08-19-2008, 07:35 PM
Sheila Bhatt pens her column after having her usual joint.
The headline is a misleading one.
How Modi's police cracked the blasts case
<b>Besides many other things, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is certainly a lucky politician.</b> In just 22 days his police claims to have solved the conspiracy behind the serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad of July 26 and the mystery behind the bombs that were planted all over Surat but did not explode.
On the evening of July 26, as the news of the bomb blasts trickled in from Isanpur, Narol circle to the Maninagar area of Ahmedabad, the last being Modi's constituency, <b>the police and political establishment were stunned</b> After the communal riots of 2002 there had been expectations of some kind of violent "reaction", but 22 blasts in 18 spots in a highly communally surcharged city were stunning to say the least.
Their desperation in facing the situation was obvious. Modi has projected himself as a "different" leader because he provided safety to people in a country wracked by terrorism.<b>But 18 blasts in 80 minutes seriously dented his image, and his only redemption lay in going about the investigation with professionalism.
His police's and his own credibility was so low in matters of criminal investigations after the Sohrabuddin encounter case and the communal riots cases of 2002 that they needed to put in extra effort. </b>
-----
It is credit to Modi's determination and the Gujarat police's zeal, <b>aided by the Intelligence Bureau's extraordinary efforts in giving relevant inputs</b> to the state police, that this case could be cracked.
---
The clumsily worded e-mail was so blunt in its political message that Modi had no option but to pick up the gauntlet against terrorism.
The headline is a misleading one.
How Modi's police cracked the blasts case
<b>Besides many other things, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is certainly a lucky politician.</b> In just 22 days his police claims to have solved the conspiracy behind the serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad of July 26 and the mystery behind the bombs that were planted all over Surat but did not explode.
On the evening of July 26, as the news of the bomb blasts trickled in from Isanpur, Narol circle to the Maninagar area of Ahmedabad, the last being Modi's constituency, <b>the police and political establishment were stunned</b> After the communal riots of 2002 there had been expectations of some kind of violent "reaction", but 22 blasts in 18 spots in a highly communally surcharged city were stunning to say the least.
Their desperation in facing the situation was obvious. Modi has projected himself as a "different" leader because he provided safety to people in a country wracked by terrorism.<b>But 18 blasts in 80 minutes seriously dented his image, and his only redemption lay in going about the investigation with professionalism.
His police's and his own credibility was so low in matters of criminal investigations after the Sohrabuddin encounter case and the communal riots cases of 2002 that they needed to put in extra effort. </b>
-----
It is credit to Modi's determination and the Gujarat police's zeal, <b>aided by the Intelligence Bureau's extraordinary efforts in giving relevant inputs</b> to the state police, that this case could be cracked.
---
The clumsily worded e-mail was so blunt in its political message that Modi had no option but to pick up the gauntlet against terrorism.