Can another stringent anti-terror law, 17,000 more police personnel, 130 vehicles, 58 CCTV cameras, 27 border check-posts and a federal investigation agency alter the morbid mindset? wonders DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI
Can, and will the September 17 resolves of the special meeting of the Union Cabinet ameliorate the terror-stricken national situation? We hope and pray. But we are not optimistic as the resolves do not touch the core issue. The high sounding resolves include creation of stringent anti-terror law, 17,000 more police personnel, and 130 vehicles, 58 CCTV cameras for markets and 27 border check-posts for the National Capital and a federal agency to investigate terror cases and creation of a new internal security portfolio.
The Cabinet did not take cognisance of the anti-minority ambience, vitiating the atmosphere of the country. It failed to positively react on the popular Muslim grievance with regard to selective arrests and harassment of the educated Muslim youth. The Cabinet chose to ignore the feeling of persecution of the Christian minority in the three BJP-ruled states. It failed to show doormat to the less-than-competent Home Minister.
Both Islam and Muslims stand in the dock today in plural Bharat. The strong suspicion behind their poor psyche is their alleged, direct or indirect, total or partial involvement in the terrorist activity, having roots in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
DEMONISATION
The principal minority of the country has taken this demonisation, this slur seriously for two reasons: First, terrorism and unfaithfulness to motherland is against the grain of Islam and Muslims. The allegation runs into the very face of Muslim self-respect and self-esteem. It is against their ideology and dignity. The charge is insulting, malicious and without foundation. Secondly, it is chiefly, mainly and exclusively the highly educated Muslim youth and Muslim professionals who have been picked up by the lazy and less-than-fair Intelligence Agencies to be aggressively interrogated and maligned at the end of the day. The said exclusiveness has shades of genocide.
Muslim leadership has noted it with dismay that the Congress, the four Left parties, the RJD, the Samajwadi Party, the Telugu Desam, the AIADMK and several other regional parties have maintained a mystifying silence on this palpable outrage.
No TV channel has deemed it necessary to organise a comprehensive talk-show on the subject. No significant newspaper, exceptions apart, has editorially taken exception to the said vilification campaign.
MUSLIMS QUESTION
We Muslims ask: What is the moral justification of this deafening silence? How do our politicians, social activists and media persons rationalise or philosophise their inexplicable quietitude?
To add insult to injury, some periodicals have focused their attention on “Islamic Terrorism”. But their stories, articles and comments are based only upon the Police and Intelligence inputs. No investigation into the agencies’ charges, exhaustive or otherwise! No in-depth study, the hallmark of healthy journalism.
In its utter-muddle-headedness, this biased section of the press is only lengthening the shadows between the majority and the minority.
Only The Hindu (September 15, 2008) has lamented in its 425-word editorial: “…. In many areas scarred by the appalling communal violence, SIMI is seen as an armed militia defending a besieged and vulnerable community – not as a criminal organisation that must be crushed. While this perception is profoundly misplaced, its existence points to the wellsprings of rage fed by India’s depressing failure to act against the perpetrators of Hindu fundamentalist violence. Central and State governments have, for the most part, failed to ensure the equity promised by the Constitution to Muslims, a reality driven home by actor Shabana Azmi’s pained reflections on her inability to purchase a home in Mumbai.” (emphasis added)
Should we quote quotations to prove the point, appropriately raised by the eminent English language daily? Does our Union Home Ministry not do home-work at all with regard to the plans and activities of the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal?
NEHRU’S EXAMPLE
There is no public record to show the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister, writing letters to the BJP-ruled State Chief Ministers, drawing their attention toward the anti-minority stances adopted by the Saffron activists over there. Do they know Prime Minister Nehru gingered them up regularly?
A letter writer succinctly puts up Muslim case in a national daily: “…. Why have terror strikes become so frequent? Indian Muslims have never supported any terrorist movement in any part of the world. Even the Kashmir insurgency has not been supported by the rest of the Indian Muslims. Poverty is not always responsible for terrorism but injustice is. When some MPs were caught on camera taking bribes, Parliament and the Judiciary took remedial action immediately. But when some VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders claim in front of the camera that they were responsible for the Gujarat pogrom, no action was taken. Injustice creates a favourable ground for breeding terrorism.” (emphasis added)
4000 DEATHS
Since Mr. Shivraj Patil took charge of the Home in 2004, over 4,000 people have died in terror attacks. So says The Times of India. How has he responded is the question.
- Varanasi, July 11, 2005 – 9 killed
We should not like to blame anybody but will not spare anyone involved in it.
- Mumbai, July 11, 2006 – 209 killed
Authorities had some information an attack was coming but place and time was not known.
- Varanasi, March 7, 2006 – 28 killed
The UP government has done their bit. The police have done their bit.
- Hyderabad, May 18, 2007 – 16 killed
Government is keeping a close watch. I condemn the blasts and appeal for calm.
- Jaipur, May 13, 2008 – 63 killed
Nothing should be done which would create obstacles and misunderstanding and is unhelpful in the task of investigating agencies.
- Bangalore, July 26, 2008 – 2 killed
Such incidents will not deter the government from pursuing its policy of dealing with anti-national elements.
- Ahmedabad, July 26, 2008 – 57 killed
Anti-national elements have been trying to create panic among people of our country.
- Delhi, September 13, 2008 – 24 killed
We will find out who has done it and make sure those responsible will be punished.
Re-read these gems to find out what Mr. Patil has driven home? Could you find any sign of determination expected of any leadership in them? The impression that we received is: he does not want to displease anybody and aims at keeping each and every person smiling. If so what is surprising if he was found on September 13, changing his clothes thrice within four hours, ignoring bravely the serial blasts that sniffed off the lives of 30 people in Delhi? This liability should, must go at the earliest.
ADVANI WAY
Mr. L.K. Advani, as the Union Home Minister and later on as the Dy-Prime Minister, would save the VHP and Bajrang Dal zealots by saying just before or soon after their anti-social activity: No. I know them. They are not anti-social but good people! But currently he should be a worried person. The “good people” have, on camera, admitted their anti-Christian assaults. Whenever and wherever the BJP has been in office, they have broken the law. This the nation saw in Gujarat in 2002. Now we are seeing in Orissa and Karnataka. They have made a mountain of a mole hill on conversion, which is legal in heterogeneous Bharat. Legal measures are available to check coercion or inducement. It is the duty of government to verify the facts. Where does the VHP or Bajrang Dal come into picture? Showing intolerance against the two per cent of the total population is beyond commonsense.
A QUESTION
Is the banned SIMI still active? The entire case of the Police and Intelligence depends upon the question. Till mid October the ban has been approved by the apex court. The Government, which filled its supplementary affidavit last month, contended that around 1,900 SIMI activists were at present lodged in prisons across the country with 89 cases registered against them. Seeking an absolute ban on SIMI, the Centre had told the court that SIMI activists were also “extending full support to extremists and terrorists in J&K and Punjab.”
This claim has, perhaps, been made to further strengthen the government case. But here a 400-word story from the September 15 Indian Express under the 3-column heading “Sadhus Demand Vendanti’s Arrest for fake SIMI threat” tells a different tale.
A group of Sadhus, led by Mahant Yugal Kishore Sharan Shastri, had demanded legal action against senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader and former BJP MP Ram Vilas Vedanti for allegedly claiming that he had received a death threat from SIMI and Al-Qaeda. On August 30, Vedanti had lodged a complaint with the Ayodhya Police alleging that he had been receiving death threats from the Al-Qaeda and SIMI. The district administration immediately provided a security cover and deployed additional men to his X-category security. Following the complaint the police swung into action and Vedanti’s mobile phone was brought under electronic surveillance to track down the callers. Soon after, the police arrested Ramesh Tiwari, Bajrang Dal’s city president in Katra and Pawan Pandey, a local convener of Hindu Yuva Vahini from Katra in Gonda district. “Vednati has conspired with two of the local leaders of Bajrang Dal and Hindu Yuva Vahini to pose as Al-Qaeda and SIMI activists. In fact Vedanti had a plan to disrupt the communal harmony and to create a riot type of situation that would help the BJP to prepare their grounds for the coming Lok Sabha elections,” said Shastri. Vedanti would contest the elections as a BJP candidate from Gonda. According to the police, during interrogation Pandey said “my Guruji was not getting Z-category security as enjoyed by VHP leaders like Ashok Singhal and Praveen Togadia, so we took the step after Guruji gave us the consent”. “After we arrested the duo Vedanti told us that we knew them and requested us not to take any legal action against them. So we released them,” Superintendent of Police Gyaneshwar Tiwari said.
Does this story not hint at the manner which the SIMI and Al-Qaeda are systematically put in lurid lights by the Saffron crooks, who are later on set free by the Police?
Can another stringent anti-terror law, 17,000 more police personnel, 130 vehicles, 58 CCTV cameras, 27 border check-posts and a federal investigation agency alter the morbid mindset?