Antulay's Conspiracy theory and its aftermath

On December 17 Union Minority Affairs Minister A R Antulay while talking to media remarked about Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare's death in Mumbai terror attacks. This was what he said.

'There is more than what meets the eyes. Karkare found that there are non-Muslims involved in the acts of terrorism during his investigations in some cases. Any person going to the roots of terror has always been the target."

"Superficially speaking they (terrorists) had no reason to kill Karkare. Whether he (Karkare) was victim of terrorism or terrorism plus something. I do not know," he added.
The main thing to be noted here is Antulay never said Karkare was killed by Hindu extremists.He was only asking for an enquiry to confirm or reject the rumour that Karkare might have been mis-directed to go straight in to the hands of Terrorists by some one with vested interests in sabotaging the Malegaon probe.

The same day I watched CNN IBN TV channel's 9pm news.Antulay was being interviewed by Rajdeep Sardesai.
Antulay was saying the same thing.'Why Karkare went to Cama Hospital instead of Taj and Oberoi? Was he mis directed?'

Sardesai was trying again and again to make Antulay tell that he thinks it was not LeT terrorists who killed Karkare but Hindu extremists.

Antulay did not oblige.He reiterated that he want an enquiry to ascertain whether there was a conspiracy in directing Karkare to Cama Hospital where he was shot dead by Islamist terrorists.

The death of Hemant Karkare in 26/11 Mumbai terror attack did raise some eyebrows even before Antulay's statement on December 17th. Questions were asked and conspiracy theory whispered.This was mainly seen in the Urdu Press,Muslim oriented websites, but surprisingly also in some anti communalism and dissent websites. Comments to some blog posts also raised conspiracy theory against Hindu extremists.As far as I know neither the Mumbai Police nor the State and Central Governments did come out with a clarification until the controversial statement by its own Minority Affairs Minister.If such a clarification was issued earlier,especially by the Home Minister Chidambaram this controversy would not have occurred.


What was Antulay's actual motive behind this statement?
Did he really believe in the conspiracy theory he advocated?

Very unlikely. If he really believed in that first thing he would have done is to discuss it with his colleague, Home Minister Chidambaram. It appears that he have not done that.There are reports [originating from sources close to Antulay]that he tried to raise this issue with Maharashtra Government,but there is no proof. Even he was unsuccessful in raising the issue with State Government,He should have raised it in Delhi in the Government circles or with in the Party under closed doors.


Was he worried that Malegaon probe will suffer because Karkare is dead? Till now he has never asked for an assurance from the Government Home ministry that the probe will go on as expeditiously as before when Karkare was at the helm.
So the fact is the real motive behind Antulay's statement was to get maximum publicity to himself as the saviour of minority rights.Lately Antulay seems to have no backers in Congress high command.Most of the pro-minority actions of the Central Government was portrayed to be done by other Ministries like that of Arjun Singh.Even in Maharashtra Congress he had no friends.There was a high possibility that he might not get a Lok Sabha seat in coming Parliament elections. So Antulay statement was just a statement for survival for himself in Indian politics and not for the Muslim community. He was defying the Congress high command saying I am the real minority leader and you should not sideline me.


The reactions to statement was interesting.
Most of the commentators in TV news Channels were calling Antulay a traitor,an ISI agent, an Islamist terrorist etc etc. Most main stream newspapers followed suit.Even some who had raised doubts about Karkare's death joined hands to condemn Antulay.This reaction was not surprising after witnessing the jingoism and hate mongering of major section of Indian media after 26/11. Some Muslim websites tried to defend Antulay while others distanced themselves from him.But an objective analysis of the event was lacking in the media.
The reaction from the political parties were on the expected lines.BJP was parading it as yet another evidence of Muslims being always anti-national. The Congress distanced itself from Antulay statement but was not brave enough to accept his resignation. The Left was critical of Antulay's intention while Lalu Yadav and Paswan did not find anything wrong in it.
After few days Home Minister Chidambaram made a detailed statement in Lok Sabha refuting the conspiracy theory. Antulay quickly accepted it with glee[ he had never believed in that theory at the first place]. The Congress and the Government wants to close the chapter of this whole episode. But is it that easy? Can that undo the damages?
What damage the Antulay statement did?
1. Many People, especially Muslims still believe the conspiracy theory,though there is no proof.Many reasons are raised for the disbelief in Police version of events.A well meaning but naive friend of mine told me couple of days ago that it was necessary for the Government to scuttle Malegaon probe because if the truth come out it will be defaming to the Indian Army and there by to the Country.So to prevent this and also to prevent a big communal riot due to the revelations the Congress Government had to eliminate Karkare.The number of backers to the conspiracy theory must have multiplied several times due to Antulay's statement.This result in Mulims going in to a self denial mode. Muslims in India need not feel guilt for Pakistani Islamist's action.But they should be ever vigilant to prevent hijacking of Islam by these terrorists.In a self denial mode vigilance will be lacking.
2.Antulay statement helped to reinstate the general belief that politicians are just self serving opportunists. Lack of credibility of Politicians especially from the minority community may create frustration and encourage terrorism.
3.Pakistan Government under pressure from International community used the twisted interpretation of Antulay's statement by Indian TV Channels to good effect.[Indian Channels were claiming that Antulay said it was not LeT Terrorists who killed Karkare]. This resulted in the continuation self denial mode in Pakistan.
4.The BJP's accusation of 'Congress pampering the minorities against National interest will have more takers after the Antulay incident.The fact that a Minister in the Union Cabinet was not sacked for an untimely and self serving statement in this time of great trial to the Indian State showed Congress in poor light.
5. The chant of the Sangh Parivar and its supporters in the Media that Muslims always support the interests of Pakistan became more louder.
6.Instead of attacking the Sangh Parivar for its volte-face in conducting a hate campaign against Karkare before his death and now praising and parading his martyrdom,Congress was pushed to a defensive attitude.
The Central Government should have come out with a detailed clarification about the circumstances behind Karkare's death immediately.Also Congress should have been bold enough to sack Antulay the Minorities Affair Minister from the Cabinet for going public with his statement [ not for his conspiracy theory]. Such a brave action along with a proclamation of strong resolve to continue the probe to bring the master minds of Malegaon blasts to justice would have reduced most of the damage produced by Antulay's statements.

Lessons to be Learnt

1. The Media should learn to respect and unbiasedly analyse the views of those who do not toe their line. What they are doing now is distorting the views and defaming the persons holding such views instead of logical analysis.Otherwise they cease to be a [non partisan] Media.

2. Congress should learn that protecting minority rights do not mean protecting self serving and unscrupulous politicians. Such actions not only result in loss of face for the Party but will help indirectly in encouraging communalism.

3.Various religious groups in India should realise that most politicians who claim to champion their cause wants to attain and retain power at any cost including at the cost of their own Community's well being.

Mumbai Terror Attack--The Politics behind blaming Politicians

Last few days I was wondering why there was a politician bashing frenzy in our 'National Visual Media' followed on cue in some parts of Indian blogosphere.Let me examine this in detail and try to find an answer.

When a Country is attacked in such an audacious and ruthless way as the LeT Terrorists did in Mumbai in the last week of November 2008, the first reactions usually are shock,disbelief and numbness. Almost everybody felt that and such reaction was visible in the interviews,in letters and emails in Newspapers and Visual media during the first few days.

Then questions began to be asked. Who is behind the attack?How we could be attacked so easily? Who is to be blamed for this attack? . . . . etc

That those behind the attack were Islamist terrorists, probably members of LeT from Pakistan with or without the support of ISI,was evident. Predictably angry words demanding action against Pakistan State was heard loud from the TV studios.

How we could be attacked so easily?

Now everybody became experts in guns and security systems. The 303 Rifle [I knew the name of it only after the Mumbai attacks]which we always thought was adequate became an outdated gun fit to be thrown in to dustbin. The fact that most of the Policemen have not fired a shot from his gun for several years was discovered. How easily we can succumb to the bullets of a Jihadi terrorist firing indiscriminately with his A K 47 came as a chilling fear in our minds.Some Politicians have SPG protection with better guns became a talking point.Demands that we also should have same security was raised.
Now let me share with you what the real Security Experts in the World are saying.

'The style of attacks in Mumbai represents a complete change from traditional terrorist operations. Mobile, trained and well prepared terrorist units engaged on suicide missions outside conflict zones are a new phenomenon'.

Speaking to London’s Sunday Telegraph, Britain’s former SAS Chief explained that the U.K. was not prepared to handle such an attack. “Our unarmed police would be able to do very little except report in. There would be many hours of chaos before the police, backed by the military counter-terrorist response teams, were in a position to contain, let alone neutralise, the terrorist threats.” The worry is that the obvious effectiveness of these terrorist actions will inspire similar training for strikes around the world.
In short this was quite an unexpected mode of attack.It is always easy to be wise after the incident.



Who is to blame for this attacks?

The obvious choice would be the Government which includes the Concerned ministries in both Central and State Government,Intelligence agencies, Police, Coast Guard, Navy and the Hotel authorities who it seemed were warned few days ago.

So how did our Visual media act?

The main aim of the Visual media was to earn maximum Television Rating Points.So they wanted to channelise the shock and anger of Citizens in such a way that more people will watch their channels. Thus the Visual media rather than being the messenger started behaving like the actor,like the chosen one who will clean up the mess in the system.They started the blame game.

Now training guns against the Police is tricky. Some of the senior most officers have been killed in the attacks, and the story of heroism of many Police men on that dreaded days were being published one after the other. Same is true for the Navy as the Naval commandos did a commendable job. Coast Guard and Intelligence people are invisible culprits,not a good choice at throwing stones and earning TRP.Even though Ratan Tata himself said he was warned few days ago before the attack,but could not do much to increase the security,he could not be blamed because he is the poster boy of India Inc and such a story may result in loss in ads.


The TV Channels who came under severe attack for its insensitive TRP hunting 24 hour coverage of 26/11 attacks wanted to deflect criticism from themselves. There was a real fear among them that the Government will set up a regulatory authority for Visual media in view of that atrocious coverage.Most probably it was to counter this threat that they started a vicious campaign against Politicians as a class. More over they realised that such a malicious campaign will increase their viewership and TRPs.
The celebrities and urban elite who never had any love for politicians[unless they want some favour from them] gleefully joined. They were seen furiously shouting from the TV studios that they are paying huge amount of taxes and they should be assured fool proof security.[ie those who are not in the Income tax bracket-may be around 70% of Indian Population,need not have security but they should as they are paying for it.The truth is the percentage of their income the poor pay as indirect taxes when they buy things for their day to day life is much greater than what rich pay].There were even 'threats' that they will stop paying taxes unless they get SPG protection like the Politicians. Even the name of Gandhiji was heard comparing this threat with his Salt Sathyagraha

A Mumbaikar signing a protest petition

Why the upper class reacted like that? They are the financially most secure group of our country.All of them have well paid jobs,or profit making businesses, their kids gets high quality education from expensive private schools,they go to the high tech Private hospitals for their needs. They do not worry about the cost of Rice, kerosene and vegetables.They are not bothered about droughts,availability of drinking water,cost of essential medicines etc.They are used to buy everything including Politicians using their money clout.Actually they do not need Politicians.If Politicians are not there less the bother.They want Government only for their physical security so that they can go on amassing wealth and have a fabulous life.[But they may need the Government during recession]They are jealous that the Politicians whom they can easily buy with their money have more security than themselves.
Some of the middle class,[who always aim to be and apes the upper class] took the same Politician bashing line following the 'National' Visual media.
Some Bloggers followed suit.There were calls for military rule, or an 'autocratic' rule by Industrial Icons of India like Tata and Narayana Moorthy. One [may be as an insensitive joke]was saying the 'whole country' wanted the terrorists to kill Parliamentarians in the 2001 Parliament attack. The point of Paying Income taxes 'regularly' came again and again, meaning the defaulters and poor need less security. Petitions asking for immediate attack on Pakistan based Terrorists camps were passed around for signatures.

The poor will never behave this way.For them the politicians are their link to the Government. If they want cheap Rice or Kerosene, or an School near by they tell their needs to their local politicians.Especially this happens during the elections. Many promises are given and votes taken. Some may be implemented usually near to the next election.Most of the promises are not fulfilled.Still they,the poor feel important.That is why they have great enthusiasm for voting during elections.

The English news channels and those who fell in to their trap believed that there was widespread anger throughout the country against 'Politicians' as a class. Actually there was never such a thing outside the big Metros and the Internet.In most of the small towns in India including mine the Political and Social leaders along with the Public.belonging to all religion and Parties came together for silent processions and prayers. Most notable was the emotion and passion against terror from the Muslim Community. This lack of frenzy against politicians as a class were evident from almost all regional language newspapers and TV channels and also from the English newspapers that I read published from South of the Country. The Nation as a whole closed ranks in mourning and deep determination to fight the terror unitedly.This was in sharp contrast to the braying for the blood of Politicians that emanated from the TV Studios.

The review of mistakes that we might have made allowing the cold blooded murder of hundreds in Mumbai should not be done in hysterical frenzy but with a calm and calculated approach.
This Post is not to absolve the Government or the Political leaders from the blame for 26/11,but is to warn the Public not to fall in to the trap of Corporate Media and the elite,having vested interests in defaming politicians, especially those whom they cant buy.Defaming Political Parties and Politicians as a 'Class'[rather than constructive critisism] will make India another Pakistan.