[Reader-list] Indian Mujahideen: poison fruit of saffron politics, jehadi mindset

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Indian Mujahideen: poison fruit of saffron politics, jehadi mindset
By Amulya Ganguli, IANS,

Two factors have complicated the terrorism problem in India. One is
Pakistan's, or rather, the Pakistan Army's implacable hostility. This
animus has acquired a nihilistic dimension with the involvement of
suicide squads patronised by the army and Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI), which has been described as a rogue agency by none other than
A.Q. Khan, "father" of the Pakistani nuclear programme.

The other factor is the saffron brotherhood's sustained role in
fostering anger among Muslims by its longstanding anti-minority
philosophy, which led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992
and the Gujarat riots 10 years later. For years before the demolition,
the Hindutva lobby led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had
carried on a relentless campaign to portray Muslims and Christians as
unpatriotic.

Arguably, if the RSS and its political wing, the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), had not been so persistent in their venomous
anti-minority propaganda, the only form of terrorism which India would
have had to face was the one sponsored by Pakistan. In that event, the
Lashkar-e-Taiba would have been the main terrorist outfit endangering
India.

But the humiliation and anger bred by the saffron targeting of the
Babri Masjid, and then again by the Gujarat riots, have undoubtedly
played a part in the formation of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) by
disaffected and alienated Muslims. The IM, therefore, can be said to
be the poison fruit of saffron politics - the right-wing politics of
Hindu nationalists.

What is interesting is that the diminishing electoral returns from
this kind of frenzied, fascistic policies have convinced even the BJP
today that pluralism remains the best bet for success. As a result,
the man who is suspected to be behind the Gujarat outbreak, Chief
Minister Narendra Modi, has virtually turned over a new leaf since
2002 to focus on development.

The same rejection of religious sectarianism in favour of development
helped Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar rout his rivals in the recent
elections in the state and emerge as a front-runner for leadership of
the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) because of his secular
credentials.

If the BJP leaders had realised this basic truth of the virtues of
multiculturalism in the 1990s, then they might have desisted from
playing such an incendiary pro-Hindu role. But now it is too late. The
seeds of communal divisiveness have not only been planted but seem to
have taken root among a small section of Muslims. The latter are also
undoubtedly aided and abetted by Pakistan-based terror groups.

Banned outfits like the IM and the Students Islamic Movement of India
(SIMI) could have been gradually weaned away from their destructive
path if the BJP was forthright in its rejection of its policies of the
1990s, which were based on the stridently anti-minority philosophy of
Savarkar and Golwalkar. But while the BJP is either unable or
unwilling to break away completely from the past, the RSS and other
rabid constituents of the Sangh Parivar like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP) and the Bajrang Dal continue to be devoted followers of
Savarkar's and Golwalkar's sectarian line.

The recent Allahabad High Court judgment's virtual acceptance of the
site of the Babri Masjid as the birthplace of Hindu deity Ram has been
grist to their mill.

To quote from an article in the RSS journal Organiser, "the
temple-favouring verdict ... will never be acceptable to the Jilanis,
Ansaris, Bukharis, Shahabuddins, who along with Babar's descendants
will sooner or later reveal their true colours".

What such a provocative stand means is that the IM and SIMI will
always have enough inflammable material in their hands to persuade
their gullible followers, however small in number, to pursue the
jehadi path of indiscriminate violence aimed at setting off communal
riots.

It is another matter that an overwhelming majority of Hindus and
Muslims have woken up to the realities of their mischievous plans and
learnt to ignore such acts of provocation, as the calm reaction to the
Dec 7 blast in Varanasi showed. Even the Mumbai mayhem of Nov 26,
2008, did not disturb communal peace.

But the fact remains that the IM and SIMI cannot be wiped out, as the
Khalistani outfits of the militant Sikhs have been, as long as the RSS
and other members of the Parivar do not give up their cherished dream
of converting India into a Hindu Rashtra (nation). To quote from
Organiser again: "We shall engage ourselves in the godly mission of
freeing the entire country...the entire Ramjanmabhoomi, the entire
Mother India from the clutches of every shade of traitor".

The misuse of religion for political purposes has been the bane of
Indian politics. It led to the partition of 1947 because the Muslim
League's poor performance in the 1937 elections convinced it that it
could make no headway without concocting the slogan of "Islam in
danger" in a Hindu India. Similarly, the BJP's reduction to a party
with only two Lok Sabha seats in 1984 made it turn to the RSS-VHP line
of "freeing" Mother India from the Jilanis, Ansaris and their
co-religionists. The militancy of the IM and SIMI has been the result.

(11.12.2010 - Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached
at aganguli at mail.com)