Bangla catharsis

Almost 42 years after Bangladesh liberation war, a sense of justice appears dawning upon collective wound consciousness of 160 million people. The International Crimes Tribunal has sentenced heads of Jamaat-e-Islami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed with death and Ghulam Azam to 90 years in jail, for crimes against humanity for their respective roles during 1971 war of Independence. The judicial balm should help the young nation to come to terms with blood-letting of unimaginable scale in months preceding Independence.

Indeed, soils of South Asia found no difference between blood and water, after British succumbed to treacherous two nation theory of Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah. But within 24 years, the world realized that religions hardly make for nations, after people in East Pakistan rose to assert their cultural and linguistic identity.

For nine months till Bangladesh was born on December 16, 1971, brutal suppression by Pakistani army and their local Islamist collaborators accounted for three million deaths, two lakh rapes of women and exodus of 10 million people to India. And so, Judges of the trial tribunal termed the suppression worst genocide after World War-II. A few of them also called Pakistani army and their local collaborators worse than Adolf Hitler.

So, the tribunal, most appropriately, awarded death penalty to 65-year-old Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed. Few days ago, the tribunal sentenced head of the Islamist group, 91-year-old Ghulam Azam, to 90 years in jail. Earlier, tribunal in its first verdict in January this year had awarded death sentence to former Jamaat leader Abul Kalam Azad, while another convict Abdul Quader Mollah was given life term. Furthermore, the tribunal awarded death sentences to vice-president of Jamaat, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, and fundamentalist preacher Muhammad Quamaruzzaman.

Even though Jamaat is making spirited efforts to shut down Dhaka and other cities, its leaders were indisputably

convicted for crime against humanity. The convicts had led Al Badr militia, consisting of student wings of Jamaat, and most dreadfully eliminated top Bengali intelligentsia, including journalist Sirajuddin Hossain, famous musician Altaf Mahmud and freedom fighter Rumi. Worse, they were convicted for persecution of minority Hindu also. By all accounts, Al Badr had acted as an auxiliary wing of the Pakistani army.

Arguably, sentencing of war crime convicts is not just bringing a few individuals to justice alone. As is true for a young nation, history and politics quite easily intermingle in Bangladesh. Also true is the fact those nine months long liberation war was led and fought by those who swore by secular beliefs. But the short and turbulent history of Bangladesh witnessed military coups on the way. And in a parallel to Islamisation unveiled by Pakistani dictator Zia ul Haque, Bangladesh too saw phases of liberal society challenged by religious hardliners. And now Jamaat is trying to portray war crime trials as a threat to Islam.

Additionally, main opposition Bangladesh National Party led by Khalida Zia, though secular in orientation, banks on Jamaat for political gains. And for obvious reasons, she has questioned fairness and quality of war crime trials. But it’s also true that ruling party, Awami League led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, had sought people’s mandate in 2008 elections to prosecute war crime accused. She got massive popular support and came to power with two-third majority. Fulfilling the commitment, she formed the tribunal in 2010.

While some experts would like to see Dhaka events as fallout of the fight of two Begums – Sheikh Hasina, daughter of founder of the nation, Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman, and Khalida Zia, widow of the first military ruler, Zia-ur-Rahman. The election in Bangladesh is due early next year. So, Hasina would like others to believe that the trial is nothing but an attempt to divert attention from failures of the incumbent government. However, it can’t be denied that the war crime trial is part of the larger nation building process. The pulse of the people could be seen at Shahbag Square where youth of Bangladesh have demanded highest punishment to war crime convicts.

Though events taking place in Dhaka are clearly internal matters of Bangladesh, India needs to be watchful. The attempt of Islamists to use violence as the means to silence liberal voice in Bangladesh could have spill over effects. India must keep a hawk’s eye on any chances of emergence of Jihadi base in its immediate neighbourhood.

Ishrat in bin-Laden's shoes, Obama in Modi's?

Imagine if the US President Barack Obama too was pursued by the investigators. The most potent argument in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case is that the rule of law does not allow even terrorists being killed in an extra-judicial manner. Fair enough!

The US and India, both victims of terrorist attacks, fight war on terror differently. While there is a clear absence of politics in the state policy of the US on terror, abundance of political interference makes India's fight against terror messy and clumsy.

The Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case is apparently a turning point in the history of India's fight against terror. Spirited efforts are being made to give a credence to the conspiracy theory in the alleged fake encounter. And a number of institutions, critical in fight against terror, are being administered poison pills in the process.

In crude terms, killings of Ishrat Jahan and her male accomplices could at best have been murder cases, 

with sources of bullets found on bodies facing the charges. This much would have been easy for prosecution. But to prove conspiracy behind the killings, that too of political heads, would be asking for moon from the investigators. The prosecutors and investigators know to their best abilities, that to prove conspiracy behind the fake encounter killing of Ishrat Jahan would need enormous circumstantial evidences, which would most likely remain elusive to pin down their obvious targets -- Gujrat chief minister Narendra Modi (safed dadhi- white beard) and his close aide Amit Shah (kali dadhi - black beard).

But there is much to gain in keeping the pot boiling -- politically. This allows the ruling dispensation -- UPA -- an alibi to brand its most potent foe as someone who has blood on his hands.

So, the CBI, which was named "Congress Bureau of Investigation" by former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, continues to hunt in its apparent bid to keep the pot boiling. This interests media and drawing room discussions and in the process serving the inherent political motive. 

Imagine if the US President Barack Obama too was pursued by the investigators in similar fashion. The most potent argument in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case is that the rule of law does not allow even terrorists being killed in an extra-judicial manner. Fair enough!

The voluminous report of a commission constituted by Pakistan has stated that the al-Qaeda fugitive Osama bin-Laden was killed in cold blood. He did not fire a single bullet in his defense. The report is based on multiple eyewitness accounts. So, the killing of bin-Laden was a fake encounter and extra-judicial. Additionally, the US Navy Seal helicopters had taken off from a base in Afghanistan and violated Pakistan's territorial sovereignty. Hence, it was an extra-territorial killing too. For those who know the law will state that bin-Laden killing is a fit case for the trial of Obama in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). 

What's more, the US policy to direct drone attacks within the Pakistani territory to kill terrorists, with army men and innocents killed as collateral damage, also violates rule of law and territorial sovereignty. Extra-territorial and extra-judicial killings -- another ground from Obama's trial in ICJ.

Arguably, the war on terror can not be fight by legal purists. Those who swear by rule of law mostly watch acts of terror on their TV sets. None in the world blinked their eyes even once when the US waged a war against Iraq on fictitious grounds of presence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Saddam Hussain's country. Icing on the cake has been India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh going extra mile to fete the US; from George Bush to Barack Obama. 

But the same UPA, when it comes to fight the terror, allows its "foot-in-the-mouth" politicians like Digvijay Singh, Salman Khurshid to wreak havoc on the police, investigative agencies, etc. While cases are being withdrawn against terror suspects by the Akhilsh Yadav administration in UP, which is a laboratory of the Indian Mujahiddin, efforts to preempt terror strikes are being frustrated.

After 9/11, the US has not seen any major terror strikes. It's for obvious reason, that a clear and specific command flows from the President, that all means be employed to eliminate sources of terror. Not so in India, though.

The Intelligence Bureau (IB) too did the same in events which led to the killings of Ishrat Jahan and her associates."Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were LeT operatives. Pranesh Pillai (claimed to be a Gujrat police informer) could have been double-crossing. The IB had definite information about them, which they accordingly passed on to the Gujrat police. As far as Ishrat is concerned, one may ask what was she doing with terrorists if she was not one," said a senior official, who has overseen a number of high profile investigations.
 
The apologists and those who seek political premium in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter would prop up their sole argument, that even terrorists are not killed in an extra-judicial manner. They need to spend some time with the police, for fake encounter is apparently inherent in their practice to eliminate sources of threat for various factors. 

"If Modi is sought to be implicated for the fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan, then by the same argument former Home Minister P Chidambaram too becomes a suspect in the killing of CPI (Maoist) spokesperson and central committee member Azad Cherukuri Rajkumar by Andhra police in an encounter, considered fake by most, near Sarkapalli village in Adilabad. Will Chidambaram stand trial at some time in future if another government asks the CBI to explore conspiracy behind this fake encounter," said the official quoted earlier. 

  
A Pandora's box may open if top institutions are politically exploited in the manner as is being done. The IB, whatever strength it has, appears to have been given a mortal blow by the UPA government by leaning over to the CBI in its bid to further its political goals. The CBI may even have forgotten its true character and mandate by now. The institution of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has been belittled earlier. 

You may be forgiven if you harm a few men, but not if you harm institutions.

In the US, the state owns up operations against terror, which, incidentally, is not a case with India. It's high time India divorces politics from its war on terror.

Manmohan gives India food 'poison'

"If you can't win votes, buy them out" has been the political philosophy of the Congress after the degeneration set in the party following carcinogenic long rule of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru at the top of the political executive. The buffoons in Congress have succeeded in converting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who brought freshness of economic thoughts in 1990s, to their clan.

Life begins in beauty but ends ugly. This is law of the nature. Even Manmohan Singh can't defy it. His birth in the political executive was nothing short of a beautiful burst of youth. His was a key role in un-Sovieting India. 

But the winter of life brings degeneration. Manmohan's mental health was battered after he was made the Prime Minister, a post he was not made for. "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely" is famous not for no reason. Thrown into the high and turbulent waves of Indian politics, Manmohan became Dhritrashtra overseeing his ruffian offspring to loot and shame India.

Now, the last act, hopefully, of Manmohan is to Soviet India again. This is despite the fact that the Soviet Russia has been within the pages of the world history for over two decades now. But the love for Soviet Russia within the first family, as the Congress indoctrinates people to believe in, is only growing. So, Manmohan, after vacillating for over four years, fell for Sonia Gandhi's (UPA chairperson and Congress president) Soviet obsession. 

In the southern tip of the Indian map, tiny shops dot lanes and bylanes selling "Amma Idli", "Amma Dosa", "Amma Vada", "Amma Sambar" and so on. In the eastern part, the man, who can't speak the native language and "who is rumoured to begin his drinking session by noon", Naveen Patnaik, doles out flat 35 kg of rice at Rs 1 a kg and his people have not yet failed him. In Chhatisgarh, chief minister Raman Singh went a step ahead and enacted a law to this effect. His neighbour -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh -- understood, that you could get votes if you could fill the tummy first. Sonia was a latecomer and thought that this is an insurance against all the follies committed by her men under the Dhritrashtra Prime Minister since 2004.

Thus, the Union Cabinet chaired by Manmohan Singh last evening gave its stamp of approval to National Food Security Bill, which has been drafted not by the government, but by the ultra-Leftists sitting in the extra-Constitutional body called National Advisory Council (NAC), which is headed by none other than Sonia Gandhi herself.   

The government says implementing the Food Bill will cost Rs 1,24,000 crore a year. Wait a moment, as the

government lies often. Go a layer inside. "To begin with, the cost of implementing the Food Bill will be Rs 1,49,000 crore ($25 billion) a year. If you add the cost to ramp up ancillaries (storage, irrigation, etc.), the overall expenses will be Rs 1,95,000 crore ($ 32 billion) a year," said a senior official in the ministry of food and consumer affairs. He forgot to add one thing, that the government raises minimum support prices of paddy and wheat roughly by 10 per cent each year to keep the farmer lobby in a good humour. So, keep adding another Rs 20,000- Rs 25,000 crore every year to the Food Bill cost.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram's head too has spun, after the British news magazine "The Economist" suggested that he could be the man for Rahul Gandhi as Manmohan was for Sonia. Hence, his worries over the current account deficit (CAD) evaporated as if it was a camphor. The Rupee is left on a sliding slope. Dollar reserve in India is taking inspiration from Usain Bolt. But Chidambaram thinks that his first job is to buy votes. How would he be able to girdle his dhoti is to be seen as Amma in Tamil Nadu (J Jayalalitha) is keeping a hawk's eye on him. 

So, the man (Manmohan Singh) who began un-Sovieting India in 1990s is apparently signing off (no one does so, but made by the people) by Sovieting the country again. It's a full circle for him. From where you come, you go there. "You come beautiful, but go ugly" is substantiated by Manmohan Singh with his last act.