Basic Issues in the Staines Killing: Justice Wadhwa's Task

["Dr. Subroto Roy" <sroy@vgsom.iitkgp.ernet.in>]

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Basic Issues in the Staines Killing: Justice Wadhwa's Task

by Subroto Roy

The Staines killing has horrified India and the world, especially =
perhaps because the children died with the father.    The principal =
alleged culprit, one Dara Singh, has been=20
identified but is at large.   That Graham Staines was involved in both =

improving tribal welfare and Christian proselytisation among tribals =
seems clear.  That his actions and that of others created serious social
=
and economic tensions within the tribal communities also seems clear.
=
That Dara Singh saw these tensions as enough to engineer the killing of
=
Staines (and his youngsters who happened to be with him) also seems at =

least likely if not highly probable.

We are then left with these fundamental questions:=20

Was Dara Singh, in this act, an agent provocateur, set up, perhaps even
=
without his own knowledge, by foreign intelligence and/or by domestic =
politicians to contribute to communal mayhem which brings down the =
Vajpayee Government?

Is Dara Singh an example of religious fanaticism at its worst, which has
=
found strength and expression thanks to the Vajpayee Government?

Could the answer to both questions be 'yes' simultaneously?

I have no answers, but I do believe them to be the right questions to be
=
asked.   In any case, Staines and his children were the innocent victims
=
of murder.   Perhaps even Dara Singh, when he is caught, tried and =
hanged, will have been a pawn in a larger game he knew nothing about.
=
Let the facts come out.

Subroto Roy,  February 4 1999.





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