Indian ministers have issued statements accusing Pakistan of responsibility for the bomb blasts at Bombay last month, The latest to make the charge is internal security minister Rajesh Pilot who claimed at a Srinagar public rally that the culprits had been trained at Lahore, Earlier, Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar made a similar statement and said that the India can prove the involvement of Pakistan’s inter service intelligence even if the much discusssed Memon brothers were not traced, When newsmen asked Pawar for the proof, he replied: “The picture is clear the ISI used the Bombay underworld to carry out the task by providing it support and training.” The only proof the chief minister provided was that a packet of recovered explosives had a “Lahore seal.” Earlier Indian reports had suggested that the explosives used in Bombay had been manufactured in Czechoslovakia. India also recovered a few AK 47 rifles as a part of its campaign to get at the source of the explosives. Neither Czechoslovakia nor China is on India’s “hit list.” The government of Pakistan, on its part, has denied its involvement in the Bombay blasts. The Pakistan high commissioner in India even stated that the Memon brothers had never landed in Pakistan, Pakistan’s secretary-general for foreign affairs, Zaki, addressing a press conference at Islamabad early this week that the Bombay blasts really were the handiwork of Indian intelligence itself which had the motive and the means to conduct the “sting operation.” “If Pakistan could be implicated with U.S. declaring it a terrorist state, it would be bonanza for India’s foreign objectives,” he argued; Whatever the merits of these charges and counter charges, the fact remains that India so far has not succeeded in producing clinching proof of Pakistan’s involvement. This is further borne out by the statement of India’s former external intelligence outfit, R.A.W., chief Ram Nath Rao who remarked early this week: ”No one has taken responsibility so far, therefore, we are left groping in the dark.” Even otherwise it is customary for India to blame every evil on Pakistan. In respect of hijacking of a plane by a Hindu, Hari Singh, at least weekend, India blamed it on Pakistan. The allegation was made merely on the basis of “preliminary interrogation” of Hari Singh by the Punjab police while his longer police remand was obtained later.

Meanwhile, Indian political analysts have been rather slow to repeat the government’s allegations against Pakistan in relation to the Bombay blasts. Most newspaper columnists see the blasts more as an indigenous phenomenon than an international one. This is the Sharp contrast to the Indian government’s obvious vested interest in presenting the Bombay incidents as an international conspiracy to destabilize India. To make the charge palatable to the western audience, India even talked of the narcotics gangs of the Bombay underworld being at the back of it all. This is nothing new. Even at the time of operation “Blue Star” in 1984, India had not only talked of Sikh terrorism but had even planted stories of narcotics recovery from the Golden Temple. However, it is well known that the Sikh militant movement is far more opposed to the narcotics or any other drug running business than the Indian government itself, In fact, the entire Sikh society in the moral Punjab are opposed to the sale of hard drinks and have passed resolutions through their panchayats seeking closure of the government run or private shops for the sale of any narcotics or hard drinks whatsoever. But India has used its security forces to impose on the Sikhs these sale points. As such, India’s claims regarding the narcotics factor at Bombay should be taken with a pinch of salt. What the Indian columnists have repeatedly held is that the Bombay blasts were by way of Muslim reaction against India’s Hindu fundamentalism, Several columnists warmed against Muslim youths’ anger against the demolition of Babri masjid by Hindu fundamentalists backed by the conniving Indian state. This anger was further fuelled by the waves of anti-Muslim riots at Bombay and elsewhere in December and January. Targeted by the state sponsored rioters was Muslim property all over, In these circumstances there are not many takers for India’s announcement that there was an interactional conspiracy behind the blasts.

India exploited fully the customary messages of condolence at the loss of life at Bombay sent in by heads of state of U.S., the U.K. and other western countries. Spokespersons of the western governments were advised in issuing nasty statements about the Bombay blasts seeking virtually to endorse or lend respectability to the Indian positions, such reactions to Indian developments should be avoided. The World Sikh News does not support any type of terrorism anywhere. The Sikh nation, in fact, has been victim to the Indian State repression and terrorism for more than a decade, the western nations should shed the tendency to be taken in by clever Indian cliches. What is called for is a deeper analysis of Indian developments visa is the country’s minorities, closely linked to this is New Delhi’s attitude towards Pakistan. The west, therefore, must think twice before invoking such phenomenon as terrorism to Indian conditions because in its specific context the phenomenon may have an altogether different meaning than what is understood here.

Article extracted from this publication >>  April 2, 1993