Counter Naqvi,Frame by Frame

This article appeared in Indian Express (where else) on July 08 2005

http://iecolumnists.expressindia.com/full_column.php?content_id=74019

The celebrated columnist, Sayeed Naqvi, has time & again made efforts to sanitise the ugly doings of the terrorists. Previously he linked the Godhra train killings to UP elections (as if to say that VHP was responsible for that ) and now he insists that BJP has something to do with the Ayodhya issue.

(Apparently BJP is desperate for issues, and so is killing innocents) .

These fifth columnists, i feel, are as dangerous as terrorists themselves,if not more. They provide the terrorists the neccessary moral support and at times even the required sanctity for their actions.

Read on.. what this smart ass has to say about Ayodhya....

Ayodhya, frame by frame

The terrorists got into the Tata Sumo at Akbarpur, which is near Kichaucha village, where lots of Muslims live. Since lots of Muslims live in Kichaucha they must be “fundamentalists”. At Faizabad, they abandoned the Sumo and hired a jeep driven by Rehan Alam who drove them past a temple — indeed they guided him to the temple — where they “prayed”. Muslim fundamentalists praying at a temple? Let us not forget they were pretending to be pilgrims. But where was the audience for the benefit of whom this drama was being enacted? The audience was Rehan Alam, the driver. But the driver was only to drive them up to a point, after which he was to be forced out of the jeep. After getting rid of the driver, the “terrorists” would enter the Ramjanmabhoomi campus.

If this indeed was the predetermined script, the driver would live to tell the story — as indeed he did — including the detour he was forced to make to visit the temple where the terrorists “prayed”, making them out to be Hindus.

Does not quite add up. Conspiracy theorists smack their lips like they have seen jam. To enter the compound the “terrorists” bang the jeep against railings protecting the sensitive area where the Babri masjid, the “disputed structure”, once stood, the spot now adorned by Ram Lala idols.

Mr. Naqvi, it is driver Rehan's statement that the (rightly called) terrorists (and so no need of quotes) went to the temple. If you are basing your theory on his statement, which by the way is changing every minute, you are not even close.
And it is entirely possible that these terrorist did go to the temple, which could be the place they would regroup themselves before one final assault.What better place can you have in Ayodhya, than a temple to make a last minute prep?

When the jeep is detonated to create a passage in the railing, one of the terrorists is blown to bits. Next day the dead man’s family recognise the watch-strap and chappals as belonging to Ramesh Pandey. What was Pandey doing with terrorists”? Pandey was some sort of freelance panda, a guide for pilgrims. Seeing a jeep full of “pilgrims” moving towards the holy place, he presumably trailed it, soliciting custom. One Mohammad Sharief, a part-time undertaker,buried the five terrorists. The day after the burial there was an official “leak” that all four were circumcised. They were separated from Pandey who was cremated.

Meanwhile, Rehan Alam has been detained in the Ramjanmabhoomi area. He is being taken to places on the route the “terrorists” travelled. His passport indicates he once worked in Dammam, an oil-rich region of Saudi Arabia. I suppose Saudi intelligence will furnish details on his contacts in Dammam.

In a country where people can be bought for peanuts, why does it surprise you Mr. Naqvi that a hindu called Ramesh Pandey accompanied them? And what does it prove anyways?

So the breakthrough on the identity of the terrorists officials claim to be in possession of, is that they were circumcised. For this detail, too, they have presumably fallen back on data furnished by Sharief, the undertaker.

Its ok if you go by driver Rehan's statement, but the police should not heed to the undertaker Sharief's statement. And nowhere does it come out that police "just" believed Shareif's statement. It just comes out that Sharief "also" told the same.

The media’s imagination fills in details officials cannot furnish. No official has yet given an indication of the identities of the “terrorists”. But every channel, including DD, has conducted ponderous discussions on Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish. Graphic routes were drawn from Nepal.

Please remember oh Sherlock Holmes that UP is governed by 'Mullah' Mulayam and his police. Mulayam will be the last person to let officials declare the attackers as muslims, even if he had the slightest doubts.

The winners in all of this confusion, have been the people of India who have kept their calm. TV screens were filled with baton charges, tear gas, the pushing of barricades — but only for a day. That the events at Ayodhya coincided with the last day of the RSS conclave in Surat is about as significant as Shankarsinh Vaghela’s allegation that it was a set-up job.

Yea smart ass ! Every job is a setup job done by Hindu fanatics. You also doctored a theory not too long ago when you "coincided" the Godhra train killings with one of VHP's conclave. Yea right ... Muslims are all so innocent.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who should be busy managing floods in the state, chipped in with his clarion call: the terrorist attack was as important as 9/11. That the embattled BJP president L.K. Advani referred to Modi’s speech in his protest meeting at Jantar Mantar may be a pointer to his quest for allies in the intra-BJP battles ahead.

Mr. Modi has managed Gujarat situation well. Thank you very much. That does not mean he cannot have access to news items and incidents happening around. And he is within his rights to acknowledge the brave police men, if that's what you meant by 'clarion call'.

And than he continues with his never ending blabber on his pet obsession ..... the Sangh Parivar

blah blah blah....

The BJP’s attitude towards the Ayodhya incident brings into sharp focus the party’s desperate search for an issue. Clearly,reverting to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement is not seen by the party as a political booster. The party has therefore confined itself to attacking the Centre and Mulayam Singh Yadav for security lapses. Advani alone has picked up the refrain,“Mandir wahin banega” (Ram temple will be built on the exact spot) but with a caveat. His ideological U-turn in Pakistan earned him the wrath of the RSS-VHP. Since the Ayodhya incident has brought the issue into focus (very temporarily, in my view),he has extended a hand to the conclave in Surat by pitching in for the temple.

Since a full blown temple movement appears now to be out of the question, he has left room for his new secular avatar. He says he will reach out to the Muslim ulema to let him build the temple “on the spot”. He probably imagines the Muslim ulema will entertain his plea because of the new garb he acquired in Pakistan. The flaw in this approach is that there are no Muslim ulema the 150 million Indian Muslims listen to, except in bits and pieces, here and there. The good news may be that the Muslim community may, through repeated trial and error, have moved ahead of communal politics.

Oh my Gawd.... snooooze....