Day after showing off liberal face, Cong hounds US professor

Following up on that, Pune police commissioner D N Jadhav told reporters today that he was writing to Laine to summon him to India for questioning.

If Laine refuses the ‘‘request,’’ the police chief plans to move court. And if Laine ignores the summons, the police will seek the help of CBI and Interpol, Jadhav said.

The Congress in Delhi did not give any official reaction to the Maharashtra developments but individual comments revealed the depth of confusion and discomfiture in the party.

AICC general secretary Vayalar Ravi who is in charge of Maharashtra defended the state government’s earlier decision to ban the book and said though he had not read it, it went ‘‘beyond scholarly criticism and even raised questions about Shivaji’s parentage.’’

However, he had nothing to say on the Maharashtra government’s latest decision to ‘‘arrest’’ Laine. Although a Congress-led government was spearheading the move, the Congress party was not at all involved, Ravi said. ‘‘The high command has not done anything about it and left it to the state government and Congressmen in the state to deal with it,’’ he said.

In sharp contrast, the party’s official spokesman Kapil Sibal, speaking in his individual capacity, slammed the move. ‘‘My personal reaction is no state government in the circumstances should seek the arrest of Laine. I certainly do not approve of it. We opposed the attack on the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI), we opposed the mindless violence of the Shiv Sena and we can’t possibly fall in the same narrow-minded trap of the BJP and Shiv Sena.’’

Asked for the party’s official reaction, Sibal said, ‘‘The party has not taken any official position on it…I do hope that this (the move to arrest Laine) is not a party decision.’’

Another Congress spokesman Salman Khurshid took a legalistic view and said as far as he knew no state government could order the arrest of a foreign national. ‘‘I don’t know in what context the statement was made but as far as I know you can arrest someone only if you have court orders. I don’t know what warrants can be issued in this case because what could be an offence here may not be an offence elsewhere.’’

The state home minister’s statement about arresting Laine came in the wake of Prime Minister Vajpayee’s warning that ‘‘foreign’’ authors should not play with India’s national pride. Vajapyee’s statement was seen as something of a volte face because he had earlier condemned the ban on Laine’s book.

Fearing that the BJP-Shiv Sena would capitalise on the issue (state BJP chief Gopinath Munde had demanded a ban on Nehru’s Disovery of India for its alleged anti-Shivaji comment), the Congress-NCP coalition has now got into the competitive Laine-bashing game with the move to arrest him.

The Maharashtra govenment’s stand may hurt the Congress’s efforts to project itself as a liberal and open-minded party but the stakes in Maharashtra are too high for the party to rap the state unit on its knuckles, sources said. Meanwhile, Pune police chief Jadhav, although he had not received any written orders from Mumbai yet, indicated that action was being contemplated not just against Laine, but even against the people who had helped the historian with his research on Shivaji—including the prestigious BORI.

On January 5, activists of the Sambhaji Brigade, a wing of the Maratha Seva Sangh, ransacked BORI—which Laine visited during his Pune stint—and destroyed thousands of priceless manuscripts and books.

Saroja Bhate, director of BORI, has written to the state Home Minister, lamenting his decision to investigate whether anyone connected to the institute had provided information to Laine, despite its denials.

“It is unfortunate that the institute’s name is being dragged into the issue despite the clarification,’’ she has written.

— with ENS in Pune