A day after the CBI summoned a senior Intelligence Bureau officer for issuing fake alerts about threat to political leaders in Gujarat, the BJP accused the Congress-led UPA Government of misusing the agency. The party charged the current episode raised a serious issue of how the national security was treated. For serving short-term political agenda, issues of national security are being exposed, it alleged.
The IB officer was summoned in connection with the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. “We fear the Intelligence Bureau too is being misused by the UPA Government. It is not the first time that the IB is being misused by the Congress -- earlier it was used to spy on opponents and tap phones of prominent leaders,” said BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman.
Sitharaman said the IB’s primary role was to ensure the security framework of the country, where they alert the state police forces about any impending crisis.
“An outcome of such a work arrangement between the IB and a state police was seen on June 15, 2004, when four terrorists, including Ishrat Jahan and Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, were killed. The Gujarat Police acted on the IB information about their movements. Within a month of this incident, the Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed Ishrat as a Lashkar operative. However, after three full years, in July 2007, they declared that their claim was a ‘journalistic mistake’ and withdrew the same. But in 2010, media reported that David Headley, the brain behind the Mumbai attack implicated Ishrat as a ‘fidayeen’ of the LeT. Strangely, the National Investigation Agency under the UPA Government denied these media reports,” Sitharaman detailed.
The BJP leader alleged that the IB was made to withdraw affidavits from the courts as and when the home minister was changed.
“There is now an environment of trust deficit among the intelligence and security agencies of the country. In this case, a CBI inspector shall go into all the factors leading to the IB’s sharing of information with the state police,” she said.
Due to the IB flip-flop in cases with serious national security implications at the bidding of its political masters, the entire security apparatus and national security were at risk, the BJP leader alleged.