Well, this was really a treat to my eyes and my blood started pumping with more vigour as I read the newspapers this morning talking about how the then Corps Commander of 15 Corps Lt Gen Krishan Pal had mislead the nation about Kargil intrusion. Very few believed when I and my other like-minded scribes and thinkers thought that if India has to win the Kargil war, it first needs to turn the mouth of Bofors gun towards this disgraced General who was not playing only with the sovereignty of the nation but with the youth of this country who had joined the Army. The result was that while others were checked out of the war zone, I had to end up been beaten by some army jawans in Hotel Zozila's room number 306 (ostensibly as a case of mistaken identity). At last, justice prevailed and poor Batalik-based Brigade commander Devinder Singh got justice. He not only got his honour back but also forced the Army to rewrite the battle history (has anyone heard of this). Well dear readers, my point is not to bore you with the details of what you may have read in the newspapers but to underline a fact that Gen Pal was habitual in hiding things from the government. When the first patrol of Lt Saurabh Kalia went missing, he had hid the fact from his superiors and Government for long. At least till the heat of Kargil war swept his feet away and Pakistanis returned the body of brave Indian soldiers in a mutilated condition. And when We reported, Gen Pal put all his machinery at his disposal to deny the story with assistance from the Army headquarters. When the turn for gallantry medals came, Gen Pal ignored the supreme sacrifice of Lt Kalia and his men -- whose disappearance had given the first signals of intrusion -- and instead chose to stand the queue for medal and got it also (sycophancy pays). Another such incident was that of November 4, 1999 when heavily-armed terrorist of Lashker-e-Taiba entered into Army Cantonment and gunned down Major Pramod Purushottam (God I miss him even today with the same intensity). While I was reporting about the attack, what puzzled me when one of my senior was summoned by the office of the then Defence Minister George Fernandes. The issue was that Gen Pal had informed the Ministry and Army headquarters that the attack was not on cantonment but outside and media was unnecessarily playing it up. Major Purushottam not only showed exemplary courage and bravery in taking the entire heat of the attack but also showed presence of mind in ensuring safety of two journalists who had come to see him. Wish Purushottam had allowed the terrorists to sneak up to Gen Pal's office, at least the moron could have seen actual battle. Now wonder will the self-decorated General Pal, who must have achieved all his medals through a canard of lies (at least three examples are there), be ever tried for his lies. Will the nation set an example by punishing at least one of these red-collared Generals.
What could be happening. Is it raining bullets? Are people running away? These thoughts were going in my mind at a height of 24,000 feet in a Jet Aiways plane while I was on way to Mumbai on the afternoon of November 27, 2008 (Thursday). Barely a week before this terror strike, I was in megalopolis in connection with the Malegaon blast investigation which had shown extremists belonging to a little known Hindu group having done this act. For me things were definitely not the same as I was missing Hemant Karkare and Ashok Kamte - two officers whom I had met during my trip. Little did I know that I will be writing their obituary a week later. (May their soul rest in peace).
As the plane touched the runway, I switched on my phone only to see that there were some messages. Immediately upon arrival along with a colleague of mine, I met another fellow scribe and we were quick enough to exchange our notes. One person had been picked up by Mumbai police (God give solace to Tukaram Omble's soul) but no one was sure of the identity. After a calls by my fellow guy from the fraternity, we came across the name as Ajmal Amir Amin Mir alias "Kasai" which later turned out to b Ajmal Amir Kasab. After necessary formalities of stories over a period of following days, the picture was clear that Kasab was the modern face of terrorism whose face will haunt several families for years to come. He has been sentenced to Death and rightly so. But my issue is not Kasab, because from the word go of the trial was to end in the verdict -- to be hanged till dead, what intrigues me is the role of Mumbai's stake holders (read Shiv Sena and MNS). I believe their must be too many rat holes where these stake holders must have stashed themselves. (Interested people may read (http://kashmir-timemachine.blogspot.com/2009/01/w-hen-i-was-thinking-of-going-to-bed.html) What I want to focus is on lies of Mumbai Police in the case for implicating Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed. Tough they are being tried in other cases in Uttar Pradesh, why were they implicated in this case? And for few actors, Kasab proved to be a platform to jump into limelight.
Rakesh Maria, the then Joint Commissioner of Crime and Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, emerged as self-styled heroes in this field. All riding on the piggy of hard work of extremely intelligent officials of Intelligence Bureau who spent days and nights tracking every movement. While they were toiling to get all the clinching evidence to nail Pakistan, Maria and his gang were busy conceiving a mischievous plan of hogging the limelight and were helped by then Commissioner of Police Hassan Gafoor, who had hid himself in a hall rather than being in a control room of police. The case went to crime branch and within no time, two people were picked from Uttar Pradesh jail -- Fahim Ansari and Sabbauddin Ahmed -- I jumped out of my bed because these arrests were made by February 2008 and I had, through my contacts, procured their interrogation report where they had said that they wanted to carry out reconnaissance of Mumbai but could not manage. What is their role in this attack, was a constant question that I was asking myself. Even the charge sheet filed by the Mumbai Crime Branch against these two was nothing but lies lies and lies. The only truth in the voluminous charge sheet was the intercepts made by IB officials and other details provided by the US investigators. A concerted campaign was launched by Maria and his gang by their so-called leaks to media. (The leaks were bigger than Bhopal gas tragedy with only difference that in Bhopal human lives were lost but here the brains of lakhs of Indians were washed). Maria would have carried through with his bunch of lies had not David Headley arrest been made by the FBI and subsequently his confession of carrying out all reconnaissance activities for Lashker-e-Taiba terror group. Maria did not know where to hide his face after Headley slapped on his investigation from thousands of miles in Chicago.
Ujjwal Nikam, a lawyer, who represented the state pretended as if Maria's truth was the final verdict about Ansari and Ahmed. He, no less than a clown, stood in front of media and projected as if he had just turned the tables in favour of Indians. Nikkam Saheb, wake up...the court gave death to Kasab whom the entire world had watched spraying bullets at innocents. Nikkam could manage to make the media follow but not the Honourable Judge of the court who lambasted him for lies on Ansari and Ahmed. Even a rookie lawyer could have ensured death penalty for Kasab then what is the big deal about you. Any Answers.
Himanshu Roy: God I feel like laughing when he appeared in a white dress and denim before the media today and started narrating the proceedings inside the court. An officer, who is generally perceived as a page three hopper in Mumbai circles, was talking about Kasab and investigations and blah blah blah till he came to the HIS MASTERS VOICE. "The investigations done by Maria ji......." enough for me to switch off the television set. Rather shut the "stud Roy". So friends this is Mumbai Police and Nikkam's role in the entire investigations....God bless this country and help us get rid of such rats. Amen
What we missed on these days: So many things, I guess...and over a period of time I have been seeing that Television news has been corrupting and narrowing the intellectual skills of the country. I am writing this blog after so many days because somewhere in this world at least one person will be happy to see me back on this sphere of writing. The issue today I have chosen is the "Breaking News" concept of Television Channels. The nation saw two major controversies breaking in these days -- corruption in Indian Premier League and Phone Tapping of telephones -- Stop and think for a moment, whether this was something new. While the Indians were seen debating and passing the buck or stopping the buck somewhere, 500 kilometres from Raipur in India's Chattisgarh state, nearly 120 jawans were sending SOS messages to their headquarters for ration, drinking water and mosquito repellent cream as they have been encircled by Naxals, who are only blocking essential supplies to them. No buck was stopped or braking the news was done for these hapless para-military personnel who are ready to shed every drop of their blood for their "Mother Land" ( I guess this word has lost relevance). Ah there is a noted socialite from Mumbai whom you can find on a prime television channel discussing everything -- Nuclear issues, rape, mowing down of people in BMW, IPL, Phone tapping as if there was an intellectual bankruptcy in the country. The other was about closing down of airport in Kashmir between June 20 to July 10 because of the Indian Air Force wanted to carryout the resurfacing of the runway. This decision meant that over a lakh population in Kashmir would have suffered. From hoteliers to an ordinary Shikara wala would have suffered. And silently away from the flashing TV channels was seen Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah walking from one ministry to another to ensure that the tourism season did not suffer. He succeeded and ensured that the plan was deferred till the tourism season was a little low. His reason was that both tourism and Amarnath Yatra would have suffered as not only tourists but pilgrims used the air travel. This news was never seen on any television set. After all the suffering of people does not bring them at TAM or TRP ratings. A big man or woman has to be involved. Phone tapping brought another scam of auction of 2G in which a prominent PR personality has accused of lobbying for a minister. Ironically, the PR personality phones have some intercepts with a prominent TV English News Anchor (any guesses) and a former Editor of a major English daily. Wonder whether anything is ever going to happen. At least that TV news channel has given it a decent burial, I only wonder how soon the newspapers would also stop it. I will try and bring this blog to life...With love and now let me keep a watch on further breaking. One day I may end up breaking the TV itself. But I guess the cartoon below explains our TV channels the best...please do down load it.(courtesy toondo.com)
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