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NEW DELHI: Three major faux pas in quick succession by the authorities have embarrassed India, especially when it is engaged in a diplomatic
face-off with Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks.
You would have imagined government babus would shed their habitual sloth in the collective effort to bring the 26/11 accused to justice, but the past week has showed that all the criticism heaped on bureaucrats for their inefficiency and sloth is justified.
Apart from the embarrassment, it has opened India to finger-wagging strictures by Pakistan, which naturally smiled while India squirmed.
Three days ago, Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik was demonised in India for claiming that the DNA profiles of lone terrorist survivor Ajmal Amir Kasab and his slain companion Mohammed Ismail were same. A day later, it turned out that a "clerical error" on the part of the Mumbai cops was responsible for what is now being used by Islamabad to buttress its claim that it is actually India which is delaying the investigations into the attacks. Rubbing it in, Pakistani foreign office on Thursday, in fact, "advised" India to avoid lapses in the Mumbai probe.
The police are learnt to have admitted before their political bosses that one of the profile reports sent was a photocopy of the other one. Nobody had an inkling of the goof-up for over a month and it came to light only after Malik's press conference earlier this week. Apart from handing a stick to Pakistan to beat India with, this is likely to make a dent, if not a deep hole, in India's credibility before the international community.
The foreign ministry fared no better. Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, campaigning in rural Bengal on Tuesday, caused a minor flutter by saying that Kasab's mother was likely to visit him in jail. In his statement to TV journalists, he seemed to draw a direct link between his announcement and his "conversation" with the foreign secretary.
Mukherjee has been at the forefront of the verbal battle unleashed on Pakistan for the past couple of months. But someone should have told him that discretion was the better part of valour when campaigning for a Lok Sabha seat. Particularly since no such feedback went to him from the MEA.
Mukherjee retracted within a couple of hours saying his comments were based on newspaper reports. "There is no official information about the so-called visit of Kasab's mother as reported in a section of the media."
Sources said Mukherjee had received this "input" from his officials who, in turn, were influenced by reports that a woman claiming to be Kasab's mother had apparently turned up at the Mumbai police station asking to meet him.
This woman, who lives in Ghaziabad, turned out to be mentally unstable. The government could have been spared the blushes had the officials concerned double-checked the information before going public.
Lastly, the manner in which the entire Anjali Waghmare case has been handled actually suggests that India is not serious about ensuring punishment for the only terrorist security agencies managed to nab in the attacks. Waghmare was initially appointed Kasab's defence lawyer but she started to have second thoughts after some political parties protested violently saying that Kasab did not deserve a defence lawyer.
It took Waghmare several days to decide. Meanwhile, authorities paid no heed to reports that the lawyer, before she got the Kasab brief, had represented one of the 26/11 victims in a compensation claim -- the reason why she was eventually taken off the case. The almost bizarre delay in verifying the credentials of Waghmare has further delayed the trial.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2611_probe_Pak_smiles_India_squirms/articleshow/4411473.cms
face-off with Pakistan over the Mumbai attacks.
You would have imagined government babus would shed their habitual sloth in the collective effort to bring the 26/11 accused to justice, but the past week has showed that all the criticism heaped on bureaucrats for their inefficiency and sloth is justified.
Apart from the embarrassment, it has opened India to finger-wagging strictures by Pakistan, which naturally smiled while India squirmed.
Three days ago, Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik was demonised in India for claiming that the DNA profiles of lone terrorist survivor Ajmal Amir Kasab and his slain companion Mohammed Ismail were same. A day later, it turned out that a "clerical error" on the part of the Mumbai cops was responsible for what is now being used by Islamabad to buttress its claim that it is actually India which is delaying the investigations into the attacks. Rubbing it in, Pakistani foreign office on Thursday, in fact, "advised" India to avoid lapses in the Mumbai probe.
The police are learnt to have admitted before their political bosses that one of the profile reports sent was a photocopy of the other one. Nobody had an inkling of the goof-up for over a month and it came to light only after Malik's press conference earlier this week. Apart from handing a stick to Pakistan to beat India with, this is likely to make a dent, if not a deep hole, in India's credibility before the international community.
The foreign ministry fared no better. Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, campaigning in rural Bengal on Tuesday, caused a minor flutter by saying that Kasab's mother was likely to visit him in jail. In his statement to TV journalists, he seemed to draw a direct link between his announcement and his "conversation" with the foreign secretary.
Mukherjee has been at the forefront of the verbal battle unleashed on Pakistan for the past couple of months. But someone should have told him that discretion was the better part of valour when campaigning for a Lok Sabha seat. Particularly since no such feedback went to him from the MEA.
Mukherjee retracted within a couple of hours saying his comments were based on newspaper reports. "There is no official information about the so-called visit of Kasab's mother as reported in a section of the media."
Sources said Mukherjee had received this "input" from his officials who, in turn, were influenced by reports that a woman claiming to be Kasab's mother had apparently turned up at the Mumbai police station asking to meet him.
This woman, who lives in Ghaziabad, turned out to be mentally unstable. The government could have been spared the blushes had the officials concerned double-checked the information before going public.
Lastly, the manner in which the entire Anjali Waghmare case has been handled actually suggests that India is not serious about ensuring punishment for the only terrorist security agencies managed to nab in the attacks. Waghmare was initially appointed Kasab's defence lawyer but she started to have second thoughts after some political parties protested violently saying that Kasab did not deserve a defence lawyer.
It took Waghmare several days to decide. Meanwhile, authorities paid no heed to reports that the lawyer, before she got the Kasab brief, had represented one of the 26/11 victims in a compensation claim -- the reason why she was eventually taken off the case. The almost bizarre delay in verifying the credentials of Waghmare has further delayed the trial.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2611_probe_Pak_smiles_India_squirms/articleshow/4411473.cms
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