On 20 September 2008, when Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel was gutted by a massive suicide bombing that killed 62 persons and injured over 120, I recalled with a shudder that barely two weeks prior to that grisly devastation, my sister-in-law, her son and father, had enjoyed a brief stay at that … Read More
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) must be ruing the day it agreed to persecute Sadhvi Pragya, Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit and others on grounds of “Hindu terror.” That the case was patently cooked up became visible from the moment the initial shock and surprise wore off, and with every … Read More
Girilal Jain compared the demolition of Babri Masjid by faceless actors on 6 December 1992 with the surfacing of the Patal Ganga in the Indian polity, an event of such magnitude that it literally transforms the landscape. This riverine symbolism made a literal appearance in November 2004, when the arrest … Read More
While there is no way the sartorially elegant Shivraj Patil could have survived the gory 62-hour blood-and-bullets nightmare that descended upon Mumbai last week, the appointment of P. Chidambaram as Union Home Minister, after a disastrous innings as Finance Minister, hardly inspires confidence. Coupled with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s refusal to … Read More
The Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) must be ruing the day it agreed to persecute Sadhvi Pragya, Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit and others on grounds of “Hindu terror.” That the case was patently cooked up became visible from the moment the initial shock and surprise wore off, and with every … Read More
Commando operations to free hostages and capture or kill the remaining terrorists are still going on in Mumbai at the time of writing this piece, hence it would be difficult to comment upon the terror attack with accuracy. What we do know is that 14 police officers, including ATS chief … Read More
As terrorist charges against Sadhvi Pragya, Lt. Col. Purohit, and an endless list of others become increasingly surreal, the possibility of their being substantiated in a court of law also appears more remote. Rather than struggle daily with new sub-plots, the Mumbai Anti Terror Squad (ATS) would do well to … Read More
There is now little doubt that the bizarre Malegaon Hindu Conspiracy Case is fast fizzling out, if ever it had any steam. This may be a relief for the individuals caught in the dragnet of “Hindu Terror,” but it is no consolation for the Institutions of State diminished in this … Read More
In a move fraught with danger to India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Congress-dominated Central and Maharashtra governments have unleashed a sinister plot to undermine the institutions of the police and the defence forces. These two grids literally hold the nation together, particularly in these troubled times when internal and … Read More
Sadhvi Pragya’s prosecution fast resembles the farcical trial of Joseph K, sentenced to nothingness in a tedious trial in which charges were not even framed. The Sadhvi, of course, has been framed for plotting the 29 September Malegaon (Maharashtra) and Modasa (Gujarat) bomb blasts in which six Muslims died, an accusation … Read More
