Sangh Brigade’s Terror Network Exposed Once More!

With every passing day, more and more skeletons of terror plots are tumbling out of the saffron cupboard. The RSS-BJP brigade has predictably resorted to a ridiculous denial mode. For all these years, fighting “terrorism” has been the only political fodder for this communal-criminal brigade. Drawing on the international climate of an anti-Muslim witch-hunt in the wake of George Bush’s ‘war on terror’, the Sangh began to package their claims to patriotism in the garb of ‘anti-terrorism,’ equating Islam and Muslims with terrorism. This kind of anti-Muslim jingoism gained some legitimacy because even the so-called ‘secular’ ruling parties like Congress, and the entire state-police machinery too were participating in the branding and witch-hunting of Muslims youth as ‘terrorists.’ The communal common-sense propagated by the saffron brigade was that every terrorist had to be a Muslim – a sentiment that was shamefully shared by several forces who claimed to be ‘secular’!

Starting with the revelations by Hemant Karkare’s team about the involvement of Sadhavi Pragya Singh Thakur and Col. Purohit in the Malegaon Blasts of 2008, the real role of the Sangh Parivar vis- a- vis terrorism has gradually come to be revealed. The recently revealed confessions of Swami Aseemanand have further helped to connect the wires of the wide web of Sanghi terror in a range of bomb blasts all over the country, including Mecca Masjid, Ajmer Sharif, Malegaon, and the Samjhauta Express blasts.

The Initial Signals

The initial signals pointing towards the involvement of the Sangh Brigade in perpetrating bomb blasts emerged when in 2006 when two activists of the Bajrang Dal were killed in a bomb-making accident in a house in Nanded, Maharashtra. Later on, fake beards and ‘Muslim-looking’ clothes were found in the house, clearly indicating an intention of implicating Muslims in the bomb blasts perpetrated by the Sangh Parivar. Investigations revealed that the two Bajrang Dal activists killed in Nanded had been responsible for bombing a mosque in the Parbhani District in April 2006, and were also responsible for blasts in Purna and Jalna in April 2003 which had injured 18 people. In August 2007, two Bajrang Dal activists, Rajeev Mishra and Bhupendra Arora, were killed in Kanpur while assembling bombs. On 24 January 2008, there was a pipe bomb attack on the RSS office in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu. The RSS-BJP created an uproar claiming to be targets of ‘Islamic terrorism’, hoping that the resulting sympathy wave would fetch votes for the BJP. But it emerged from police investigations that activists of the Hindu Munnani – an RSS-affiliated organization – were responsible for the blast!

The Underlying Agenda

The above incidents amply indicated that groups affiliated to the Sangh Parivar were planning and conducting bomb blasts, while seeking to implicate Muslim groups in the blasts – all with the political agenda of whipping up anti-Muslim hysteria and creating a favourable political climate for the BJP. But the ruling establishment and police turned a blind eye and refused to probe deeper and unravel the threads of saffron terror – instead continuing to blindly arrest innocent Muslim youth branded as ‘masterminds’ in every case of terrorism.

It took Hemant Karkare’s brave investigation into the Hindutva terror network to reveal for the first time the role the Hindutva Brigade vis- a- vis terrorism. Clearly understanding the impact such revelations will have on the saffron campaign against ‘Islamic terror’, the BJP and Sangh Parivar have been trying their level best to rubbish the investigations and also distance themselves from the main accused. Even now, despite Aseemanand’s confession, the entire state machinery and the mainstream media seem to be reluctant to pin down the Sangh Parivar for its role in orchestrating terror acts across the country, indicating that it is only a lunatic ‘fringe’ of the saffron brigade who are responsible.

Sanghi Terror: Terrorism with a Difference!

Most terrorist groups claim responsibility for the blasts they perpetrate. They do this in order to cash in on the heinous terror created by their actions. But Sanghi terror is unique – it never admits nor owns up to its acts of terror. Instead, it tries to pass the blame of its terror acts on the Muslim community since the main political agenda is to whip up an anti-Muslim communal frenzy. This is precisely the core ideological-political agenda of the RSS-BJP brigade, without which they cannot survive.

The Sangh Brigade has managed to spread its network of terror modules across the country through a massive propaganda network, employing the most diverse and modern means and methods to run systematic hate campaigns against all their chosen targets ranging from the minorities and socially weaker sections to the whole spectrum of progressive and consistent secular democratic forces. Depending on the context and convenience, the targets may vary in different regions – it may be migrant youth and workers in Maharashtra, Christians in Orissa and Karnataka, Muslim youth in UP and the rural poor in Bihar.

Now that investigations have begun revealing a different face of terrorism and the Sangh Parivar has come under the scanner for its dangerous role, the BJP has started twisting the agenda. It has started crying foul that Hindus are being framed in India. This is yet another glaring example of the characteristic hypocrisy of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. To question the conduct of the police or investigative agencies in case a Muslim is arrested amounts to ‘sedition’ in their book. Custodial torture and fake encounters are invested by the Sangh and BJP with a halo of gallantry as long as the victims are Muslim. The same forces, however, begin to cry foul the moment some ‘swami’ or ‘sadhvi’ or some army official from their own ranks come under the scanner.

The response to the various evidences of manifestations of Sanghi Terror – of which Assemanand’s confession is one – has been severely compromised by majoritarian communal prejudices. The political, space and the financial muscle enjoyed by the RSS and its subsidiary BJP has for long safeguarded it against legal scrutiny and action. The political clout and the organisational network of the RSS have become entrenched in the various arms of the state including the bureaucracy, the police and the army. The complicity of the Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh police in the murder of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife, and the killing of Ishrat Jehan and her friends is now clearly established, the Batla House fake encounter where the Delhi Police gunned down two innocent Muslim youth, the communal witch hunting of Muslim youth form UP are manifestations of this.

The UPA Govt. which misses no opportunity to prove its secular credentials has showed no political conviction to bring the perpetrators of Saffron terror to book. It is a pointer towards the sham of a democracy we live in that while perpetrators of acts of terror like Inderesh Kumar (of the RSS) and B.L.Sharma (a well known BJP ex-MP) roam free, the people’s doctor Binayak Sen has been falsely accused and jailed for speaking out against corporate land grab and state sponsored private militias in Chhattisgarh!

What Must be Done Now?

Aseemanand’s confession exposes the bias hitherto inherent in the investigative agencies’ approach to these blasts; their obstinate refusal to probe Sanghi terror links and their widespread witch-hunt and torture of minority youth instead. A large number of innocent youth from the minorities have been subjected to grievous torture, unjust incarceration and tarnishing of their reputation as a result. The people named in Aseemanand’s confession hold responsible positions in the Sangh Parivar. It is high time that a through investigation is ordered into the role of the Sangh Parivar in all the blasts. Not only must the Union Home Ministry ensure that the real culprits of the terror blasts are punished, it must also reveal the entire list of those wrongfully arrested or charged for these blasts, unconditionally release those still in custody and apologise to and compensate all such wrongfully arrested individuals. It must also ensure that those responsible for torture of such minority youths are prosecuted and punished.

However, given the Congress’ track record in dealing with the saffron goons, one wonders whether present investigations will be carried to their logical conclusion. The way Congress governments have acted on the incidents of terror in Maharashtra, Andhra and elsewhere, the way they have buried the Sri Krishna Commission Report on Mumbai riots of 1993, the way the UPA refused has to take action on the Liberhan report on Babri Masjid demolition amply prove that the Congress has never brought saffron goons to the book. People of this country must ensure that the present set of revelations are not once again opportunistically used by the Congress as bargaining sticks to strike deals with BJP to come out of its present quagmire of all round corruption charges.

Therefore, instead of relying on the state and the political will of the so-called saner elements within the ruling classes, progressive democratic forces must meet every instance of fascist assault by unleashing the widest possible popular initiative and mass struggles and holding the state accountable in every possible way.