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Did Goa Government ‘Partially Finance’SS
Terrorists?<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/kafila/feed2/%7E3/C44VbQ0Rzzo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 12 Nov 2009 10:59 PM PST

Sanatan Sanstha’s link to Margao blast conspiracy just got thicker with all
five accused arrested in the case having allegiance to the Hindu right wing
organisation operating from Goa police said.

The latest arrest of 20-year old Dhananjay Ashtekar, an engineering student
from Khed in Ratnagiri is also associated with Sanatan Sanstha’s activities.
Ashtekar was arrested on Wednesday evening by state police’s Special
Investigation Team, which is mandated to probe the blast. “He is related to
Sanstha and has made it clear during his interrogation,” Superintendent of
Police and spokesperson for Goa police department Atmaram Deshpande told PTI
on Thursday.

Ashtekar was studying in an engineering college at Ichalkaranji, a town in
western Maharashtra. Deshpande said that the youth was being interrogated
over blast case and only when there was sufficient material on record to
prove his involvement, he was placed under arrest. Ashtekar is the fifth
Sanatan Sanstha activist found to be linked with the blast conspiracy which
went awry on the eve of Diwali.

Earlier two accused, Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik, who died in the Margao
blast and two arrested persons, Vinayak Patil and Vinay Talekar, have
confessed their links to Sanstha, which operates through its Ashram at
Ramnathi. Deshpande had earlier said that the Sanstha is under scanner as
its activists are part of the blast conspiracy. The police have, however,
refused to move for a ban against Sanstha as there are no enough evidence to
rope in it for the conspiracy. The Margao blast took place on October 16
killing two persons.
© Copy 2009 PTI. www.rediff.com, November 12, 2009 15:49 IST)

I.

*How to keep Procrastinating When It Comes To Hindutva Terror ?*
With every passing day it is becoming apparent that Indian state has
different yardsticks to treat terrorism of the  Hindutva kind and that of
the ‘Jihadi’ kind. It is not for nothing that more than four weeks after the
bomb blasts in Goa – which saw deaths of two activists of Sanatan Sanstha, a
emergent fanatic group cloaked in spiritual clothing – there has not been
any significant move on part of the Goan government.
Apart from arrests of three people – Vinay Talekar, 30, and Vinayak Patil,
27, originally from Karnataka and Dhananjay Ashtekar, a student of
engineering from Ratnagiri- we have seen merely empty statements emanating
from the powers that be, which at times were even found to be contradictory
to each other. And all those claims by the home minister Mr Ravi Naik that
the government is contemplating ban on the organisation have similarly
proved empty promises merely made for public consumption.
In fact a leading police officer from Goa Superintendent of Police Atmaram
Deshpande- who is incharge of the investigations into the Goa bomb blasts –
had made the intentions clear while talking to the media about the
“..difference between jihadi terrorism and right wing Hindu terrorism” ( 2
nd Nov 2009).
Despite the danger the conspiracy posed to the atmosphere of fragile peace
in Margao – which happens to be a communally sensitive city – the
Superintendent of Police had no qualms in sharing his weird understanding
vis-a-vis terrorim.
“The aims and goals of both groups differ. Jihadi elements have threatened
Goa’s coastline in the past. We have also received threats of places
frequented by tourists being targeted in the past. But this is different,”
“The recent attack shows that the target was a public function frequented by
many people. Chaos was perhaps their intended objective,” he added.
Perhaps the police officer did not want to look at the revealations that the
dead activists and the accused were hoping to fan communal tensions by
misleading the police through items they wanted to leave behind at the site:
a shopping bag from a shop at “Khan Market” Delhi, a bottle of traditional
perfume popular among Muslims and an empty bag of basmati rice on which all
the words were in Urdu.
As a recap of the whole incident it may be told that how two people, both
members of the Sanatan Sanstha, died in the Diwali eve blast when
detonator-rigged gelatine sticks they were ferrying on a scooter exploded.
Malgonda Patil, a Sangli-based high ranking member of the SS died of
injuries a few hours after the blast; the other scooter rider Yogesh Naik
succumbed to his injuries a few days later. It is learnt both Patil and
Naik, who have been accused in the blast case, were parking their scooter
near a festive gathering 100 metres from the district administration
headquarters building when the gelatine sticks exploded.Goa Chief Minister
Digambar Kamat was in close proximity when the incident occurred.
They were also involved in planting another bomb at Sancaole town 20 km away
, near the port town of Vasco, which could not explode because of the
alertness shown by the people around.in The alert occupants of a truck flung
a bag into a nearby field when they heard a clock ticking inside.The zipped
bag contained a timer device and a few sticks of gelatine, which was
diffused by the police bomb disposal squad late in the night.
The truck was carrying nearly 40 people and was headed for a narakasura
competition, where thousands of people were gathered to see several giant
effigies being judged for prizes and then set on fire, as part of a popular
Diwali tradition in Goa.
In a writeup in Indian Express ( 8 th Nov 2009) ‘ Goa Bombers Tried To Leave
Muslim Imprint’ the reporter even quotes another police officer on the
condition of anonymity ” The material was enough to spark communal trouble
in Margao and extremist elements from outside would have found it easy to
aggravate it.” A close look at the plan to ‘leave Muslim imprint’ had echoes
of earlier attempts by Hindutva terrorists of different hues to spark
communal tension.  The Malegaon bomb blast in 2008 which saw the exposure of
the wide Hindutva terrorist network – thanks to the efforts of a committed
officer like Hemant Karkare – had also seen similar actions by the fanatics.
In fact the members of Abhinav Bharat had parked their explosive laden
motorcycle below the defunct office of the SIMI in Bhikhu Chowk, Malegaon.
The Nanded bomb blast in 2006 had also seen fake beards and dresses normally
worn by Muslims at the house of the terrorists who had died in the bomb
blasts.

II.

*Did the Goan government partially foot the bill for the blasts ?*
Investigation into the Goa bomb blasts has exposed a another dangerous
dimension of the sprawling network of Sanatan Sanstha within the
administration. Whether it has to do with the presence of Sudhin Dhavalikar,
a minister in the Digambar Kamat government whose wife Jyoti happens to be
part of the leading team of Sanatan Sanstha needs to be further probed ?
And thus despite the fact that Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad had
forwarded a proposal to the Maharashtra government to ban the organisation
after the infamous blast at Gadkari Rangayatan (theatre) in Thane in June
2008, and Panvel and when investigations had pointed fingers at the Sanatan
Sanstha, the Goan government continued with its policy of advertising in the
newspaper brought out by the Sanstha.
…Menino Peres, director of the department of information and publicity (DIP)
that controls state government advertising, said several advertisements had
been released to the propaganda arm of the SS, a multilingual broadsheet
named Sanatan Prabhat, over the years.
“We released advertisements to them like we issue ads to other papers too.
We are not going out of our way doing it,” Peres told IANS.
Peres was unable to immediately mention the amount of money that was spent
by the DIP on advertisements released to the SS annually.
When asked if the state government would stop releasing advertisements to
the newspaper in view of the new found infamy gained by the SS, Peres said
such a decision would have to be taken by the state government.
…Vishnu Wagh, advisor to the DIP, told reporters Thursday that the daily
Sanatan Prabhat had the potential to “breed terrorists”.
Wagh also said that the newspaper had been abusing the liberties granted
under the freedom of media for a long time now. “Dainik Sanatan Prabhat has
abused freedom of press for long now. They have consistently derided the
system of democracy in the country. Their literature can easily breed
terrorists,” Wagh said. “The literature published in the newspaper is
socially divisive and acts like poison in society,” he added. (Oct 30, 2009,
IANS)
Interestingly much on the lines of involvement of Lt Col Purohit, who was
one of the mastermind of the Malegaon bomb blasts, one also finds that the
Sanatan Sanstha could have also established links within some sections of
the military to further its divisive agenda. A report carried by ‘Deccan
Herald’(31.10.2009) makes a disturbing revelations about an ex-Navy
officer’s Sanatan links going unprobed. (Devika Sequeira, Panaji, Oct 30,
DHNS)
Former Indian Navy officer Sean Michael Clarke, the son of retired Commodore
Richard Clarke, has been an active member of the Sanatan Sanstha in Goa for
over three years. Internal police documents in the possession of this
newspaper show that Sean Clarke, lived in the Sanatan Ramnathi ashram in
Ponda from December 2006, the very year he acquired Australian nationality.
On May 5, 2009, Sean Clarke, 39, made a formal application to the CID for a
year’s extension of his visa, “to render ‘seva’ (service)” to the Sanatan
Ramnathi ashram as a full time voluntary worker. Though the former navy
officer styles himself as a spiritual guru, claiming to run the Sanatan’s
Spiritual Research Foundation website, police documents show he shared the
dais publicly with militant saffron groups like the Bajran Dal, VHP and the
RSS on two occasions here in Goa. The public meetings were suffused with
provocative rhetoric directed at the government and the minorities. But the
police cleared Sean for visa extensions several times saying there was
nothing “adverse” in his record.
The Sanatan says Sean is no longer in the ashram. “He left some three or
four months ago,” SS trustee Virendra Marathe told this newspaper.
His sister, the once well-known model Sharon Clarke Sequeira, 42, however,
still lives in the ashram. Marathe says she has been associated with them
from 1990…
He took premature retirement, his documents say, for medical reasons. His
father Richard Clarke served as the CO of the navy’s Hansa base in Goa in
the 90s.

III.

*SANATAN in Serbia ?*
As it always happens the most convenient way of shirking one’s
responsibility in any particular case is blaming ’systemic failure’. Ravi
Naik, the home minister of Goa, who has recently been in news after his
statements after the Goa blasts  recently admitted that the Margao blast,
indicated an intelligence failure. “State intelligence agencies had no
knowledge of the blast in the commercial town, which clearly indicates their
failure,” Naik told a local media channel during a television show on Monday
night. “Sanatan Saunstha was under the police scanner after the Thane and
Panvel blasts in Maharashtra, but despite this they (intelligence agencies)
had no inkling of what is being conspired by its members,” he said. (Margao
blast indicates intelligence failure, admits Goa minister, November 03, 2009
13:46 IST, www.rediff.com)
Perhaps he should have replaced ‘intelligence failure’ with ‘absence of
political will’.
It is also being discussed that the foreign links of this fanatic group are
being probed to know its wide network. In fact it would be in the larger
interest of humanity if Mr Ravi Naik looks into this report prepared by a
group of experts about Sanatan’s operations in Serbia and the manner in
which it was ultimately banned there calling it an “..[e]xceptionally
harmful cult that threatens human rights, freedom of choice, freedom of
opinion, of belief as well as mental and social balance, and the safety of
the individual as well as that of the State. Under a humanitarian disguise,
Sanatan champions terrorism”
(http://griess.st1.at/gsk/fecris/85%20conf%20engl%20PETROVIC.htm,  for
its reference go through the below
links, http://www.icsahome.cominfoserv_enews/affnb_2005_01.htm and also
http://www.google.comcse?cx=001799989780590661597%3A5b8gyda5z5a&ie=UTF-8&q=sanatan&sa=Search)
The report (“SANATAN”: spiritual science or a mentally and socially
exceptionally dangerous cult ?) prepared in 2004 discusses how “..[t]he
social situation in Serbia enabled the rise of a cult that is relatively
unknown in our country, and is probably little known in other European Union
countries, too.”
It talks about the “Sanatan/Eternally New” cult, which promotes itself to
the outside world as: “A Society for Scientific Spirituality” and its gurus
are Dr. Djajant Baladie Atavle and Dr. Kunda Djajant Atavle whose
publications includes “Hypnotherapy”, “Pakistani Psychology”, “The Science
of Hypnosis”, “Kschatadarma – Protection of Sadaques and the destruction of
criminals”.
The said cult was listed in Serbia as a humanitarian organisation, thanks to
ten people’s signature, under the usual statement of “without political,
religious or lucrative aims”.
Discussing the operations of the cult it present the following facts :
“Sadaques are “truth seekers”. According to Spiritual Science, the Sadaque
is willing to give up “his body, his mind, his material means and his life”
to his spiritual guru, with the ultimate goal of sacrificing his life for
the guru. The destruction of his enemies is the only spiritual practice of
the Sadaques/truth seekers. .. Criminal are tradespeople, politicians,
lawyers, doctors, the police, etc. – people who in actual fact trouble very
few people. They must be destroyed while praising God and respecting
“subjective emotions” and following “subtle signs”. They must be killed even
through the use of weapons. This is, in fact, a very simple spiritual
practice.”
After briefly describing the Santan indoctrination the report provides
details of how the group is led by a female guru who started by ‘renting an
apartment and then buying a large house on the edge of Belgrade, at the foot
of Mount Avala’ where this guru and her followers and sympathisers live.
Interestingly the manner in which great deal of noise was made by people
gathering there every day at the house led compelled the local people to
approach the police for an inquiry into what was happening at the yellow
house.
The night following this request, an unknown person or group threw stones at
this house and police and firemen quickly arrived at the scene and opened an
inquest.
It was worth noting that the media, the television, the radio and even the
Human Rights Committee in Helsinki immediately reacted, which defended the
rights of the “Sanatan humanitarian organisation – an organisation for human
spirituality”. It was claimed that this humanitarian and spiritual
organisation was being harassed by a mob of xenophobes, chauvinists and
criminals from “reactionary groups”.
The report prepared by a group of experts explains how their intervention
ultimately forced the government to ban this ‘anti-social pseudo religious
cult.” According to the report :
“At this time of unrest, we gave two interviews to the media, explaining
calmly in simple terms that not only was Sanatan a pseudo-psychological
spiritual cult, but that it was also engaged in highly damaging mental
manipulation, presenting grave danger for people’s mental health, their
dignity and their fundamental rights, exploiting people’s weaknesses and
ignorance. Sanatan lies dangerously through its mask of the promise of
spiritual and mental development. With its “spiritual practices”, this cult
in fact prepares its victim followers for antisocial and terrorist acts.
While praising the Lord, they train themselves up for assassinating
“criminals” chosen through “their inner feelings and subtle signs” under the
guidance of the guru. This is an exceptionally dangerous doctrine for the
individuals, their lives, the human rights in general and fundamental social
balance.
Our public conclusion was to officially call upon the State Prosecutor to
give an indictment after a serious and thorough investigation.
Some time later, for the first time in Serbia, an obviously anti-social
pseudo-psychological cult was banned. The Minister for Human and Minority
Rights banned Sanatan, Spiritual Science.”(Marseilles, March 27-28 2004)

IV.

*Pussyfooting in Dealing With Hindutva Extremists ?*
In his recent writeup in *Economic and Political Weekly*, (which talks about
recent arrest of Kobad Ghandy recently,) Sumanta Banerjee discusses
“..[I]ndian state’s dual policy of pussyfooting in dealing with Hindu
religious extremists on the one hand and trampling down on the dissenters
upholding the cause of the poorer classes on the other.” (‘Two Parallel
Narratives’, October 31, 2009)
Discussing the “..deliberate design in this lopsided reversal of priorities
of the Indian state” it tells us that “it is surely not mere oversight that
the political ideologues of the Sangh Parivar – leaders like Pramod
Muthalik, Bal Thackeray, Vinay Katiyar, Praveen Togadia, who openly preach
violence against relgious minorities and secular forces – are seldom touched
by the police.The Indian state winks at them – since they pose a threat only
to the minority community section of the population, whose interestes have
already been sacrificed by the politicians at the altar of majoritarian
nationalism.”
As things stand today, it is just a matter of time when the Goa blasts would
be forgotten much on the lines of Nanded blasts or Kanpur blasts (August
2008) and similar other blasts involving Hindutva terrorists.Perhaps a much
bigger tragedy would awaken us from our selective amnesia vis-a-vis
terrorism of the Hindutva kind.
Posted in Government, Politics, Right watch, Violence-Conflict Tagged:
bomb-blasts, Hindutva, sanatan sanstha
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You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a
nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the
foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole.
-AMBEDKAR



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You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a
nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the
foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole.
-AMBEDKAR



http://venukm.blogspot.com

http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur

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