[Reader-list] Height of irresponsibility (The Hindu)

[taraprakash]

Height of irresponsibility 

If Abdul Rahman Antulay has made his continuance as Minister untenable by blatantly ignoring the facts behind the terrorist attacks on Mumbai and buying
into a strange conspiracy theory over the killing of the Maharashtra Anti-terrorism Squad chief Hemant Kharkare, the United Progressive Alliance government
has not displayed any great sagacity in prevaricating over his resignation. In the days since the attack, compelling evidence has surfaced to establish
the Pakistani id entity of the assassins of Mr. Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte, Inspector Vijay Salaskar, and three of the four
constables who accompanied them. In an over-the-top interview to a television channel, Mr. Antulay insinuated a Hindutva plot to kill Mr. Karkare. Later,
speaking in Parliament, he alleged that Mr. Karkare and the other two police officers had been sent to their deaths by a telephone caller who summoned
them to Cama Hospital. He asked: "Why did all three of them go in the same vehicle to Cama Hospital? Who directed them there?" 

Mr. Antulay's indiscretion was the worse because he held the sensitive portfolio of Minority Affairs. The Minister clearly failed to appreciate that in
the tinderbox environment terrorism has engendered, the smallest provocation can inflame communal passions. And thanks to the sanctity that attaches to
the words of a Minister, there is already some consternation in sections of the Muslim community. The Mumbai attack had been widely condemned by Muslim
organisations; ordinary Muslims wore black bands on Eid to protest it. Today sundry Urdu newspapers have joined the Antulay chorus. This is unfortunate
given that there are two eyewitnesses to the ambush of the policemen. The account of the surviving Pakistani terrorist, Mohammad Ajmal Amir has been corroborated
by Constable Arun Jhadav who was left for dead by the assassins. There is no disputing the reason why the police officers rushed to Cama hospital, which
was the second place to come under attack after Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Mr. Karkare and his two fellow officers had received information that Additional
Commissioner of Police Sadanand Date was injured in that attack. In part as a consequence of the needless twist given to this straightforward story, Pakistan
today refuses to accept that the Mumbai terror attack originated on its soil. For the Muslim community, targeted and taunted by the Sangh Parivar for its
alleged terror links, Mr. Karkare was a hero, who uncovered the truth of the Malegaon terror blast and established the justness of the Indian legal system.
His death has created a climate ripe for conspiracy theories. As a Minister, Mr. Antulay had a responsibility to advocate calm and reason. Regrettably,
he did the opposite.