The Hindu , October 23, 2008
| You cannot say we are dealing with terrorists and therefore don’t ask questions, says senior Congress leaderSalman Khursheed. |
share the facts: The public is confused by the wildly varying accounts of the Jamia Nagar encounter, says Salman Khursheed.
The Congress party is deeply divided over the September 19 police encounter in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar. The raid killed two Muslim youths, Atif Ameen and Mohammad Sajed and injured a third, Mohammad Saif. Muslim Congress leaders, backed by the secular strand within the party, are demanding a judicial enquiry into the incident; and if not that at least a convincing response to questions. Their plea is that the Muslim community, in a ferment over the encounter and the subsequent arrests, needs to be reassured of the fairness of the police action. Transparency is the essence of fair investigation, they say. As against this, National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan has taken the position that to yield to this demand would be to undermine the police force. Senior party leader Salman Khursheed was among those who met the party chief and the Prime Minister in this connection. In an interview to The Hindu he argues that the right to ask questions and seek answers is an inherent right in a democracy, and those who do so must not be fobbed off or be called “anti-national.”
Right to ask questions is integral to democracy
Vidya Subrahmaniam
| You cannot say we are dealing with terrorists and therefore don’t ask questions, says senior Congress leaderSalman Khursheed. |
share the facts: The public is confused by the wildly varying accounts of the Jamia Nagar encounter, says Salman Khursheed.
The Congress party is deeply divided over the September 19 police encounter in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar. The raid killed two Muslim youths, Atif Ameen and Mohammad Sajed and injured a third, Mohammad Saif. Muslim Congress leaders, backed by the secular strand within the party, are demanding a judicial enquiry into the incident; and if not that at least a convincing response to questions. Their plea is that the Muslim community, in a ferment over the encounter and the subsequent arrests, needs to be reassured of the fairness of the police action. Transparency is the essence of fair investigation, they say. As against this, National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan has taken the position that to yield to this demand would be to undermine the police force. Senior party leader Salman Khursheed was among those who met the party chief and the Prime Minister in this connection. In an interview to The Hindu he argues that the right to ask questions and seek answers is an inherent right in a democracy, and those who do so must not be fobbed off or be called “anti-national.”
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