Guest post from T.R.Ramaswami
I write with reference to media reports that the High-level probe team into 26/11 events have asked the various senior oficers to explain where they were during the shootout. In this regard I had already sent you a letter a month ago which is below. It is also stated that the bureaucrats are hatching a conspiracy to fudge their whereabouts by supporting each other. I would reqeust the probe-team to also get transcripts of their residential, office and mobile phones for those 60 hours and the location of the mobiles to get to the truth.
I write with reference to the article “Wanted: A minute by minute account” by Govindraj Ethiraj (BS 23rd. December 2008). He has raised very interesting points – could the media tell us in a tabular format, say on a 3-hour basis as to where the top functionaries (?) of the state and the city were during the crucial 60 hours? I recall from media photographs, that one senior lady bureaucrat in a blue sari, was in fact rescued from the Taj. Where did she go thereafter and what role did she play?
Mr. Ethiraj states that news television pressed all resources immediately and stayed there. Would they have stayed if even one stray bullet had hit anyone? Who would have been responsible for such an accident? In fact nowhere in the world would the security forces responsible for the outer perimeter – in this case the Mumbai Police – would have allowed the media so close to the scene of action and broadcast on a real time basis with a shot-by-shot commentary.
– T.R.Ramaswami