Sabotage: Violence rules the waves

In a grim parody of the wave of terrorism that has convulsed the world, a swift succession of sabotage attempts directed at' strategic Government installations spread like wildfire across the country last month.


In a grim parody of the wave of terrorism that has convulsed the world, a swift succession of sabotage attempts directed at' strategic Government installations spread like wildfire across the country last month. During what has come to be known as "disastrous November", numerous trains were derailed, communication networks set ablaze and major power installations damaged.

While the actual damage in terms of lives and property lost was relatively small, the fact that the acts of sabotage are the work of a well organized, highly efficient movement has ominous connotations. An organization claiming to represent the Anand Marga has lost no time in claiming credit for the incidents.

Letters addressed to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister demanded the release of jailed Anand Marga leader, P.R. Sarkar, and claimed responsibility for the death of Prakash Vir Shastri, MP, in a train crash on November 23 and also for the fire that broke out in the All India Radio building in Delhi.

According to External Affairs Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, another organization in London calling itself the Azad Kashmir Liberation Movement has also claimed responsibility for the acts of sabotage. Vajpayee termed it "a conspiracy to paralyze and attack strategic points which affect the life of the people in order to show that the present Government is incapable of functioning and providing security to the people".

A thinly veiled hint that the Congress Party may be behind the acts of sabotage was evident when he asked, "Why do Congress leaders hesitate to condemn these acts of violence?" Vajpayee also inquired why former Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi had "tried to justify" sabotage on the railways by saying that she had been told by some railway employees that "fish plates get dislodged by themselves. What about the fire in AIR? What about the explosion in the atomic plant? And what about sabotage in power generating units?" Vajpayee inquired.

He said that Mrs Gandhi had stated that the Congress had always been against acts of violence. "Why does she not condemn these acts outright?" he asked.

Home Minister Charan Singh blandly told the Rajya Sabha that the Government suspected the hand of organized groups and individuals behind the recent acts of sabotage in the country. He said the Government had no definite proof about the saboteurs, and it was up to the police and other investigating agencies to come up with the facts. "Extraordinary steps and emergency measures are necessary," he stated.

But the uproars in parliament - the accusations and counter-accusations, and the announcement that intelligence and security forces are being tightened up have failed to hide the fact that the stable doors are being closed after the horse has bolted.

The fire that broke out at the AIR building in the heart of New Delhi is a glaring example. According to police officers investigating the case, two men armed with crude versions of the Molotov cocktail - petrol filled in pint bottles of Shaw Wallace whisky - strolled past the indifferent security guards at the gate and climbed unchallenged to the first floor of the building.

Entering the records rooms where T. O. Ousaph, a stenographer, was working, they hurled one Molotov cocktail against the wooden wall where it immediately burst into flames. Before the astonished stenographer could register what was happening, the saboteurs had lobbed a second incendiary into the adjoining room and disappeared down the rear staircase.

So far, the police have failed to trace the arsonists, though seemingly better-informed MP's seem to have solved the case sitting in Parliament House. Shyam Lal Gupta, a Janata MP, has demanded an inquiry into whether Sanjay Gandhi and his cronies were behind the acts of sabotage.

While security measures at AIR have now reportedly been tightened up, the earlier security arrangements were an arsonist's dream. Anyone wishing to enter the premises merely enters his name, occupation and the name of the person or section he intends to visit in a register.

He is then handed a slip of white paper which the guards at the gate cursorily glance as he wave him through. Each corridor at AIR is supposed to be guarded by a chowkidar, but as long as one possesses the magic white slip, nobody questions the presence of strangers. The fact that the arsonists had their target and their escape route planned in advance means that they had reconnoitred the building before.

The police have so far interrogated over 200 AIR employees without producing any major breakthrough in the case. The description of the arsonists is pathetically vague. Both have been described as being of medium build, about 5 ft 6 in tall, clean shaven, fair complexioned and clad in pullovers. Unfortunately, the description matches a large majority of the male population in the capital.

A majority of the saboteur's targets have been railway trains, and the organization entrusted with railway security - the Railway Protection Force (RPF) is badly equipped, and untrained to efficiently protect or patrol the thousands of miles of railway tracks that criss-cross the country (see Box).

Over one dozen rail accidents have occurred since the present Government took over, without one single saboteur being caught or the actual causes determined. Ironically, a majority of the accidents occurred shortly after the reported measures were being taken to tighten up security measures on the railways.

Meanwhile, the blow-up in the heavy water plant at Baroda is only the latest in the series; there have been smaller blasts in installations near-by. The mixture of petrochemicals, fertilizers and antibiotics is apparently too heady for the erstwhile princely capital.

If, as the reports suggest, the blast will delay the completion of the heavy water plant by a year, this is something the atomic authorities have by now learnt to take in their stride, if this is indeed what they have learnt. For the Atomic Energy Commission has problems; there is hardly a project that is not more than five years behind time, and scarcely a programme that is more than one-tenth on schedule.

Since Homi Bhabha's death in January 1966, the only thing the Commission seems to have been doing with some success is the rescheduling of its power programmes, and those too are rarely on the target. A blast or two in Baroda or elsewhere is unlikely to upset the Commission's time table very much.

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