PC-Diggi encounter over Batla House Manjari Mishra | TNN
Lucknow: The surprise launch of the “rethink counter-Maoist strategy”
missile targeting home minister PC Chidambaram by UPCC incharge Digvijay
Singh on the very day Rahul Gandhi flagged off the high profile rath yatra,
has led to many a red face in the Congress. Some of his colleagues knew
Singh was nursing a grudge against PC and was lying in wait.
The well-calculated strike, they feel, was triggered by PC’s unwitting
bid to abort his dreams of an image makeover and emerge as the new messiah
of minorities in UP and beyond.
Singh, it is believed in the party circle, is not ready to brook any
resistance in his mission.
This accounts for his dismissal to almost violent opposition from UPCC
colleagues who questioned the wisdom of his move to rekindle “the Batla
House issue by an unnecessary visit to Sanjarpur in Azamgarh”. Not only did
Singh make a trip on February 3 and 4, he also publicly promised a sure
relief within three months to the families of 27 innocent terror victims.
*
*
*PC played spoilsport in Diggi’s Sanjarpur plans*
**
Lucknow: Congress party insiders feel that the well-calculated strike of
Digvijay Singh was triggered by PC’s unwitting bid to abort his dreams of an
image makeover and emerge as the new messiah of minorities in UP and beyond.
Digvijay Singh would have kept his word of a sure relief to Sanjarpur terror
victims but for the PC who played the spoilsport. The seed of discontent was
sown way back on March 16 when Singh led a five-member delegation to the
Union home minister with a request to clear a proposal for setting up fast
track court for Azamgarh boys to expedite justice. “More than a month and
three telephone calls later there has been no progress in the matter. This
means a loss of face and Singh is certainly not the kind of person who
forgives and forgets easily,” sources say.
Accusing PC with sitting over the proposal, sources close to Singh
claimed that the home minister was needlessly delaying the issue due to ego
hassles. In fact the delegation was received very warmly by the law minister
Veerapa Moily on March 14, one of the members told TOI. Moily was extremely
receptive and promised to clear the proposal after the home ministry sought
a formal advice from the department. In contrast, PC was overbearing and
snappy and the tension between the two leaders was almost palpable, he
claimed.
At one point of time, PC even turned around to ask if he was supposed to
sign on the dotted lines without considering pros and cons. He relented
conditionally and said that while he would consider giving relief to the
boys absconding since the Batla House encounter and those who were caught
thereafter but against whom there was no substantial evidence, the PC dug in
his heels and refused to go soft on the Delhi blast accused.
Even as Singh passionately pleaded their cause, PC was firm they were
dreaded terrorists and couldn’t be taken lightly. Even though he promised
eventually to seek opinion from the law ministry on technicality of setting
up fast track court, to this day he had not done that, sources said.
This probably accounts for Singh’s scathing comments on PC whom he
describes in print as someone “extremely rigid once he makes up his mind...I
have been a victim of his intellectual arrogance many times”.
*
*
*Interestingly, five days before Singh fired his salvo at PC, his close
confidant and president of the anti-communal cell in UP, Amaresh Mishra, had
circulated an e-mail along similar lines, only much strongly worded.
Discussing the Dantewada tragedy, Mishra wrote: “The way home minister is
handling the situation, it only increases suspicions about him working for
corporate mining interests in Chhatisgarh - as a lawyer he represented
Vedanta. Mishra also claimed unwittingly both Manmohan Singh and PC
Chidambram are playing the BJP game.” *
*
*
* Hinting that “the Dantewada massacre could be a set-up by powerful
lobbies mainly outside but also within the Congress to massively dent the
progressive politics of the Congress president, Mishra makes a categor**ical
mention of “the way Digvijay Singh was cornered by reactionary forces when
he raised the minimum secular demand of fair trial for Azamgarh boys, was
unprecedented.” While Singh, currently in US, could not be contacted,
Amaresh Mishra stood by his version. He had e-mailed the article to Singh
also, he told TOI. *
SLAM FEST: Digvijay and P Chidambaram
www.savetheboys.in
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