Family members of slain heroes snub politicians

The family of slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare has declined Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s offer of monetary help. Modi had on Friday visited the residences of Karkare and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar, who were killed while fighting militants on Wednesday night. Modi also announced that his government would give Rs 1 crore to Maharashtra for the families of policemen killed in the attacks. Karkare’s widow and other family members have declined Modi’s offer, sources said. Fourteen Maharashtra police personnel, including two IPS officers, sacrificed their lives while fighting terrorists. An official of Modi’s CMO, however, said the amount of Rs 1 crore had been given by Gujarat government to Maharashtra government for distribution among the martyrs. The Karkare family, it is learnt, was upset with the manner in which Karkare was reviled by BJP leaders, including Modi, for his actions in Malegaon blast case where he had exposed a Hindu conspiracy.In fact, SMSes were going around in Gujarat and Maharashtra on how the same leaders, who had attacked Karkare on Malegaon issue, were now hailing him as a hero.It is learnt that even senior BJP leaders from Mumbai, including Gopinath Munde and Datta Meghe, had refused to accompany Modi during his visit to the encounter sites and the homes of slain police officers. At Trident-Oberoi site, where Modi decided to have a news conference, the CM had tried to call senior police and Army officials to pat them on the back, but nobody turned up because they wanted to focus on the ongoing encounter rather than to be seen with a politician who seemed to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

In another instance of the rising tide of anger against the political class, the father of slain NSG commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan snubbed Kerala chief minister V S Achuthanandan and state home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who had gone to his house to express their condolences.Unnikrishnan, a retired ISRO official who hails from Kozhikode in Kerala, refused to meet the politicians and shut the gate of his house on them, shouting abuses. Unnikrishnan was so incensed that officials accompanying the CM had to restrain him. Unnikrishnan, who was showing his resentment towards politicians since his son’s death, erupted in anger and screamed: “You get out of here”. Faced with criticism for delay in showing respect to the slain Major, the Kerala CM called on the soldier’s family members here, but the depressed father declined to accept his condolences.Opposition parties in Kerala have accused the state government of having shown disrespect to the Kerala-born soldier, who lost his life while combating terrorists in Mumbai, by not sending any minister to his funeral. Unnikrishnan, who was not happy with politicians visiting the family and politicising his son’s death, was against the idea of any politician visiting his house. When the Kerala CM was slated to visit the house, the family members had deliberately sent Unnikrishnan out fearing he would burst out in front of the CM. But Unnikrishnan returned home just when the Kerala chief minister was about to end his visit. A depressed Unnikrishnan then expressed his displeasure in no uncertain terms.