As you sow so shall you reap, so goes the saying. The Saffron terrorism, which is sending shockwaves across the nation today, was not built in a day. Some analysts opine that Hindutva terrorists had been under scanner since the 2006 Nanded blasts. But the fact remains that the seed of Saffron terrorism was sown when Damodar Chapakar assassinated a British police officer in 1897, and systematised when Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who was a born rebel and who organised a gang of kids called Vanarsena when he was just 11, founded Abhinav Bharat Society in 1904 – much before the foundation of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1925. Though Savarkar wound up Abhinav Bharat in 1952, the legacy continued in the form of various military schools like Bhosala Military School in places like Pune, Nasik and Nagpur, and Rani Laxmi Bai Military School for girls in Pune.
It was Savarkar who instilled a strong sense of his particular brand of Hinduism in radical youth culling from the Hindu society when he gave a clarion call to “come forward now and enter the Army, the Navy and the Air-Force, render the Hindu military-minded, spirited and valorous and secure and stabilise the Hindu strength in Indian Military Forces of all arms.” This is ‘patriotic terrorism’ rather than patriotism, for it advocates sectarianism, the aims of which they think can be achieved via terrorism alone. For it strives for Hindu Rashtra rather than Jan Rashtra at the cost of other communities living in the country and in violation of the law of the land. This is history and what has been taking place ever since at different places and at different points of time – from pogrom to blasts, from marginalisation of minorities in government as well as private sectors to criminalisation of sacred institutions of the country – is also history. So it is no surprise – notwithstanding its being shocking and alarming – when some serving and former army officers along with some Hindutva terrorists including a Sadhvi and a Mahant have been caught for their alleged subversive roles in the recent Malegaon and earlier blasts.
Blast after blast has been shaking the very foundations of the nation; and whenever a terror incident occurs, sections of our media and law and order machinery take no time in branding Muslims as terrorists and nabbing their youth without any proof. And the irony is that investigations into most terror blast cases remain inconclusive. This is only because of the presence of Hindutva elements in police and armed forces as well as in every other wing of our governance.
Now the question is: How to combat this ever rising Hindutva terrorism? And another question, which has been staring in the face of minorities, is: Who will compensate the Muslim youth, who are being and will be proved innocent by courts of law as happened in Andhra Pradesh last week, for the torture of sorts they bore in police custody and the stigma of having been branded as terrorists they will have to carry for the rest of their life?
The solution lies in making a firm resolve and taking really concrete steps to purge the various ministries and departments as well as police and armed forces from Hindutva elements, fulfilling the demands of peace and justice in society. Whoever they may be and/or whatever politico-religious affiliations they might wield, they must be subjected to due punishment, keeping in view the prime most concern of safety and protection of the nation and her bonafide citizens. Non-governmental organisations as well as peace and justice loving persons ought to come forward to pile pressure on the government to act, and act firmly and decisively to save India from the claws of hate and terror, chaos and anarchy.