Centre justifying US stance on 26/11 accused: BJP

NEW DELHI: BJP on Friday accused the Manmohan Singh government of rationalising the US position on not turning over David Headley and said that “our effort to know the truth will be crippled in the absence of Headley being available for custodial interrogation and prosecution.”

BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy claimed India has lost the battle to know the full and complete truth about the nature and width of the conspiracy under which Mumbai was attacked on 26/11/2008.

“Our investigators have only been able to reach to the truth of the limited conspiracy in which Kasab was being prosecuted. It was the arrest of Headley in the US, which gave to the world new clues about a larger conspiracy. However, Headley will not be available for custodial interrogation or for any coercive process, which can pressure him to speak the truth,” Mr Rudy said.

He also said interrogation through letter rogatories is an absurd route. “Can interrogation be carried out in writing? Testimony through electronic devices will only reveal what Headley has already said in the US,” he opined.
The BJP leader alleged that the entire episode showed that US authorities were not keen on investigating the full truth of the ‘Pakistani limb of the conspiracy’. This, he alleged, was aimed at shielding state actors in Pakistan. “Will we ever come to know the involvement of both state and non-state actors of Pakistan? Should not US authorities realise that the appropriate jurisdiction for prosecution of 26/11 is India even if both American and Indian jurisdictions had concurrent authority,” Mr Rudy asked.

To elaborate his point, he said the 9/11 case cannot be tried in India merely because some Indians died in the attack on the twin towers and added that similarly, death of 6 nationals in the Mumbai attack cannot be the basis for trial in the US.

“Indian diplomacy has proved a disaster. Americans have two standards — one for the 9/11 and another for the 26/11. Our so-called ally in the war against terror is also Pakistan’s ally in its own war against terror on Pakistan’s western front. It has chosen to follow a differential standard on Pakistan’s eastern front,” Mr Rudy said.