For a leader who could not sleep when the Australian Government accused Indian doctor Muhamed Haneef of complicity in the June 2007 terrorist attack at Glasgow international airport (he was exonerated later), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh slept extraordinarily well throughout his nine years in office, during which period Sarabjit Singh’s sister, Dalbir Kaur, took her dogged fight for his release to its highest pitch.
With no support from any human rights body or NGO, and armed only with moral courage, unfailing perseverance, and an unwavering sense of family, Dalbir pitted her meagre resources against the might of a State committed at all levels of its being to jihad against India (‘thousand cuts’ policy) and drew more response from civil society and human rights activists in Pakistan than from this callous nation.
Sarabjit Singh’s brutal death, and the (expected) return of his body with vital organs missing – Canadian dissident Tarek Fateh says the Pakistan Army is now involved in illicit organ trade – is a serious indictment of the Indian Government, the flush-with-funds human rights organisations and non-government organisations that grab government funding without accountability, and of course, the butter-won’t-melt-in-my-mouth Aman ki Asha, Wagah candlelight-walas, Track II diplomats, et al.
But above all, it is a serious denunciation of our National Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Minorities, and National Commission for Women, and we need to seriously introspect why the public is funding bodies that do not work to redress public grief and respond only to covert political stimuli.
The Sarabjit Singh case has been in the public domain long enough for the National Human Rights Commission to take a call, and take up the matter with the Pakistan Human Rights which had taken cognisance of the case. Far from expressing any concern with the plight of Indians stranded in Pakistani jails, the Commission has so far not even issued regret at the painful and brutal manner of his death.
Sikhs under the British Raj were encouraged to regard themselves as a separate community, the seeds of which were tapped decades later to promote the Khalistan movement. They are listed as a minority under the Constitution. But the National Commission for Minorities did not even pay lip service to the beleaguered family in all these years. Worse, as it was widely known that the family comprised of just four women (including two young girls), the National Commission for Women should have come forward and provided some kind of support in their fight.
All these bodies have publicly failed in a case that deserved their attention. They should be wound up without further ado.
The ruling Akali Dal in Punjab has done well to assuage public grief by offering a State funeral to the man who returned dead 23 years after accidentally crossing the border, and handsome relief to the tormented family. But it would be in the fitness of things to know the truth about Sarabjit Singh. The Government of India must reveal whether or not he was an Indian spy as alleged by Pakistan, and if so, it must explain its cavalier attitude towards his plight. If Sarabjit Singh was indeed involved in an act of terror on Pakistani soil, as alleged by Islamabad, he could not have been the sole Indian operative on that mission. If that is indeed the case, his colleagues should step forward. This is a time for truth. We should, at least, be told about Manjit Singh who was allegedly involved in the act of terror for which Sarabjit Singh was arrested.
According to previous reports, Manjit Singh Rattu was in Karachi at the time of the serial bomb blasts in Lahore and Faisalabad that killed 14 persons in 1990. Alleged to have links with al-Qaida, he reportedly fled to Britain after the blasts. RAW should be able to confirm this.
It is pertinent that when Sarabjit Singh (s/o Sulakhan Singh) was arrested and produced before the magistrate in September 1990, the FIR carried the name of Manjit Singh, son of Mehanga Singh. The Pakistani authorities decided that he was Manjit Singh, and his long saga of troubles began.
So if Sarabjit Singh was only a farmer who crossed over in a drunken state as his fields ran along the border, as claimed by his family, the Government must establish this fact so that the family and the nation can have some closure in the case.
What matters now is the fate of 535 Indian prisoners, including 4583 fishermen, currently lodged in Pakistani prisons (as opposed to the 273 Pakistanis lodged in Indian prisons). So far, consular access has been provided for only 33. Here the Supreme Court of India, which has been ordering the release of Pakistani prisoners from Indian jails without considering the larger issue of possible prisoner swap and justice for Indians incarcerated in a hostile country, must take a call. Mere implementation of the letter of the law is not enough; justice makes a mockery of itself if it does not answer a higher sense of Justice and fair play.
NitiCentral.com, 3 May 2013
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/05/03/we-deserve-closure-on-sarabjit-73197.html