Dara singh's arrest

THE ARREST OF Dara Singh, the prime accused in the grisly murder of Graham Staines, an Australian missionary, and his two sons, at long last, may well be held out as an achievement by the civil administration in Orissa. That the police took so long - almost a year - to apprehend someone who in their own description was among those engaged in crime in the region raises some serious questions about the efficacy of the civil administration. And rather than holding out the fugitive's capture as an achievement, the police administration will do well to look at its own shortcomings. After all, there could hardly be a sense of security among the people in a region where a lonely fugitive, accused of murder - that is how Dara Singh has been described hitherto - could escape the long arm of the law for over a year. All these, however, need not mean that the arrest is of little significance. Instead, it reflects in a positive manner the determination of the police force in the State as well as that of the political administration.

Indeed, the arrest of the fugitive alone is not the issue. For the ghastly killings in Manoharpur were not just a criminal act by an individual; instead, the killings were a part of a concerted campaign by sections in the region to terrorise the Christian missionaries engaged in tending to the sick and other such activities among the poor and hapless tribals. And it is a fact that Dara Singh was only a participant in this larger project whose basic objectives are inimical to the secular and pluralist ethos on the basis of which our civil society functions. Reports that Dara Singh has even confessed to the police of his presence at the site when Graham Staines and his two sons were burnt alive (while they were inside their station wagon) at Manoharpur along with a large crowd must only strengthen the argument that the killings were not the act of an individual. And contrary to the conclusions by the Justice Wadhwa Commission of Enquiry, the confession (as reported) by the accused of his involvement in various cases of a similar nature shows very clearly that Dara Singh was very much a part of the Bajrang Dal's activities - striking terror among those belonging to the minority community - in the region.

Now that he has been nabbed, the imperative for the civil administration in the State and the CBI (as the case has been handed over to the Central agency for investigation) is to present a legally sustainable case. Similarly, rather than treating the case as just another act of murder, it is important that the forces that were at work in the region leading to the ghastly incident at Manoharpur are also recognised by all those in the civil administration and their political masters. And it is in this context that the pronouncements by some important members of the Union Cabinet in the immediate wake of the incident give rise to apprehensions. While the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, went on record at that stage absolving the Bajrang Dal of any involvement in the incident, the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, went a step further and spoke about an ``international conspiracy'' aimed at ``sullying the image of the NDA Government'' behind the murder of Staines and his two sons. All those remarks, coming as they did from important members of the Union Cabinet, can be seen as hints to the CBI to treat the incident as just another instance of murder. Such a treatment will not only further the siege mentality in which members of the minority community are getting caught but will also encourage the lunatic fringe among the majority community to indulge in such terror campaigns as was carried out in Manoharpur and other villages in Orissa leading to the grisly incident on the night of January 22, last year.

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