India has a strong political system where every political party is seen vying to win hearts of the people by employing diversified tactics, especially on the eve of new elections, and political exploitation of religion has mostly taken lead in this context. We have seen in the past that while one political party won the elections on the basis of Hindu-Muslim riots, the other party had tried to exploit Babri Mosque issue as a tool of success during its regime. Another tactic that has widely been used by the political demagogues is the Indo-Pak relations. The demagoguery of Kargil war and the military stand-off between India and Pakistan during 2001-02 are some very prominent examples in this regard.
And now the prisoners’ issue has also been added to these political tactics. Kashmir Singh, who was imprisoned in Pakistan for 35 years on the charge of spying for India in Pakistan and stealing important documents for Indian policymakers, was released on March 3 after he was granted clemency by Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan has released Kashmir Singh on purely humanitarian grounds and no swap arrangements were discussed with India in this case.
However, that act brings a hope to Pakistanis in Indian prisons, particularly those who have completed their sentences or are remained incarcerated due to procedural reasons. But along with all that the release of Kashmir Singh became a reason of the enhancement of Indian demagogues.
Kashmir Singh issued a statement on reaching India that he was a paid Indian spy and he had completed his mission in Pakistan successfully. After that statement from Kashmir Singh Pakistan announced 1st April a sling date for Sarbajit Singh, who was involved in a series of deadly bomb blast in Lahore, Faisalabad and Kasur during 1990. He was charged and awarded death sentence by trial courts and punishment was upheld by the Supreme Court of Pakistan as he had confessed of committing these crimes earlier. But on the increasing pressure from human rights organizations, Pakistani government has deferred his punishment till April 30, 2008.
That decision from Pakistan brought a new twist in Indian politics. Different political parties have started using it for the sake of their success in coming elections, especially extremist Hindu political party BJP has started pressurizing Indian government to hang Afzal Guru, who is suspected to be involved in attack on Indian Parliament. BJP is pressurizing the Congress’s President Ms. Sonya Gandhi on the basis of Sarbajit Singh’s sling punishment. BJP’s leader L.K Advani is enquiring the Indian government about avoiding implementation on Afzal Guroo’s punishment after a clear verdict from the Supreme Court. He further blamed that Congress was expecting strong reaction from Muslims in this case that’s why this Government is not taking any initiative towards it. Moreover he claimed that President of Congress Party is also involved in it as she favours the present Government for the sake of Muslim’s delight.
A point to be remembered is Afzal Guroo was arrested with charge of Indian Parliament Attack in 2001 and Supreme Court had announced him sling punishment during the regime of BJP when Atal Behari Wajpai was the Prim Minister. Surprisingly even that government of BJP never fixed a date on which Afzal Guroo was to be hanged during its regime because of the fear of protest from human rights organizations. But when Congress came in to power, BJP used the increasing terrorism as a political issue and started to blame Congress that they are lightly dealing with terrorism issue because Muslims are involved in terrorist acts and they want to save Muslim vote-bank.
Last year BJP raised the problem of Afzal Guroo’s sling in Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) elections in spite of basic problem of absence of electricity, water and items of necessity, and surprisingly they got a huge benefit from it and they had snatched the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) from Congress.
Indian Parliamentary elections are expected next year. By remembering these all tactics, BJP is raising political questions, and if Sarbajit Singh is hanged, then BJP will remember this case till the parliament elections. In that case RSS will help BJP.
Congress understands all these tricks. When Sarbajit Singh’s sister met with Sonya’s son, Rahul Gandhi, for help he had assured her that his government will request for mercy to the Pakistani Government in that case.
However the both governments, India and Pakistan, have taken prisoners’ issue very sensitively and have started putting positive efforts to resolve it. Both the countries have already exchanged lists of civilian prisoners. The Indian Judicial Committee delegation would visit Pakistan on April 8 to search out its prisoners in various jails, and then Pakistani Judicial Committee will send its delegation to India for the same purpose. In spite of all these efforts it is clear that the Indian politicians have got a string to harp on, and if Indian government fails in taking any initiative then obviously it would become very difficult for it to win the coming elections.
