Facts of the Hindutva terror
By Akhtar Hussain
Youth being trained at a RSS shakha
Photo: AP
The BJP and the Congress are at war again over home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's "Hindutva terrorism" remark. Speaking at the recent Congress conclave in Jaipur, Shinde citing the Malegaon, Mecca masjid and Samjhauta express blasts, said "training camps run by BJP and RSS were promoting Hindu terror. In response, BJP has asked Shinde to be sacked and, prime minister and Sonia Gandhi to apologize. BJP has even announced a nationwide protest on January 24.
One may question the timing and necessity of making that remark. Also the broad generalization is disturbing. Rather, it is something that BJP and RSS have been doing for long. The rants like "Madarsas are breeding grounds of terrorists" or "All Muslims may not be terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims" are still fresh in our memories. One may also have objections to the term "Hindu" or "Hindutva" with terrorism, which is understandable. But denying the facts would be denying the problem itself. The fact is, certain unfortunate incidents did took place and there are people behind them. I however don't intend to speak in the same language but would like to put some facts and my views on it.
RSS ideology and history - RSS was founded on Dussehra day in 1925 by Dr KB Hedgewar with the concept of "Hindu nation" on majoritarian lines as in Pakistan (not democratic). MS Golwalkar, the most prominent ideologue of the organization and its brand of politics, published a book "We or our nationhood defined" in 1939, which became a bible of "Hindutva politics". Golwalkar unhesitatingly glorified the Race theory, propagated by Hitler and Mussolini, and subsequent cleansing of Non-Aryans or minorities. He had frequently attacked leaders of his time and the Indian Constitution – "The framers of our present constitution also were not firmly rooted in the conviction of our single homogenous nationhood as is evident from the federal structure of our constitution". In a speech in 1960, he had characterized Muslims, Christians, Jews and Parsis as "guests" but they are not the children of the soil.
"Nationalists and patriots have been insulted by the Congress and the UPA", Nitin Gadkari said in Lucknow. There are many Sangh supporters and sympathizers on twitter and facebook who proclaim themselves to be nationalist and patriot. I have always wondered, what is so nationalistic or patriotic about killing our own people? It is important here to bust the nationalism myth of the RSS brigade.
Founded in 1925, when India was under British, they didn't play any significant role in the freedom struggle. In fact, they were seen acting to the contrary. On 8 August 1942, All India Congress Committee passed the Quit India resolution. SP Mookerjee was then finance minister in the Bengal government headed by a member of the Muslims League, Fazlul Haq. Mookerjee should have resigned on 9 August but he did not, hoping to make a deal with the Governor on power sharing as proposed in his letter. Also, the Hindu Mahasabha was in coalition government with the Muslim League in Sind. Though the Sind assembly passed a resolution endorsing the demand for Pakistan, the Mahasabha ministers did not resign but contended themselves with a protest, for the record. RSS for long has publicly denied Nathuram Godse's links with RSS. Gopal Godse, brother of Nathuram Godse in an interview to the Frontline admitted that all four brothers were in RSS and Nathuram Godse denied his link because Golwalkar and RSS were in a lot of trouble after the murder of Mahatma Gandhi. During Emergency, Jayprakash Narayan accepted RSS support only to be betrayed by it later. Then RSS chief Deoras wrote cringing letters from prison to Indira Gandhi, and begged her to lift the ban on the RSS. The letters were placed on the table of Maharashtra assembly on 18 October 1977.
RSS links to the terror blasts – Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde at Jaipur mentioned Samjhauta Express, Mecca masjid and Malegaon blasts. He forgot to mention Ajmer blast which has been in news too. But, are these a few rare and isolated incidents or there is more to it? Let's see.
"Bajrang Dal activists were actually making a bomb before one exploded in an activist's house" said a senior police officer on Nanded blast (As reported in The Telegraph, 10 April 2006). Himanshu Panse, who was blown into pieces in the accidental blast, was also an accused in Parbhani blast at Mohammadiya masjid on 21 November 2003 along with Sanjay, Wagh and Vidholkar. Then there is Purna blast at a madarsa on 27 August 2004 (main accused- Sanjay and Tuptewar, Jalna blast at Quadriya masjid on 27 August 2004 (main accused- Wagh) in addition to Malegaon blasts in Maharashtra state alone. As usual, state Bajrang Dal chief Shankar Gaikwad denied that the dead belonged to his party and at the same time even claimed that it was not a bomb blast but some crackers that caught fire. Whereas, police confirmed that Naresh and Himanshu, who died on spot were office bearers of Bajrang Dal. Also, the blast was so severe that Himanshu's hands and legs literally lied scattered. One other died on spot and three others were seriously injured (Wagh was reported to be in coma). Window panes were found to be lying around forty feet away from the house which again belonged to RSS worker Laxman Rajkondwar. Never knew the crackers are capable of such damage. Police recovered an IED type sophisticated bomb with timer and operated through remote control. The presence of Muslims caps, dresses and maps (of mosques and other similar places) says a lot on the sinister game plan of the group. The bomb, which exploded in Nanded was suppose to explode at Aurangabad mosque next day, a Friday.
It is beyond the scope of a blog to cover all the incidents with evidences but the list is long, where the people involved were related to the big RSS parivar. 24 August 2008- two RSS/Bajrang Dal activists died while making bomb in Kanpur, also a low intensity blast on 14 October 2008 and an explosion at PHC in the same city. Blast in a mosque in Modasa (Gujrat) on 29 September 2009 and police suspected SIMI. Also on the list are Mhow(1999), Bhopal (2002,2003), Tenkasi (2007) etc. On 15 October 2009, a blast went off behind Grace church in Goa. Police recovered some circuits and timing devices from the Sanatan Sanstha ashram. It was meant for a Hindu gathering and one can guess why? Much has come out in media about the activities of Shri Ram Sene in Karnataka, also Sanjay Joshi's murder and a few arrests in Indore (Madhya Pradesh). Also on the list is links from Bhonsla military school in Nagpur etc. These incidents by no means suggest that Hindutva terrorism is mere a local phenomenon with just a few rogues involved.
Way ahead – On 10 January 2011 at Surat, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said that – "majority of the people whom the government has accused, a few had left and few were told by the Sangh that this extremism will not work here so you go away". Would he care to explain who where these "few"? And why didn't the RSS reported the matter to the police? Anyway, leave him. We know he was just talking in the air. But this does show that he knew that evidences against these people are too strong to be denied. The RSS has always kept its membership record secret, despite the promise it made when the ban was lifted after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. It conveniently denied Godse's link to organization then and it continues to do the same. One can recall several BJP/RSS leaders made a hue and cry over these arrests initially and went to meet Sadhvi Pragya Thakur in jail bur gradually as the cases went to courts these voices subsided. Unlike in other terror cases where police went on a witch-hunt, framing even innocent Muslims, in these cases the evidences are very convincing and strong. There is a motorcycle which was used in the blast traced to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, a laptop belonging to Dayanand Pandey who was in habit of recording his meetings, to a lot of other material and forensic evidences which are damning and indicate the sinister game at play with a vast network involved. One must appreciate here the efforts of Maharshtra ATS chief late Hemant Karkare who changed the whole course of investigations and brought out these facts. Else we know how the police behaved by arresting innocents and torturing to extract confessions so that they can satisfy the nation at large who blindly believed every other theory advanced by the police.
RSS is involved in a lot of activities and many welfare activities as well. I hate generalizing and I would not like to comment on to what extent RSS as an organization is involved in these acts. In fact I believe it is not. But RSS need to come out clear in its stand. RSS and BJP should not be seen to be supporting these elements to send the right message across. Here it is important to understand that given the kind of ideology RSS believe in, it attract the similar mindsets into its fold. It could well be the case that some of them may have crossed the line. But to distance from these acts Sangh need to distance from these elements as well. There can be no denying that since these arrests RSS and BJP has been in back-foot and I would like to believe that there will not be any such incidence in future. But you can't take things to be granted. We know these terror activities were basically reactive-terror activities to the Islamic terror, but the same could be said about Islamic terror also. It needs to be emphasized here that extremism on both sides strengthens and feed on each other's hate. To defeat terrorism we can't be selective but need to put down all these forces with iron-hand no matter their religious or organizational affiliations. We can't neglect the fact that many innocent lives have been lost in these acts. The accused have a right to defend themselves but we know who are the people defending them legally and politically. By announcing the protest on January 24, BJP and RSS have made their intentions clear. One can guess what is going to happen to these cases if BJP comes to power. To expect our politicized and communalized police (significantly, as several judicial commissions have pointed out) to behave independently and fairly is too much to ask for. The Hindutva virus has infected the investigation agencies, the media, and the society at large to varying degrees. Don't forget, they have not acted against the some big names which came out in these cases like Indresh Kumar, Dr RP Singh, Ms Himani Savarkar and many others who were part of the meetings and planning. There have been a dozen arrests but there is more to it. We need to make sure that the real masterminds who conceived plans, managed funds and explosives shouldn't get away. Media and civil society has big role to play here to keep the heat on. Individuals may have their biases but we can't let the nation fail because of them.
(Many facts in the blog have been taken from the book "Godse's children" by Subhash Gatade and for complete picture and understanding; I would request you to read the book)
(The views expressed in this column are the writer's own)
__._,_.___
