Murder must out

The brutal murder of former Gujarat minister Haren Pandya comes as a reminder that the threat of violence in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat — even while it may not be as overt as it was a year ago — is very much a part of the state’s reality. It is amazing that those who preside over a state that has been on permanent alert since the Akshardham Temple massacre, one that has evoked the clauses of Pota so freely in order, supposedly, to ensure the security of people, were clueless about the security threat facing one of their more prominent and controversial colleagues. It is amazing, too, that Pandya was discovered with his bullet injuries only two hours after he had been attacked in one of the most high profile localities of Ahmedabad, and that too in the clear light of day.

There has been endless speculation over the identity of Pandya’s assassins, and several theories have already been propounded in this regard. Some are convinced that it is the mafia—whose wrath Pandya courted as Gujarat’s home minister during the Keshubhai government—that is behind the dastardly attack. Some, more rash, lay the blame at Pakistan’s door and see it as a plot to eliminate a ‘‘Hindu leader’’. Others still believe that the reasons for it are located in the state’s politics, since the assassinated man happened to be both ambitious and charismatic. It has therefore become incumbent upon the state government to get to the truth in the shortest possible time. In fact, Narendra Modi has a personal reason to ensure that this happens because of the well-publicised spat between him and the late MLA from the Ellis Bridge constituency. Pandya’s supporters, by raising angry anti-Modi slogans in the wake of their leader’s death, have only added to the confusion. It is probably this factor that has forced Modi to order a CBI inquiry into the murder, although the possible inter-state dimensions of the case have been cited as the official reason for the step.

Whatever the Gujarat chief minister’s compulsions may be, the CBI is the right agency to handle this sensitive matter. It is quite obvious that the state police will not be able to do the job with any credibility. Not only did they conduct themselves in the most partisan and incompetent manner imaginable during last year’s riots and carnage, they could not protect Pandya’s life in the first place. The Centre must now ensure that the Gujarat government is left in no doubt that it is expected to cooperate fully with the CBI and ensure that Pandya’s killers are exposed and punished as urgently as possible.