[Reader-list] Saffron Terror !

[Pawan Durani]

http://avinash-theparaiah.blogspot.com/2008/11/saffron-terror.html

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.