B.RAMAN
Rediff.com has reported as follows: “In a statement
that is expected to erupt a huge political row, Home Minister Sushilkumar
Shinde said on Sunday (January 20,2013),
"The RSS and BJP are running terrorist training camps to spread Hindu
terrorism."He mentioned the Samjhauta Express and Malegaon blasts to further enhance his point as he addressed
Congress workers at the ongoing ( since concluded) Chintan Shivir in Jaipur .
He said that BJP's " cultural nationalism" is actually a weapon to
divide the country.”His speech was disastrous, to put it mildly.”
2. Apart from evoking protests from the BJP and the
RSS, some of whose leaders have demanded his resignation for projecting the majority
Hindu community of India as indulging in terrorism, even many of the Congress
delegates to the Shivir were reported to have been embarrassed by his speech
which lionized Mrs.Sonia Gandhi and demonized the BJP and the RSS.
3. Realising the damage that might be caused by his
“disastrous” speech as described by Rediff, Shri Shinde has subsequently sought
to retract from his statement by claiming that he was merely referring to media
reports of the investigation made into some cases in the past. He was
apparently referring to the media reports of the investigation into the
Malegaon blasts that killed many Muslims and the explosion on board the
Samjauta Express.
4. It is a fact that investigation into some pre-2008
terrorist incidents brought out that these were not committed by Muslim
extremists and that at least some of them such as the Malegaon blasts were acts
of reprisal against the Muslims by some Hindu extremists who had an association
with the RSS in the past.
5. The investigation so far, based largely on the
interrogation of some arrested Hindu suspects, who professed the Hindutva
ideology, showed that neither the BJP nor the RSS had any knowledge of the
planned acts of reprisal by these suspects. There has been no evidence at all
that these organisations had any role in these incidents. These were purely
rogue acts of reprisal by these individual Hindus with past association with
these organisations.
6. While evidence of the involvement of some Hindu
rogue elements in the Malegaon blasts seems to be strong, evidence of their
involvement in the Samjauta Express explosion appears to be more circumstantial
than direct. Moreover, immediately after it, US authorities had assessed that
it was probably caused by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET).They have not come out with
any subsequent assessment on it.
7. Investigation into these cases has since been
taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) formed by the Union
Ministry of Home Affairs in 2009 when Shri P.Chidambaram was the Home Minister.
Despite all its resources, the NIA has not so far been able to come out with a
comprehensive conclusion on the alleged involvement of some Hindu extremists in
acts of reprisal against Muslims.
8. There has been no sense of urgency in the MHA in
having the investigation completed and the suspects prosecuted. One has a
strong suspicion that the NIA is sought to be used not for the investigation
and prosecution, but for politically needling the BJP and the RSS by
periodically leveling allegations against them. This partisan exploitation of
the investigation for political purposes is likely to continue till the 2014
elections. Shri Shinde’s statement is part of this partisan exercise.
9. Short-sighted leaders of the Congress do not
seem to realize that they have been playing into the hands of Pakistan and
weakening our campaign against Pakistan for early action against the
masterminds of the 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai. Pakistan has been trying
to link up its early prosecution of the accused in the 26/11 strikes in Mumbai
with our early prosecution of the accused in the Samjauta Express explosion on
the ground that many Pakistanis travelling back to Pakistan by this train were
killed in this explosion.
10. Shri Shinde’s statement was totally unwarranted
and even mischievous because there have been no further acts of reprisal against
Muslims after the arrests of the Hindu extremists allegedly involved in the
Malegaon blasts. The total stoppage of such acts of reprisal shows that the
group involved was very small and its arrest has ended such incidents.
11. Shri Shinde, before his retraction, sought to
project as if such conspiracies involving the BJP and the RSS were continuing
without any shred of evidence. His objective was to demonise the BJP and the
RSS for political advantage before the 2014 polls.
12.The past allegations regarding the involvement
of some rogue Hindu extremists in the Samjauta Express explosion are being
exploited by the Interior Ministry of the Government of Pakistan. Shri Shinde’s
latest allegations are being exploited by Hafeez Mohd Sayeed, the Amir of the
Jamatt-ud-Dawa, the political wing of the LET, for claiming not only that there
is Hindu terrorism against Muslims in India which justifies the LET’s acts of
reprisal to protect the Indian Muslims,
but also that Shri Shinde’s statement shows that so-called Hindu terrorists
from India are probably responsible for the recent wave of terrorism in
Pakistan itself. His allegations could cause a serious backlash against the
members of the Hindu minority in Pakistan.
13. Shri Shinde’s statement carefully avoids any
condemnation of the on-going activities and conspiracies of the Indian
Mujahideen and its links with the LET. At the same time, it seeks to project
sections of the Hindu community who do not support the Congress, as associated with
terrorism. His deeply prejudiced and communal stewardship of the Union Ministry
of Home Affairs needs to be condemned by all right-thinking persons.( 22-1-13)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For
China Studies.
Twitter: @SORBONNE75)
