New Delhi, Nov. 18: Lal Krishna Advani today slammed the Maharashtra anti-terrorist squad for its “barbaric treatment” of arrested sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and called for a judicial probe in a move that sources said came under pressure from the RSS.
The BJP’s shadow Prime Minister also demanded a change in the ATS team investigating the September 29 Malegaon blast, in which an army lieutenant colonel is also a suspect.
In a statement today, Advani said he had read the full text of the sadhvi’s affidavit before a Nashik court. “I cannot believe that such barbaric treatment has been meted out to a spiritual person, that too a woman, in a country that prides itself on its democracy and rule of law.”
The statement marked a turnaround in the BJP’s response as the party had so far maintained that it did not want a judicial probe. The party had even condemned those who had demanded a judicial probe into the Jamia encounter as “anti-national”.
Observers said Advani, who must have been wary of defending a terror accused when he was nursing ambitions of becoming a Prime Minister, came under pressure from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which wanted the BJP to confront the Congress. The party rules Maharashtra, where the textile town of Malegaon is.
Advani said the “present investigating team” had lost all “moral authority” to carry out the probe.
He said he had so far refrained from commenting on the allegations levelled by the ATS sleuths against Pragya and her supposed associates. “But after going through her affidavit detailing how she was physically and psychologically tortured and abused in obscene language by her interrogators, I have to express my shock and outrage,” the BJP leader said.
“I demand the ATS team investigating the case be changed totally, and a judicial inquiry be ordered to probe the charges made by sadhvi Pragya and the manner in which unsubstantiated allegations have been made against serving army personnel.”
The sources said Advani’s demand was unlikely to move the authorities but would assuage the feelings of the BJP’s core constituency and the RSS leadership.
Earlier in the day, Advani addressed a seminar on restoration of values in national life.
“Is there a crisis of national values? Is there a crisis of character? Yes, most definitely. The crisis has pervaded all walks of our national life. It gets highlighted the most in the sphere of politics, a profession in which I have been active almost all my life….”
The BJP veteran underlined the need for changing the image of the “ugly Indian politician” and said one way of making this possible was by encouraging youths to join politics.
“I tell my fellow politicians, particularly those belonging to my own party, that it is our duty to erase this image of the ‘ugly Indian politician’.... It is necessary for the best and the brightest among the youth to join politics and serve the nation,” Advani said.
“Politics was a noble profession during the freedom movement,” Advani told the seminar. “After Independence, the spirit of mission got gradually diluted.… Unfortunately, in India today, politics is seen neither as a mission nor as a profession, but as pure commerce.”
