SOROOR AHMED analyses the Hindutva terror expose last week and how the RSS cadre vandalised the office of TV Today in Delhi.
The news is that the terror brigade of RSS was contemplating an assassination bid on Vice President Hamid Ansari during the annual convocation of the Jamia Millia Islamia in October 2007. It further says that they have strong links with those involved in the bombings in Ajmer, Makkah Masjid, Malegaon and many other places.
The even bigger news is that it was none else but Headlines Today, which did an expose on it. This was followed by a story in the sister concern, the Mail Today. This provoked the RSS cadre to vandalise the office of TV Today in Jhandewalan in Delhi on July 16.
That the news organisations like Headlines Today and Mail Today exposed the role of the Sangh Parivar bigwigs is in itself something surprising as they all belong to the India Today group, often considered soft to the BJP. The Hindi channel Aaj Tak also belongs to the same group.
However, the biggest of all the news is the response of the Congress general secretary, Digvijay Singh and party spokesperson, Jayanthi Natarajan. Digvijay demanded from the Home Ministry to conduct an in-depth investigation into the plot and register a case against BJP leader B L Sharma Prem, who was exposed by the TV channel.
“The assassination plot is extremely serious and demands intervention at the highest level,” was how Digvijay reacted. He further added that the TV expose revealed the “violent and anti-national character of Hindu fundamentalists. The BJP had been accusing the Congress of being soft on terror. And now, the party itself stands charged with terror activities.”
Jayanthi Natarajan, on her part, said that “the involvement of senior RSS leaders with terror groups and specific acts of terrorism” needed to be investigated because “they have the power through such acts to destabilise the entire society, the Constitution and our political system.” She recalled that it was the BJP which accused the “martyred Hemant Karkare of being unpatriotic when he first started uncovering these unholy links.”
That the leaders of the ruling Congress had to make demand for in-depth investigation into the plot to kill Hamid Ansari and seek intervention at the highest level sounds rather surprising. The government should have acted much before such demands were made.
Yes, the Sangh Parivar had the power “to destabilise the entire society, the Constitution and our political system.” If an organisation can make an attempt to assassinate a personality as protected as the Vice President of the country then it means it has wherewithal to indulge in any other acts of terror. Thus the need of the hour is to have an in-depth investigation into, not just the plot to eliminate Hamid Ansari, but all the heinous crimes which have taken place in the country in the last few years – Makkah Masjid, Ajmer, Malegaon, etc. are just a few among them.
It sounds somewhat strange that the ruling party of the country had to remind its own government about the contributions of “martyred Hemant Karkare” who was killed on November 26, 2008 in Mumbai after he, what Jayanthi said, “started uncovering these unholy links.”
It is none else but Headlines Today, which established beyond doubt the role of two-time BJP MP B L Sharma Prem and senior RSS leader, Indresh Kumar. They were seen discussing the need for carrying out terrorist attacks in the country. Indresh is a member of the Kendriya Akhil Bharatiya Karyakarini (All India Working Committee) of the RSS and was Sampark Pracharak of the organisation till 2006 and is close to all the top leaders of the RSS and BJP.
It is not that such an expose about the Sangh Parivar involvement has not been made in the country in the past. In fact no such expose has been done about any Muslim terror outfit of India till now. Yet the entire media and official machinery get focused on Muslims after every incident of blast anywhere in India.
What is strange is that when the terrorists struck in Mumbai on the night of November 26, 2008 the Hindi channel IBN-7 was showing a half an-hour programme––between 10 and 10:30 PM––on the involvement of Hindu terrorist organisations in Malegaon and other blasts.
It was at 10:20 PM when the channel was about to reveal what was in their laptop that the news of the attack in Mumbai broke in. The programme was abruptly stopped and like all the TV channels IBN-7 also started showing live the terrorists’ attack in Mumbai. What was in the laptop of Pragya Singh Thakur and company could not yet be known.
Not surprisingly the media focus once again shifted to the global Islamic terrorist groups and the activities of the Hindus terror groups were pushed to the back burner. This notwithstanding the facts that a couple of books have hit the stands and many people did dare to write on the history of the involvement of the Sangh Parivar terror outfits.
The Sangh Parivar strategy is simple. They want to carry on the terror activities, create chaos and disorder, put the blame on Muslims and accuse the Congress of being soft towards them. In most of the cases Muslim religious places have been targeted. Even the choice of Hamid Ansari and that too in Jamia Millia is significant. It is because of these reasons that accusing finger is being pointed towards these outfits after the bombing of Samjhauta Express, in which about 70 people were killed.
It needs to be mentioned that most of the incidents have taken place after the BJP has been voted out of power from the Centre. Yet what is tragic is that in spite of this attempt to blame the Congress party and Sonia Gandhi, the UPA government did precise little to come down heavily on these outfits.
While Muslims only protested the fake encounters and harassment of innocents and no one ever opposed the arrest of and punishment to the guilty, the BJP is strangely defending all the acts of the Sangh Parivar outfits. Even after the latest expose, the party went on defending the RSS and dubbed the media revelation as a Congress party’s conspiracy to malign it. In a way it justified the attack on the office of TV Today.