To Jyoti Basu goes the credit of easing relationships with our neighbour in the east including the Centre’s historic water sharing treaty, signed during Prime Minister Deve Gowda’s tenure. Meanwhile, the BJP government, is currently facing biting criticism for refusing well–known writer, Sunil Gangopadhyaya a visa for the journey, allegedly because he has been encouraging separatism in the north–east.

Justice D.P.Wadhwa, however, in a public statement, described the incident as an "entirely unjustified act which is a slur on humanity and a blot on civilised society."

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on June 22, 1999 filed a charge–sheet against 18 persons, including prime suspect Dara Singh in connection with the brutal murder, by burning, of Graham Staines, an Australian social worker and his two young sons at Manoharpur in the Keonjhar district of Orissa on January 23, 1999. Staines and his sons were burnt to death while they were asleep inside a vehicle at the height of the anti–Christian hysteria whipped up by the sangh parivar, especially the RSS, VHP and the Bajrang Dal in the states of Gujarat, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi (see CC, October 1998, January 1999 and June 1999). Mahanta, one of the 18 persons charge–sheeted by the CBI, was arrested by a special squad of the the Keonjhar police at Duburi in Jajpur on June 30. Dara Singh, the main accused has not been apprehended by the authorities six months after the brutal murder of Steines.

The CBI filed the charge–sheet in the court of the designated magistrate, E.Vasudev Rao, nearly three months after it started probing the case. The state government had asked the agency to investigate the case after the police failed to make much progress. Meanwhile, the Orissa police have lodged a criminal case against Binoy Bhusan Patnaik, the photo journalist who interviewed Dara Singh, main accused in the killings of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons in Manoharpur village of Keonjhar district. The case has been registered under section 212 and 216 of IPC against Patnaik for allegedly harbouring and concealing Dara in a place known to him.

According to the FIR lodged by Keonjhar district police, Patnaik was aware of the involvement of Dara Singh in the Staines murder, the eight other criminal cases pending against him, as also the state government’s proclamation that Singh was an offender with a cash reward of Rs. one lakh on his head. But still, Patnaik harboured the criminal with the intention to prevent him from being apprehended, it said. Meanwhile, the photo–journalist, who was arrested on July 3 and released on bail later, told newsmen here that he was being harassed by the police.

Patnaik claimed that he had agreed to lead the police to the spot on the Judia hills, about five kilometres from Keonjhar town, where he had accidentally met Dara Singh on March 12 last and interviewed him provided he and his family members were assured of personal safety. However, the police have denied this. The interview of Dara Singh by Binoy Patnaik telecast on a private TV channel on the night of March 29 last had caused a sensation all over the country.

What is most significant about this, however, is the silence with which these achievements have been received by the national English medium press that is quick to transmit news that portrays India’s largest minority in a negative right. When such obvious examples of progress and ‘main–streaming’ among Muslims are borne out by events, no news reports or editorials are penned.

These facts came up for stringent criticism from Mumbai’s largest circulating daily, Inquilab. In a strongly worded editorial, the paper wrote: "Our complaint with the English press (except the Mid–Day that carried a story) is that only the negative news about Muslims is considered news. If a Muslim youth is caught with drugs it makes front–page news, or if a Muslim youth is involved in a crime or divorce… But when, among the same Muslim boys a Tanveer or Bilal comes out from behind closed doors, and tops his school or college, the English press is smitten into silence! The reporters from the English newspapers who promised to cover the felicitation function for Tanveer Maniar in 1997 are still to make it to the venue!"

Meanwhile, The CB–CID has arrested two more activists of the banned Al Umma in connection with the planting of bombs in Coimbatore and identified those responsible for placing the explosive devices in Chennai and Tiruchi. Security was also tightened around Mettur Dam, the lifeline of the agrarian economy of Kerala following the developments around Kargil. The detention of two persons, Sheikh Mohammad Ummar, Shah alias Raju (30) and Jaleel alias Abdul Jaleel (18), both residing at Coimbatore, were in addition to the four Al Umma extremists already held by the police. The enquiries, according to the authorities, had also shown that one Zakir Hussain who is eluding the police dragnet was the "brain behind all the unexploded bombs in Coimbatore, Tiruchi and Chennai and also in the Coimbatore serial blasts last year’’.

The Kerala unit of the CPI(M) has, meanwhile, demanded a white paper on the activities of extremist and terrorist groups from the government.

According to the deputy police commissioner, Venkateshan, the dispute between the two sects this time was around whether or not visitors from other towns in India be allowed to rest within the precincts of the mosques or not. It had been resolved at an earlier meeting that Indians visiting from other parts should not be allowed to stay. But on June 27 a meeting was called to discuss the issue once again, at which the earlier decision was reiterated. However, after the afternoon prayers, a violent disagreement around the decision ensued and during the scuffle, the Haji was killed. Of the eight persons arrested by the police, one Ansari Mohammed Raza, the main accused in the murder, has a criminal record.

Meanwhile the city’s Urdu press, among them the widely read Inquilab, unequivocally condemned this sectarian violence and its violent dimensions. "It is only when a non–Muslim plays music outside a mosque or throws gulal at the mosque that our feelings are aroused because we consider this an assault on the dignity of the mosque. We are then willing to be killed and kill in the cause; hundreds of riots have broken out all over the country over this. But where is the dignity of the mosque when one Muslim slays his worshipping brother within its precincts?"