A bomb explosion, no doubt, kills many, leaves a trail of destruction and destroys property worth millions. It has a detrimental impact on the psyche of the entire population of the place. In many cases those who trigger blasts also die in the process or are prepared to give up their life. Such incidents naturally deserve widespread condemnation as the victims are innocent citizens.
But there are some bombshells, which obliterate the very system on which a country stands. They are not planted by terrorists or dropped by enemies’ aircraft but fired from the mouth of political opponents.
There is a set of politicians, who specialise in dropping political bombshells of their own kind. A day after the Ahmedabad mayhem a lady leader of the BJP, Sushma Swaraj, directly accused the Congress of conspiring these blasts. She went on to allege that the Congress wanted to divert the attention of the people from the money bag scandal, which rocked Parliament on July 22 last.
The tone of the attack was extremely offensive yet the Congress reaction was not quid pro quo. It did not hold the BJP directly responsible for these explosions – in fact talked about cooperation. However, nobody can deny the fact that they took in the BJP ruled states of Karnataka and Gujarat. If a central government agency can trigger so many blasts – not to speak of two dozens unexploded bombs in Surat – in the states ruled by the opposition BJP, then what was the latter’s machinery doing? If the intelligence of these two states cannot prevent the Congress-sponsored blasts then how can it nip in the bud any such evil design from across the border? After all it is the BJP, which always makes a tall claim that people are secured in the country or state ruled by it.
If Sushma Swaraj is worth believing then it means that our rulers can go to any extent to get political mileage and divert people’s attention. She failed to say as to whether the Congress was also directly involved in the blasts in Samjauta Express near Panipat, Malegaon mosque, Jaipur, Delhi, Hyderabad, Varanasi, etc. If this is the case then the matter is too serious to be left just for the BJP to highlight.
If Sushma Swaraj’s logic that the present central government was behind the blasts is applied to what happened on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001 then it means that that incident was the handiwork of the then ruling NDA government. And if it is really the BJP and Congress, which are triggering blasts, then why is it that the leaders of the Sangh Parivar, including Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, blaming the enemies across the international border for these cowardice acts. It means something somewhere is grievously wrong with the BJP’s allegation.
Since the BJP is ‘a party with a difference’, it has a different approach to everything. Its definition of morality is different, its interpretation of any political development is different, its style of hurling abuses is different and its definition of truth and falsehood is different.
While Sushma Swaraj was firing all cylinders, the Congress chose to speak less on the issue and showed political maturity. But as usual the Left chose to look the other way round on the whole issue. If the Left thinks that the BJP’s allegation is true then it should come out openly in its favour as the issue is no less of the country’s security. But if the charges are baseless, it should come out and dismiss it as a tissue of lies.
Both the BJP and the Left leaders have conceded defeat yet they do not want to publicly acknowledge it. BJP leaders’ recent utterances only reveal deep frustration within the party rank and file. What is strange is the role of the media. Sushma Swaraj’s serious allegation was, in general, dismissed by the media lightly. The Press largely chose to downplay it and did not take her or her party to task for making such a bizarre accusation without substantiating it. The truth is that the BJP’s charge that the Congress triggered the blasts only encourages the real culprits, whosoever they may be. Political chaos is what the enemies want to create in the country.
But this is not the first case of the BJP hurling unsubstantiated charges. On July 22, Lal Krishna Advani, made a similar attack on the Congress after three of his party MPs displayed bundles of notes in Parliament. The prime ministerial candidate of the party then told the mediapersons that a premier electronic channel had the tape of money changing hands. But the channel in question, the CNN-IBM, never telecast that and later said that the story was incomplete and the recording was of poor quality. Now the onus is on the BJP to prove that the money was paid to its MPs by Amar Singh and company. If not they would be penalised as both giving and accepting bribe is a crime.
Both the CNN-IBM boss, Rajdeep Sardesai and the BJP leaders have eggs on their faces. How can such a grievous charge be levelled without any proof? Can a television channel become a party and join hands with the BJP? Isn’t it that by doing so both of them encouraged the corrupt practice?
With the passing of each day it is getting clear as to how much in turmoil is the BJP in the country. Their leaders have linked the money bag scandal to the bomb blasts, but have failed to come up with any proof. They are scoring one self-goal after the other, not knowing that they are in fact losing the match rather than winning it.