The Hindu Business Line : Of criminals and terrorists

THERE is now a concerted effort to describe the perpetrators of Tuesday morning's violence resulting in the death of some policemen in Kolkata as criminals, as opposed to terrorists. At least, this is what is indicated from Thursday morning's newspapers which said, following the lead of the US Government, that the Ministry of External Affairs had chosen to underplay the "terrorism" element involved in the assault, describing the event as a "criminal incident"

It is, of course, a fact that on the previous day, the MEA spokesperson had been quoted as saying: "t is obviously a terrorist attack" Indeed, even the Union Home Minister, Mr L. K. Advani — who had spewed fire and brimstone at Islamabad in the wake of the December 13 attack on Parliament, even threatening hostilities in the event of a further similar assault — was quoted by Wednesday morning's papers as having said: "he intelligence agencies have told me that a group involved in the recent kidnapping of a Kolkata businessman has claimed responsibility for today's incident. A senior member of the group had called up the CID claiming responsibility. The group also had links with the ISI"

The issue is simple, namely, if the group in question really did have a connection with Tuesday's incident in front of the Kolkata American Centre, and if that group has links with the ISI (as suggested by the Home Minister), the terrorist angle must be considered along with the other interpretations being offered. If, in fact, this view is acceptable, the next question is: why have the Americans deliberately (and conspicuously) pushed the terrorist angle into the background and, second, why has New Delhi amended its stance on the incident, in the process falling in line with Washington (which, again, is a conspicuous act in these charged times)?

A persuasive explanation seems to be that the terrorism aspect has been played down with the objective of disturbing the present fragile state of India-Pakistan relations as little as possible. Since no sane person — certainly in New Delhi and, hopefully, in Islamabad — would like hostilities to break out at this juncture, the carefully crafted stand of the Government on the incident (apparently following the American lead) can be easily appreciated. Considering all this, it is rather disturbing that the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has been more than forthright in blaming Islamabad for the January 22 incident. On Wednesday, he declared: "Behind all these attacks, be it in Delhi, Kashmir or in Kolkata, the military rulers of Pakistan and the ISI are responsible. They won't let us live in peace. They are the ones who were behind the World Trade Centre attack".

Clearly, both the stances cannot be held at one and the same time by Delhi and Kolkata, and it remains to be seen how the inconsistency will be rectified. But one thing is already clear, namely, that whether the January 22 incident was "criminal" or otherwise, there is simply no guarantee that it will not be repeated, given the state of the security set-up in West Bengal. For this sad state of affairs, Mr Bhattacharjee will have to bear the full responsibility.

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

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