Opinion Tragedy and farce
Exactly a week after the attack on the Congress convoy and an hour after the CRPF lost one of its men in Chhattisgarh,the BJPs response
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Exactly a week after the attack on the Congress convoy and an hour after the CRPF lost one of its men in Chhattisgarh,the BJPs response to the tragedy sunk to a new low.
Its spokesperson demanded a narco test be conducted on Kawasi Lakhma,the Congress MLA who survived the attack,and a probe into the absence of some Congress leaders from the Parivartan Yatra seen as a cynical and cruel demand as some of these missing leaders had other engagements that day.
Top leaders of both parties have already accused each other of having a secret pact with the Maoists in several states for electoral gain. Coming soon after the biggest Maoist attack on a political rally,these statements,if taken as usual political rhetoric,confirms that the Indian polity is not capable of dealing with the Maoists. And if even an iota of truth is involved,it proves what is widely believed in Maoists zones such as Bastar and Jharkhand that politicians have nourished the rebels for their interests. And that the paradox of Bastar,the ultra-Left Maoist capital electorally dominated by a Right-wing party,is actually a clandestine deal between the two groups a unity of purpose between the extreme Left and the extreme Right.
Amid the growing demand for an all-out approach and to bring the Army in,the first question that needs to be asked is whether this polity is capable of protecting the interests of citizens? If this political executive cannot respect the deaths of police and paramilitary personnel,and even its own political brethren,can it be trusted with the task of giving orders to the armed forces against the Maoists?
Instead of initiating a concrete debate over the security challenge,all this polity has done last week is to create a smokescreen and obfuscate crucial issues. As the s,it must also consider the claims of these top leaders. The charge of the two biggest political parties having links with the Maoists is too serious to be ignored as rhetoric.
Summon these top leaders to produce evidence to back their claims. Punish them if the accusations are established; publicly censure them if it was just a bluff. Their voters deserve an answer.
Ashutosh is a special correspondent based in Raipur
ashutosh.bhardwaj@expressindia.com
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