Jagdamba Mall
The chargesheet in the Ishrat case downgraded the role of the Pakistan-based terror outfit LeT and was intended to target Narendra Modi and other Hindu leaders. The chargesheet indicted security agencies. The centre had taken an about turn on Ishrat’s terror links in 2009 after having earlier concurred with Gujarat police. The chargesheet underplays the role of terrorists and demoralises the IB and other security agencies. The CBI’s moves are politically orchestrated and intended to bring Modi in the ambit of the fake encounter case. The Congress led government had manipulated the agency’s investigations by ignoring evidences on Ishrat’s Lashkar links and using flimsy evidences to go after Gujarat police and IB. The IB had been effectively reporting the central government, the information which had been shared by Gujarat police. This was done not at personal level but at institutional level.
The CBI has stated in its chargesheet that Ishrat and three other terrorists were killed in a joint operation by the Gujarat police and IB. The role of Rajendra Kumar, then state IB boss and now IB Special Director was still being probed to ascertain whether he generated a fake terror alert that led to encounter. The accused have been charged with criminal conspiracy, abduction, illegal detention, murder, disobeying law and forging documents.
The CBI chargesheet is seen by Congress as the first instalment of its probe with the possibility of forthcoming parts pointing out more allegations on Hindu leaders giving more excuses to attack BJP. The CBI is being used to check the “Muslim outreach” Modi has embarked upon to gain wider acceptability. The UPA government is showing sympathy for terrorists to fight political battle with Modi. More dangerous and unfortunate conspiracy is that Congress has targeted the premier intelligence agency – IB. The CBI chargesheet filed on July 3 claimed that eight top police men including ADGP P.P. Pandey, D.G. Vanjara, G.L.Singhal and others were part of encounter.
As a reward for showing favour to UPA II, former CBI Director Ashwini Kumar was appointed as Governor of Nagaland. If the successive appointments of various CBI directors to the posts of governors and different other assignments are closely watched, it proves that CBI has been used in quid pro quo. Apparently, the security chiefs who handled the protection of Gandhi family have been singled out and rewarded. Former IPS officer B.L. Joshi who headed Indira Gandhi’s security team, is now Governor of UP. The ex-Special Protection Group Director who had also been in the IB for years, Bharat Vir Wanchoo is now governor of Goa. He was earlier in Charge of Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi’s security.
Thus, CBI is getting increasingly politicised and has become a veritable extension of the UPA II. These appointments have certainly not been done because of the appointees’ expertise but because they have been a set of ‘yes-men’. The appointments thus compromise two crucial wings of governance – (i) intelligence and investigating agencies and (ii) the office of governors.
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