The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has uncovered how the main suspect in the Red Fort car blast obtained materials for explosives by using a false identity and established a small-scale laboratory in his home. The anti-terror agency has found that Dr Umar Un Nabi, who was driving the explosives-laden car and died in the blast, bought chemicals and specialist equipment using a fake name. The high-intensity vehicle-borne IED blast that rocked the national capital on November 10 last year left at least 11 people dead and injured several others. Umar un Nabi gathered information on bomb-making from both online and offline sources and set up a makeshift laboratory in his flat in Haryana's Faridabad near Al Falah University. According to the NIA, Umar had researched various chemicals and methods for making explosives over an extended period. He carried out experiments in the flat with the aim of producing a prototype explosive material. A delivery challan dated Septembe...
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Saturday attended the launch of Indian historian Vikram Sampath's book 'Tipu Sultan: The Saga of the Mysore Interregnum' at the Indian Habitat Centre here in Delhi. S Jaishankar described Tipu Sultan as a "very complex figure in history," highlighting both his resistance to British colonial control and the controversial aspects of his rule.
Speaking at the event, S Jaishankar said, "Tipu Sultan is actually a very, very complex figure in history. On the one hand, he has the reputation as a key figure who resisted the British colonial control over India, and it is a fact that his defeat and death can be considered a turning point when it came to the fate of peninsular India."
However, S Jaishankar also noted the "adverse" effects of Tipu Sultan's rule in the Mysore region. "At the same time, he evokes strong adverse sentiments even today in many regions, some in Mysore itself," he added.
S Jaishankar further emphasized that Indian history has focused more on Tipu Sultan's battles with the British, and "underplaying" or "neglecting" other aspects of his rule. "Contemporary history writing, certainly at the national level, has focused largely on the former, and underplaying, if not neglecting the later. Let's be honest, this was not an accident," he said.
Asserting that History is complicated, S Jaishankar said that "cherry-picking of facts" in the case of Tipu Sultan has led to the advancement of a "political narrative".
"History, in all societies, is complicated, and politics indulges in cherry-picking the facts. This has happened in the case of Tipu Sultan. By highlighting the Tipu-English binary, to the exclusion of a more complicated reality, a particular narrative has been advanced over the years," he said.
S Jaishankar reaffirmed that under PM Modi's government, India has seen the emergence of alternative perspectives.
"In the last 10 years, the changes in our political dispensation have led to the emergence of alternative perspectives. We are no longer prisoners of a vote bank, nor it is politically incorrect to bring out inconvenient truth," he added.
Speaking further about the book, S Jaishankar said, "As someone from the diplomatic world, I was really struck by info and insights which are provided in this volume on Tipu Sultan. We in India have tendered to mainly study post-independence foreign policy -- perhaps this too was a conscious choice. But the fact is that many of our kingdoms and states forayed into international affairs in previous centuries in pursuance of thier particular interests, and some, by the way, continued to do so even till independence. The interaction of Tipu's missionary with their French and English counterparts is really fascinating."
S Jaishankar concluded by saying that open-minded scholarship and genuine debate are central to India's evolution as a pluralistic society and vibrant democracy.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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