People's Democracy

EDITORIAL

Malegaon Blasts: Terrorism Knows No Religion

TERROR has once again struck. Through the dastardly attack in Malegaon targeting thousands of devotees on an auspicious day near the mosque, the terrorists aimed at benumbing the nation. The people of Malegaon however, displayed the most heartwarming maturity and refused to fall victim to the trap set by the terrorists. In this Muslim dominated town, hundreds of Hindus came forward to donate blood to save the injured, like Muslims did in Mumbai after the train blasts. The Muslims in Malegaon formed a human chain so that hundreds of Hindu girls struck in the Zilla Parishad school could be safely evacuated. A display of fraternity that Malegaon had seldom seen in the past.

For a town that carried a reputation of bursting into communal flames at the provocation of a single spark, such a spontaneous display of harmony and solidarity is indeed most welcome and gratifying. This is the best answer to terrorism. Terrorist outfits should realise that India as a secular democratic republic will unflinchingly uphold the rights of all its religious, linguistic, cultural, ethnic minorities to build a harmonious plural society. 

Be that as it may, it is clear that the terrorist aim continues to be one of seeking to create a deep communal wedge in our society to further their nefarious and diabolical interests. A few months before the Mumbai blasts, large amounts of RDX were recovered by the police in some towns of Maharashtra. In Nanded, two Bajrang Dal activists were accidentally killed while preparing bombs. These and other leads must be thoroughly investigated. It is only then that the Indian people and the nation will derive the confidence so necessary to sustain our secular democratic republic. 

On his way from Brazil to Havana to attend the NAM summit prime minister Manmohan Singh has told media persons on his special plane that all dimensions and aspects of these blasts would be enquired into. The governments both at the centre and the state must live up to this assurance to ensure that no single community feels a sense of persecution.

Repeatedly in the past, we had stated in these columns that terrorism knows no religion. Fundamentalism of all varieties while targeting innocent people, often irrespective of their religious affiliations, only feed each other. It would suffice to recall once again what the propaganda chief of the Jamaat-e-Tuleba in Pakistan had said on the eve of the 1999 general elections in India. He said that they were praying that Allah would return Vajpayee to power for as long as the Hindu communal forces are strong in India, Islamic fundamentalism becomes stronger in Pakistan. 

Soon after the Mumbai blasts, we had noted that instead of standing unitedly to condemn and face such terrorist attacks, the RSS/BJP instead started mounting an attack on the UPA government that all this was happening due to the fact that the POTA had been withdrawn. The major terror attacks during the Vajpayee regime whether on the parliament, Red Fort, Akashardam temple or the Raghunath temple, all took place when POTA was the law of the land. Despite many ideological differences, the country had stood as one behind the Vajpayee government in combating those attacks.

It is not an issue that the BJP must now return such ‘niceties’. The fact that it chooses to bring on to the agenda its communally divisive issues at such a time only betrays its permanent proclivity to convert all attacks on our country into opportunities to advance its objective of deepening communal polarisation. Its recently concluded national executive was dominated by the issue of compulsory singing of Vande Mataram. Its former UP chief minister has declared that the BJP will conduct its campaign in Uttar Pradesh for the forthcoming assembly elections on the basis of “prakhar Hindutva (sharpe-edged Hindutva)”. The terror perpetrated by Islamic groups, condemnable as they are, is diabolically used by forces of Hindu communalism to further their agenda. Once again the result would be that both these feed on each other at the expense of innocent lives and the spread of despair and agony. 

The UPA government must speedily complete its investigations into these attacks. All Indians, irrespective of their religious affiliations must realise that terrorism does not spare innocent lives and does not recognise the religious affiliations of its victims. All patriotic Indians, who have the welfare of the secular democratic republic in mind, must stand unitedly to rebuff such terror. This in the final analysis is the most powerful answer to those who seek to perpetuate communal divides to achieve their political objectives.