probe, and a tweet from Pakistan with @indianMujahidin has owned responsibility.
It is speculated that the blasts were connected to the plight of the Rohingyas (Muslims) in Myanmar. last year Delhi woke to find some 2,000 Rohingyas living in the fringes of South Delhi from where they were dislodged by local protests. They went on to pitch tents in front of the UNHRC office in Vasant Vihar looking for international refugee
status. The then Home Minister, P.Chidambaram, had no convincing answer how those Rohingyas entered India and reached Delhi. Evicted from Delhi under mounting pressure, the Rohingyas surfaced in Hyderabad. It is known that there are some 40,000 Rohingyas in different parts of India — J&K, Delhi-UP border, Haryana and Hyderabad — under the charge of different madrassas and wakf boards. The government has even granted temporary visa to many of them. The UPA government is trying to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds.
(The writer is a columnist)