The idea of justice has a different connotation in the “idea of India.” Terror and identity politics many a times have proven themselves to be complimentary to each other, albeit in India there has been a concerted attempt many a times to somehow link electoral politics to that of victimhood. The Shah Bano Case in 1985 showed the level of political complacency because of the Muslim “votebank”. Terror as reflected by many is supposed to have no “religion”. The Ishrat Jahan “fake encounter case” proved otherwise. “The laboratory of Hindutva”- the coinage of intellectualism in India rapidly painted a minority girl as the ultimate victim of witch-hunt acted upon by the then state government and the state police.
The 2002 Godhra riots had seen innocent Muslims and Hindus die. But already the victims had been identified through the tokenism of religion by the Indian Media and of course NDTV. The yoke only divided in the years to come as suddenly resurgent Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives decided to claim the lives of Narendra Modi as well as the MP of Gandhinagar-LK Advani. It was generally seen as a pre-emptive effort to somehow avenge 2002.
Ishrat Jahan, a college going student fell easy prey to the machinations of the LET while she came from a lower middle class background. Pranesh Pillai aka Javed Sheikh a converted Muslim to marry a Muslim girl Sajda, happened to be a close acolyte of jehadists sitting back in Pakistan and enjoying state patronage. Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, unidentified ‘victims of fake encounters’ were probable Pakistanis in the entire fiasco with close links towards petting terrorist activities in India. But the entire episode of having this cosy, camouflage in place was somehow discarded by mainstream media. Rather human rights activists, lawyers and of course Teesta Setalvad gave it a religious turn, where the integrity of the country’s national security and the lives of prominent leaders were under threat.
What the main stream media in India failed to do, was rectified by a Taiba sponsored newspaper in Lahore. They claimed Ishrat Jahan and companions to be their own operatives. But somehow the entire gun point turned itself around on the administration of Narendra Modi in Gujarat.The state government and its machinery had committed the most heinous crime by eliminating terrorists. The Congress government at the Centre supported in the exterior by the left failed to take into consideration the issue of national safety. Rather perhaps greater leeway was given to somehow rationalize Sonia Gandhi’s “Maut ka Saudagar” jibe. The ‘Congress Bureau of investigation’ looked desperate to somehow seal the fate of those police officers who had taken on the gun to conform their official duty, rather than concentrating on the parochial goals set by the Congress. Remember Sanjiv Bhatt?
The four police officers who committed the job 11 years back, happened to be N.K Amin, JG Parmar, Tarun Bhanot, Mohan Kalawasa, Anaju Jiman Chaudhury. The CBI in 2013 charge sheeted the 4 officers in connection with the fake encounter case on 15 June, 2004. But in 2010, David Coleman Headley has spilled the beans which may help to calm down the Congress crying vindication and witch hunt. The media seems to highlight it 5 years later. Headley, the most deadly terrorist who now is one of the approvers in the case of 26/11 confessed that Ishrat Jahan was a Fedayeen associated with the Taiba. The media which made a hue and cry about the every nook and corner of the case has failed to tolerate a lion share of the prime time to the confession of one of India’s most wanted. Rather, we stand and sit in silence. The propagandist and its acolytes seem to ponder over their next slander. By the way, if suicide bombers are victims, were residents of Taj on 26/11 chieftains of Boko Haram?