Saffron Terror

Hindu terror and Islamic terror are two sides of the same coin, is the new ‘secularist’ slogan. This is the saffron variety of terror, we are told. Meanwhile, the Sangh Parivar while retaining faith in their “Hindu cannot be terrorist” axiom, has strangely again succumbed to these ‘secularist’ tactics by publicly disowning use of the term ‘Islamic terror’ in the vain hope that the former would take pity and eschew from the newly created Hindu counterpart. But the din of Hindu terror has become louder with every passing day. It is almost inexplicable the manner in which the Malegaon blasts has shared media space despite its minimal magnitude. In contrast, a succeeding Assam blast which killed almost 15 times more people vanished despite proof emerging of a Muslim Congress member’s complicity in the blast The ‘secular’ media has charged the ‘saffron’ party of having politicized the terror debate by defending the accused or more precisely the linkage of Hindutva with terrorism. For instance, the Statesman, in a scathing editorial accuses Rajnath Singh of being responsible for giving currency to what is called “Islamic Terrorism.” But this gives rise explicitly to the question, that why has the mainstream English media including the TOI and the HT which have never dared used the term “Muslim Terror” consistently been using unproven associations of Hinduism with terror? . It almost seems that the same sanctimonious media is carefully grooming Hindu terror in their aura of false consciousness, as a balancing act against future Muslim terror episodes. But as we shall soon see, the politicization of debate on the Hindu terror has little to do with the BJP and more to do with the ‘secularist’ camp.Initially, it is imperative that we understand that reason why ‘Muslim terror’ is a legitimate association. Contrary to the general misunderstanding, it does not connote that all Muslims are terrorists and neither attempts in any way to associate the entire Muslim community with terror. Instead, it largely signifies that the driving ideological force behind terrorism of this variety is Islam. I will not go into the debate on the violent verses of the Quran promoting Islamicization of the whole world and whether those verses are read out of context by Islamists, as very often scriptures can be interpreted in diverse ways. But the ‘secular’ compromise in deriving a counterpart of Islamic terror is illogical since Hinduism and Islam are poles apart in their belief structures, secondly there have been no Hindus who have been ready to blow themselves up in the service of their religion which is a global phenomenon with Jihadi warriors, thirdly the accused in the Malegaon blast cases were at most reactionaries against Islamic terror but never have they have claimed to derive inspiration from Hindu theology Coming to the politicization of the Malegaon blasts, it is not to be forgotten that soon after the arrest, the initial statement by the BJP was the law should take its own course, although there was a general feeling of disbelief which was natural since previously no Hindu had been implicated in any bomb blasts. It were only the ‘secularists’ and the Islamic apologists who adopted “we always told you so!” attitudes. For the Congress, it was a godsent opportunity to win back the confidence of the Muslim community after the Batla House encounter in which suspected Muslim terrorists shot dead a police officer in cold blood. In a brazen act of minority appeasement, Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari issued an insinuation wondering whether Delhi, Varanasi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad terror strikes were outsourced by Sangh parivar affiliates to the SIMI/IM. 2 It is foolish to expect that the BJP would have remained silent in the face of such unfair ‘secular’ aggression.

Under the circumstances, one could not help notice the absolutely unprofessional and biased manner in which the ATS operated. Daily new masterminds moving from periphery to center, selective leakage of rumours to the ‘secular’ media, character assassination of the accused, RDX in today and out the next day, RSS involved yesterday- RSS the target tomorrow; all theories which are ample testimony to the nature of its functioning. As Kanchan Gupta writes, “If the ATS were really serious about its job and under “zero political pressure”, it would have steered clear of media publicity, put together the evidence, presented it in a court of law and secured convictions”

A Sadhvi was arrested on the charge that her own bike was used in the blasts which B Raman, the anti terror expert reasoned was absolutely improbable. When a three tier Narco test came out negative, it was blamed on her yogic powers of evasion! A telephonic conversion which was not recorded but overheard by a witness is also doubtful at best, since one cannot envisage how a telephonic conversion can be heard both ways except through a speaker phone which is not used for private conversations! Rediff.com accused her of being a woman of loose character, who masterminded the blast to avenge the murder of her boyfriend Sunil Joshi who was eliminated by suspected SIMI activists 3 this year. In spite of such depraved conspiracy theories besotted with the idea of casting aspersions on her chastity, even if proven true would actually reduce the current case to nothing more than personal vendetta, certainly not religion based terror! It is astonishing that the horrifying affidavit filed by the Sadhvi Pragya, accusing ATS of torture both physical and mental was conveniently ignored by every human right group substantiating the suspicion that they operate primarily as minority terrorism right groups. Worse, the journalist turned cartoonist Jug Suraiya caricatured the tortured Sadhvi through a sickly ‘secular’ joke in the Times of India. Those, who shed copious tears for suspected jihadis tortured in police cells lose track of the fact, that men (and women) who are ready to blow themselves in the service of their religion will never confess their crimes under ordinary circumstances. Even when innocent as in Hyderabad, it is part of the collateral damage a community experiences which refuses to take accountability for their deviant children and the ideology which moulds them. All in all, collateral damage needs to be distinguished from political witch-hunts.Then, a serving colonel of the army was arrested and immediately made the kingpin of the Samjhauta blasts. Less than 24 hours later, a red faced ATS retracted their claim when a forensic lab confirmed that it was not RDX which was used in the blasts.4 The Army also dismissed claims that 60 kg of RDX could be amiss from their stores, even as the ATS considered the missing RDX to have been dumped in the Jhelum. Meanwhile, the ATS keeps exploring possibilities for abuse of this waterproof, undiscovered yet missing RDX.

When a Hindu seer was arrested, the apprehension of Hindu leaders was considered communal tactics. But could a sincere Hindu help recalling the infamous, Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati conspiracy case in which the ‘secular’ media played such an egregious role in defaming both him, and the Math that the Andhra High Court was compelled to intervene and issue a stern warning to all these agencies of ‘secular’ terror, for “the amount of disrepute and sacrilege inflicted upon Sri Jayendra Saraswati, as of now, is so enormous that it has hardly any comparables"5 It seems the ‘secular’ media derives some perverse pleasure in slandering Hindu godmen. Or else what can explain several reporters calling this Shankacharya as an imposter with an alias in Dayanand Pandey, oblivious of the Hindu sanyasa tradition in which one renounces his previous identity while taking up a life of renunciation. This also points to the disconnect between Macualay’s children and the real India. Another channel dug up porn in his laptop, as if they had private access to it. More pertinently, even if true how does watching porn make a terrorist of a man, even if a deviant seer? The ATS web keeps expanding every day, through the fallacious accusation of ‘guilt by association.’ Everyone in contact with such important public figures like the colonel, the shankacharya and the sadhvi are now considered a threat and suspect. An endocrinologist was publicly defamed; then attempts were made to malign Sri Sri Ravi Shankara of the prestigious Art of living foundation. The enlightened Swami calmly took on the ‘secularist’ media and informed that it was his solemn duty to transform the lives of all including terrorists, and he rightly explained the radicalization of certain Hindu groups as a consequence of the shadow of Islamic fundamentalism looming large over the nation. To Mr Vir Sanghvi’s sophistical allegory in the Hindustan Times 6 I posit the counter question - What happens if the police suspected an imam and tried to arrest him. Immediately thousands of Muslim men, women and children would have rushed to the streets with the cry of “Islam in Danger.” The police fearing a riot would avoid arresting the accused – this is exactly what happened when recently the Jaipur Police tried to arrest Abdul Matin, a fanatical cleric of Benares! Even if arrested, the terrorist sympathizers in the media and in the civil rights and the human right groups would have rushed to his defense, while supposedly secular politicians would hurry to his home to console his family and promise that they would leave no stone unturned in getting him released. There are several such crypto Muslim terrorists including a prominent Delhi based cleric who have been left untouched. Moreover, how much loyalty some Muslims have for India can be comprehended by Mr Sanghvi when he notices how much respect they shared for M C Sharma who died defending the cause of his motherland. The politicization of Malegaon by the ‘secular’ forces is also suggested by the fact that MCOCA has been applied on the accused through exploitation of loopholes in the law. The two main suspects Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt-Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit had no crime history while to invoke the MCOCA, the prosecuting agency needs to ascertain that the suspects have at least two major criminal involvements registered with the police anywhere in the country, and so the ATS invoked a 4 yr old case against a minor accused Rakesh Dhawade 8 and consequently charged all the 11 accused with conspiracy to wage war against the nation. But in stark contrast, the god fearing Muslim students who are said to have murdered M C Sharma and are also accused in the Delhi blast case were never charged under MCOCA, possibly to appease Muslim voters before the Delhi Assembly poles where Congress fortunes hang in the balance. 9 Is it not hideous hypocrisy, that while a terror law like POTA is repealed, and GUJCOCA denied, an exactly similar law like MCOCA is considered essential for law enforcement in Maharashtra run by the same Congress government!

All in all there is a conscious attempt by some political parties to divert attention from the failures of the current government to tackle Islamic terror, which has killed thousands of innocent Hindus since it came to power. Such myopic vision which does not extend beyond the next election may provide some immediate electoral gain but in the long run will only spell doom for the nation.