According to the Organiser, last week was India’s ‘judgement week’: verdicts were delivered in the Bombay serial bombings, the Beant Singh assassination and the Coimbatore serial blasts.

“Though all these are verdicts from the lower courts and could be challenged, it is a solace that the guilty have been brought under the law and had their faces revealed. These are all cases that were investigated and pursued before UPA. After it came to power, the UPA has pursued a policy of kid-gloving terrorists, what with the prime minister losing sleep over the tears of the mother of a terror accused and announcing a ‘Muslim first’ national policy. The UPA government at the Centre marks a nadir in the way the security agencies handled terror cases.” The editorial says “terrorists could not have asked for better political patronage.” Further, “In the last three and a half years, not many culprits have been arrested in specific relation to bomb blasts, terror attacks and massacres. Count the cases. The Diwali-eve blasts in Delhi, the Samjhauta Express blasts, the shootout in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the Mumbai train bombings, the Ayodhya attack, the Malegaon mosque blast, the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad. The list is long. But the names and identities of culprits in the chargesheets are pathetically next to nil.”

Organiser praises the Mumbai verdicts: “The verdict given by TADA Judge P.D. Kode on the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts should be etched in gold.”

Friends of Mahdani

Organiser suspects a conspiracy behind Mahdani’s acquittal in the Coimbatore blast case. “He was the hot favourite of both the Congress-led UDF and the CPM-led LDF. The UDF in 2001 and the LDF in 2006 rode to power promising release of Mahdani. UDF/LDF leaders like Oommen Chandy, Pinarayi Vijayan were his regular visitors in Coimbatore prison, not to mention ministers and MPs of both camps. In 2006, prior to Assembly polls, the Kerala Assembly in a special session demanded from Tamil Nadu parole for Mahdani! When President Kalam visited Kerala, the entire UDF/LDF MLAs gave representation for Mahdani’s release from the jail!” it says.

Patriots, all

Demands from some quarters that the Australian government should apologise to Mohammad Haneef have provoked a columnist, who calls it “phony patriotism.” “What he and others, keen on an Australian apology, cavalierly ignore is a crucial fact — the manner in which under-trials are treated in India,” the article says. “The Mohammed Haneef case has underlined two trends in modern India. The first is a phony patriotism. This is actually a Left-inspired crusade against what is fashionably called ‘neo-imperialism.’ The second is the propensity of liberals to weaken the war on terror. Both trends go hand in hand, each strengthening the other.”

Compiled by Varghese K. George