The Clumsy Teeth Of Hindutva Terrorism
By KK Abdul Raoof
24 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
In Germany, five days before the election of 1933 at the night of February 27, the parliament building, Reichstag, was set ablaze by Nazis. With out investigating the incident Adolf Hitler blamed it on communists. A terrible hunt for ‘culprit’ was followed under the official patronage in connivance with the higher class which comprises bossiness men and media. Thousands of communists were arrested, tortured and executed for the crime they didn’t commit. Thus the Reichstag fire marked the symbolic death of German democracy. Sidelining Jews and Communists with suppressive measures Hitler became the suzerain of Germany. The history witnessed what happened there since then.
The ingloriouse Nazi strategy carried out to wipe out democracy and replace it with fascism does have a less-discussed affinity with the Hindutva strategy chalked out to convert India into a ‘Hindu Nation’. From Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, to Abhinav Bharath-RSS members arrested in connection with Ajmer Darga blast early this month, have chosen the way shown by Hitler and Mussolini to accomplish their goals. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's closest aide and the Minister of Propaganda, has inspired Brahmin-dominated media which shamelessly lip-synch the police rant against Muslims.
More than 15 prominent bomb blasts carried out by ultra right wing Hindutva outfits across the country from the 2003 blast in Muhammadiya Masjid, Marathwada, Mharastra to the 2009 blast in Margao, Goa acknowledge the threat of Hindutva terrorism pose to the nation . The media and investigative agencies have long hushed up the truth and accused Muslim terrorists for the various blasts taken place across the country at different times. However, the arrest of Malegaon blast perpetrators, Col. Purohit and Pragya sadhvi, paved the way for a turnaround. Now, the latest developments in Ajmer blast investigation expose the knotty web of Hindu terror organizations which have spread across the country and are alleged to have connections with some naxal groups.
The knots behind Hyderabad and Ajmere blasts
On a Friday after noon, at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, while about 10000 people were offering prayer, a deadly bomb went off claiming 16 lives and leaving 60 others injured. The state government pointed fingers at foreign elements with the then chief minister Y. S Rajasekhara Reddy saying “The available indications point out to the terrorist organizations of Pakistan and Bangladesh”. More than hundred Muslim youths were picked up and 26 of them detained for seven moths, yet, not a single FIR or charge sheet was filed against them. Even though it was apparent that police had no evidence against the accused, it seemed that they were acting according to some preconceived design.
Soon after the Ajmer blast took place at Ahat-e- Noor of the Darga on October 11, 2007, as usual, the ‘culprits’ turned out to be Muslim terrorist groups with the prime suspect being the Bangladesh out fit HUJI. About a dozen Muslims- Imams, Maulanas, and Madrasa teachers- were detained and grilled. Though the place was crowded with Muslims who were busy breaking Ramzan fast, no one from investigators had a slight doubt of the involvement of an extremist Hindutva outfits. The stat’s haste to put the blame on Muslims and apprehend innocent youths seemed to be a part of a preplanned agenda.
In both cases, all the governments need to do was to come up with a theory that would justify the arrests of innocent Muslims. Unsurprisingly, the media came to its help with an incredible enthusiasm. Blatant lies and cooked theories, especially those by the Hindu’s ‘in house terror pundit’ Praveen Swami, were dished out, to suit the government’s claims. Swami wrote fabulous fables dotted with his own clichés ‘revealing’ that this is the war against popular Islam and tolerant Sufi traditions. In his article turned up in the Hindu on Oct 12, 2007, he says “But the bombings also reflect less-understood project: the war of Islamist neoconservatives against the syncretic traditions and beliefs that characterise popular Islam in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh”. The new break through made by the ATS and CBI in both cases with the arrest of RSS-Abinav Bharath members has broken the back born of this theory and, now, Praveen swami is dodging by doling out some idiotic justifications.
The arrests of Devendra Gupta, an RSS pracharak, from Muzaffarpur in Bihar and Chandrasekhar, a key member of Abhinav Bharath, from Shajupur, Madhya Pradesh, underscores the truth that the Hindu terrorists operate in the country with lethal plans and sophisticated weapons. And they are so powerful that they managed to elude from glare of media and law-enforcement agencies so far. The Rajasthan ATS, now, suspects the brain behind three blasts- Ajmer, Malegaon and Hyderabad- is same. The ATS’ discovery of the connection between recently arrested Ajmer blast suspects and Col. Purohit, who allegedly masterminded the Malegaon blast, reveals the complex terror network prevalent in the country. One of the alarming factors ATS investigates now is their alleged link with some of the Maoist outfits working in the country.
One cannot help asking some serious questions regarding the credibility of the system which blatantly did what it did so far. Do the state and investigative agencies deliberately attempt to frame Muslim community for the crime they didn’t commit? How did these Hindu terror out fits managed to evade from the watchful eyes of law so far, and with whose help? Another stark truth came out later is that the arrested Muslim youths for Mecca Masjid blast were really rounded up before the blast and the cases were slapped on them later. Many of them were kept in jail for seven months and allegedly tortured, even, without filing any charge sheet. Later on one senior police officer revealed that the list of suspects was given by Central Intelligence Bureau.
The big question that has been cleverly edged out of the ongoing debates is that why do Intelligence Bureau and other agencies come up with a ‘Muslims-behind-Blast’ theory whenever any bomb explodes in the country? The allegation of former Maharshtra senior police officer, SM Mushrif, who was instrumental in exposing the multi crore stamp paper scam, that ‘Brahminisist lobby’ has overpowered all the establishments in Intelligence Bureau seems true. That the infiltration of Hindutva power into these agencies undermines the very nature and the foundation of them is quite unequivocal now.
Both the Ajmer and Hyderabad blasts have striking similarities in the modus of operandi, nature of explosion and the kind of bomb used. It was the seizure of these SIM cards that de mystified both the blasts and established the complicity of saffron forces in them. However, at that time neither IB nor the state police could came out with clues which could have solved the mystery. On the contrary, their stories were, served as the evidence against Muslim, played up by the media. The questions about the extent of Hindutva influence in media and bureaucracy are to be raised and need to be addressed with due importance.
With several terror strikes being planned and carried out by extremist Hindu groups having allegiance to their parent organization RSS, how long can the government turn a deaf ear to this ‘harmless’ cultural organization? No doubt, it is futile to expect a nation to remain immune from the malice of terrorism if the government and investigative agencies fix their attention at one particular community letting the real perpetrators get away. At any cost, RSS and other hard core Hindutva organizations should be banned; otherwise gravest security threats to our nation may persist.
KK Abdul Raoof
Dept Of History
AMU, Aligarh
202002, UP
