The Mumbai blasts showed the damage done to
our unique syncretic identity, perhaps irreversibly, after the destruction of
the Babri Masjid.
COL R HARIHARAN |POLITICS| 5-minute read|
27-07-2015
The Supreme Court bench that reviewed the
death sentence of Yakub Memon had no doubt about his role as one of the
conspirators who carried out the 1993 Mumbai blasts that cost 257 lives. Having
waited for eight years after he was sentenced to death, the Maharashtra
government perhaps wants to get the job done quickly and set July 30 as the day
for his hanging.
An article written by the late B. Raman,
one of India’s foremost terrorism experts, was published posthumously by
Rediff.com after the Supreme Court confirmed Yakub's death sentence.
It seems to have thrown a spanner in the works as the
Maharashtra government got ready for his execution.
Raman, as the head of the RAW's international
counter terrorism division, was involved in the process of getting Yakub back
to India. And he retired soon afterwards. He had written the
article immediately after the Terrorist and
Disruptive Activities (TADA) court sentenced Yakub to death in 2007, but
withheld its publication. Raman's article raises three
points to support the argument that death sentence awarded to Yakub was not justified.
Yakub “definitely had an assurance from us
which is why he voluntarily came to Kathmandu, handed over so much data and
details to us. We have betrayed him.”
Raman says he was “disturbed to notice some
mitigating circumstances in the case of Yakub Memon and some other members of
the family were probably not brought to the notice of the court by the
prosecution” before sentence was passed.
Raman also says that Yakub cooperated with
the investigating agencies and “assisted them by persuading some other members
of the Memon family to flee from the protection of ISI in Karachi to Dubai and
surrender to the Indian authorities.”
On the other hand, Raman had no doubt about
Yakub’s guilt. He says there was not “an iota of doubt about the involvement of
Yakub and other members of the family in the conspiracy and their cooperation
with ISI till July 1994. In normal circumstances Yakub would have deserved the
death penalty if one only took into consideration his conduct and role before
July 1994.”
Though Raman’s heart probably persuaded him
to have the article published immediately after the death sentence was handed
out, his head seemed to have asked him to write to the editor Rediff.com to
withhold its publication. This represents the typical conflict of the head and
heart many intelligence operatives face when they
get entangled in conflict betweenprofessional compulsions and value
systems. Most of the time, they take cynical view of the whole issue but
they find they cannot do so all the time. Yakub's
case was probably Raman's moment of truth. It is not surprising because such
conflicts affect even the most hard boiled operators. In one such instance in
my own career after the 1971 war a moral dilemma regarding the life of one of
our East Pakistan agents turned into a physical ailment till I was
counseled for a cure.
Not unexpectedly, fringe elements in the
garb of speaking for the minority community and anti-death sentence lobbies
have churned up the Yakub issue and made it murky. And some of the
retired judges have come out with strong statements against the death sentence.
But there are two points about such statements. They have
all done so only after Raman’s article was published posthumously. None of
them have the responsibility of either the legal system that examined the case
or the government elected by the people which have to ensure justice is done
for 257 innocent people who were killed in the blasts.
But more important are the views of members
of the intelligence community who were involved in the case. They also seem to
be divided on the question of hanging Yakub. Those who support Raman’s argument
have focused on the credibility of the assurance given by intelligence agencies
to Yakub Memon. If such assurances are not maintained it not only affects
the credibility of the operative and the agency, but alsomake
intelligence field operations a little more difficult.
I am sure they all realise intelligence agencies the
world over are notorious for not keeping up promises. The amoral and
secretive nature of their work makes it easy for them
to do so; so it would not be surprising if an assurance given to Yakub was not
kept by them.
The 1993 Mumbai serial blast case was
unique not only for the huge loss of life, nexus between criminal world and
jihadi terrorism or meticulous planning and execution. It also
established the involvement of the ISI, and as a corollary Pakistan
establishment, in Jihadi terrorist attacks in the country. This makes it
difficult for the courts to be lenient in this case.
The Mumbai blasts also showed the damage done to our
unique syncretic national identity perhaps irreversibly after the destruction
of the Babri Masjid.To this day Jihadi terrorists use it to justify
their gruesome acts
to the faithful.
In the Yakub Memon’s case the judiciary
had to
think with the head and draw their judgement based on facts supported
by evidence. Presumably, the defence would have put up the mitigating
circumstances after the court found Yakub guilty and before it passed the
sentence. The justice system provides for clemency petitions to the executive
authorities to consider issues of heart. This process is not yet complete; and
our justice system, despite its delays, can be expected to take an informed
decision in this case.
So clearly there is no room for religious
jingoism of the Owaisi kind. Actually, it confuses the issue by bringing the
polemics of majority versus minority politics and can harm Yakub Memon’s case.
Let us hope better sense prevails because there is no doubt Yakub Memon is
guilty; the issue is only whether to hang him or reduce it to a life
sentence. Nothing more or nothing less.
Courtesy: India Today Opinion portal
DailyO http://www.dailyo.in/politics/yakub-memon-1993-mumbai-blasts-b-raman-jihad-terrorism-asaduddin-owaisi-babri-masjid/story/1/5247.html
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