Radical agent

Digvijay Singh,as part of a fact-finding tour to the town of Azamgarh,decided in his wisdom to declare that he felt there should be a probe into the Batla House encounter in 2008. In that encounter,police raided an apartment in south-east Delhi that was serving,reportedly,as a safe house for members of the Indian Mujahideen,a group responsible for several city bombings. What matters for the people of Azamgarh,of course,was that many of the dead had links to the town,and had grown up there. But now the message is out: that the AICC General Secretary in charge of the Congress partys political fortunes in Uttar Pradesh wants to encourage those who doubt a key success in internal security and policing. Remember,the cops involved in the encounter were honoured by the first UPA government.

If Digvijay Singh thinks that his partys political fortunes will not revive without this sort of competitive pandering,then he has drawn an absurdly incorrect conclusion from the last election. And,in the course of destroying his partys electoral revival,he will also permit the radicalisation of opinion and attendant dangers; he will have wantonly driven a further wedge between the angry of Azamgarh and their government. A sensitive political approach would have taken the anger and concern of a shocked town and turned it inward,encouraging the town to ask what happened,and how to prevent it from happening again. But,instead,we have Digvijay Singh encouraging the worst of all possible conspiracy theories: that the encounter was faked.

The Congress has managed to script an implausible revival for itself in UP. The 20-plus seats from UP it won in the last Lok Sabha elections did not just ensure that the party would be a serious contender in the next assembly elections,it also showed the viability of a politics of governance and aspiration. Singh has put that revival at risk but,even more importantly,with each word he attacks the credibility of his own partys government,and retards societys healing. Certainly,he may now want to clarify that he never specified that the encounter was fake. But the damage is done and he must know it. That the slow,painful process of acceptance and re-integration should be derailed in this manner by a mainstream politician is unacceptable. Such blatant irresponsibility calls for a direct reminder from the home minister that the matter has been extensively investigated and is now closed. Then,perhaps,we can all move on politically?