Terror
Tales
By Ram Puniyani
16 July, 2006
Countercurrents.org
July
11, 2006, witnessed one of the worst disasters which the city of Mumbai
has seen. In a series of explosions nearly 200 precious, innocents lives
were lost in the senseless act of terror. This is the third major terrorist
attack on this metropolis known for a modern and progressive profile.
The first such attack was in the aftermath of Mumbai riots in which
nearly
thousand innocent lives were lost, majority of them Muslim. In the wake
of Gujarat carnage four blasts shook the city and took the toll of several
lives. This, latest one is again severe in its extent and various theses
are going on about whodunit? The 1993 blasts were masterminded by the
underworld in collaboration with local elements that were deeply hurt
and mauled by the anti Muslim nature of the violence led by Shiva Sena
and assisted by the local administration. While the accused of the blasts
are rotting in jails for over a decade awaiting the judgment, those
named in Shrikrishna report have neither been convicted nor are in jails.
As a matter of fact several of them were promoted in status, like Bala
Saheb Thackeray promoted himself to Hindu Hridaya Samrat (Emperor of
Hindu hearts) and the R.D. Tyagi the one who led the killings of several
Muslims in the Suleiman Bakery was promoted a few notches up.
The responsibility of post
2002 Gujarat genocide was taken by a group, Gujarat Muslim Revenge group,
which came into being after the Gujarat genocide led by Modi. Incidentally
here also while the blast accused are behind the bars, Modi has had
a promotion to the much exalted status of Hindu Hriday Samrat II, with
Mumbai's Balasaheb having the distinction of being the first one to
assume this throne. Here again as the state itself was actively involved
in the carnage, many a state officials have moved upwards like P.C.
Pandey who was 'good' enough to act as per Modi's bidding. In the present
one various theories are floating, but nothing definitive has emerged,
as only a non descript terrorist group has taken the responsibility
of the same. While the major one's like Al Qaeda has expressed happiness
over the tragedy without owning it, and some of them have expressed
sorrow over the incident. The other suspect SIMI, the outlawed right
wing Islamic students group has not issued any statement so far.
Before trying to understand
the direction of needle of suspicion, it will be imperative to see the
state of affairs in Gujarat after the carnage and also what has been
happening here. After the carnage, Gujarat Muslims have been ghettoized
to the worst possible level and the division in the society along communal
lines has reached unimaginable proportions, where the prefix of Hindu
and Muslim has to accompany before every persons name. The isolation
and boycott of Muslims in social life is intense, the guilty of the
carnage are roaming freely and even adequate and just compensation has
not been paid to the victims. In Maharashtra, in a interior remote place
called Nanded, two Bajrang dal activists were killed while making an
explosive device and the diary with the bomb making tips was found on
the location along with the artificial moustache and beard. The place
belonged to an RSS sympathizer and saffron flag adorned the top of the
house. After this, huge piles of explosives were detected in the nearby
places and later three alleged terrorists were killed by the police
in an encounter near the RSS head office in Nagpur. An investigation
team under the chairmanship of a retired Judge of Mumbai High Court
went into the matter facing the full hostility from the police, and
came out with a report which pointed out several holes in the police
version of the encounter. There was no eye witness to the act of police.
As usual the necessary diary with the names and addresses of the 'terrorists'
was found on the bodies of slain terrorist to ease the work of the police
to identify the links of the terrorists. Lately, in Bhivandi, in the
scuffle between police and local Muslim groups, who were opposing the
police move to build a police station near or on the land of graveyard,
led to the killing of two policemen and few Muslims. Shiv Sena was hyperactive
in taking the cudgels against the Muslim leadership. Close on the heels
of it, the Shiv Sainiks all over Maharashtra burnt buses and indulged
in hooliganism, after the defilement of the statue of the wife of their
supremo, Balsaheb Thackeray.
To build a conclusion from
these antecedents is very difficult. For the investigating authorities
all angles are important but the one related to Nanded blasts by RSS
affiliates has been put under the carpet. While the civic society and
social groups rose to the occasion to lend a helping hand to the victims
of violence, by offering prayers for peace and the Muslim leadership
went overboard to condemn the blasts. One can understand the hyper response
of Muslim political and religious leadership in condemning this and
meeting the state authorities to urge upon them not to harass the innocent
Muslim youth as is the wont of the police for whom Muslim youth are
equal to criminals and terrorists, and so no proof is needed to put
them behind the bars. Incidentally it also comes as an easy option to
prove that police are working.
For BJP this occasion is
serving multiple purposes. On one hand it has got the opportunity to
come out from the oblivion. This tragedy is being seen as an opportunity
and the rallies are being organized against the terrorism. Who are they
opposing, a faceless enemy, and an insane organization, which is already
illegal. At such times the only possible message comes from a white
ribbon or a rose. Also its accusation that lifting of POTA and soft
policies of the UPA are responsible for the acts of terrorists hold
no water as the nation has seen that the terror acts were no lesser
when POTA was operative and when the NDA was ruling.
The reasons for such acts
of terror are multiple. One can not be superficial to think that these
are due to teachings of Islam and due to Muslims. This is what is being
strengthened in the popular psyche by a section of media and the right
wingers. There are people belonging to different religions operating
on the terrain of terror, ULFA, Irish Republican Army, LTTE and too
far back in time, the Khalistanis. As far as Muslims are concerned three
major causes of terror involving them can be specifically pin pointed.
One is the politics of control over oil wells, in pursuit of which the
outfits like Al Qaeda were floated through the U.S.'s CIA. Even if this
ghastly organization has outlived its original purpose of throwing out
such Soviet armies from Afghanistan, such terror outfits are like cancerous
growths, which begin from a irritating point and than even if the original
purpose is no more in existence they perpetuate themselves in an uncontrolled
way like a cancer. In this case the ideological indoctrination of a
political need of U.S. in the language of Islam, i.e. Al Qaeda to fight
against Soviet armies, has done immense harm to the Muslims all over
the world.
The second one relates to
the unresolved Kashmir issue, which superficially sounds to be the problem
between Pakistan and India, or the one of Muslim separatism, but surely
Pakistan itself has been small puppet in the hands of imperialists is
forgotten most of the times. Many an institutions in Pakistan are supra
government. So this should not come in the way of peace process. The
third one can be divided into two parts, one is the insane thinking
of a section of Muslims for taking the revenge of anti Muslim carnage
in Mumbai and Gujarat. The two previous blasts in Mumbai showed in a
clear-cut manner correlations to these episodes of violence. In the
current one the additional aspect of Nanded blasts and their implications
have to be thought of, more so in the light of the fact that Mumbai
blasts did not use the dreaded RDX.
All said and done, at all
times, one simple rule of punish the guilty and protect the innocent
has to be the norm of state authorities. And revenge has no place in
the democratic polity, so the upholders of Newton's action reaction
have to be outlawed in moral and legal arena. The mandatory state behavior
of implicating Muslim youth in these acts and making them suffer the
long ordeals till the judgments comes is too harsh a punishment for
belonging to a particular religion. The demonization of Muslims will
be taken a few steps further by the some political streams and a section
of media. These terrorists are the worst enemies of Islam and Muslims
in general. While a section of RSS sympathizers argue that all Muslims
are suspect as they give shelter to these terrorists, one has to recall
that in Punjab, the average Sikh was not giving shelter to Sikh terrorists
due to religious sameness but due to the threat of bullet piercing one's
chest. While saluting the civic society for its magnanimity in handling
the post terror situation with grace, one hopes that political elements
also wake up to the fact that demonizing the Muslims due to this will
be against the teachings of saint tradition of Hinduism.