People's Democracy

Editorial

 

Hindutva Terror Must Be Defeated

 

 

THE net of terror spread by the Hindutva terrorist groups continues to widen posing a very serious threat to the unity and integrity of the secular-democratic modern India.  Presenting his ministry’s report card for July, the union home minister announced that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will probe the terrorist attacks on the Samjhauta Express and examine the entire conspiracy behind the attack, including the links of the accused in terrorist attacks at Malegaon (September 8, 2008), Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad (May 18, 2007) and at the Dargah in Ajmer (October 11, 2007).

 

68 people were killed when bombs exploded in two coaches of Delhi-Lahore Samjhauta Express around mid night of February 18, 2007.  A few weeks after the Malegaon bomb blast, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested 11 people including a sadhvi and a former army officer, commandant of the Bhonsala Military School, Nashik.  This was the first instance in recent times, of arrests of people belonging to Hindutva rightwing organisations on charges of anti-national terrorist activities.  These investigations subsequently led to similar developments with the other two incidents which are in advanced state of investigation by the CBI and the Rajasthan ATS.  These links are now been extended to the Samjhauta Express. 

 

Even prior to the revelations of such investigations, the CPI(M) had been drawing the attention of the central government to various reports linking some RSS affiliates with incidents of bomb blasts across the country.  At a meeting of the National Integration Council on October 13, 2008, the CPI(M) in its submission stated: “Police investigations in the past few years have noted the involvement of Bajrang Dal or other RSS organisations in various bomb blasts across the country – in  2003, in Parbani, Jalna and Jalgaon districts of Maharashtra; in 2005, in Mau district of Uttar Pradesh; in 2006, in Nanded; in January 2008, at the RSS office in Tenkasi, Tirunelveli; in August 2008, in Kanpur etc etc.”

 

Rattled by such exposures in the ongoing investigations, the RSS has reacted in its typical fashion of saying that all those arrested are no longer members of RSS or any of its affiliates.  The All India Prachar Pramukh of the RSS, Manmohan Vaidya, has recently told the media, “They might have drawn their inspiration from the Sangh ideology but they were not active Sangh members.”  This is nothing original.  This is precisely what was said about Nathuram Godse following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.  Godse’s brother, however, is on record in an interview to the media, saying that all the brothers in the family were members of the RSS.  Some others hold that fringe elements of Hindu fundamentalism, impatient with the political tactics of compromising on core Hindutva issues, are resorting to such terrorist activities.  In a similar vein, some other RSS leaders admit to the media that a few `deviant elements’ might have turned to violence and terror but insist that the organisation as a whole cannot be dubbed terrorist. Again, a replication  of the RSS stand during the trial of Mahatma Gandhi’s murder. 

 

However, the history of the RSS and its methodology of functioning belies such theories of a differentiation between the `core’ and the `fringe’.  The issue of imparting militant training to the Hindus and using violence as a political weapon by the RSS has a long history.  It was Savarkar who gave the slogan “Hinduise all politics and militarise Hindudom”.  Inspired by this, Dr B S Moonje, mentor of RSS founder Dr Hegdewar, traveled to Italy to meet the fascist dictator, Mussolini.  The meeting took place on March 19, 1931.  His personal diary notes of March 20 reveal his fascination and admiration of the manner in which  Italian fascism was training its youth  (read storm-troopers) militarily.  Upon return to India, Dr Moonje established the Central Hindu Military Education Society at Nasik in 1935, the precursor to the Bhonsala Military School  (now charged with imparting training to Hindutva terror) established in 1937.  Golwalkar, in 1939, exults Hitler’s purging of the Jews under Nazi fascism and says that it is “a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by”. More recently, following the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the RSS tentacles, VHP and Bajrang Dal, had publicly prided themselves at the training  imparted to `kar sevaks’.  The then BJP chief minister of Uttar Pradesh publicly stated that he was proud of the kar sevaks who accomplished the job of demolishing the Babri Masjid  more speedily and efficiently than any professional contractor would or could have done. 

 

In fact, it is these deep ideological links that roused the wrath of the RSS when it mounted a violent attack, indulging in large-scale vandalism and destruction, on the office of a national television news channel which, on the previous night, had aired audio/video footage showing the involvement of Hindu rightwing leaders in terror blasts at various places in the country.  These exposures included audio clips of conversations plotting to kill the vice president of India, Hamid Ansari.  Such intolerance, reminiscent of fascist storm troopers, leading to violent attacks reinforces the ideological foundations that fan such terrorist violence. 

 

The RSS chief questions the term `Hindu terrorism’ asking, “How can you club an entire community with the concept of terrorism?”  He proceeds further to state, “Coining such terms is the conspiracy to defame the Sangh. It is a political conspiracy to defeat and defame Hindutva forces.”  Very cleverly, the terms `Hindutva’ and `Hindu’ are used synonymously.  What we are speaking about is Hindutva terror, not Hindu terror.  Clearly, no religious community, as a whole, can be held responsible for the terrorist activities of individuals embracing that religion.  Same yardstick, however, should apply to other religions as well.  However, not according to the RSS.  In the meeting of its karyakarani mandali baitak in October 2008, just before the Malegaon blast arrests, the RSS adopted a resolution titled, “curb Islamic terrorism with an iron hand”.  This is not merely an expression of double standards.  It reflects the ideological roots of converting the modern secular democratic republic of India into the RSS version of a `Hindu Rashtra’ based on rabid religious intolerance. 

 

In these columns, we continue to maintain that terrorism has no religion.  It is simply anti-national and, hence, the country should display zero tolerance.  Further, terrorism of all varieties only feed and strengthen each other, seeking to destroy the very unity and integrity of our country. 

 

To safeguard and strengthen modern India’s secular democratic foundations, it is imperative that such pernicious ideological methods of using terror for realising a political objective needs to be decisively defeated. 

 

(August 04, 2010)