Investigation defeats polarization

Shafqat Bukhari

Supporting the accused is as unpardonable and punishable offence as is committing a rape on a minor eight year old year old girl the epi-centre of which was a local temple in Rasana village of hindu dominated Kathua district.

Instead of hanging their hands in shame over the way the head of a local temple Sanji Ram also a retired state government official used temple the most sacred place of hindu worshipers for committing this dastardly act which attracted condemnation from the people of all shades across the length and breadth of the country, the two sacked BJP ministers attended the rally called by Hindu Ekta Manch in support of all the eight accused people arrested on charges of involvement in the rape and murder of the eight year Muslim Bakerwal girl Asifa.

Had the two sacked BJP ministers not gone to attend the Hindu Ekta Manch rally called to defend the accused, leaders of Bar Association Kathua won’t have dared to stop the officials of the Crime Branch of Jammu & Kashmir police from filing the charge sheet against the accused and similarly the leaders of Jammu Bar Association won’t have even thought about calling for a strike across the Jammu region against the filing of the charge sheet and in support of the demand for transfer of the case to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). So the attendance of the two sacked BJP ministers has emboldened even the lawyers of the Jammu Bar Association and Bar Association Kathua to side with the people accused of raping, drugging and murdering an eight year old muslim bakerwal girl and using temple for this worst kind of brutality in the history of India.

The statements and actions of the two sacked BJP ministers Chowdhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga provoked Jammu lawyers so much that Jammu Bar Association president B S Slathia threatened to use AK47 rifle and Grenades for blocking the investigation by Crime Branch and in response to his provocative remarks former chief minister and National Conference working president Omar Abdullah said “had such a provocative remark been made by any Kashmiri he would have been jailed and PSA would have been slapped on him.

Though both Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga claim that they went to attend the Hindu Ekta Manch rally called in support of the accused to diffuse the tension in area but what about their statements at the Hindu Ekta Manch rally and subsequent meeting with the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti over the demand for transfer of the Kathua rape case to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

As regards the issue of attending the Hindu Ekta Manch rally, the attendance of the ministers without a formal consent of the chief minister over an issue concerning law and order is against the spirit of the collective responsibility of the state cabinet . Had the BJP taken strong note of the highly objectionable and condemnable activities of its two ministers who attended the Hindu Ekta Manch rally, a simple investigation by the Crime Branch of Jammu & Kashmir police won’t have become an issue of polarisation.

Fortunately the tendencies of two sack BJP ministers to roll out a plan of polarization ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections were defeated by the timely intervention of the top non BJP political leadership in Delhi, some sportspersons of international repute and more than a dozen leading luminaries of the Indian film industry who countered the communal mobilization plan with massive protests for the obstruction free trial of the Kathua minor girl’s rape-n-murder case. Had Rahul Gandhi the Congress President not taken out the candle light march at India gate over the rising demand for justice to Asifa the minor muslim bakerwal girl drugged, raped and murdered by the fanatic hindus only with the sole motive of driving out the bakerwal muslim community from Kathua district, the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister won’t have broken their silence to assure justice to the eight year old girl brutally rapped and muredered in Rasana village of Kathua district.

Had the BJP been concerned about the investigation of the Kathua rape-n-murder case, the party’s central high command would have taken a serious not of the attendance of the two sacked ministers at Hindu Ekta Manch rally the time when it expelled its state secretary for the fault of heading the Hindu Ekta Manch.

Surprisingly the sacked BJP Minister Lal Singh has dared to take out a rally over the demand for CBI inquiry into the Kathua rape-n-murder case a day after Governor N N Vohra accepted his resignation alongwith Chander Prakash Ganga another minister forced to resign. Interestingly the BJP’s National Spokesperson Meenakashi Lekhi just two days back told media persons in Delhi that ‘the BJP ministers were misled and misguided and should not have spoken the they have made statements” but now Lal Singh the ousted forest minister of the Mehbooba government has proved the contentions of the BJP’s National spokesperson Meenakashi wrong by taking a protest march over the demand for a CBI inquiry into the Kathua rape-n-murder case.

Telling people that the two ministers were ousted from the state cabinet on charges of attending a rally called by Hindu Ekta Manch for support of the accused and allowing one of the ousted ministers Lal Singh to take out a rally in support of the demand for CBI inquiry into the Kathua rape-n-murder case shows the intents of BJP in carrying out its communal mobilization plans in Jammu region ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Pull out from the one day strike call of Jammu Bar Association by the Bar Associations of Poonch and Rajouri districts and the Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) are a big blow to the polarization plans of the BJP and big boost to the institutional integrity of the Crime Branch of Jammu & Kashmir Police which with the strong backing of the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti fast tracked the process of investigation.

While the satisfaction of the victim’s family in the investigation carried out by the Crime Branch Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the biggest achievement for the Chief Minister the demand for CBI inquiry has come into question on the grounds of its past track record in the investigation of 2006 sex scandal and murder mystery of two shopian women in 2010. While the BJP has failed in carrying out its plans of polarisation despite dragging lawyers bodies into a row on demand over CBI inquiry, the Chief Minister is carrying out her plans to take the investigation of Kathua rape-n-murder case to logical end to keep the promise she has made on the floor of the state assembly in January this year.

Now it is for the central high command of the BJP has to understand that siding with the accused who used temple the most scared place for hindu worshippers for raping, drugging, brutalizing and, finally, beating to death with a stone an eight-year-old girl has shamed the entire saffron Brigade both in Jammu and other parts of the country .

Any tendency to instigate religious polarization in the name of the investigation of Kathua rape-n-murder case can prove disastrous for the saffron party.

(The author is Editor in chief of english daily The Kashmir Horizon)