Pretty good to clinching…ISI ka naam evidence

When the national security advisor says he would be “hesitant to say that we have clinching evidence” against the ISI hand in the Mumbai trains blasts, it’s time to sit up and take note.
But no time, says our media. The truth is out there, and if the Mumbai Police chief says it’s those bloody Pakis who did it, it better be those bloody Pakis. So, get out and grab it, that bloody truth. No time for further introspection, the state of the bleeding notwithstanding.

It matters little here that the media would have grabbed the bloody truth from out there and trashed it down your gullet even if the Mumbai Police had not raised its bleeding fingers against those bloody Pakis. It matters even little that the Mumbai Police would either way have raised its bleeding fingers against those bloody Pakis, truth or no truth, as it eventually did.
The only thing, my dear Watson, is Mr Roy took so much time to raise his fingers and address the press conference.

You see, out here in India it’s easier to catch ‘terrorists’ than to successfully reap cotton. Just let the public anger simmer a bit and get a few guys from the ‘minority community’. No name-calling, just blame-calling, and, bingo, you have the terror network unearthed, unplugged and undone. Proof, evidence and such trifling things are, of course, not necessary in view of national interest.
Did Mr Roy, or Mumbai Police, manage to convince even a trainee reporter of any of their “findings” in that press conference? Lies, damned lies and garbage apart, the answer would be NO.
They traced a few phone calls, sure; tracked and arrested a few suspicious-looking men, sure; made them ‘confess’ to their ISI/SIMI/HUJI/LET/JEM/CAT/SCAN/MBA/BBA links (the last four are, of course, gibberish, but how many in our tribe would be able to spot that, given the surfeit of acronyms surfacing in our media about Pak hands?), sure. And then addressed a press conference.
Little wonder their version, oftener than not, do not stand scrutiny in court of law. Little wonder most of their witnesses either turn ‘hostile’ or are out of wits when the case is on.
Wrong I may well be, and wrong I sure do hope I am, but will someone please bat an eyelid, scratch the head a bit, murmur a few “but…” and ask some probing questions before reporting the police claims verbatim?
“We have pretty good evidence," says M K Narayanan now. And that’s as good a note to hum the shriek, a la Cuba Gooding Jr in Jerry Maguire: Show me the evidence.