Sanjeev Bhatt : In The Line of Fire
It’s never too late for anything. Gujarat cadre IPS officer sure knows this. Which is why he chose to open his mouth 12 years after the 2002 Godhra carnage and implicated Chief Minister Narendra Modi by his Supreme Court affidavit. Bhatt has charged Modi of biased behavior against the Muslims during the Godhra riots. His statements have been recorded by the Justice Nanavati-Akshay Mehta committee investigating the Godhra carnage and the post-Godhra riots.
Predictably, the statement of Bhatt has put him in direct line of fire of the state admisitration. The police administration has withdrawn six armed bodyguards and government vehicle of Bhatt. His plea for Y category security has been appraised by IB and state police and given a veto. All this while the state government has gone in the denial mode about the presence of Bhatt in the security meeting of Modi, where the `go easy on Hindus’ advice was allegedly tendered by the Chief Minister.
Bhatt must have apprehended the vindictive backlash. It was the proverbial case of enimity with crocodile while living in his waters. Modi’s ruthless control over the jugular of the state administration is known to all. He is the master of all he surveys, and has ruled with an iron hand during violent and turbulent times. The state which is a hotbed of Hindutva forces has seen many a painful communal upheavels. Though it is a moot point how much biased Modi is, still one thing is certain, virulent Hindu sentiments run large in the state and Modi and his party can ill-afford to ignore it. So it won’t be surprising if a subterranean undercurrent of right wing machinations doesn’t seek to influence the administration. However, such conclusions doesn’t give unexamined credence to the statement and stand of Bhatt and his like.
Sanjeev Bhatt’s belated interest in the fair play of Godhra investigation and trial also gets under a scanner. The career of the 1987 batch IPS officer is not entirely without blemish. He has been implicated in a drug planting episode, and a custodial torture case is still on against him. So is this the reason that Bhatt has decided to go on the offensive ?? To save his skin from a negative judgement by floating his case of state victimization??
All said, Sanjeev Bhatt’s case has the potential of becoming an opportunity for political one-upmanship between the Congress and the BJP, and also a rallying point for civil society crusaders. Check out on Chidambaram versus Gadkari parrying on the issue and the muscle-flexing by civil society advocates of the like of Mahesh Bhatt and Sharmila Tagore et al.