Mr Pradhan, who headed this two member panel

Even as we keep debating on the fall out of the findings of Liberhan Commission we seem to have overlooked another report which is more relevant than this one, the Pradhan Panel report which was instituted to probe the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai. This report was submitted to the Maharashtra govt even before Liberhan Commission report which was submitted to the govt of India in June 09. Maharashtra govt on it’s part has coolly made this report Top Secret and has only tabled the Action Taken Report in Maharashtra Assembly so far. The BJP too has raised this issue several times but not vociferously enough. By making it Top Secret the govt has conveniently avoided all possible criticism.

The case is actually very interesting. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by a lawyer named VP Patil in Bombay High Court seeking action against officials responsible for 26/11 as well as making the Pradhan Panel report public. The High Court promptly directed the Maharshtra govt to produce this report. Thererafter, Maharashtra govt approached the Supreme Court which ruled that it would not be correct for the govt to make this report public as it would ‘unnecessarily’ generate a lot of public debate and would also make public our weaknesses which the terrorists may utilize for any future attack.

Principally, the Supreme Court may have been right in suggesting that it may give out our weaknesses to the terrorists but that is just one part of the whole report. There are names of officers in that report who have not done their job and that’s important. People want to know who was supposed to do what and did our officers and ministers do their job or not. Vinita Kamte, widow of Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte who died in these attacks, has raised these very questions in her book The Last Bullet. The Joint Commssioner of Police Rakesh Maria has been named by her as having messed up completely because of which her husband along with Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar were shot dead by terrorists. Where does that leave the Joint Commissioner of Police who is still very much serving in Mumbai police? And where does that leave the Maharashtra govt?

Fact is that had the govt made this report public they would have found it very difficult to come back to power in recent Maharashtra elections. And that’s the main reason for not making it public. Period. The public would have slammed the Congress for the way this govt acted when 26/11 happened. They have also somehow managed to convince the Supreme Court about it’s sensitivity. It very clearly shows what govts can do in case of such implicating reports, ie make the damn thing secret or let the report be something like LIberhan Commission report which does not name the guilty at all. What the govt has to answer for are the following-

1. Is Vinita Kamte correct in blaming Rakesh Maria for her husband’s death? If not, then why was wrong information given to her in response to her RTI query, based on which she has named him in her book? Also, if Vinita Kamte is correct why no action has been taken against Rakesh Maria so far?

2. Which other officers have been found to be guilty of negligence or ineptitude? What about Commissioner of Police Hassan Gafoor who has himself raised several questions against the conduct of Mumbai police during 26/11? This is as recently as the last week when he gave an interview to The Week (Check out that interview from that link. It’s explosive to say the least). Here’s what he says-

“A section of senior police officers refused to be on the ground and take on the terrorists. By doing so they chose to ignore the need of the hour. Yes there was a dearth of eagerness on the part of a handful of senior officers to be on the ground during those days.” And here’s some more.

“K.L. Prasad refused to come to the Trident and then decided against hitting the roads. Deven Bharti, K. Venkatesham and Parambir Singh did not appear keen on responding to the situation.” Here’s yet another disclosure.

“I attended a meeting with the DGP and home minister. I was told to withdraw the NSG and instead use the Mumbai Police for the ongoing operations.”

Can you guys beat that? The nincompoop Home MInster RR Patil actually asked for NSG to be withdrawn!!! If the Commissioner of Police during these attacks is himself saying this it has to be correct. Don’t you think?

3. What actions have been taken to punish these guilty officers? For that matter has anyone been punished at all?

4. Apart from Force 1 which has been created for fighting terrorism what other actions have been taken to prevent such attacks in future?

As you guys must be aware that RR Patil has been made the Home Minister of Maharastra again. Would it be possible for the Congress to give him that post if the public in general knew his true colors? May be not. On second thoughts, may be yes, they would have. Isn’t A Raja enjoying his ministership after all the chaos of spectrum allocation? Nonetheless, the govt’s decision to hide it’s ineptitude behind this veil of secrecy speaks very low of it and only goes to prove how it is trying to shield it’s officers and ministers from punitive action under the requisite sections of our laws.

APROPOS 09.30 PM 30 NOV 09. What the hell is going on? The govt is leaking like a sieve. First the Liberhan Commission report was leaked and now Pradhan Panel report is out on CNN IBN. I just saw Rajdeep Sardesai proclaiming to the entire country that he had this report. Is this what happens to a Top Secret report? I shudder to think about the consequences of being in a country which has such a leaking govt in place. I mean, is this a coincidence that I wrote this post today and CNN IBN has these details tonight itself? Well, let me guess. BJP has a lot to do with this leak. They seem to be the one who have facilitated this leak. That’s rather obvious. Isn’t it? After all CNN IBN was the channel which they used for cash for votes scam in Jun last year. From what Rajdeep Sardesai has said this report too is a dud and is as vague as vague can be. Let me make another guess here. Further details of this report will be most likely amplified in Hindustan Times. Pertinent to mention here that no website except CNN IBN (you can check this story here) is reporting this disclosure as of now. Whatever be the case maybe now the govt will come out with a full disclosure. In that sense we can all thank Rajdeep Sardesai. Also, you can expect a big uproar in the Parliament tomorrow. More about this later. God bless this country!!!!!!!!

APROPOS 7.30 AM 01 DEC 09. The report is indeed there in Hindustan Times but not on their website. Check out page number eight oh this paper and you’ll find it. By evening I’ll show a scanned shot of this page. And guys, I was indeed right about this one. Wasn’t I?

APROPOS 9.30 PM 01 DEC 09. Here’s is the scanned shot of Hindustan Times of 01 Dec 09……..

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Posted on November 30th, 2009 India calling • Tags: 26/11, attack, BJP, CNN IBN, Congress, dud, Kamte, Last Bullet, leak, Mumbai, panel, Pradhan, Rajdeep Sardesai, report, Terror, Vinita. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback