Senior Journalist Vinod K Jose, the Executive Editor of The Caravan Magazine, took to his Facebook account and raised several questions about the investigations and trial of Parliament attack after Davinder Singh, J&K DSP’s arrest with Hizbul Commander, Syed Mushtaq who is said to be the number 2 of the organisation. Vinod also also shared screenshots of letter written by Afzal Guru to his Supreme Court Lawyer Sushil Kumar in which he had alleged the role Davinder Singh adding he was tasked to bring Mohammed, (accused in Parliament attack) to Delhi.

“‪Afzal Guru first made the sensational announcement of the involvement of Davinder Singh, a DySP in J&K police, in a letter to his SC lawyer Sushil Kumar in 2004. Davinder Singh, according to Afzal, had assigned him to bring five non-Kashmiri speaking men to Delhi who were the five terrorists who attacked the Indian parliament in 2001. Two years later when I interviewed him in Tihar, Afzal repeated the same” Vinod wrote in the Facebook post.

“Nobody chose to listen to Afzal when he made the revelations sixteen years ago—which suggested the attack on Indian parliament was done with the help of officers such as Davinder Singh—and now with Davinder Singh seen in the company of Hizbul Mujahideen commanders, the nation is pushed to see many of the so called terrorist attacks with a pinch of salt” he added.

Vinod further questioned if attacks like Parliament attack are qualified to be termed as “Terrorist attacks” on the feet of meritorious evidences or they stand on shaky grounds of polices with incomplete investigations. He also questioned the agents who make the most of such acts politically.

“Do these attacks qualify as “terrorist“ attacks on the feet of meritorious evidences, collected and tried legally with due processes, or do they stand on the shaky ground of politics and rhetoric done by incomplete and convenient investigations? And who are the agents who make most out of such acts politically?”

Adding that Davinder Singh’s connection with militant organisations was evident from 2001-2020 Vinod questioned the logic of covert operations in India for which the nation spends an unaccounted amount of tax payer’s money every year.

“The second point is that the long pattern in Davinder Singh’s conduct, from 2001 to 2020, where Davinder Singh’s connection with militant organisations is more than evident, it must make every Indian raise questions on the logic of covert operations itself—for which India spends an unaccounted large sum of tax payer’s money year on year. What is the political and financial accountability of covert operations?” Vinod questioned.

“And foremost, at what levels does sanctions come for these acts? For eg, who asked Davinder Singh to send five terrorists with Afzal to Delhi in 2001 and who asked Davinder Singh to leave Kashmir to Jammu (or Delhi?) with Hizbul Mujahideen commanders in 2020? Also the question to be asked along with it: If Davinder Singh was useful on a longer leash of time, what does it mean suddenly today to see him behind bars for those leaders and officers who must have played a role in supervising him? Is it an inter-agency rivalry that got him arrested in the weekend with Hizb commanders, a mistake, and in which case, the superbosses of both agencies must be scripting a harmless way out as we speak. It is the superbosses who sanctions money and the moral authority of covert actions, and that's where the attention must be focused. Not just on a cog in a larger machine like Davinder Singh” Vinod’s Facebook post added.

“Davinder Singh brings back the question of India’s Covert Action to fore after a long break. If I remember it right, when IK Gujral was the PM, it was decided to stop sanctions for covert actions, which was shortlived and was lifted when Vajpayee came to power in 1998. Also in focus must be the roles that many played, not just govt people, but even non-government biggies and actors. Because, a covert action is not complete if the whole narrative is not in control--from the incident to its trial--and players of all hues are required to play certain roles, and they do” he added.

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Lucknow (PTI): BSP supremo Mayawati on Sunday urged the Centre to confer the Bharat Ratna on party founder Kanshi Ram and not make the same mistake the Congress did with B R Ambedkar when it came to the award.

In a statement on Sunday on the birth anniversary of Kanshi Ram, Mayawati attacked the Samajwadi Party, Congress, and the BJP, saying they only talk about the Bahujan, but rarely work for their uplift.

"The Muslim community has significantly dissociated itself from these parties, and with the Brahmin community associating with the BSP, it seems that SP's political and caste-animosity have intensified," Mayawati said.

She hailed Kanshi Ram for his work for an egalitarian society and urged the BJP-led Centre to bestow the highest civilian award on him.

"Like the Congress party, which did not honour the architect of India's Constitution, Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, with Bharat Ratna, the current BJP-NDA government at the Centre should not make any further delay in honouring 'Bahujan' leader Kanshi Ram ji with the Bharat Ratna.

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"His contribution in creating an egalitarian society in the country, as enshrined in the Constitution, is historic, and for this reason, he too resides in the hearts of the people," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

"He not only created a political force, but also formed a government in a large and important state like Uttar Pradesh, and made me its chief minister," she said about the Dalit icon.

Mayawati's statement came days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that had Jawaharlal Nehru been alive, then Kanshi Ram would have been made a chief minister from the Congress.

Nehru, India's first prime minister, died in 1964, while Kanshi Ram broke out onto the political scene with his founding of backwards-championing BAMCEF in 1978, and later bolstered his position with the formation of the Bahujan Samaj Party in 1984.

In his tribute to the Dalit icon, Rahul Gandhi on Friday said Mahatma Gandhi, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, and Kanshi Ram never compromised on their principles.

Gandhi was speaking at the Samvidhan Sammelan held in Lucknow ahead of Kanshi Ram's birth anniversary.

He said, "If Jawaharlal Nehru were alive, then Kanshi Ram would have been a chief minister from the Congress."

After Gandhi's speech, a proposal was passed resolving that when the Congress is voted to power, it would confer Kanshi Ram with a Bharat Ratna.

On Sunday, too, Gandhi appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer the Bharat Ratna on the BSP founder posthumously.

In a letter to Modi, Gandhi said Kanshi Ram transformed the nature of Indian politics and, through his movements, raised political awareness among Bahujans and the poor.

"As we commemorate the birth anniversary of Kanshi Ramji today and reflect on his legacy and contributions, I write with a request that he be awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously," the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said in the letter.

Born in Punjab's Rupnagar on March 15, 1934, Kanshi Ram worked for the upliftment and political mobilisation of people belonging to backward classes.

He founded the All India Backwards and Minorities Communities Employees Federation (BAMCEF) in 1978, the Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti in 1981, before forming the BSP in 1984.

Kanshi Ram was elected to the Lok Sabha from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh in 1991 and from Hoshiarpur in Punjab in 1996. He also served as a Rajya Sabha member from 1998 to 2004.

Kanshi Ram died on October 9, 2006, in Delhi at 72.

Meanwhile, Mayawati accused the Samajwadi Party and other opposition parties of making empty talk about the welfare of Bahujans, and asserted that BSP is the only party working for their interests.

"In reality, even among parties that exploit Dalits, other backward castes and the Muslim at every level, especially the SP, and its love for PDA ('Pichhda, Dalit and Alpsankhyak) is pure eyewash. They remember these communities and their great men only during the elections. Once they form the government, they disregard them," Mayawati said.

Mayawati, accompanied by senior party leaders, paid floral tributes to Kanshi Ram's portrait and statue at the BSP's central camp office in Lucknow.

The BSP chief appealed to the Bahujan community to maintain a safe distance from parties that seek to dilute the power of the Bahujan vote by luring them to make MPs and MLAs.

Mayawati also criticised the opposition parties for renaming the Manyavar Shri Kanshiram Urdu, Arabic, and Persian University in Lucknow, established in 2009 by her government, to Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Language University.

According to the party statement, BSP workers from 12 administrative divisions of Uttar Pradesh gathered at the Manyavar Shri Kanshiram Ji Memorial in the state capital to pay tributes to Kanshi Ram.

Workers from six divisions in western Uttar Pradesh garlanded the statue of Kanshi Ram at Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal in Gautam Buddha Nagar.