The Sena-BJP smokescreen

— Ramayana, many centuries ago and, more lately, Justice Srikrishna in his one-page `Epilogue’ to the voluminous report on the 1992-93 Mumbai riots.

It is apparent that Justice Srikrishna had a fair inkling of how the Shiv Sena-led government would treat his findings. For he says, “The Commission sincerely hopes that the calamitous events of December 1992, January 1993 and March 1993 (the bomb blasts) would serve as eye openers and lead to introspection and that all concerned attain the maturity to accept constructive criticism and mend their ways.”

For the voluminous evidence produced before the Commission, he says, “strikingly brings home the stark reality that the beast in man keeps straining at the leash to jump out; frictions… based on colour,race and religion are but excuses”.

Nothing could be clearer to the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in Maharashtra. But, not belying Justice Srikrishna’s fears and defying his hopes, the Government has predictably accused a man, described as a “very upright and honest judge” by all, and a devout, practising Hindu to boot, as “anti-Hindu”, just because the report did little to sugarcoat the bitter pill.

Speaking to The Indian Express last week, the Judge said: “I cannot allow my religious convictions to creep into my report. My findings had to be based on the material of hard evidence on record.”

And, so, the Sena-led government failed miserably in diverting attention away from not only their involvement in the 1992-93 riots but also in attempting to foster the impression that the riots and the serial bomb blasts of March 12, 1993 were part of a common design. Had they been, the Sena could have succeeded with its theory of `retaliation’ (a euphemism for massacre). Instead, theparty has doubly exposed itself for what it really is.

For, after the Sena-BJP government added the probe of the bomb blasts to Justice Srikrishna’s terms of reference on January 22, 1997 (eight months to the day they revived the Commission (in May 1996) after abolishing it a year earlier, in January 1996), it had nothing new to say on the blasts. There was — and is — already a Designated Court going in detail into the blasts conspiracy.

Chief Minister Manohar Joshi expressed a peeved reaction at the blasts probe being dismissed in four pages by Justice Srikrishna while he devoted more than 200 pages to his findings on the riots. However, Joshi, it is clear, had attempted yet another exercise in misrepresentation.

For when the Commission requested for more information from the Home Department on the blasts, “by an affidavit of the Additional Chief Secretary (Home), dated February 5, 1997, the Commission was informed that all the material which the government had been in possession of, had beendisclosed in the affidavits of (top-ranking police officials) Amarjit Singh Samra, dated August 25, 1995, Vasant Narsingrao Deshmukh, Mahesh Narain Singh, Satish Sawhney, Shivajirao K. Babar and Rakesh Maria (all dated September 25, 1995) and that there was no other material besides this.”

So the Commission issued a public notice in all newspapers calling upon all members of the public to disclose by any affidavit any information they may have in connection (with the blasts). The only affidavit filed on August 2, 1995 was by an advocate, Prabhakar V. Pradhan.

However, Pradhan’s affidavit appeared to be based on rumours and did not provide any concrete material of use to the Commission. “All that he says is that he had causally bumped into someone who claimed hat the serial bomb blasts were the handiwork of the Central Intelligence Agency of the USA and not the outcome of revenge of Muslims because of the demolition of Babri Masjid or the riots of December 1992 and January 1993… The affidavit appearsto be sheerly speculative,” says Justice Srikrishna.

Since the government claimed that all about the blasts was contained in the affidavits of the police officers, it cannot now pass the buck on.

For according to Justice Srikrishna, “a cumulative reading of the affidavits leads to the following: as a result of the demolition of the Babri Masjid and subsequent riots, there was a communal cleavage in Bombay. Muslims were left with a feeling of insecurity, tension and anger… and they were inclined to blame the State government (then run by the Congress) and the police for their misery, (feeling that the two authorities) had actually acted against their interests by joining hands with the communal elements which took a lead in the riots.”

A large number of Muslim youth came to firmly believe in this theory and they were exploited by anti-national elements aided and abetted by the ISI of Pakistan (who) brainwashed them into believing that they should take revenge for the humiliation and misery heapedupon them, says the report.

“A grand conspiracy was hatched at the instance of the notorious smuggler Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar operating from Dubai to recruit young Muslims (who were) taken to Pakistan for intensive training in the handling of sophisticated weapons and explosives. Aided and abetted by other criminals… they smuggled a large consignment of arms and ammunition, landing them on the Raigad (Maharashtra) and Gujarat coasts,” further smuggled inwards to different parts of Mumbai and finally used in the March 12 blasts.

“Investigations revealed the wide ramifications of the conspiracy… The role of one Tiger Memon and his relatives came to particular notice… (apart from that of 145 other accused and 44 absconders).” Justice Srikrishna is very clear why he has not devoted another tome to the blasts conspiracy probe: “Since the charges against the accused are pending trial before the Designated Court at Bombay, the Commission does not deem it proper to deal with the details of theaccusations against the different accused who are standing trial before the Designated Court.”

He is also very precise about his findings: “Suffice it to say that all the accused, except two or three, are Muslims and there is no doubt that the major role in the conspiracy, at the Indian end as well as the foreign end, was played by Muslims.”

This might have been music to the Sena-BJP’s ears but for his subsequent observations: “One common link between the riots of December 1992 and January 1993 and the bomb blasts of March 12, 1993 appears to be that the former appear to have been a causative factor of the latter… There is no material placed before the Commission indicating that the riots during December 1992 and January 1993 and the serial blasts were part of a common design.” That is the Sena’s bitter but wholesome truth.

Justice Srikrishna, though, has a parting shot — “a ringing exhortation from Shankaracharya” — for those who would disbelieve his findings:

Tvayi Mayi chaanyatraikoVishnuh,
Vyartham Kupyasi mayyasahishnuh

(The same God resides in you and me; why then be needlessly angry with me)!!

The double exclamation marks are Justice Srikrishna’s.