The old man and the terrorists

An old man can be dangerous, as he fears nothing. – GB Shaw, Heartbreak House

In a conversation among the conspirators of Abhinav Bharat Dr RP Singh tells Major Ramesh Upadhay, Lt Col Shrikant Prohit and others he had a call from Tehelka and he thundered at the caller “You communist witch. I will parade you naked.” Later Purohit told them that they needed “negotiating ability” in establishing the Hindu Rashtra. To negotiate needs communication ability as such. The doctor lacked the ability, as did Shailash Raiker, in charge of the Bhonsle Military School in Nasik near Malegaon. Raiker remarked that the bomb explosion at Bhiku chowk could not have been the handiwork of a motley group like Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, and others. He overlooked the fact that India is not a banana republic and our military people are not ragtag junta trying to seize power by abrogating the constitution. He even told his reporter he would not like the reporter to take his photo nor to have any mention of his name in any report. But the reporter could write what he liked, he added.

Yes they sorely missed negotiating ability.

What they missed, an old Bengali man had in abundance. He violently reconverted the Christian tribals of the Dangs. He even did not bother about the restraint that former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee and his deputy LK Advani were exerting on him. The Government of Narendra Modi even withheld permission to build a hospital. But he had successfully communicated with the tribals. They bonded well with him even when there was a well-organized hunt for him. This would remind you of Graham Greene’s novel The Power and the Glory. Like the priest of the novel he let the tribals sacrifice animals and drink liquor. More important was preventing their conversion to Christianity or Islam. It was this that set him apart from RSS and other Hindutva groups. He would not play any politics over it, as would Indresh Kumar. Nor would he have any sophistry, as the RSS would indulge in an attempt to prevaricate.

He confessed that on the next day of bomb blast in Malegaon on September 29, 2008 he had picked up two persons, Ramji Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange in his car. A rickshaw driver in Pune had also picked up two passengers on their arrival in Pune from Malegaon after sunset of the day the first terrorist attack on September 8, 2006. These two were talking about how what was scheduled to happen at late night had actually prematurely happened at 130 pm on Friday September 8, 2006. They were obviously talking of Malegaon as they had alighted from a bus coming from that town. The rickshaw driver was shown on a popular TV channel in the night. The police never bothered about this footage. It assumes importance because reports of Nanded 2006 blasts show that Mithun Chakerwarty (Lt Col Shrikant Purohit?) had trained the terrorists of Abhinav Bharat and while parting at the railway station in Pune he handed them the bombs. Were the two passengers coming from Malegaon Sandeep Dange, Sunil Joshi or Ramji? The Pune angle like the Dangs angle was not explored by the investigation agencies. Two senior professors of Wadia college and Rakesh Dhawde were also from there. The place Akansa resort is also located there. To point out these to the investigating agencies is like showing candle to the sun. Aseemanand’s confession in the wake of his encounter with Kaleem in Hyderabad jail has made him expansive. Will he also throw light on these? If he does his communication will bear the hallmark of his integrity. If he diverges into vindication of retributive terrorism it would mean resurgence of his ideological association with RSS.

Another such related matter is that there are people in the country with the same mindset. They want to laugh away the whole matter by comparing the investigation agencies vis-à-vis Aseemanand with Stalin’s smoking pipe. The Russian dictator had lost his pipe and the KGB chief Beria arrested about a dozen suspects of which half died during investigation and the remaining confessed to the crime of stealing the pipe. Of course, Stalin later found it in the papers under his table! The two are not comparable; investigation agencies arresting and having Aseemanand confess the truth and Stalin’s episode. But it reveals the patent RSS habit of berating what is unwanted and undesirable to it.

Those who have died during interrogation like Khwaja Yunus in Ghatkoper case have their ghosts come to haunt us. This may have disturbing effect on those who tortured him and may be some would follow suit of Aseemanand. Or, the accused wrongfully arrested will learn the law of the land and fight back like Shahid Azmi or Dr Farogu Makhdumi. The brilliant fight of the former saved Fahim Ansari from ATS framing him for 26/11 and the latter’s defence in the closing days of the last year has exposed the inanity of the confession sans any corroborative evidence in the Malegaon 2006 case.

Coming to the inner core of communication ability or lack of it in 2006 case there is the incommunicado of SP Rajwardhan under whom the first investigation was done. When the reporters of Asia Express (January 22, 2011) asked him to react to allegation that he is accused by the Muslims youths to be involved in their frame up he refused to speak. But he said that he would tell the CBI.

First the CBI told the Supreme Court that it did not find anything in 2006 case. Later it simply passed on the local police’s and ATS”s chargesheet as if it had thoroughly investigated the matter and came to the same conclusion. This was the greatest blunder the CBI committed.

Now it is in the town again. It has learnt from its mistake and is doing what I wrote some years back, throwing the net wider to catch the culprits behind the Graveyard mosque and Mushawarat chowk attacks. It is striving hard to have three disappeared persons including Arsalan surrender to the police. Now that the whole world press has its focus on Malegaon, the agency thinks, they need not fear torture. On January 20 and 21 2011 the officer gave their cell phone numbers to the people with whom they interacted in a wider range of investigation. This is a commendable work of the CBI officers as easy access is open to all: call to MV Lad 9870285917, Iqbal 9870967107 and Kumar9773201515.

This flies in the face of the mobile that Abrar alleges Rajwardhan had given him and recorded a doctored conversation of one of the alleged planters of the bomb, Zahid. Abrar claims that Rajwardhan had the conversation not only recorded but made Abrar and Lt Col Purohit hear the recording. It was then that Purohit remarked that Abrar was now a witness.

Verbal communication communicates more than words. Rajwardhan had at first told Abrar that he had some inkling that the 2006 blasts was caused by Muslims as well as Hindus. But when Abrar told him that he had overheard people in the Galaxy hospital saying that Dr Rajender Amin, Dr Bipin Parekh and Someshwar Shankar etc were behind the blasts, Rajwardhan was startled. Does this mean that what Abrar had overheard gave away the secret? Incidentally, Parekh’s mobile number was found in Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur’s phone. How come this happened! On his arrest Purohit admitted that Abhinav Bharat had used local Students Islamic Movement of India activists in 2006.

Such is the nature of communication of terror. It would remain a muddle until CBI resolves it.

Until then suffice it to say that truth does appear in what the guilty says and how does he say. Much depends on the psychology of the person. The district chief of RSS in Shajapur Sandeep Dange had great expertise in coordination of the bomb blasts of 2006 – 2008. He was short tempered as well. This closed lipped man was quite secretive albeit snappish by nature. He is a fugitive from law and quite elusive, the least communicative. On the other hand Indresh Kumar so far left out is too assertive and aggressive. RP Singh also left from arrest and interrogation is the most abrasive, abusive and well qualified, an endocrinologist with awful endocrines who could dare and be prepared to burn Vice President Hamid Ansari. What chance for the humble weavers, children and beggars of Malegaon graveyard! Against his hubris is the Swami of humble origin but educated whose heart not just melted with pity for Kaleem but who also had clairvoyance. “I understood that love between two human beings is more powerful than the hatred between two communities.”

When will the people and their groups acquire this clairvoyance?