The evolution of the physical appearance of a villain in cinema is heart-warming. Initially, the villain used to be the ugliest, pale-eyed, cadaverous and sinister. Then they became stone cold, blazing, uncanny and narrow. Then they evolved to strange, passionate and piercing. However, the evolution has still not reached to the real life villain. Today I will tell you about a neatly combed, sprucely dressed and effortlessly smiling villain who can beat the best of all gentlemen in appearance and worst of all villains in ruthlessness. I will tell you about Mr. P Chidambaram, the former finance and home minister of India.
On 15th June 2004, four terrorists naming Amjad Ali Rana, Ishrat Jahan Raza, Javed Ghulam Sheikh and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter by Gujrat police when IB got a tip from J & K police about them being LeT operatives and were in the city to assassinate Narendra Modi, the then chief minister of the state. After 2002 Gujrat riots Modi was on the hit list of terrorist organisations in the similar way as Indira was after operation blue star (which ended in her assassination). The probability of young men and women being radicalised by these outfits was very high. An encounter of such terrorists was very much in the right direction to avert a major tragedy.
An encounter in India occurs almost daily with a large number of encounters reported as fake. In last 10 years, there are close to 3600 encounters happened with north of 1000 reported as fake. About how many cases we know the details? None other than Ishrat case.
The manifestation of lies, in this case, was so colossal that it tilted the public opinion of more than 1 billion people of this country to make them believe that the encounter was staged. How can somebody do it? Investigative agencies, media, self-thinking intellectuals, lawyers and what not. Even if someone can do it, how can he sustain it for so long?
Ishrat Jahan was deprived, young, Muslim and girl. She had all the attributes of being an ideal victim who could gather loads of public sympathy. Post-2002 riots, the public perception of Gujrat police was not the best. An opportunity was there, an opportunity to nail down BJP, an opportunity to tarnish the image of its superstar chief minister and an opportunity to eliminate its chief strategist.
In a major revelation, Mr. GK Pillai, former home secretary of India told that the UPA government deleted a reference to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group from an affidavit (the second affidavit) filed in the Supreme Court naming Ishrat Jahan as a terrorist. The affidavit was filed by CBI as the investigative agency of the case in the court. So who has got this very important piece of information deleted from the affidavit? To which Mr. Pillai said that it was done at the political level.
When Mr. Chidambram, then home minister of India, was asked about he showed a complete ignorance to it. In his whiter-than-glass lie, he told that he was unaware of the first affidavit and he did some editorial changes in the second affidavit. On the need of the second affidavit, P Chidambaram told that few of the facts were not necessary and could misrepresent the case.
A list of lies by P Chidambaram needs to be busted here:
Lie 1: P Chidambaram says – He did not know about the first affidavit.
Fact – TimeNow has accessed the copy of the first affidavit which has P Chidambaram’s signature on it. The first affidavit was also signed by the chief of investigative agencies.
#Lie 2: P Chidambaram says – Only editorial changes were done by him.
Fact – Pillai said that the affidavit was drafted by P Chidambaram. Now there is a huge difference between editorial changes and drafting.
Fact – Moreover, P Chidambaram solely drafted the affidavit without considering the home secretary or attorney general.
#Lie 3: P Chidambaram Says – Some of the unimportant and misrepresenting portion of the first affidavit was deleted.
Fact – The most important portion and the very much relevant portion of Ishrat Jahan being a Let operative were deleted.
#Lie 4: P Chidambaram Says – No conclusive evidence was found of Ishrat Jahan being a Let terrorist.
Fact – It was not the Central Bureau of India but P Chidambaram Bachao Ishrat, who solely investigated and concluded that Ishrat was not a terrorist.
The two contradictory affidavit filed on Ishrat in 2009, Pillai & RVS Mani’s statements, Headly’s affirmation and Rajinder Kumar’s allegation had pushed P Chidambaram in the murky land. The web of lies is being gradually exposed. Just like in cinema, in the end real life villain perishes too.
But is P Chidambaram, the ultimate villain? Or just like a thriller, there is a super villain sitting above? The new revelation by times now about P Chidambaram very well knowing and approving the first affidavit about Ishrat being LeT terrorist has opened the big question of “ Sabse bada villain Kaun ? The nation really wants to know.