How can the war be fought by governments themselves penetrated by terrorist links? Until the funding of terrorism is tackled, the war will remain a non-starter. In other words, governments must tackle hawala. Problem is, many politicians are enmeshed in hawala.
The results of the Jain hawala case revealed that. To protect politicians, the case was buried. By burying that case, in one decade Syed Salahuddin was allowed to grow from a nondescript to the chief of the Hizbul Mujahideen. For 10 years, proclaimed offender Ayub Thokar in London was allowed to fund Kashmir militancy.
But that's ancient history. Abu Salem is current. Authorities say he is linked to Al Qaeda. The Indian government claims it wants to get him back from Lisbon. Nobody asks why the government didn't nab him last October when Interpol offered him to India. Interpol merely needed proof of identification. The Mumbai police had sent Salem's original fingerprints to Lucknow, which could have identified him. The UP government 'lost' the records. Did the home ministry inquire into who was responsible for the loss? Were any officials punished? The public would like to know.
On August 6, 2001, Salem's accomplice Monica Bedi obtained a forged passport in India. Just a few days after September 11, when American security was paranoid, the US embassy in New Delhi gave Monica a visa on the basis of that forged passport. Similarly, Abu Salem, linked to Al Qaeda, obtained an American visa on a Pakistani passport. Have American authorities found out how this happened? The public would like to know.
Earlier, Ashok Singhal's rabid remarks attracting pota had been ignored. Recently, home minister L.K. Advani rationalised his failure to act against Narendra Modi's hate campaign which had also violated pota. He told The Hindu that criticising Modi at this time would "weaken the party" prior to elections.
As this is being written, terrorists have launched a major assault on the most revered temple in Advani's Gandhinagar constituency. So what will be the home minister's priorities be now? To combat hate and terrorism, or to win elections?
Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who's the most terrible of us all?
Is it Dawood? Is it Osama?
Or is it frauds who swear by Rama?
