Terrorism by the mobs

The Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh admitted in the governors’ meeting on September 17 2008 that there have been gaps in the intelligence collected by the intelligence agencies. This is nowhere as much a matter of concern than in the startling revelations of certain groups involved in bomb making. No one had bothered to keep a tab on the VHP or the armed wing of RSS, Bajrang Dal. Their involvement in the pogroms of Muslims in Gujarat is now history. But the activities of these have ramifications for the country as a whole. For what happened in Gujarat is happening in Orissa and Karnataka, not to speak of Dang district of Gujarat itself and Madhya Pradesh.

Now that the Nanavati Commission report is submitted to the Chief Minister Narendra Modi there is time to pause and think. Though much water has flowed down the Narmada much more has happened in the country that calls for a fresh look. The exhibited ability of bomb making by Bajrang Dal is truly more frightening than all the past violence. The amount of explosive material with them is awesome. In just one case out of probably many hundreds, which went undetected, it was enough to destroy half of the city of Kanpur!

This is hardly any secret that Bajrang Dal was actively involved in distribution of trishuls and organizing training camps in arms and ammunition in the run up to the havocs of the burning of the Sabarmati train compartments and the massacre that followed.


Of the two faces that will be etched on our national psyche and survive for our posterity are from Gujarat 2002. One is that of a man with folded hands marked with injury and bandage and bleary eyes with tears begging mercy for his life and of his family as others of the cornered and fated and frightened members of the family hide behind him. The other is that of the Bajrang Dal activist with red bandana tied around his head and terrifying eyes with virtual jaw of a tiger, swelling veins on the neck, blood marks of his victim on his hands along with traces of arson against the background of burning houses and shops. These are the faces of terror by mobs, the vanquished and the vanquisher, the terrified and the terrific.

The faces have multiplied since then. Much of what is going on in Orissa and Karnataka is the result of the ferocious unleashing of murder and mayhem on the terrified Christian minority there. The central government has woken up belatedly to apply article 355 of the constitution to check the situation going overboard. There was not even any mention of this article in 2002 when the BJP was in power both in Gujarat and also at the center with its allies. Though the then Prime Minister of India Mr Vajpayee had asked Modi to do his rajdharm, he himself did not observe his rajdharm by not resorting to article 355 of the constitution when scores of mosques were demolished or taken over and thousands of Muslims were killed and their properties and houses looted and burnt. All this continued despite the letter of the President Narayan asking Vajpayee to act. The subsequent boycott and ostracisation of Muslims was allowed by the state authorities to continue till our time.

Two crucial aspects have to come to light, the identity of the victims of the Sabarmati train and whether the train was burnt from outside or from within. Why was the advice of the collector of Godhra turned down also needs scrutiny if we want to curb terror by the mobs as it is unraveling in Orissa and Karnataka. What is transpiring in Gujarat or Delhi has important bearings for what is happening in the rest of our country. Why did we not make public the narco test on Safdar Nagori soon after it was done in Bangalore in April this year subsequent to his arrest in March? He had spilled the beans on7/11 and Samjhauta and yet the intelligence was perhaps not shared by the other investigating agencies. What else can you say that Justice Geeta Mittal asked the central government to put concrete proof of any individual incident before the court to continue the ban on SIMI. Perhaps it would have prevented some of the violent incidents that happened thereafter. Even so the need to isolate the few criminal members from the rest of the community is even more material in the fight against terrorism. As Subhan Qureshi’s [Tauqeer] mother Zubeida said that she is a Hindustani and would like her son punished before her eyes so that no one dare to do such evil against the country. But proof first.

Equally important is to bring to book the systematic training in arms and making bombs of an outfit whose branches spread out to all the parts of the country. They can wreak havoc on unprecedented scale jeopardizing the unity and integrity of the country. Enough explosive materials were recovered from Nanded, Kanpur and other places and yet no significant change has taken place that the government is serious in fighting terror of this kind. Those who are perpetrating this kind have left a trail of destruction and misery over several hundred miles across states of Orissa and Karnataka and that too over weeks on end. The huge size of the mobs indulging in this enjoys not just state government patronage but anonymity. Therefore we have the distinction of adding another clause in the definition of terror: organized marauding by armed mobs going after their quarry, people who choose another faith or are born in faith not that of the majority and build houses of prayer for themselves.