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BJP drops shame-sham cover,
directly aligns
with terror suspects
WSN Bureau
NEW DELHI:
Listen to the humiliating and insulting rhetoric that the top bosses
of the ultra-Hindutva variety, the RSS, the BJP, the VHP, the
Bajrang Dal and their myriad forms and combinations is spouting: "No
Hindu can be a terrorist." "What kind of people can attack a
religious woman saadhvi?" "The character of those who criticise good
faith Hindus and show them as being involved in terror acts has
fallen." "The anti-terror squad which has caught an army officer,
some Hindu sadhus, and many RSS-linked people in terror attacks as
suspects is communal."
Deconstruct the
statement. And you don't need to be a Derrida to do it. What it
means is that a Sikh can possibly be a terrorist, so can be a
Christian, a Muslim, but a Hindu cannot be a terrorist.
 At
the same time, the BJP-RSS combine is accusing everyone else of
attaching religion to terror. Suddenly, it has taken a line that it
never linked terror with Muslims. This from a party which has among
its top brass a man like Narendra Modi.
After the
initial hesitation and wiespread shame, the entire saffron Sangh
Parivar has now openly came out in support of the
Malegaon blast
accused, and has called the ongoing investigations into the
September 29 blast in the weavers’ town a “political conspiracy”.
BJP president
Rajnath Singh himself has come out to defend those suspected of the
most heinous crimes and said the ongoing investigations into the
Malegaon
blasts could be a “huge conspiracy”. He said he was convinced that
Swami Asimanand, Swami Avdheshanand, Yogi Aditynanath and other
religious figures, who have all come under the cloud of India's
anti-terror investigations, were not involved.
 “I personally
believe that there is a huge conspiracy behind these happenings (the Malegaon
investigations)—and do not forget that Maharashtra has a Congress-NCP
coalition government and this could be part of the conspiracy. This
possibility cannot be ruled out,” Rajnath told Indian Express
Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on a program for the NDTV.
When asked what
he would do if religious leaders being linked to Sadhvi Pragya
Thakur turn out to be involved in the blasts, Rajnath said, “I’m
completely convinced that they are not involved.”
So much so that
now the BJP-RSS want to make it an election issue. Clearly, a
communal agenda suits the party. After all, the BJP had won massive
victory only because it had demolished the Babri mosque and
demonstrated its totally communal priorities and character. Now, the
RSS-BJP-Bajrang Dal have all announced launch of a mass campaign
against the so-called “vilification of Hindu saints and army
officers in the name of Hindu terrorism”.
At times like
this, the BJP forgets all its protestations against mixing religion
with politics. It got together a bunch of akharas — sects of sadhus
— in Panipat and announced the decision: a mass mobilisation
campaign against the “anti-Hindu conspiracy” on November 26 in
New
Delhi.
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A peep into the 'saintly' mind
The room in
which Dayanand Pandey, also known as Mahant Amritanand alias
Sudhakar Dwivedi, often stayed at in a temple in Faridabad
offers a glimpse into his mind. Among the belongings of Pandey,
now in the custody of the Maharashtra ATS in connection with the
Malegaon blast, lies a slim book—Yeeshu mein shaitaan hai. Its
cover reads: Sonia ke khuda ka aadesh, surya-chandrama vah
devi-devta pujko ko tum Isahi patharon se mar do (Sonia’s god
has ordered Christians to kill the worshippers of the sun-moon
and other gods and goddesses).
The book, in
Oriya and Hindi, spews hate on Christians, calling attacks in
the Northeast and other parts of the country the work of
“Christian terrorists”. Then there is a newsletter, Sharada San-desh,
of the Sharada Sarvogya Peeth, which has among other writings,
Pandey’s interviews in which he talks of his visits to villages
in Doda where “Hindus were being killed by terrorists”.
The first of
the pre-blasts meeting that Pandey called was held at this
temple-complex and was attended by Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Pragya
Singh Thakur and Sameer Kulkarni. |
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And now you have
a new banner that the Indian media has downplayed: Dharm Sangrakshan
Samiti. So here is a forum of the saffron wing that will protect
religion by protecting men and women involved in killing innocent
people with bombs. The logical corollary is to prepare the grounds
for the BJP to mount a highly charged campaign in times of war
against terror and paint a picture that killing innocent people with
bombs as a reprisal for possibly violent actions of some angry
Muslim youth is the perfect way to join in the world's war against
terror.
And lest you
miss the roll call of those who are backing thse plans: Yoga
evangelist Baba Ramdev, Swami Hans Das of Akhara Parishad and VHP’s
Praveen Togadia all shared the stage and backed the decision.
As for men like
Lt Colonel Shrikant Purohit, caught and widely believed to be the
man behind the
Malegaon blasts
and using his position in the army to procure and use RDX to cause
explosions and kill innocent people, they were called “victims” of
insults by the government.
“I do not
believe that people like Swami Asimanandji, Swami Avdheshanandji...
can ever promote violent activities,” BJP president Rajnath said.
 On
the sadhvi, a former ABVP national executive member who is alleged
to have had a hand in the blasts, the BJP chief said, “I’m not ready
to believe that Sadhvi Pragya Thakur is a terrorist until there is
enough evidence against her. She has been subjected to three or four
brain mapping, narco-analysis tests. Have you ever heard of this
being done to any terrorist?”
Shamelessness
does not respond to notes of caution. Interviewer Shekhar Gupta
tried it and asked Rajnath if his statements on the Sadhvi weren’t
almost irresponsible. Undaunted, Rajnath said: “Whatever I have said
is after due deliberation, after being aware of certain facts.”
“The way the
names of our saints are being associated with Pragya Thakur—like
Swami Asimanandji, Swami Avdheshanandji, Yogi Adityanath—before that
the Orissa seer Laxmanananda Saraswati was killed. It is natural
that after such a string of events anybody will feel hurt.”
19 November
2008
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