The Congress on Thursday claimed credit for the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, anticipating a BJP effort to project it as an achievement of the Narendra Modi government.
“This extradition is the culmination of a decade and a half of painstaking diplomatic, legal and intelligence efforts which were initiated, led, and sustained by the UPA government in close coordination with the United States,” former Union home minister P. Chidambaram said in a statement.
Detailing the spadework done before 2014, Chidambaram said: “Let the facts be clear: the Modi government did not initiate this process, nor did it secure any new breakthrough. It merely benefited from the mature, consistent, and strategic diplomacy begun under the UPA.
The entrance of the National Investigation Agency building in New Delhi on Thursday. PTI
“This extradition is not the result of any grandstanding, it is a testament to what the Indian State can achieve when diplomacy, law enforcement, and international cooperation are pursued sincerely and without any kind of chest-thumping.”
Stressing the virtues of “quiet, determined legal diplomacy”, Chidambaram asserted that it was the institutional efforts already in motion that kept the case alive after the change of government in India in 2014.
While flagging the developments in the case under the Modi government, Chidambaram said: “These are not ‘strong leader’ moments, but are the slow wheels of justice, pushed forward by years of hard work.”
He highlighted the milestones of the case, beginning with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registering a case in Delhi in November 2009 against US citizen David Coleman Headley, Canadian citizen Rana and others accused of involvement in the conspiracy.
“That very month, Canada’s foreign minister confirmed collaboration with Indian agencies, thanks to (the) UPA’s effective foreign policy. The FBI had arrested Rana in Chicago in 2009 for supporting a failed LeT (Lashkar-e-Toiba) plot in Copenhagen,” Chidambaram said.
“Even though Rana was acquitted by a US court of direct involvement in the 26/11 attack in June 2011, he was convicted (of) other terrorism-related offences and sentenced to 14 years in prison. The UPA government publicly expressed its disappointment over his acquittal and kept (the) diplomatic pressure alive.”
A three-member NIA team interrogated Headley in the US, based on the mutual legal cooperation frameworks under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.
“The US government transferred crucial evidence to India, which became part of the NIA’s chargesheet filed in December 2011 against nine accused, including Rana. The special NIA court in Delhi issued non-bailable warrants, and Interpol red notices were secured for absconding accused. This was not a media stunt but quiet, determined legal diplomacy,” the former home minister said.
In 2012, the UPA government took up the matter of the extradition of Headley and Rana with the then US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and undersecretary Wendy Sherman.
“By January 2013, Headley was sentenced to 35 years, and Rana’s sentencing in the US also took place. India’s demand for Headley’s extradition was reiterated firmly, even as the UPA government expressed its disappointment at the sentence,” Chidambaram said.
“This was a textbook example of how sensitive issues of international justice should be handled through diplomacy.”
Chidambaram thanked the Joe Biden administration for supporting Rana’s extradition though it was US President Donald Trump who announced in February, at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Modi in Washington, that Rana would be extradited to India.
