Who is to blame for Samjhauta deaths?

Another train blast has taken place killing 68 people. During the last ten years, 272 lives have been lost in train blasts. This includes the seven series blasts in Mumbai trains on July 11 last year that killed 185 and wounded people in hundreds. A little before, on 11 March, 2003, 11 people died due to a blast in a Mumbai train. 33 people gave away their lives in Brahmputra Mail in Assam on 30 December, 1996.
These are just few incidents that show that terrorists have repeatedly used trains as medium to spread terror. Not just in India, they are doing the same internationally as well; blasts in London and Madrid are a pointer to this.
The Samjhauta Express train blast earlier this week was not just aimed at killing a few more innocents and spreading the message of terror; they were also aimed at ripping apart the cordial ties between India and Pakistan. This is so because this train and its name itself were symbolic of the delicate thread of brotherly relationship that hangs between the two countries and chaos.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil has gone on record saying that he was aware who was responsible for the blasts but would not like to name them at the moment as this would have adverse impact. Moreover, there are reports that intelligence agencies had already forewarned the government about likelihood of such an attack. Even general people were aware of the threat to this train, in particular, and rest of the trains in general. Why did the Government and Railway authorities in particular failed to take any preventive measures? The very fact that 12 passengers in the train, including Pakistani nationals, were traveling without passports and there were only seven security persons in the train comprising 16 coaches is an indication to this.
Moreover, the Haryana police is claiming that two persons boarded the train from Old Delhi Railway Station and alighted from it about 15 minutes before the explosions when the train had slowed down near the Deewana station. Clearly they had no valid tickets to be traveling on this train whereas people without passports and valid visas are not allowed to board the Samjhauta Express. These two even had heated arguments for 20 minutes with the security personnel on board the train. Even the sketches of these people have been released. Why were no attempts made to stop these people from getting down? Is it so easy for a person to alight from a high-security train? If people can alight midway, there are all possibilities that others can board it too.
It is worthless to claim that so and so was behind the attack? No doubt, direct hand of Jaish or Lashkar-e-Toiba cannot be ruled out. But who is to be blamed for utter failure to take care of the security. Samjhauta Express is not like any other trains which stops at every other station to take in or drop passengers. All the passengers had boarded the train from Delhi, which has been under terrorist attacks on countless occasions and a minimum amount of security is expected at the station.
What is the point of red alert now? People’s baggage is once again being screened at the stations from the day the blast occurred. The same was being done till a few days after the previous similar attacks in Mumbai and elsewhere. Terrorists are not fools like us who would plan another attack in the near future. They are sure to lie low until this ‘alert’ converts into ‘slumber’ once again.

The dawn of a new era - SSP Lucknow

Inspired by real life incidents of a SSP of Lucknow, a film ‘Sehar’ (Dawn) has been made that shows the might of organized crime, ever changing dynamics of UP’s politics, railway contracts, politician-mafia-police-builder nexus, activism of criminal gangs, criminalization of University and how the SSP – played by Arshad Warsi – organized a Special Task Force to fight all these evils.
Far away from the glamour of reel life, the real life hero of our story is Lucknow’s present SSP – Rajiv Krishna – who may not agree that all the aforementioned evils are part and parcel of Lucknow’s society but he definitely has the looks and built to give Warsi a run for his money. Talking about ‘Sehar’, Rajiv Krishna agrees that the theme of reel life is based on real life but the events are further dramatized using intuitive genius, something that does not happen in real life.
The ’91-batch IPS officer, who completed graduation from Roorkee University in 1989, got schooling in several schools, courtesy the transferable nature of his father’s job. Even after joining as IPS officer, traveling seems to be inadvertently linked with his profession. Starting with ASP-Bareilly, Rajiv Krishna has worked as ASP-Kanpur, SP City-Aligarh, SP-Intelligence (Kanpur), SP-Firozabad, SSP-Etawah, SSP-Mathura, SSP-Fatehgarh, SP-GRP (Agra), SP-Human Rights (Lucknow) and was posted in Moradabad before coming back to Lucknow. All this is courtesy the policy of frequent transfers that the present-day governments put into practice, for reasons best known to them. Rajiv Krishna though justifies this policy of frequent transfers and says that a person who stays for long period is likely to develop vested interests. However, he agrees that too short stints mean that the officer is unable to know the area fully or build an effective, result-oriented team.
Rajiv Krishna rues the fact that there is little personal life and agrees that his is a high pressure job; as everybody right till the level of destitute and poor expect you to deliver. This is the reason why, upon coming to Lucknow, the first thing that he focused on was the common man. The visible law and order is the petty crime, something that common man has to encounter every day. These crimes are of such a nature that at times it is not even possible to register a case. People, however, feel that law and order is bad. “I stressed the need to curb these crimes and have been successful to an extent,” says Rajiv Krishna. Another area that is of prime concern to him is the strengthening of the communication network so that what you want and desire percolates down to the lowest level. In this regard, he has already taken 4 meetings at various levels, during the one-month stay in Lucknow.
Another list of 3000 criminals is being prepared, their verification being done and the officers are verifying whether they are still involved in crimes or not.
Krishna is of the opinion that law and order in Lucknow is fairly good and it is when people wrongly start relating daily problems that are not linked with the police department, like cleanliness, non-availability of electricity and water, sewage problems and encroachment, they conclude that law and order is bad.
As regards to Nithari killings, Rajiv Krishna is of view that legally no FIRs could have been registered in cases of ‘missing children’. It is only when a person points an accusing finger at somebody that FIRs can be registered. But he agrees that the very fact that about 30-35 children got missing from a locality in a short span of time should have raised the antennas, at least at SO level and they should have reported the case to their seniors. ‘Missing children’ is not a crime but the frequent nature of these incidents should have made them suspicious of criminal intent. The Government has wisely made each of these cases a special report case and now the matter will come in front of senior officers, as soon as some child gets missing.
Undoubtedly, Rajiv Krishna is sitting on a chair that has enormous clout and responsibilities. Expectations too are high and from all quarters. Naturally, under such circumstances, the job pressure could lead to stress. “Proper time management is necessary,” says he and smilingly passes on his mantra of facing the stressful life. “Don’t get stressed!” A mere utterance to some, commentaries running into pages can be written on this statement by those who are aware.
Of course, Rajiv Krishna has a two-and-a-half year old kid at home who surely is a good de-stressing agent, an area of his life that he doesn’t talk much about, while on duty.