Leadership in Crisis Management

Much has been written and said of the Mosque that was torn down and the terrorists that were flown. Very little is said though of the Mosque that was burnt and the Terrorists that were promised safe passage.

Two Ministers were deputed by the then Prime Minister to manage the crisis in the aftermath of the mosque burning after offers of safe passage failed. One of the Ministers is dead but the other is very much alive and is seeking to stake his claim to the Leadership of this nation.

One has to really scrounge the dark alleys of the internet to reconstruct the events leading up to and following the May 1995 burning of Charar-e-Sharief in Kashmir by Pakistan sponsored Terrorists.

Former J&K Governor and an ex- BJP MP  Jagmohan wrote this piece recently in September of 2008 in the Asian Age recounting the Charar-e-Sharief incident.

The fatal flaws of the Indian State and its leadership are reflected vividly in the events, from December 1994 to May 1995, pertaining to the famous shrine Charar-e-Sharief, built in 1808-10 in honour of Sheikh Nuruddin who founded the Sufi-Rishi order.

 About 50 hard-core militants, led by an Afghan mercenary, Mast Gul, sneaked into the dargah. The state and Central intelligence agencies remained ignorant or casual about their presence. The militants dug in and collected a large number of lethal weapons inside the complex.

It was only on March 5, 1995, when they killed two BSF jawans, that the seriousness of the situation dawned upon the authorities.

On March 8, the Army moved in to lay a sort of siege from a distance of about two kilometres.

Characteristically, the government was quick to announce “safe passage” to the militants.

But the offer was spurned by Mast Gul. Both, at the state and Central level, indecision and confusion continued while militants called the shots. Eventually, on May 11, 1995, the dargah and the adjoining houses and shopping complex were burnt down.

Physically, Charar-e-Sharief shrine was burnt by pro-Pakistani elements. But, on a different plane, it was burnt by the timidity and hesitancy of the Indian government. Pakistan and its terrorist outfits committed the “crime” by commission.  The Indian government committed it by omission.

After Charar-e-Sharief, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s statement in Parliament on May 12, 1995, that burning down of the shrine by mercenaries and militants was only going to steel our determination, sounded pathetic.

Could there be a worse demonstration of ineptness and lack of will? The monumental mishandling resulted in total destruction of the historic shrine, burning of 800 houses and 200 shops, besides costing millions of rupees to the country’s exchequer and causing grave human misery and pain not only to the residents of Charar-e-Sharief but also to thousands of others who became victims of the fallout.

What is still more deplorable is that Mast Gul, the most wanted foreign mercenary, escaped and even held press conferences and TV interviews on Indian soil.

 Overnight, he became a cult figure, providing a further prop to subversion and terrorism in Kashmir.

For this incident, which made India a laughing stock of the world, no one was held accountable.

The Prime Minister who mismanaged the crisis and the Home Minister who bungled are both dead.

But there was a third Minister who was also charged with managing the Charar-e-Sharief crisis but hardly anything is written of his contribution to this bungling nor have any questions of accountability been thrown at him.

To learn about then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh’s role in the Charar-e-Sharief crisis management, one has to turn to the New York Times writing on May 15th 1995.

The Indian Government sent two of its most powerful Cabinet ministers to Kashmir today to assess the turmoil raging there in the aftermath of the destruction by fire of the disputed region’s most revered Muslim shrine.

The two Cabinet ministers who went to Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-ruled Kashmir, Shankarrao B. Chavan of the Home Ministry and Manmohan Singh of the Finance Ministry, arrived as army and police units tightened a 24-hour curfew across the state that has failed to prevent scores of clashes with protester

Exactly ten days after the Manmohan Singh crisis missive to Kashmir, Mast Gul, the chief accused in the burning down of Charar-e-Sharief who was offered “safe passage” by the then Congress Government, held a press conference on May 26th 1995 where he was rewarded for his heroic deed.

As the Congress seeks to make this election about contribution to Mosques that were not to be and about capitulation to Terrorists in the decade gone by, tough questions must be asked of Dr. Manmohan Singh of his role as a Leader in Crisis Management when Charar-e-Sharief burned

#1 Will he take responsibility for the Cabinet Decision to offer safe passage to foreign terrorists holed up in Mosques in Indian soil ?

#2 Will he take responsibility for the incompetence of his Government that allowed foreign terrorists to hold press conferences on Indian soil ?

#3 Will he explain to the nation exactly what was his contribution in the management of this crisis and its aftermath ?

#4 Will he hold himself accountable in retrospect by way of collective cabinet responsibility for the delinquency of the then Congress Government in allowing Foreign Terrorists to occuppy a Mosque on Indian Soil for 6 whole months with no fear of consequences ?

Postscript: Charar-e-Sharief shrine was rebuilt fully by October 2000.

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