On the face of it, the issue is simple. The Jammu police have seized 612 barrels with Spanish markings from two gun factories, 500 of them from one belonging largely to Swami Dhirendra Brahmchari. The police have arrested four persons, issued a warrant for the arrest of the Swami and sent some officials to Delhi to enforce it. In plain terms, the legal process is on and would run its course. The swami has claimed that he has not violated any rule and that he has imported the Spanish components under the open general licence with due clearance from the Union government. The Jammu officials have said that they have acted after the Swami’s representatives at the factory failed to produce documentary evidence to show that they had secured New Delhi’s permission for importing the barrels from Spain. So the facts are in dispute. The Union government could have helped settle these if it had agreed to make a statement in Parliament on Monday when opposition members in both Houses pressed it to do so. For some reason it chose to keep quiet. Perhaps it needed time to ascertain the facts. If that is indeed the case, New Delhi should speak out as soon as possible. It is not right in this case that speculation should continue. Also care should be taken to ensure that this issue does not become another cause for tension between the Centre and the state government. These are bad enough already in view of the continuing criticism of Dr. Farooq Abdullah by Congress (I) leaders, including Mr. Rajiv Gandhi.
Swami Dhirendra Brahmchari is not a mendicant. He is a businessman, though in the past he has taken pains to hide this fact. Last year he even denied that he owned a gun factory so much so that Radio Kashmir broadcast his statement to this effect. He is alleged to have enjoyed powerful patronage in New Delhi for years. But that is not particularly pertinent in the present context. The cause for anxiety now is that if it is indeed true that he has imported the barrels now seized without due permission, it would be in order to infer that he might have done so earlier as well and that the resulting guns might have gone into wrong hands. And even if he has not been guilty in the past, the people are not likely to take his word for it. They will draw the worst inference. The swami has not only been an influential person but also a controversial one. That is precisely why the Union government should waste no time in disclosing the facts in the present case. Serious charges have been made in the past in respect of the manner he used his influence to establish the factory and how the authorities obliged him. As far as we know. New Delhi made no attempt to clear itself of these allegations. This time it might find it more difficult to sit out the concern that the seizure of 500 barrels has provoked and the publicity that has gone with it.