|
Investigating acts of terrorism have
multiple complex issues as things are mired in secrecy. To add to
the problem is the mindset of investigating authorities and those
in power. The acts of terror, which have been inflicted on the
country, have been mainly attributed to the “Jehadi Terror” and
mostly the theory which has been guiding the police authorities
has been to work on this understanding. The result has been;
immediately after the attacks of terror the investigating
authorities, right from day one, have been naming some Muslim
groups, situated across the border, the infamous word of ‘cross
border terrorism’ became a sort of buzz word. The link of those
from across the border were easy enough to be sewed up with the
local Muslim youth and according to the police some Muslims have
been caught, arrested, ‘they have confessed’ to their crime, and
the puzzle is solved, has been the oft repeated line from last few
years.
Contrary to the common sense even when the terror attack took
place in Muslim majority area, at times when Muslims congregate at
particular times, the police very ‘competently’ would go in to
arrest few Muslim youth and start building up their case
implicating them in the act of terror. Those in political power,
even in non-BJP states, and at center kept quietly approving this
biased investigation and any doubts raised by social activists,
victims of the police arrests were brushed aside.
The first major crack in this pattern occurred when in the
aftermath of Malegaon blast, Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare
meticulously showed the connection of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur
and many others from the Hindutva combine, associated with one or
the other offshoot of RSS or inspired by the RSS ideology of Hindu
nation, trained in the communal ideology of looking at people
through the prism of their religion, and religion alone. Karkare’s
efforts brought out enough skeletons from the cupboard of Hindutva
stable and somewhere the stubborn police and the political
authorities also started looking the other way leading to the
plethora of organizations, broadly known as Sangh parivar. It is
also a matter of great concern that same Hemant Karkare started
being abused by Hindutva elements, intimidation and threat to his
life began.
Incidentally Karkare was killed on the fateful night of 26/11
Mumbai terror attack.
Karkar’s efforts did initiate a process of bringing the terror
investigation on proper track. There were many a top RSS
functionaries like Indresh Kumar, many an associates, the major
one being Swami Aseemanand of VHP, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram who
started being investigated. Swami Aseemanand was known for his
work in Adivasi areas in Dangs, where he whipped up the
anti-Christian hysteria leading to anti Christian violence in the
district. Same Aseemanand went on to organize a Shabri Kumbh in
the area, for this Kumbh intimidation of Adivasis was in the air,
they were terrorized to attend Kumbh and some were subjected to
‘Ghar Vapasi’, (return home, conversion to Hinduism). The
highlight of the Kumbh was that the top RSS and associates
leadership attended it along with the Swami. This Kumbh was also a
sign of times, the part of anti Minority agenda of the Sangh.
Swami Aseemanand is in news again for having confessed to the
metropolitan magistrate on 18th December 2010 about his and his
colleague’s involvement in the acts of terror. As per him while
the Jihad attack on Akshardham temple in 2002 created the feeling
of revenge, this got crystallsed after the terrorist attack on
Sankat mochan temple in Varanasi in 2006. After this tragic
incident the Swami contacted the others from associated
organizations and in a well planned move organized the terror
attacks. Swami stated "We held a meeting at the Valsad residence
of Bharat Bhai (Bharat Riteshwar) in June 2006. We planned to
carry out blasts at places of worship for Muslims. Sandeep Dange,
Bharat Bhai, Sadhvi Pragya, Sunil Joshi, Lokesh Sharma (arrested
for Ajmer dargah blast), Ramji Kalsangra and one Amit attended the
meeting. We decided to bomb Malegaon, Ajmer dargah, Mecca Masjid
and the Samjhauta Express train. Joshi took the responsibility of
doing a reconnaissance of all these place.” (Times of India, 13
Jan 2011) Now the detailed police investigation showed the
involvement of Hindutva combine from Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur
(ex- ABVP activist), Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, and Ret.
Major. Upadhyay (was chief of BJPs ex-serviceman’s cell In
Mumbai),, Swami Dayanand Pandey (RSS connection, mentor of Abhinav
Bharat), Indresh Kumar (Member of RSS National executive) Sunil
Joshi (RSS Prachark(later killed), Devender Gupta (RSS pracharak
with Abhinav Bharat), Ramchndra Kalsangra and Sandeep Pandey and
many others.
The confessions of swami have made many a points very clear. The
first is that, right from the Nanded blast which took place in the
house of RSS worker Rajkondawar, in which two Bajrang Dal workers
died, the social activist raised the issue of involvement of
Hindutva elements. On Nanded issue, a citizens committee also
investigated the blast and raised serious issues related to the
direction of investigation. Later in most of the blasts in Pabhani,
Beed, Jalna another places in Maharashtra same pattern was
observed. Social activists kept drawing the attention of
Government and media, but their voices remained unheard for a long
time. In addition to the attitude of police, the political
leadership, even in non BJP states and at Center refused to take
cognizance of the pattern of the blasts and the glaring fallacies
in the line of investigation.
Large section of media kept quiet and underplayed the involvement
of Hindutva elements. While most of the incidents did find the
front page banner headlines about the involvement of Muslims, so
called Jihadi groups, the voices of victims challenging the police
version, and the findings of social activists were hardly any
news, tucked in the back pages, presented in a subdued manner, if
at all. During the whole process a large section of Muslim youth
were tortured and many of them had to give up their education and
professional carriers due to the line of investigation and the
treatment from the state which was meted out to them.
On the top of this whole process the social thinking was
cultivated to believe in the theory of ‘All Terrorists are
Muslims’. Even today many a Muslim youth are behind the bars for
the acts of terror, which as per Swami’s confession were planned
and executed by Hindutva elements. Will Government take urgent
steps to set right the ongoing injustice to the innocent youth who
have been implicated due to the non professional and biased
conduct of the state? The demand for their release and suitable
compensation being given to them has to be taken up by the
government in the right earnest.
What is to be done with the fountainhead of this ideology of Hate,
the organization to which most of the groups owe allegiance, to
which some of these are directly associated. the RSS? Many of
those involved have been directly associated with RSS, others
indirectly and RSS can very conveniently say that it has nothing
to do with them. For RSS disowning any of its activists is a very
easy job. It is not legally responsible for the associated
organizations, as they are autonomous on paper. Those who have
been directly a part of RSS have been expelled and disowned. RSS
chief has said that RSS has no place for those indulging in
violence. Legally RSS cannot be and should not be taken to task as
RSS has kept its structure so fluid that it can get all the
violence done, while keeping its shirt clean from the blood
stains.
The demand for banning RSS has no meaning. It was banned in the
wake of Gandhi murder, during the emergency and after the
demolition of Babri Masjid. Banning organizations does not help.
The point is to take up the battle at ideological plane, at social
and political level. And that is a challenging task as RSS has
been consistently spreading its ideology through various conduits
and lately school books and large section of media has been the
major vehicle of spread of its ideology. Its ideology is being
given the religious veneer by the ilk of Swami Aseemanand,
Laxmananand and other saints who are using the language of
religion to propagate their political ideology and agenda.
All those who stand for a democratic society with the concept of
Human rights need to come together and take multiple programs to
combat the religion based nationalism, and politics laced in the
language of religion, which is the major cause of the terrorism,
as practiced by the likes of Osama bin laden or Swami Aseemanand.
|
Comments
|
Quick links