Economic Times, 29 November 2008
MUMBAI: The heroic death of Maharashtra’s Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare in counter-terror operations has left the BJP-Shiv Sena
combine with egg on its face. On Friday, Narendra Modi, BJP’s poster-boy chief minister and Hindutva mascot, paid lofty tributes to Karkare and other senior cops who lost their lives in the counter attack.
But before his death on duty, Mr Karkare and his colleagues at the ATS were at the receiving end of almost a slanderous attack not only by BJP and Shiv Sena leaders, but also by several Sangh Parivar organisations for the ongoing ATS probe into the Malegaon blasts.
In fact, Mr Modi himself had attacked the ATS for the “biased” probe into the Malegaon blasts. So much so that the BJP and Sangh Parivar organisations had personally blamed Karkare for what they claimed “implicating the Hindu religious leaders and outfits” in the probe.
But the two parties are now singing eulogies to the valour demonstrated by the departed ATS chief. Ironically, the Shiv Sena had even called a Maharashtra bandh on December 1 to protest against the ATS probe and express solidarity with the accused — Sadhvi Pragya Singh and lieutenant colonel Shrikant Purohit — for their involvement in the Malegaon blasts. “It is supreme irony that the same BJP is now paying tributes to Karkare and is talking of helping his family,” union minister of state for home Shriprakash Jaiswal said on Friday.
But the double-speak demonstrated by the BJP and Shiv Sena could be more dangerous for the combine than a mere political embarrassment. Mr Jaiswal said the agencies probing the terror attack in Mumbai would also look into the fact that Mr Karkare was on “target by some people who had opposed his probe for about 15 days before November 26.”
|
