 "Ishrat Jahan controversy: Why BJP has hit political potluck against the Congress")
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has for long pointed out how several Congress leaders are yet to be punished for their alleged role in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 or even the several cases of suspected ‘fake encounters’ approved by successive Congress governments at the Centre and in states. In contrast, the BJP’s Gujarat government, earlier led by Narendra Modi, has been hounded for the anti-Muslim riots of 2002 as well as the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter of 2004.
The BJP has cleverly exploited this analogy to paint the Congress and the intelligentsia that supports the party as the villains, while Modi and BJP President Amit Shah as victims. In the case of Ishrat Jahan, the BJP has alleged that it was a conspiracy hatched by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and executed by then Home Minister P Chidambaram to target Modi.
That at least two probes, including one by the Central Bureau of Investigation, found the encounter to be staged is quickly brushed aside. The probe had drilled holes in the Gujarat police theory of Ishrat, a Mumbai college student, being a Lashkar operative. The Congress, given its low credibility currently, has struggled to put forth its point of view.
Read more from our special coverage on "ISHRAT JAHAN"
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- Ishrat Jahan case: BJP attempting to dilute fake encounters issue, accuses Congress
- Ishrat Jahan case: BJP, govt attack Congress, Chidambaram over affidavit issue
- CBI court rejects plea to inspect 2nd Ishrat charge-sheet
- Congress alleges cooked-up story given on Ishrat Jahan case
The BJP, at least since mid-February, has effectively used the Ishrat Jahan issue to put the Congress leadership on the defensive. It has kept up the heat on the issue ever since Lashkar-e-Tayyeba operative David Coleman Headley suggested that he had heard about Ishrat Jahan, the 19-year-old girl who was gunned down by Gujarat police in June 2004.
The BJP raised the Ishrat Jahan issue just before and during the first half of the Budget session. It came in handy to blunt the Congress attack at a time when its ministers like Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani were facing flak from the Opposition for having purportedly pushed Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula to suicide.
The BJP again anticipates a difficult Parliament session that starts on April 25. It is sure to get embarrassed on its decision to impose President’s Rule in Uttarakhand, and could even lose the vote in the Rajya Sabha on the issue. This is the backdrop in which it has tried to rake up the Ishrat Jahan case again.
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On Monday, union minister Nirmala Sitharaman, citing media reports, said it was now conclusively proven that Home Minister P Chidambaram had signed the first affidavit that his ministry had submitted in a Gujarat court in 2009. The first affidavit was the Home Ministry’s response in the case filed by Ishrat’s mother and had claimed Ishrat to be a Lashkar operative.
The court found the circumstances of Ishrat’s encounter dubious, rapped the Home Ministry and asked for a second affidavit. On this occasion, Chidambaram paid more attention to the affidavit and also found that there was no evidence against Ishrat beyond a claim made by a Pakistani website of uncertain provenance, but that too after the news of the encounter.
Sitharaman alleged that the Congress wanted the “political elimination” of Modi by using the Ishrat case. She claimed that Sonia Gandhi was behind the plot. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said the Chidambaram’s signature on the first affidavit was proof that he was of a different view but was forced to changed it.
The BJP insinuations aside, there is little new as far as the ‘evidence’ brought forth. It is nobody’s case that Chidambaram didn’t sign the first affidavit. The facts in the public domain and the probes also suggest that Ishrat’s encounter was staged.
But the BJP is cleverly trying to use the controversy for its advantage yet again before a tricky Parliament session.