Netaji-Black Box Of History
Posted by: koushikzworld on: October 3, 2009
Disclose your documents in Netaji’s death case: CIC to MHA
Posted by: koushikzworld on: September 5, 2009
New Delhi: The CIC today directed the Union home ministry to disclose all its records used by the justice Mukherjee Commission to probe the alleged disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in 1945.
Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, however, reserved his verdict on making public documents relating to the issue which belonged to other ministries, state governments and Prime Minister’s Office. These documents are currently in possession of the home ministry.
He said while the onus to disclose them, under the RTI Act, lies on the “holder” of the document, which at present is the home ministry and not any other ministries, he would look at court decisions and provisions under the law in this regard before giving his ruling.
The decision comes 33 months after Chandrachur Ghose, an executive with a private firm, filed his application seeking disclosure of exhibits listed in the justice Mukherjee Commission report.
The home ministry had earlier been reluctant on disclosure of documents despite orders of the CIC which questioned representatives of the ministry for the delay.
The ministry officials contended that process of transferring these documents to National Archives of India is on even as Habibullah warned that this could not go on indefinitely.
“There should be some reasonable time for the declassification. You cannot keep doing it for 50 odd years,” he pointed out.
Joint Secretary Lokesh Jha, representing the home ministry, said the documents are voluminous and have been kept in 22 trunks, and much of these documents belong to the ministry.
He said the ministry has no problem in disclosing the documents pertaining to it, but it was not possible to provide papers of other ministries and PMO as they want their records back.
The MHA asked the appellant to give it a list of documents sought by him and accordingly a copy of those could be provided.
Habibullah also asked Ghose to give the list so that the order can be carried out expeditiously.
Exercising his right to information, Ghose had filed his application on November 22, 2006 seeking all the exhibits listed in the report of the Mukherjee Commission.
But the ministry sought six months saying the documents were voluminous in nature, a plea which was rejected by CIC.
“The ministry has cited one excuse or the other. It is a kind of denial without saying so. Why are they coming with new excuses every time?” Ghose asked.
The one-man commission was set up in 1999 to go into the controversy surrounding the disappearance of Subhas Chandra Bose in 1945.
Source: DNA
China’s India policy: Murder with borrowed knives
Posted by: koushikzworld on: August 12, 2009
Fears that China could employ a strategy of “murdering with borrowed knives” against India does not seem totally unfounded. A
leading Chinese think-tank , whose views count with the Beijing’s Communist administration, has put forward an outrageous suggestion that China should break India into 20-30 independent states with the help of “friendly countries” like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
The article, written by Zhan Lue and titled “If China takes a little action , the so-called Great Indian Federation can be broken up,” has aroused strong sentiments in India where many see this as a reflection of the hardline thinking in Beijing.
Published on the website of a think tank that advises Beijing on global and strategic issues, the article makes a series of preposterous suggestions saying that a fragmented India would be in China’s interests and also lead to prosperity in the region. Responding to the inflammatory nature of the suggestions, India issued a warning and a word of caution.
“We continue to maintain that opinions and assessment on the state of India-China relations should be expressed after careful judgment based on the long-term interests of building a stable relationship between the two countries,’’ MEA official spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said.
Giving the benefit of doubt to Beijing, MEA said the article “appears to be the expression of individual opinion and does not accord with the officially stated position of China on India-China relations” , conveyed to India on several occasions most recently by the State Councilor Dai Bingguo during border talks last week.
Nevertheless, the reaction suggests that the article is not being taken lightly by New Delhi. China watchers point out that an article of this nature would have been vetted by the Chinese government. The article, which is published on the website of the China International Institute for Strategic Studies (CIISS), suggests that China should work towards breaking up India into 20-30 nation-states like Europe so that social reforms in South Asia can be achieved, the caste system can be eradicated and the region can march towards prosperity.
Asking the Communist party to exploit regional sentiments in India, the article says that China can seek support of friendly countries including Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan to further this strategy. The article terms India as “Hindu religious state” that is based on caste exploitation which is coming in the way of modernisation.
It further argues that China in its own interest and the progress of whole of Asia should join forces with “different nationalities” like Assamese, Tamils and Kashmiris and support them in establishing independent nation states of their own. The article further said Beijing should support the United Liberation Front of Asom to help achieve independence for Assam from India.
Yet another suggestion is that China give political support to Bangladesh to encourage ethnic Bengalis in India get rid of “Indian control” and join Bangladesh as one Bengali nation. The strategist contends that if that is not possible then China should encourage the creation of a Bengali nation state for the aim of weakening India’s expansion and then recover the 90,000 sq km territory in Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as its own.
The publication of the article has coincided with the 13th round of India-China border talks, which both sides have termed as positive. But pressure points have remained in Sino-Indian ties which have continued to flare up at regular intervals.
This includes the recent attempt by China to block an ADB loan to Arunachal Pradesh. Strategic experts here see it as a reflection of the growing hardline approach in China towards India. `This is part and parcel of hardline approach of think tanks (in China). They are trying to take advantage of India’s pliability,’’ said Mr Brahma Chellaney.
Source: Economic Times
India can’t match China’s military force: Navy Chief
Posted by: koushikzworld on: August 12, 2009
Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta has set off a storm by saying India cannot match China military force. Is it a warning from India’s military that the government needs to hear?
“In military terms, both conventional and non-conventional, we neither have the capability nor the intention to match China force for force,” said Admiral Sureesh Mehta.
For a nuclear-armed military representing the interests of a billion-plus people, the lack of confidence is quite striking. India’s military leadership has made a stunning confession that New Delhi doesn’t have the stomach for a fight, if push came to shove on the disputed Sino-Indian boundary.
“Whether in terms of GDP, defence spend or any other parameter, the gap between the two is too wide to bridge and is getting wider by the day,” he said.
Is Mehta expressing frustration at the slow pace of India’s military modernisation? While India spends about $30 billion annually on defence, China spends at least thrice as much, although some estimates go up to $ 200 billion.
Its military is twice as large as India and its nuclear arsenal far well proven.
“The eco penalties resulting from military conflict would have grave consequences for both nations. It would therefore be in both our interests to cooperate with reach other,” he said.
The question is, does China want nothing but cooperation with India, as Mehta would want? It continues to proliferate missile and nuclear technology to Pakistan. Its growing footprint in the Indian Ocean challenges India’s pre-eminence.
Its presence in ports ranging from Sittwe in Myanmar to Hambantotta in Lanka and Gwadar in Pakistan suggests a plan for the strategic encirclement of India. The Navy Chief’s dramatic statement may have been a desperate cry to counter the Dragon.
Source: IBN LIVE
BOSE MYSTERY: AN OVERVIEW
Posted by: koushikzworld on: July 31, 2009
It’s amazing how Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose continues to be in news *60 years after his disputed death. In a way, this has been in defiance of successive Indian governments who would rather want the people to sideline him as they have. A recent BBC online poll named Bose the third most popular leader in South Asia after Jinnha and Gandhi. Strikingly, as per the same poll, the stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and the inimitable Atal Bihari Vajpayee don’t even blip on the radar anymore.
Psst …Top Secret!
Let this impression be trashed at the outset that the Netaji mystery belongs to a different era. No doubt it started in 1945; but it has been simmering till date. The controversy is a bombshell and that’s what the official records hint at. Netaji is supposed to have died at the end of Second World War, and yet the Indian Government continues to sit on files about him. And they are wary of approaching the British and Russian Governments to release the papers they are keeping to themselves.
But why so much of precaution over some details about man who ceased to be a problem to his adversaries in and outside India decades back? This is for you Gen-X dudes: Some of the classified Netaji files maintained by the Government of India are of mid-1990s vintage! That is, post-Rajiv Gandhi period. Perish the idea … “Oh, such an old story, what is the fuss now!” The Government of India wouldn’t agree. They think there is something about Netaji that can spell big time trouble even now. That’s why they refused to hand over several Top Secret files to the Mukherjee Commission and later to Mission Netaji. Why would they be doing so? Well, in the case of two Narasimha Rao period files, they reasoned that the “disclosure of the nature and contents of these documents would … hurt the sentiments of the people at large and may evoke wide-spread reactions …. Diplomatic relations with friendly countries may also be adversely affected if the said documents are disclosed.”
To Mission Netaji, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that the documents are so sensitive, their public disclosure may lead to a serious law and order problem in the country.
Should not we demand to know what these documents have to say? How on earth some bits about a dead man affect India’s relations with other countries, or sparking unrest within the country? Should not we ask our Government to state facts? Don’t we have a right to know what happened to the man who liberated us?
Pre-conceived notions
It’s cynicism exemplified when people say, “How long we can go on inquiring?” If Americans, for instance, were to be besotted with same defeatist thinking, they would not have become the great power they are. Indeed they don’t give up. How can one leave out in cold those who fight for one’s country? Last year only the US Government asked the Indian Government to help them trace out their missing WWII airmen. Netaji went missing while waging war for freedom for us and we don’t want to know what happened to him. What is it if not brazen ungratefulness?
Those who dismissively say that “there have been commissions after commissions” have no idea whatsoever what sort of frauds were played on the nation by the previous “commissions”. In 1956, Shah Nawaz Khan, a Congress MP and a secretary to then Railway Minister, headed a committee – a puppet on a string, actually. There are reasons to believe that he did what he was told by Nehru government. After his “command performance” Shah Nawaz was made a minister. GD Khosla, who headed a commission in early 1970s, was a friend of Nehru’s to start with. He wrote the biography of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi even as he inquired into Netaji’s disappearance. Can you imagine such things happening now? Both these panels declared that Netaji had died in a plane crash in Taiwan. Never mind that they did not bother to know what the Taiwan Government thought much as people wanted them to.
“But the issue is dead!” Ok, for argument’s sake, if that was the case a few years ago, it is ALIVE NOW. A Commission of Inquiry headed by a former judge of the Supreme Court of India handed over his report to the Government of India, stating clearly that Netaji did not die in the so-called plane crash. The Government rejected it in one sentence, and killed the debate in the Parliament to prevent its ramifications.
Perplexing past
Funny how people jump to conclusions. “My grandfather was in the INA and he said Netaji died and therefore I believe so.” This is how some give their verdict on the issue the nation is debating for 6 decades. If only it were that easy. There were over 50,000 people aligned with the Provisional Government of Free India and only a handful knew what happened to Netaji in his last known days. The rest were in as much dark as the Indians back home. They all heard stories … Netaji died or Netaji escaped. The truth, or inkling of it, came out after interrogations and inquiries, whose reports are not in public domain.
On August 25, 1945 the Indian newspapers broke the news that Netaji had died in a freak plane crash in Taipei (then Taihoku) on August 18th. He had been flying to Tokyo to work out the INA’s surrender when this happened. The British would believe none of it. Viceroy Wavell noted in his diary on 23 August that “I wonder if the Japanese announcement of Subhas Chandra Bose’s death in a air-crash is true. I suspect it very much, it is just what should be given out if he meant to go underground…” They dispatched their crack intelligence teams to South East Asia. The findings were bewildering. Netaji was not heading to Tokyo. Months before the world war staggered to a halt, he had begun planning a new chapter of his war on colonialism. He saw the Cold War coming and reached out to the USSR. The British intelligence got clear information that Subhas was going to Russia at the time of his death. The Japanese had given out a false story about his destination. The survivors of the crash were rounded up and records were captured. The pictured that emerged was of deceit. Eyewitnesses were found to be lying and records appeared as if they had been planted.
Americans chipped in with help. In fact it were they who had the best knowledge. They reached Taiwan in September 1945 and guess what they found. ” … there is no direct evidence that Subhas Chandra Bose was killed in a airplane crash … despite the public statements of the Japanese to that effect.” This, stated the State Department, ten months after Netaji’s “death”. What really happened? “The D.I.B. during his recent visit to London mentioned the receipt … of information to the effect that Subhas Bose was alive in Russia.” This is from a May 1946 report and D.I.B. means, the Director of Intelligence Bureau Sir Norman Smith.
The Government of free India knew about the Soviet connection to the Netaji mystery. But all they did was to dilly-dally and state that no inquiry was required. It took ten years of pressure before Prime Minister Nehru agreed to inquire into the matter. This must be hammered: the Government never wanted to probe Netaji’s fate. From Shah Nawaz to Manoj Mukherjee, each time they were forced to. Isn’t it revolting?
Present perfect
Thank God for Mukherjee Commission! Or shall we thank Mikhail Gorbahev? The fall of the USSR brought the Netaji issue out. In mid-1990s the Russians themselves began saying that Subhas was with them after his death. The matter reached India and the press did rake it up. But Narasimha Rao, with Pranab Mukherjee in tow, would not say a thing. A patriotic fellow moved to Calcutta High Court and the court found the matter to be wide open for inquiry. The Government was chided and told to form a commission of inquiry to find out where and how Netaji had died. Mercifully, at the time the verdict came, the NDA was in power.
The inquiry of the Mukherjee Commission has been pathbreaking. The commission found out, among others, that the Government of India, at the PMO level, indulged in systematic, unlawful destruction of evidence concerning the Netaji death case. The Government did not want any inquiry in Taiwan, which is precisely what Justice Mukherjee did. The result: the Republic of China Government ruled out the very occurrence of the crash that we had been told over decades had killed Netaji.
Indian Government also did not want any inquiry in Russia; but after much pulls and pressures, the Mukherjee Commission visited Russia. However, that wasn’t a good enough development. The Government’s didn’t do anything to help the Commission access security and intelligence related classified papers in Russia, said to be containing definite information about Netaji’s “post-death” life. Time has come for us, the people of India, to demand from our Government something that they should have done decades back: For God’s sake, request the Head of the Russian Government to state facts. The people of India must know what happened to their liberator.
* Note: This Article Was Written in the year 2005
Source : http://subhaschandrabose.org/disappearance/overview.html
Know More : http://subhaschandrabose.org/index.html
PMO has a secret report on Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death but won’t release it
Posted by: koushikzworld on: July 14, 2009
The Government of India seems to have a knack for fermenting unwarranted mysteries. Nearly forty-five years after Lal Bahadur Shastri passed away in the erstwhile USSR, the Prime Minister’s Office has refused to declassify a report throwing light on how its former boss died. If that’s not enough, the Ministry of External Affairs office on the Raisina Hill has no record sent by the Soviets offering details about the circumstances leading to the controversial death of a most eminent guest.
An RTI application seeking details about the former Prime Minister’s death in Tashkent way back in 1966 has for the first time revealed that the PMO is holding one classified record on the issue and that it cannot be declassified under the clause 8(I)(a) of the RTI act. The clause essentially lets the government withhold information/records whose release could harm foreign relations, cause disruption in the country, lead to incitement of an offence, etc.
Mercifully, no record connected to Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death has been destroyed by the PMO or gone missing, as was the case with certain records related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s reported death.
Our straight and simple queries were submitted to the PMO, which handled the two and forwarded the rest to the Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary.
The controversy
There are two conflicting views on Lal Bahadur Shastri’s sudden death at 1:32 am Tashkent time at a Soviet government villa. The official version is that it was due to a heart attack. It has been vouched for by his eldest son and senior Congress leader Anil Shastri. Shastriji had a history of heart ailment. In fact, he nearly died following a heart attack in 1959.
The major proponent of the conspiracy theory were/are from the family itself. Anil’s mother Lalita Shastri was rather vocal that she did not think that her husband died a natural death. She suspected that the water in his thermos flask kept at his bedside had been spiked. Her younger son Sunil Shastri still holds that his father’s death was a mystery and has been raising demands for an inquiry to clear doubts.
How Shastri died
At the week-long, hectic Indian-Pakistan summit at Tashkent, Lal Bahadur Shastri reportedly showed no sign of illness. Following the signing of the agreement at 4pm and a public reception at 8pm on 10 January 1966, he reached the villa at 10pm. Later, he had a light meal prepared by Mohammed Jan, the personal cook of T N Kaul, the Indian Ambassador in Moscow, and Russian butler Akhmed Sattarov. At about 11.30pm, Shastri had a glass of milk. When his personal staff took leave of him, he was all fine.
But at 1:25am, Shastri was awakened by a severe coughing fit. He ran from his room yelling “Doctor, doctor.” His personal doctor R N Chugh and personal staff came to his aid. Shastri was unable to speak and pointed to a flask kept nearby. A staffer brought some water from it, which the Prime Minister sipped a bit.
Shortly afterwards, Shastri became unconscious. Dr Chugh tried to revive him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and an injection. But it was no use.
At 4am, Sattarov was arrested on suspicion of poisoning Shastri. He was later absolved of the charges.
Source: End The Secrecy
China to attack India by 2012: Defence Expert
Posted by: koushikzworld on: July 13, 2009
Bangalore: China will attack India by 2012 to distract the attention of its own people from “unprecedented” internal dissent, growing unemployment and financial problems that are threatening the hold of Communists in that country, according to a leading defence expert.
“China will launch an attack on India before 2012. There are multiple reasons for a desperate Beijing to teach India the final lesson, thereby ensuring Chinese supremacy in Asia in this century,” said Bharat Verma, Editor, Indian Defence Review.
According to Verma, the recession has “shut the Chinese exports shop”, developing an “unprecedented internal social unrest” which in return, was severely jeopardizing Communists grip over the society. Rising unemployment, flight of capital worth billions of dollars, depletion of its foreign exchange reserves and growing internal dissent are several other reasons for this assessment.
“The growing irrelevance of Pakistan, their right hand that operates against India on their behest, is increasing the Chinese nervousness,” adding, the U.S. President Barak Obama’s Afghan-Pak policy was basically a Pak-Afghan policy that has “intelligently set thief to catch the thief”.
“Beijing was already rattled, with its proxy Pakistan now literally embroiled in a civil war, losing its sheen against India.” The assessment also states that China is worried over the India’s growing alliances with the U.S. and the West, because it has the potential to create a technologically superior counterpoise.
“All these three concerns of Chinese Communists are best addressed by waging a war against pacifist India to achieve multiple strategic objectives,” said Verma.
As China allowed North Korea to test underground nuclear explosion is a hidden manner, and carry out missile trials, it was also “increasing its naval presence in South China Sea to coerce into submission those opposing its claim on the Sprately Islands,” the expert said.
It would be inexpedient for recession-hit China to move against the Western interests, including Japan, at this point of time. “Therefore, the most attractive option is to attack a soft target like India and forcibly occupy its territory in the Northeast,” said Verma.
On ground, India is least prepared to face the Chinese threat, he says. Verma puts a series of questions on India’s response to repulse the Chinese game plan or whether Indian leadership would be able to “take the heat of war”.
“Is Indian military equipped to face the two-front wars by Beijing and Islamabad? Is the Indian civil administration geared to meet the internal security challenges that the external actors will sponsor simultaneously through their doctrine of unrestricted warfare? “The answers are an unequivocal ‘no’. Pacifist India is not ready by a long shot either on the internal or the external front,” he opined.
Source : Siliconindia news bureau
Maoists & Writers’ Marxists are ideological comrades
Posted by: koushikzworld on: July 1, 2009
It does not matter whether Lalgarh is 170 km from Writers’ Buildings or just 17 feet away. The attitude and the apologetic defence of the central
forces show it all.
First, Marxist rulers resisted banning the Maoists. Then, the ruling front is at pains to issue daily statements that the central forces will not be allowed to commit excesses on the tribals (read CPM workers). Does the chief minister think that the security forces love to commit excesses on tribals that he had to state in public about being vigilant on them? Was he vigilant against the excesses of the Maoists in the last 10 years? Did he ever issue any statement against their violence and reign of terror? Did he ever think of banning the organization before the Centre exerted pressure on him? Has he issued any one-liner appreciating security jawans for the excellent work they have done risking their lives?
The fact of the matter is, there is hardly any difference between the Maoists and the Marxists ruling from Writers’. Both are invariably ideological comrades one operating from the jungles and the other enjoying urban amenities. Both have alien heroes and adore Lenin, Stalin and Mao, who were responsible for the killings of millions of people. They all have an extra amount of love and loyalty for the alien powers and have no qualms accepting their support. They have never condemned China for 1962 and still have no clear policy on its claim over Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin. And the poor tribals remain cannon fodder for demonstrations, with half-clad villagers wielding indigenous weapons and singing international for a CPM magazine.
One has to go and see the abject poverty and nothingness in areas adjoining Lalgarh. Jungle, soil, leaves, small huts completely synchronizing with the nature and tribal men and women, semi-clad, working day and night to eke out an existence. You will be amazed, what meticulous design it takes to keep your own people so low? It becomes a vested interest for the Red revolutionaries and their art-paper magazine producers to keep people poor, backward, so that they are always ready to provide the crowd and the boys for mass struggle and revolutionaries zeal while the leaders enjoy Padma’s Ilish. And then the usual page 3 clique in metros, would say with an oomph: “Oh, these Marxists are fighting for the poor, like Buddha ji, a very nice man’.” If votes were not diverted in this Lok Sabha election to other non-CPM parties, the CPM tally would have come down from 30 MPs to just one under Mr Nice.
Trinamool, Congress and BJP kept Kolkata Corporation out of CPM’s reach by a clever strategy in 1995 and with a Congress mayor; BJP had its deputy mayor. One must revive that spirit in national interest and make sure that CPM is ousted in the next Assembly election. Only then will Bengal begin to regain pride, ending the era of goli and garibi.
It’s interesting to know how the Marxists reacted to Lalgarh. Was it in consonance with the way they had reacted to other such incidents of violence? It was a sort of a battle to recapture the lost ground by the CPM from local tribals, who had formed a committee against police repression aided by Marxist workers. Hence the ghost of Maoists helped. The newspapers writing fearlessly against Buddha’s partisan regime were stopped ads and the other Bangla paper had to proclaim it feared none but god and hence it will continue to expose Buddha’s helping hand to the Lalgarh’s red Stalins. The historical truth is Marxism has always been rude to its own people and deceit and doublespeak have been ingrained in it since the early formations of the Bolsheviks when bread and dictatorship of the proletariat were assured.
Now, what will happen to the tribals when the security forces leave Lalgarh? Someone needs to ask what has been the contribution of the government in West Bengal swearing by an ideology that binds it into a psychological camaraderie with Maoists both promising the rule of the proletariat? What the poor got except bullets and backwardness?
(The writer is director, Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation)
Source From: Times Of India
Sarabjit Singh’s fate still hangs in balance
Posted by: koushikzworld on: June 26, 2009
Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh’s fate still hangs in balance as there seems to be no hope for him. With every passing day, the man is surely inching closer to gallows and his execution now looks imminent.
The Pakistan Supreme Court’s dismissal of his review petition, challenging the death sentence given to him for his alleged involvement in bomb attacks in 1990, has closed all legal options for him and thus all hopes of his release are fast fading.
The Pakistan Supreme Court’s dismissal of his review petition, challenging the death sentence given to him for his alleged involvement in bomb attacks in 1990, has closed all legal options for him and thus all hopes of his release are fast fading.The chances are less likely that Pakistan authorities will now succumb to New Delhi’s pressure and reconsider their decision to hang Sarabjit Singh.
The development is surely a setback for Pakistan’s Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney, who campaigned hard to highlight Sarabjit Singh’s case and pleaded that the Pakistan establishment view the case from a humanitarian angle.
Months of media trumpeting of the issue and the emotional appeals made by Sarabjit’s family especially his sister Daljeet Kaur, who visited her brother in Kot Lakhpat jail in Pakistan, bore no fruits.
The issue has been raised at several fora by Human Rights organisations and his family has lobbied hard seeking New Delhi’s urgent intervention in the case.
Owing to media-generated public outcry over the issue, the Indian government has in the past used official channels to put pressure on Pakistan to revert its decision to show clemency to Sarabjit Singh.
At regular intervals, New Delhi has conveyed the strong sentiments of Indians to Islamabad and hoped for some leniency from the Pakistan side over the issue.
But all effort seems to have been wasted as the political developments in the two countries have changed a lot and the bilateral ties between the two nuclear states are at their lowest level.
After the deadly terrorist strikes in Mumbai last year, the Indian government has cut off all dialogue with Islamabad and asked it to fulfil its commitment to stem terrorism first before coming to the negotiating table.
The stand taken by the Indian government is appropriate considering the proven involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists in the ghastly attacks, which claimed the lives of nearly 183 people of different nationalities.
The standoff between the two countries is posing a serious threat to peace and tranquillity in the Indian subcontinent. Besides, Pakistan’s continued support to militant outfits and separatist forces in J&K, no action against the key LeT and JuD figures and recent rise in cross border infiltration has further worsened the situation.
And recently, the easy acquittal of Jamat-ud-Dawah chief and mastermind of the Mumbai carnage Hafiz Saeed by the Pakistani High Court, came as a major jolt for the Indian government, which now doubts Pakistan’s credibility to act against terror.
In the backdrop of the hostile environment, which is further pushing the two sides away from holding peace parleys, New Delhi has limited options in Sarabjit Singh’s case.
The government can only make an appeal on humanitarian grounds since Sarabjit Singh has been convicted after a lengthy trial.
The two sides have locked horns on several issues and if the Indian government presses hard on the matter pertaining to Sarabjit, it might give Pakistan a chance to bargain a deal for releasing hardcore Pakistani prisoners languishing in Indian jails.
So the ball clearly lies in Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s court, who constitutionally, has the power to pardon or remit his sentence.
But, President Zardari has so far failed to take any decision amidst fears that granting pardon to him would aggravate problems for his government on the domestic front.
In view of the resurgence of PML-N and its top leader Nawaz Sharif and reinstatement of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a weakened Pakistan President will not like to harm his reputation in his country.
Zardari is fully aware that if he grants amnesty to Sarabjit Singh, then he will have to face the anger and frustration of the Pakistani Awam, amid allegations of succumbing to New Delhi’s pressure.
Further, if the government repeals Sarabjit’s death sentence, the extremists elements will take advantage of the situation, get validity and public sanction for their militant activities.
And if it goes ahead with the execution of Sarabjit Singh, the country risks annoying New Delhi, which has time and again reprimanded it for lack of co-operation to bring the perpetrators of Mumbai attack to justice.
So the best bet for President Zardari would be to delay the execution for the time being.
One more interesting thing, which needs to be mentioned here is the role played by Sarabjit’s lawyer Rana Abdul Hamid, whose non-pursuance of the case led to the dismissal of Sarabjit’s mercy petition.
Hamid, who has admitted lapse on his part and pledged to approach the authorities again to save his client’s life, might have shied away from attending the court proceedings under pressure from terrorist groups.
Whatever one says, the news has come as a bolt from the blue for Sarabjit’s family, which has been praying for his safe return. The family is braving all odds and has still not lost hope that Sarabjit will be back with them one day.
It also remains to be seen whether India is willing to go that extra mile and ask Pakistan through diplomatic channels for a rethink on the matter. No one knows whether Sarabjit is really guilty, no one is sure whether he is actually an Indian spy, but his case surely depicts the deplorable condition of hundreds of ordinary prisoners who are languishing in jails on both sides and awaiting a final verdict on their fate.
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End The Secrecy
Posted by: koushikzworld on: June 20, 2009
A new website has been launched on the declassification of files in India.
They Say:
” We are aiming big — making the state of declassification in India comparable to the world’s best democracies. We also want the people of our generation to better their understanding of some of the complex issues of our recent past and present with the help of officials records and responses.
In a way, we want to straighten out a big problem area highlighted in the Second Administrative Reforms Commission report of 2007: “The most contentious issue in the implementation of the Right to Information Act relates to official secrets.” “
Visit now : http://www.endthesecrecy.com/index.html
Prasun Dutta
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