MUMBAI CARNAGE VISITED TWICE

A visibly exasperated Kavita Karkare, wife of Hemant Karkare, the IPS officer who was slain in the 26/11/2008 carnage by the militants of Lashkar-E-Taiba, yesterday burst out against the reported statements made by Congress spokesman DigVijay Singh and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Abdul Rehman Antulay that Mr.Karkare had feared for the safety to his life by the Hindu outfits who had reportedly taken part in the Malegaon blasts as he was entrusted with the duty of investigating the incident. She reacted angrily to their statements and what she needed was justice from the part of govt. authorities and demanded that the culprits involved in her husband’s killing be brought to book and justice be meted out. I think Mrs. Kavitha Karkare was living in a fool’s paradise if she had actually dreamt of a day the govt would take necessary steps to award justice to her not only she but the families of other victims including those of Vijay Salaskar, Ashok Kamte, Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who were mercilessly gunned down while battling with the ten assassins of Lashkar-E-Taiba at Taj, Oberoi Trident and various other landmarks at the financial capital of India, Mumbai.
Our authorities suffer from selective amnesia from matters posing headache to them. Anyone can shed crocodile tears but that is not the need of the hour. Kavitha Karkare, Unnikrishnan, father of Sandeep Unnikrishnan and his mother actively took part actively in protest meetings across the nation. I remember Unnikrishnan’s odyssey of pedaling 1600 Km by cycle in memory of his valiant son Sandeep spreading anti-terror messages.
Even after a lapse of more than two years, things are back to square one and even a snail’s progress is not visible on the matter which shook the nation and the world over.
Instead playing political games by the ruling party over a sensitive issue such as this one is something deplorable to say the least.
Alongwith DigVijay Singh’s statement who was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh claiming to be a friend of Hemant Karkare who too was a product of Madhya Pradesh, the whistleblower website WikiLeaks had unearthed a US Embassy diplomatic cable which it had supposed to have obtained from the Headquarters which contained the poignant observation that Indian National Congress were playing crass opportunism and politics on the carnage issue. The information was WikiLeaked at an opportune moment thus providing the opposition a stick to beat the ruling alliance with.
Almost from all sides the ManMohan Singh led UPA II govt faces allegations – a multi-pronged attack, to put it mildly, on various issues. And it is grappling with host of issues and is virtually groping in the dark.
The menace of corruption and of late terror strike at Varanasi by extending its tentacles has virtually put UPA II in a fix.
In a sense, the game of corruption started from the very beginning of the formation of UPA II govt and even today more and more revelations are coming to the fore. Think of a situation where a corporate lobbyist successfully championing for a particular portfolio for a particular person, for example in the case of A.Raja occupying the lucrative Telecom Ministry and Kamal Nath to be the Minister of Surface Transport which would enable him to pocket 15 percent as per the demands or requests of two corporate tycoons – TATAs and Ambanis - by utilizing her close contacts with media honchos hitherto even worshipped by us by bribing them also as per reports streaming in.
2G Spectrum, Adarsh Housing Scheme scam, Common Wealth Games 2010 – all emit the stench of massive corruption plaguing the Indian society.
The winter session of Parliament virtually at a standstill starting from day one as the govt after repeated demands and pandemoniums staged by the opposition has not yet acceded to go for a JPC probe. The session is scheduled to adjourn sine die on Monday and it must be thinking on terms of silencing the opposition after that. It is estimated that almost 172 crore rupees went down the drain as the parliament could not except for one day for not transacting any business. At a critical juncture like this our Prime Minister dashed away to Brussels to attend the Asia-EU community meeting and from there to Germany for bilateral talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and request her to relax export laws and tapping the hitherto untapped technology, civil-nuclear energy partnership, to talk about reforms to be introduced in UN as also the global menace of terrorism which has begun to haunt Germany also.
While talking to media persons Dr.Singh was reported to have talked about Parliament in a limbo and made the observation that it was quite unfortunate and that he feared for the parliamentary democracy in India. To a query posed to him about he as the Head of State, chose to fly abroad at such a moment he was quoted as saying that important summit beneficial to India should not be missed and even if he was not in the parliament nothings of consequence would transpire. It is absolutely true after all. Nothing of consequence has happened and what all had to happen already happened.
Upon return anyhow with regard to DigVijay Singh’s statement Dr.Singh is likely to keep a safe distance and he is a pastmaster in that. Whether it would enable the UPA II govt to divert the attention of the opposition let’s wait and watch.