Power-packed week

Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
It has been a power-packed week, lots of passion, raw emotion and anger, all packed into the first four days as I write. So much so that am wonder if I shouldn’t have waited another day before recounting the eventful occurrences of these past four days. Topping the list, of course, was the sad demise of Dr. A.P.J.Kalam who the nation suddenly seemed to realise was perhaps the most popular President the country has had in its first six decade of the republic.
Frankly, I had always considered Dr. Kalam a straight forward, honest human, a scientist, with no strings attached except the one wishing the nation and its people well. But the raw outpouring of love and affection for the “missile man” that followed his sudden death while beginning  his address to a gathering of students at  IIM, Shillong has caused me to wonder if we Indians have not been worshipping, idolising the wrong type of Indians, the political class, all these years of our freedom.
From the raw, barefooted crowds in his southern home, who braved the scorching sun in  that virtual dust bowl of a field, to give a memorable farewell to him, to the well-groomed  schoolboys and girls and the  IITIAN  class, who stood in long queues the whole day to catch a glimpse of his lifeless, yet strangely inspiring, body lying in  State at his post-presidency   New Delhi home., they were all there., Dr Abdul Kalam’s story had obviously touched the deepest chord somewhere down the way in India’s collective sub-conscious. Never stop dreaming, was the mantra he gave to the young on numerous occasions, before and after his presidency, a mantra that had seen him rising from nowhere to somewhere, into a universe of star studded galaxies.
India had probably yet to come to terms with passing of Dr. Kalam when reality it hard, with a handful of terrorists from across the border reviving the ghosts of terrorism in Punjab, an instant flash-back to the bloodbath which the State had gone through not many years ago when separatist Khalistani terrorists were in full cry, literally tearing the State apart. The terrorists made their way into Gurdaspur district, across the border and the River Ravi, and next door to the Jammu town of Hiranagar in Jammu and Kashmir, otherwise a favorite hunting ground of Pak  terror machine.
Now, Punjab, like Jammu and Kashmir, has the ruling party in New Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party, as a coalition partner with the akalis in Punjab like it has the People’s Democratic Party, as the lead partner in Jammu and Kashmir. Both marriages of convenience, with the BJP hoping to use the arrangement to strengthen its position in the two states.  Good as far as that goes although chances are that the desire may go unfulfilled. This, though, is not the place to engage in this kind of  analysis. In Punjab the fact is that the Chief Minister, the Akali Mr. Badal and his son and the Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Badal haven’t hesitated in keeping the Khalistani fringe in good humour, honouring some of its stalwarts of the violent separatist erat, hanging their portraits in sacred Sikh shrines, adding the prefix Shaheed to their names. In other words keeping the separatist Khalistani pot boiling in the state.
There is another dimension to the issue which directly arises from the fact that Punjab ranks perhaps at the top of roster of drug addiction in the country. Yes, it has the highest drug consumption rate in the country and given its location,  bordering Pakistan as it does, it  has a thriving drug market. It has been like that for years and the years of Khalistani insurrectionary movement saw trans-border smuggling of dugs emerge as a force to reckon with.  And, Gurdaspur was the hub of smuggling activity all through the years of the Khalistan movement and it hasn’t looked back ever since.
Add to this the  alleged link between  some top Akali leaders including  one of Mr Badal’s Ministers who also happens to be the brother-in-law of son Sukhbir (Badal junior),the Deputy Chief Minister. Another minor matter of detail, Sukhbir’s wife is the sister of the said Minister, and a member of the Modi Government in New Delhi. The well connected Minister was recently picked up by an investigative agency but,not surprisingly, released soon thereafter.
All these boring details to only highlight the possible existence of a nexus between the smugglers and the ruling dispensation in Punjab which has not unoften been accused by its opponents of having close links with  smugglers and  assorted khalistanis. Allegations suggesting a link-up between the Akalis and pro-Khalistanis have in the past been made by even some State BJP leaders. It is this alleged link-up between pro-Khalistanis and the Akalis  that lends a sinister touch to the  latest terrorist intrusion into Gurdaspur.
It is no secret that the Khalistani terrorists have in the past had direct links with Pakistani cells. This is no figment of imagination. It is a well-established fact. These links have thrived in the intervening years leading to the setting up of drug cartels on either side of the border. In fact these bonds have become stronger since those early days. Many do read the latest terror incursion by Pakistanis into the Punjab as  a warning that terror links between  Pakistan and the   Khalistanis are very much alive and  kicking.
The top cop of the State the other day ruled out for the present a revival of the Khalistani movement saying that the support base of the past is no longer there but he warned that it could grow. He even suggested that overseas Khalistani supporters are known to have used the sea and land routes to return to Punjab. Some of them may already have found their way into the rural areas of the State. A potentially dangerous state of affairs given the publicly aired allegations about the ruling Akali government in the state going soft on the pro-khalistani elements.
And how dare I forget the losing battle which  Yaqub Memon fought the whole of this past week or so, his counsel desperately trying to save him from the hangman’s noose, just as stoutly as the Maharashtra Government  and the one in New Delhi, both headed by the BJP, staked their all to ensure that Memon, one of the accused in the Bombay killings, that had cost  257 lives, does no escape with a life term. There were many dramatic moments as the drama unfolded, none as dramatic as the two Supreme Court judges coming to differing conclusion on what was a question of life and death for ayub. A three-bench judge undid ayub in the end but not without a fight at the last minute, forcing the judges into a 3 a.m. sitting, just three hours before he was finally hanged. A thought that irks, though. Why didn’t anyone at any stage, even towards the end, play up the assurances given to him before Yaqub persuaded his family to join him in surrendering to Indian authorities.
B. Raman, the most remarkable RAWman ever, had mentioned this in his account, posthumously published (after Raman’s death). Raman, an Additional Secretary level official, had specifically mentioned how unfair a death penalty would be in the context of the positive role played   in the family’s surrender. Somehow leaves one feeling bad about the entire episode. Wonder why even President Pranab Mukherjee failed to take note of this while considering his second mercy petition on the eve of his hanging. My be Raj Nath Singh, the Home Minister, who stayed on with the President for over two hours after  conveying to him the Cabinet’s rejection of the mercy petition, chose to keep the pressure on. In the event of the President accepting the petition the Cabinet could have sent back its recommendation to him a second time when he couldn’t have said no. After all, the Maharashtra Governor hardly took any time in rejecting the mercy petition, not once but twice, within a matter of seconds.

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