If any Indian distinguished himself by writing history by his sweat and while doing so made history by writing it in his blood, it is this modest looking man. This assistant commissioner in charge of Anti Terrorist Squad of Maharashtra will be remembered for good. Those who were breathing down his neck will breathe a sigh of relief but all others will have grief.
LK Advani and Rajnathsingh had tried to run down one of the most impeccable and distinguished men of probity. They were doing what the poet Alexander Pope penned three centuries ago: ‘willing to wound but afraid to strike.’ That hurt him deeply: "when allegations are made anyone (we) will feel hurt.". Indeed the Pune ATS had received a telephonic message threatening to kill Karkare and blow up his house ‘within a few days.’
It was painstaking work that he undertook when the bombs went off in Gadkari auditorium in Thane and another theatre in Vashi, Mumbai, by vowing to leave no stone unturned in search of clues. That paid off immediately. But then came Malegaon September 29, 2008 blast. The crowd had gone berserk in Bhiku chowk and had almost threatened to destroy the evidence by their over reaction. But Karkare’s reaching the spot with his team salvaged the dreadful proof of Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur’s motor bike, the LML Freedom. Then came the forensic report and the number of the bike. Given the state of the political situation and the communal fragility it was most dangerous to lay one’s hand on a sadhu let alone a sadhvi.
That was like wearing the burning shirt of Hercules. But this valiant man did it.
He worked in private companies including Hindustan Lever and the National Productivity Council before joining IPS in 1985. He worked in Akola, Bhiwandi, Thane and Mumbai. A most daring stint in very difficult district infected by Naxalites, Chandrapur, was also in his lot. He had rich experience with the ace intelligence agency of RAW by serving a stint in Austria and then he took over in January this year as the chief of ATS.
The imprint of his sang froid manner is the subtext of what he said during Malegaon investigation: "We should do our job and it is for the court to decide."
Of course, under the tremendous tension and pressure he carried on his work. Only the other day the court denied police custody of Lt Col Purohit, Sadhvi Pragyasingh etc. karkare did not feel brow beaten: “police custody would have helped investigations to proceed faster but still we will see how best to deal with it in a legal way". This is ironclad perseverance.
Karkare in his crisp blue shirt wore the helmet and took a call on his mobile before he advanced towards the Metro cinema and the Cama hospital. The security circle around him moved. His eyes shone brightly as he went to attend the call of duty.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Malegaon: Dawn of a new probe
At long last there is a ray of hope that the mystery surrounding Shabe Barat serial bomb blasts of September 8, 2006 in Malegaon will be lifted and justice would be done. The nine accused will breathe the air of freedom soon if not immediately. There may be one or two who were caught for some other than terrorism crime but they would wash the stigma of jihad terrorism of which they were maligned and jailed for.
The most crucial aspect was that of the state approver Abrar Ahmed. His father and lawyer brother always maintained that the Superintendent of police in Malegaon Mr Rajwardhan had framed up Abrar. Why did the aged father of Abrar, like the wailing mother of Khwaja Yunus, never tire of blaming the police official is a cause of concern. He pointedly told visitors that he had interacted with the local police all his life and had mediated between the public and the police in matters involving dispute or for peace and had cooperated with them. Yet, he was at a loss to understand how come of all the people his son could have strayed away. True, that Abrar was an informer. True, that he was idle. But planting bomb to kill was beyond what his father could believe. But no one heeded his complaint. However in the aftermath of the sensational disclosure in the arrests of the eleven accused in September 29, 2008 blast there is a groundswell of suspicion of something fishy regarding the Shabe barat blasts at the cemetery and the Mushawarat chowk that killed more than 37 people.
It is a mystery of mysteries that Abrar had simply disappeared. His brother had filed a habeas corpus in the Bombay high court and so the police were compelled to present him in the court at the eleventh hour. But they took a lot of care to prevent free mixing of Abrar and his family members who had been present in the court and outside. Between his disappearance and his reappearance in the high court he was in Deolali camp and Indore, among other places. He had hardly any money till he disappeared. Where did he get the money to travel and stay in places? The police brought him to the court; did the police then maintain him? Why? If the two places figure in the meeting of the extremists of the Abhinav Bharat then was he co-opted by them? It would suggest further that the huge amount with Abrar and his expenses were paid either by the police, SIMI or paid from the fund at the discretion of the liaison officer of army intelligence Lt Col Purohit.
Then there is the mystery of the phone calls he made in which he expressed fear for his life. Why did he fear when he was with the police?
While Abrar was kept at Deolali camp, the artillery cantonment near Nasik, he would tell his people on phone that men in red turban surrounded him. What he could not comprehend was the truth that they could be the artillery jawans wearing uniform that included red turbans.
He had been to Indore where Sadhvi Pragyasing Thackur, Sameer Kulkarni, Ramesh Upadhya and Ramnarayan Singh also lived for sometime. The same is true of Deolali.Of all the places why did he have to go there? Indore is not the least popular place for people of Malegaon to go, nor has it tourist attraction of any sort. While he was there he phoned his father to meet him as he was returning to Nasik and would be passing by the Agra highway through Malegaon. His relatives went there but could not meet him. Did anyone prevent the meeting and why?
There are two more aspects to inquire into. If Rakesh Dhawde supplied arms in Malegaon case, then it is pertinent to inquire which of the two cases, or both? The role of SIMI and/or army. Either of the two supplied RDX for September 8, 2006 blasts, too. Shrikant Purohit has alleged that some SIMI boys were used to make bomb. He has also told Sunit Joshi that he had 60 kg RDX that he had given to Bhagwan for use in blowing Samjhauta express compartments. This cannot remain suppositional for long as RDX was found in the blasts of 2006 and 2008.
The most crucial aspect was that of the state approver Abrar Ahmed. His father and lawyer brother always maintained that the Superintendent of police in Malegaon Mr Rajwardhan had framed up Abrar. Why did the aged father of Abrar, like the wailing mother of Khwaja Yunus, never tire of blaming the police official is a cause of concern. He pointedly told visitors that he had interacted with the local police all his life and had mediated between the public and the police in matters involving dispute or for peace and had cooperated with them. Yet, he was at a loss to understand how come of all the people his son could have strayed away. True, that Abrar was an informer. True, that he was idle. But planting bomb to kill was beyond what his father could believe. But no one heeded his complaint. However in the aftermath of the sensational disclosure in the arrests of the eleven accused in September 29, 2008 blast there is a groundswell of suspicion of something fishy regarding the Shabe barat blasts at the cemetery and the Mushawarat chowk that killed more than 37 people.
It is a mystery of mysteries that Abrar had simply disappeared. His brother had filed a habeas corpus in the Bombay high court and so the police were compelled to present him in the court at the eleventh hour. But they took a lot of care to prevent free mixing of Abrar and his family members who had been present in the court and outside. Between his disappearance and his reappearance in the high court he was in Deolali camp and Indore, among other places. He had hardly any money till he disappeared. Where did he get the money to travel and stay in places? The police brought him to the court; did the police then maintain him? Why? If the two places figure in the meeting of the extremists of the Abhinav Bharat then was he co-opted by them? It would suggest further that the huge amount with Abrar and his expenses were paid either by the police, SIMI or paid from the fund at the discretion of the liaison officer of army intelligence Lt Col Purohit.
Then there is the mystery of the phone calls he made in which he expressed fear for his life. Why did he fear when he was with the police?
While Abrar was kept at Deolali camp, the artillery cantonment near Nasik, he would tell his people on phone that men in red turban surrounded him. What he could not comprehend was the truth that they could be the artillery jawans wearing uniform that included red turbans.
He had been to Indore where Sadhvi Pragyasing Thackur, Sameer Kulkarni, Ramesh Upadhya and Ramnarayan Singh also lived for sometime. The same is true of Deolali.Of all the places why did he have to go there? Indore is not the least popular place for people of Malegaon to go, nor has it tourist attraction of any sort. While he was there he phoned his father to meet him as he was returning to Nasik and would be passing by the Agra highway through Malegaon. His relatives went there but could not meet him. Did anyone prevent the meeting and why?
There are two more aspects to inquire into. If Rakesh Dhawde supplied arms in Malegaon case, then it is pertinent to inquire which of the two cases, or both? The role of SIMI and/or army. Either of the two supplied RDX for September 8, 2006 blasts, too. Shrikant Purohit has alleged that some SIMI boys were used to make bomb. He has also told Sunit Joshi that he had 60 kg RDX that he had given to Bhagwan for use in blowing Samjhauta express compartments. This cannot remain suppositional for long as RDX was found in the blasts of 2006 and 2008.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Hinduising politics and militarizing Hundudom: the consequences
The advantage of having different organizations helps the sangh parivar not only to carry out their work but also escape legal hurdles and deflect attention focused on any one of them. VHP and Bajrang Dal were involved in the violent protest in Jammu over Amarnath yatra land dispute although the Amarnath sangharsh samiti was mentioned on the banners and its officials were making statements. There were Abhinav Bharat activists involved in it as well. With Sudhakar Pandey officiating as Shankaracharya of Jammu and Kashmir and based very much in Jammu itself during the height of the violent agitation what more could the extremists want? Many people in the crowd had their faces covered . Simultaneously Indresh Kumar of RSS with active support from RSS chief Sudershan and Mohan Bhagwat was conducting his march for peace and harmony form Nizamuddin to Hazratbal mosque in Kashmir where ‘nationalist’ minded Muslims were involved. This is how the sangh has its cake and eats it too. Much like the specious argument that we should not communalize terrorism not because ‘no Hindus are terrorists or all Muslims are.’
VD Savarkar had founded the Hindu Mahasabha as well as Abhinav Bharat for one objective but different means to achieve it. In England he was involved in activities of the radicals or revolutionaries including bomb making. He was caught and was being taken to India when the ship anchored at Marseilles in France. He knew the laws well and was afraid that he would be prosecuted so he slid down through the shaft in the latrine and swam to the shore. He attacked a police constable on duty so that the French would arrest him and prevent his deportation to India. But the French handed him back to the British.
The present complex relationship of RSS and the fire-eaters of Abhinav Bharat is nothing new. They have a common core of interest which they cannot allow their internal differences to capsize. Savarkar’s book Hindutva and its ideology cannot be pacifist manifesto of a liberal group. Nathuram Godse carried the book when he went to kill Mahatma Gandhi. Narayan Apte and Vishnu Karkare(no relation of Hemant Karkare) accompanied him. As the president of Hindu Mahasabha Savarkar was behind them.
Their unmitigated hate for Muslims was deeply ingrained. In his childhood Savarkar would organize attacks on mosques in Bhagur near Nasik in retaliation against perceived/reported injustice or wrong suffered by Hindus elsewhere in the country. His child play slowly grew into a life long passion and a philosophy. Himani Savarkar’s[ president of the revived Abhinav Bharat] father Gopal Godse asserted that all the four Savarkar brothers grew up in the milieu of the RSS rather than in their kin family. Their kinship in ideology was better defining attribute than their (including Apte’s) descent from Chitpawan Brahamanism.
The ideology betrayed them as the erased number on the chassis of the motorcycle of sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur did her. A Punjabi youth Mandanlal Pawa had hurled a bomb at Mahatma Gandhi on January 20, 1948. There were other accomplices. Nathuram and Gopal Godse had their grenades in their hands but the commotion unnerved them so much that they fled the scene. A terrified woman collecting her child and running to safety saw the police and pointed out the attacker. The police nabbed him. Madanlal did not know the names of his accomplices but he told the police that they were from Poona and one of them was the editor of “Hindu Rashtra” newspaper. The police went to the hotel where Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte had stayed. The two had been so scared that they did not collect their things before they fled Delhi. They had left a document signed by Ashutosh Lahiri of Hindu Mahasabha which denounced Gandhiji and the condition on which he broke his fast. Gandhiji had gone on hunger strike in protest against killing of Muslims in the city.
In Bombay deputy commissioner Jimmy Nagarvalla had his Bombay Watchers’ Club keep a watch on the house of Savarkar which reported that Madanlal had visited the house a week ago. The police did a fine job and identified the people from Poona and got their photos as well and handed them over to the deputy director general of police of the province, UH Rana. Instead of rushing to Delhi by plane to brief home department he traveled by train and on January 24-25 he had the file with the photos of the killers and details but did not tell the Delhi police and did not pass it to the security guards of Gandhiji at the Birla house.
That proved fatal on Friday January 30, as Nathuram Godse, Vishnu Karkare and Nrayan Apte not only reached Birla house but also did a rehearsal. Nathuram shot at the target on the tree with the gun that Gwaliar doctor Parchure of RSS had procured him. Soon afterward he succeeded in killing Gandhiji. Taking advantage of the police uniform he had donned he melted in the crowd.
The pertinent thing to remember is that like the Abhinav Bharat of today there was similarity of views and unity of purpose. The assassins and their backer were intolerant of Muslims. Gandhiji had demanded that Muslims be allowed to pray at the Quwwatul Islam Mosque at Mehrauli at the midmorning too. The Government accepted this condition. That Friday Gandhiji had gone to the mosque along with his two nieces. The Muslims embraced him and welcomed the two girls within the mosque, which is against their canonized practice. This was outrageous to Savarkar and also to his followers. In 2001 Sunil Joshi and Narayansingh Kalsingram (Ramji who planted the Freedom motorcycle of Sadhvi Pragyasingh thakur at Bhiku chowk of Malegaon) wanted to disturb the Tablighee Ijtema at Bhopal but were allowed to go free by the government. Their grouse was how could the government allow this huge gathering of the Muslims.
Uninhibited and unabashed hatred of Muslims and not terrorism was and is the driving force of the Abhinav Bharat. Lt Col Purohit, Ramesh Upadhya as well as Himani Savarkar had lived down the massacre of 37 Sikhs in Chittisingpora on the eve of Bill Clinton visit. The army, the governor, Dayanand Pandey and the rest of the country were silent witness to national security advisor Brajesh Mishra rushing to news conference declaring the Islamic terrorists behind the massacre, exhuming of the bodies of the five innocent Muslims who were made to bear the cross of stigma of Jihad terrorism, then the bungle of the DNA test report and finally the truth. Closer at home they had also known the brutal murder of Khwaja Yunus by the cops of Mumbai. In their much vaunted laboraroty of Hindutva, Gujarat 2002, they had seen visuals of Gulbarg society being encircled a full day before the hapless victims within were taken out and murdered in full view of the public with the police standing around there. If they still wanted to kill Muslims it was not terrorism but their inveterate hatred for them.
The same strong feeling is in Dr RP Singh of Abhinav Bharat. He did not like that the RSS should be training the Maoists in RSS run schools in Nepal. That was against the interest of the Hindu dynasty there. He along with Himani Savarkar had one common target: if there is bullet for bullet there should be blast for blast as well. But the moot point was the cops could use bullet for bullet in encounters. However blast for blast required sourcing RDX and cash. The former was with the army and the latter was also available abroad. That is where Shyam Apte comes in picture. Most worrisome is the spectre of 54 youths whom Rakesh Dhawde had arranged to be trained at the Sinhgad camp in 2003. All of them, including Dhawde, had joined Abhinav Bharat. What if the 60 kg of RDX obtained by Purohit is still with them. And according to Sameer Kulkarni, co founder of Abhinav Bharat, there are 5000 members of the organization across the country. Nay, they have even created sleeper cells in Bangladesh to retaliate.
VD Savarkar had founded the Hindu Mahasabha as well as Abhinav Bharat for one objective but different means to achieve it. In England he was involved in activities of the radicals or revolutionaries including bomb making. He was caught and was being taken to India when the ship anchored at Marseilles in France. He knew the laws well and was afraid that he would be prosecuted so he slid down through the shaft in the latrine and swam to the shore. He attacked a police constable on duty so that the French would arrest him and prevent his deportation to India. But the French handed him back to the British.
The present complex relationship of RSS and the fire-eaters of Abhinav Bharat is nothing new. They have a common core of interest which they cannot allow their internal differences to capsize. Savarkar’s book Hindutva and its ideology cannot be pacifist manifesto of a liberal group. Nathuram Godse carried the book when he went to kill Mahatma Gandhi. Narayan Apte and Vishnu Karkare(no relation of Hemant Karkare) accompanied him. As the president of Hindu Mahasabha Savarkar was behind them.
Their unmitigated hate for Muslims was deeply ingrained. In his childhood Savarkar would organize attacks on mosques in Bhagur near Nasik in retaliation against perceived/reported injustice or wrong suffered by Hindus elsewhere in the country. His child play slowly grew into a life long passion and a philosophy. Himani Savarkar’s[ president of the revived Abhinav Bharat] father Gopal Godse asserted that all the four Savarkar brothers grew up in the milieu of the RSS rather than in their kin family. Their kinship in ideology was better defining attribute than their (including Apte’s) descent from Chitpawan Brahamanism.
The ideology betrayed them as the erased number on the chassis of the motorcycle of sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur did her. A Punjabi youth Mandanlal Pawa had hurled a bomb at Mahatma Gandhi on January 20, 1948. There were other accomplices. Nathuram and Gopal Godse had their grenades in their hands but the commotion unnerved them so much that they fled the scene. A terrified woman collecting her child and running to safety saw the police and pointed out the attacker. The police nabbed him. Madanlal did not know the names of his accomplices but he told the police that they were from Poona and one of them was the editor of “Hindu Rashtra” newspaper. The police went to the hotel where Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte had stayed. The two had been so scared that they did not collect their things before they fled Delhi. They had left a document signed by Ashutosh Lahiri of Hindu Mahasabha which denounced Gandhiji and the condition on which he broke his fast. Gandhiji had gone on hunger strike in protest against killing of Muslims in the city.
In Bombay deputy commissioner Jimmy Nagarvalla had his Bombay Watchers’ Club keep a watch on the house of Savarkar which reported that Madanlal had visited the house a week ago. The police did a fine job and identified the people from Poona and got their photos as well and handed them over to the deputy director general of police of the province, UH Rana. Instead of rushing to Delhi by plane to brief home department he traveled by train and on January 24-25 he had the file with the photos of the killers and details but did not tell the Delhi police and did not pass it to the security guards of Gandhiji at the Birla house.
That proved fatal on Friday January 30, as Nathuram Godse, Vishnu Karkare and Nrayan Apte not only reached Birla house but also did a rehearsal. Nathuram shot at the target on the tree with the gun that Gwaliar doctor Parchure of RSS had procured him. Soon afterward he succeeded in killing Gandhiji. Taking advantage of the police uniform he had donned he melted in the crowd.
The pertinent thing to remember is that like the Abhinav Bharat of today there was similarity of views and unity of purpose. The assassins and their backer were intolerant of Muslims. Gandhiji had demanded that Muslims be allowed to pray at the Quwwatul Islam Mosque at Mehrauli at the midmorning too. The Government accepted this condition. That Friday Gandhiji had gone to the mosque along with his two nieces. The Muslims embraced him and welcomed the two girls within the mosque, which is against their canonized practice. This was outrageous to Savarkar and also to his followers. In 2001 Sunil Joshi and Narayansingh Kalsingram (Ramji who planted the Freedom motorcycle of Sadhvi Pragyasingh thakur at Bhiku chowk of Malegaon) wanted to disturb the Tablighee Ijtema at Bhopal but were allowed to go free by the government. Their grouse was how could the government allow this huge gathering of the Muslims.
Uninhibited and unabashed hatred of Muslims and not terrorism was and is the driving force of the Abhinav Bharat. Lt Col Purohit, Ramesh Upadhya as well as Himani Savarkar had lived down the massacre of 37 Sikhs in Chittisingpora on the eve of Bill Clinton visit. The army, the governor, Dayanand Pandey and the rest of the country were silent witness to national security advisor Brajesh Mishra rushing to news conference declaring the Islamic terrorists behind the massacre, exhuming of the bodies of the five innocent Muslims who were made to bear the cross of stigma of Jihad terrorism, then the bungle of the DNA test report and finally the truth. Closer at home they had also known the brutal murder of Khwaja Yunus by the cops of Mumbai. In their much vaunted laboraroty of Hindutva, Gujarat 2002, they had seen visuals of Gulbarg society being encircled a full day before the hapless victims within were taken out and murdered in full view of the public with the police standing around there. If they still wanted to kill Muslims it was not terrorism but their inveterate hatred for them.
The same strong feeling is in Dr RP Singh of Abhinav Bharat. He did not like that the RSS should be training the Maoists in RSS run schools in Nepal. That was against the interest of the Hindu dynasty there. He along with Himani Savarkar had one common target: if there is bullet for bullet there should be blast for blast as well. But the moot point was the cops could use bullet for bullet in encounters. However blast for blast required sourcing RDX and cash. The former was with the army and the latter was also available abroad. That is where Shyam Apte comes in picture. Most worrisome is the spectre of 54 youths whom Rakesh Dhawde had arranged to be trained at the Sinhgad camp in 2003. All of them, including Dhawde, had joined Abhinav Bharat. What if the 60 kg of RDX obtained by Purohit is still with them. And according to Sameer Kulkarni, co founder of Abhinav Bharat, there are 5000 members of the organization across the country. Nay, they have even created sleeper cells in Bangladesh to retaliate.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Malegaon: Crime Trail of Terror
As investigations into recent bomb blasts are still underway and it is difficult to prove what we write howsoever we may try to be objective there is still the emergent need for introspection that cannot be denied to journalism. Whatever you read between the lines may open up a new vista which may have till now been choked up by the ‘dumping of toxic feelings” by leaders and religious biased groups. Much of the coverage on Malegaon is bound to generate heat in debates and discussions where cool-headed analysis in the national interest is required.
The evolving scenario makes one wonder as to what has been happening when we were ‘sleeping’. Therefore we walk a tight rope in dealing with bomb blasts and the cases of Sonal Shah, now on the advisory committee of President elect Barack Obama.
It is reported in a Marathi daily of Malegaon that Sadhvi Pragyasingh has confessed that foreign fund was used in the bomb blast in Malegaon. This contrasts with what has been reported that Lt Col Purohit had misappropriated military intelligence fund. Both the sources of funding are serious and dangerous for the country. They involve fraud nationally and internationally that goes against the grain of the army that has had world opinion on its sides till recently as far as discipline is concerned. Therefore the necessity of each one accused in terrorism facing scrutiny at all levels and from all angles.
Purohit had taken Rs 20,000 from Mr Shirish Yeshwant Date who had family acquaintance with him for getting him licence for arms. Purohit supplied false information by giving bogus documents stating that Date lived in the defence colony of Deolali, Nasik. This fraudulent means of getting money is debauchery.
Mystery surrounds the arrest of Sudhakar Chaturvedi who was arrested from Dadar railway station on November 4 with a country-made revolver and a fake army identity card. If Purohit could give fake residence certificate that Date lived in defence colony of Deolali he could provide fake army identity card as well. It is reported that he not only knew the Malegaon conspiracy but was very much present in Malegaon itself.
BJP is the only political party that boasts a separate retired army personnel cell. One such retiree is the chief minister of Uttarakhand B C Khanduria retired Major General. Another retired officer and BJP member, Sabyasachi Bagchi proudly says that RSS develops the character of the young people. It is this character building that makes them good soldier. If this were so why has the training of RSS gone haywire in the case of Purohit? Of greater concern is the interference of the party and its ideology in the armed forces through this association.
SS Raikar of Bhonsla military school is also a retired person rom the army. He allowed the school premises for terror, hatching conspiracy as well as arms training and providing accommodation.
The former governor of Jammu and Kashmir SK Sinha has allegedly allowed Dyanand Padey to stay in the official residence.
Why have these army men behaved the way they have done? A neutral source retired Lt Gen V.R. Raghavan, former director-general of military operations blames “ultra nationalism of a narrow kind” responsible for the criminality of the contaminated serving and retired army officers. Thus what Bagchi says is eyewash.
No less is the case of Sameer Kulkarni who had taken deposit money from a customer to provide him a computer. Failing to supply he issued a cheque as the customer threatened him. The cheque bounced. The police registered a case against Kulkarni.
Dyanand Pandey’s first appearance in the court on November 17 is of grave import as he broke down and begged that the court should rather hang him but not touch his laptop. What is there in the laptop that he should be so much concerned about it? A popular news channel probed the matter and believes that the Pandey must have stored nude pictures of women and great men of his acquaintance. This bonanza of pornography is bound to shame him along with all those who figure in the collection. The police again used the old technique of retrieving the deleted files for clues. Or is the suspicion real that there is similar delay here as it was in the case of Purohit’s laptop. The delay in finding the laptop was a ruse behind which lies the real intention of deleting the more serious files?
Pandey had harboured criminals in his ashram in Dhand, Ahmdabad. It is also believed that Ramji Kalsangar alias Ramnarayan Singh was sheltered there. On Friday November 14 2008 Dyannd Pandey committed perjury by saying that he was not Dayanand Pandey but Amritanand Dwivedi. He has other aliases as well and that is why the Kanpur judicial magistrate Mukesh Kumar Singh on Thursday noted the multiple names adopted by Amritanand while granting transit remand to ATS as he felt certain that Dayanand Pandey, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Swami Amritanand Dev were aliases of the same person who heads the Sharada Sarvadnya Peeth in Jammu.
His craze to false identity is venal as he was in Gorakhpur in 2006 at the invitation of BJP MLA Shiv Pratap Shukla as Jagatguru Shankracharya. He fled when a man asked about his identity. Murkier still was his craze to meet devotees only at night when he was in Faridabad staying at Mata Mandir as self styled Jagatguru Swami Amritanand Devtirth Maraharj.
He also committed embezzlement as president of f Sharda Peeth of Jammu where he called himself Swami Amritanand. He was thrown out of the Peeth. But he was so Machiavellian that he soon started Sharda Sarvgya Peeth of his own and called himself Swami Amritanand Dev Teerth.
A fuller list of his crimes should make the BJP and RSS and other right wing affiliates of the sangh parivar sit up and face the nation to clarify whether they still want identity based politics and governance. Will they still misappropriate funds raised in the US in the name of relief and divert it to buy pouches of food and wine and distribute cash for those who perpetrated the pogroms in Gujarat 2002 with connivance of the government of Narendra Modi?
Ramesh Upadhya’s stalking a woman and giving her phone number on website as a call girl and also cheating the woman through the matrimonial site by showing that he was 37 and not 57 have a damaging effect on the kind of people in the sangh parivar.
These disrepute people under prosecution threaten to lower the position of India in the world opinion thanks to the sangh parivar’s involvement. If a serving lieutenant colonel of the Indian army is supplying 60 kg of RDX for terrorism that too against visiting Pakistanis then in what way are the ISI and extreme Hindu groups different in ideology and practice. On November 15 the ATS claims that the bomb blast in Malegaon is linked to the February 7, 2007 blasts on Samjhauta Express carrying Pakistanis because RDX was used in both the incidents. But two days later it allegedly changes its stance under the goading of the Intelligence Bureau. All through the government of India has been blaming the ISI of Pakistan for all the blasts in the country and especially the Samjhauta Express blasts.
As to the foreign funds used in Malegaon attack it is necessary to look at how the funds end up in India, the real end users. There are documented proofs that huge amounts of money collected in the US go into the accounts of VHP and other conglomerates of RSS. Sonal Shah and her father Ramesh have been in the core group of VHPA [America] and have been instrumental in sending fund under the name of Eklavya Vidyalaya for backward tribals. But the real use is not to ameliorate the lot of the tribal people by educating them, it is rather to convert them to Hinduism if they are animists or have taken to Christianity. In the recent anti Christian riots in Kanthamal of Orissa and other parts of India it is this fund that played havoc as it did in 2002 against the Muslims of Gujarat. The backward community of Charras was roped in by the RSS to wreak “vengeance” on the Muslims by slaughtering them. This confession is caught on camera and no action has been taken as if that was not terrorism.
George Fernandes had asked the army chief, the Air Marshal, and the Admiral to report the Kargil war to MPs. When the three went to the place it was the party office of BJP. That is how the sangh parivar interferes in the affairs of the armed forces, directly.
The evolving scenario makes one wonder as to what has been happening when we were ‘sleeping’. Therefore we walk a tight rope in dealing with bomb blasts and the cases of Sonal Shah, now on the advisory committee of President elect Barack Obama.
It is reported in a Marathi daily of Malegaon that Sadhvi Pragyasingh has confessed that foreign fund was used in the bomb blast in Malegaon. This contrasts with what has been reported that Lt Col Purohit had misappropriated military intelligence fund. Both the sources of funding are serious and dangerous for the country. They involve fraud nationally and internationally that goes against the grain of the army that has had world opinion on its sides till recently as far as discipline is concerned. Therefore the necessity of each one accused in terrorism facing scrutiny at all levels and from all angles.
Purohit had taken Rs 20,000 from Mr Shirish Yeshwant Date who had family acquaintance with him for getting him licence for arms. Purohit supplied false information by giving bogus documents stating that Date lived in the defence colony of Deolali, Nasik. This fraudulent means of getting money is debauchery.
Mystery surrounds the arrest of Sudhakar Chaturvedi who was arrested from Dadar railway station on November 4 with a country-made revolver and a fake army identity card. If Purohit could give fake residence certificate that Date lived in defence colony of Deolali he could provide fake army identity card as well. It is reported that he not only knew the Malegaon conspiracy but was very much present in Malegaon itself.
BJP is the only political party that boasts a separate retired army personnel cell. One such retiree is the chief minister of Uttarakhand B C Khanduria retired Major General. Another retired officer and BJP member, Sabyasachi Bagchi proudly says that RSS develops the character of the young people. It is this character building that makes them good soldier. If this were so why has the training of RSS gone haywire in the case of Purohit? Of greater concern is the interference of the party and its ideology in the armed forces through this association.
SS Raikar of Bhonsla military school is also a retired person rom the army. He allowed the school premises for terror, hatching conspiracy as well as arms training and providing accommodation.
The former governor of Jammu and Kashmir SK Sinha has allegedly allowed Dyanand Padey to stay in the official residence.
Why have these army men behaved the way they have done? A neutral source retired Lt Gen V.R. Raghavan, former director-general of military operations blames “ultra nationalism of a narrow kind” responsible for the criminality of the contaminated serving and retired army officers. Thus what Bagchi says is eyewash.
No less is the case of Sameer Kulkarni who had taken deposit money from a customer to provide him a computer. Failing to supply he issued a cheque as the customer threatened him. The cheque bounced. The police registered a case against Kulkarni.
Dyanand Pandey’s first appearance in the court on November 17 is of grave import as he broke down and begged that the court should rather hang him but not touch his laptop. What is there in the laptop that he should be so much concerned about it? A popular news channel probed the matter and believes that the Pandey must have stored nude pictures of women and great men of his acquaintance. This bonanza of pornography is bound to shame him along with all those who figure in the collection. The police again used the old technique of retrieving the deleted files for clues. Or is the suspicion real that there is similar delay here as it was in the case of Purohit’s laptop. The delay in finding the laptop was a ruse behind which lies the real intention of deleting the more serious files?
Pandey had harboured criminals in his ashram in Dhand, Ahmdabad. It is also believed that Ramji Kalsangar alias Ramnarayan Singh was sheltered there. On Friday November 14 2008 Dyannd Pandey committed perjury by saying that he was not Dayanand Pandey but Amritanand Dwivedi. He has other aliases as well and that is why the Kanpur judicial magistrate Mukesh Kumar Singh on Thursday noted the multiple names adopted by Amritanand while granting transit remand to ATS as he felt certain that Dayanand Pandey, Sudhakar Dwivedi and Swami Amritanand Dev were aliases of the same person who heads the Sharada Sarvadnya Peeth in Jammu.
His craze to false identity is venal as he was in Gorakhpur in 2006 at the invitation of BJP MLA Shiv Pratap Shukla as Jagatguru Shankracharya. He fled when a man asked about his identity. Murkier still was his craze to meet devotees only at night when he was in Faridabad staying at Mata Mandir as self styled Jagatguru Swami Amritanand Devtirth Maraharj.
He also committed embezzlement as president of f Sharda Peeth of Jammu where he called himself Swami Amritanand. He was thrown out of the Peeth. But he was so Machiavellian that he soon started Sharda Sarvgya Peeth of his own and called himself Swami Amritanand Dev Teerth.
A fuller list of his crimes should make the BJP and RSS and other right wing affiliates of the sangh parivar sit up and face the nation to clarify whether they still want identity based politics and governance. Will they still misappropriate funds raised in the US in the name of relief and divert it to buy pouches of food and wine and distribute cash for those who perpetrated the pogroms in Gujarat 2002 with connivance of the government of Narendra Modi?
Ramesh Upadhya’s stalking a woman and giving her phone number on website as a call girl and also cheating the woman through the matrimonial site by showing that he was 37 and not 57 have a damaging effect on the kind of people in the sangh parivar.
These disrepute people under prosecution threaten to lower the position of India in the world opinion thanks to the sangh parivar’s involvement. If a serving lieutenant colonel of the Indian army is supplying 60 kg of RDX for terrorism that too against visiting Pakistanis then in what way are the ISI and extreme Hindu groups different in ideology and practice. On November 15 the ATS claims that the bomb blast in Malegaon is linked to the February 7, 2007 blasts on Samjhauta Express carrying Pakistanis because RDX was used in both the incidents. But two days later it allegedly changes its stance under the goading of the Intelligence Bureau. All through the government of India has been blaming the ISI of Pakistan for all the blasts in the country and especially the Samjhauta Express blasts.
As to the foreign funds used in Malegaon attack it is necessary to look at how the funds end up in India, the real end users. There are documented proofs that huge amounts of money collected in the US go into the accounts of VHP and other conglomerates of RSS. Sonal Shah and her father Ramesh have been in the core group of VHPA [America] and have been instrumental in sending fund under the name of Eklavya Vidyalaya for backward tribals. But the real use is not to ameliorate the lot of the tribal people by educating them, it is rather to convert them to Hinduism if they are animists or have taken to Christianity. In the recent anti Christian riots in Kanthamal of Orissa and other parts of India it is this fund that played havoc as it did in 2002 against the Muslims of Gujarat. The backward community of Charras was roped in by the RSS to wreak “vengeance” on the Muslims by slaughtering them. This confession is caught on camera and no action has been taken as if that was not terrorism.
George Fernandes had asked the army chief, the Air Marshal, and the Admiral to report the Kargil war to MPs. When the three went to the place it was the party office of BJP. That is how the sangh parivar interferes in the affairs of the armed forces, directly.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
The Malegaon Conspiracy
In the name of fighting terrorism some have hijacked the world opinion against Islam
The firing squad that executed Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron (Mukhlas) on November 8, 2008 should leave no doubt in any mind that Muslims do not support terrorism. The terrorists had appealed that they be executed in Ramzan, in September. They had dreamed to go to heaven for creating a South East Asian caliphate. The government and the court viewed it differently. The three accused had carried out 2002 bombing of a picnic resort in Hindu majority Bali, Indonesia, that left 202 dead. The overwhelming majority of the Muslim population of Indonesia had shown understanding with the government and has supported it. There has been no protest in the streets or crowd gathering anywhere celebrating any martyrdom.
However the scene at the session court of Nasik, India, on November 3, is antipodal. It indicates how Indonesia could become India in world economy while India will have to remain where it is in its fight against terrorism.
Malegaon has been prominently in the news for quite sometimes. There is a fairly large segment of Muslim population residing in the eastern part. The notoriety of the town as a communally sensitive flash spot is the least desirable of its attributes for the local people but not for outsiders. Currently it is a stage chosen to launch a Sadhvi into a cult figure of strident Hindutva with its rugged determination to turn India into a Hindu rashtra where Vedic culture would be the ruling passion of the people. History will show whether the face of Pragyasingh Thakur will in its turn launch a thousand phalanxes of the saffron brigades that would carry the day despite what the international community and the minorities along with people free from the extreme belief within the country would react to. Of course the constitution of the country and the laws of the land have always been taken for a ride ala 1992. As much of the confession extracted by the ATS is the confession of a band of thugs it is difficult to prove and is also time consuming we can adopt this creative mode of narration to engage the mind in the meanwhile.
The premonition about the orchestrated order to come into existence is based on how things are transpiring in and around Malegaon. On September 29 the Sadhvi rode pinion in her flowing Hindu robe as Major Ramesh Upadhya drove LML Freedom into the heart of the enemy territory and a jeep filled with the other accused followed. As it would turn out to be their knight in shining armour was no other than a Lt Col of the Indian army, Prasad Srikant Purohit. Their pincer thrust by motorbike and jeep at Bhiku chowk demoralized their enemies for they rose against their own fellow Indians in uniform and tried to seize the outpost at the chowk. It is understandable in the light of the observation of WH Sleeman in his book Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official about thuggery in the nineteenth century. "It is a common practice with Thanadars all over the country to connive at the residence within their jurisdiction of gangs of robbers, on the condition that they shall not rob within those limits, and shall give them a share of what they bring back from their distant expeditions".
The sea of crowd in saffron headwear and flags and pinions surging in Nasik on November 3, 2008 reminds you of the fall of the wall of Berlin, history was made on that day. Since then the Sadhvi has left far behind the BJP priministerial candidate in her trail of glory. His ferocity for fighting terror has depleted and he seems to be lost in ifs and buts. Her saffron turban makes her look like Swami Vivekanand resurrected to lead the Hindus infected by unmentionable un- parliamentarian adjectives Bal Thackeray ascribes to them. Is his Marathi virility far superior to that of the people in the other states of the union?
Devlali camp in the vicinity of Nasik is the right military terrain to train the new recruits of Abhinav Bharat and mine the deadly RDX for the real attack on the fort of the enemy at Malegaon. As the conspiracy deepens Purohit not only provided 4 weapons to the other accused but also distributed cash. From where did he get arms, ammunition and cash? Who could be so generous and why? As the thugs of Chambal and Morena belt had codes and signals evolved to meet emergency, Purohit and the Sadhvi too had learnt the same along with the other accomplices. Purohit had said on the mobile “singh has sung.” There is no mistake of grammar of the verb infinitive sing and past participle sung. It means what it means that Ram Narayan Sigh has detonated the bomb at Bhiku chowk. “The cat is out of the basket” is another code of Purohit that shows how he successfully did his works of military intelligence and adapted them for terrorism. He had also arranged meeting between Pragya, Upadhyay and several others in Anand ashram at Faridabad, in Bhonsla military school of Nasik and had transferred funds from various accounts to Abhinav Bharat accounts and indulged in Hawala transactions.
Nowhere in the world are there so many different organizations subsumed to a paternal organization like we have in India. Ku Klux Klan was and is just one. The RSS and its numerous known and unknown organizations and also the ever-changing affiliates, Bajrang Dal, Hanuman Dal etc, are ever assuming new identity with time. All this involves very huge amount of money. RSS keeps no accounts and therefore there is no audit, it is not even registered. Lt Col Purohit deposited huge amounts of money to the accounts of Abhivau Bharat and transferred money to the other accused. Sameer Kulkarni received regular monthly payment of five thousand rupees. Where does the money come from? Around the time the Sadhvi appeared in court after Bal Thackeray announced total support to her the chief minister of Maharashtra, Deshmukh, also addressed audience in Nasik where he said that the Marathi speaking natives of the state do not do the jobs that the people of UP and Bihar do. He grumbled that Marathi speaking natives prefer comfortable jobs in offices from 11 to 5.
The mammoth crowd that Shiv Sena and Abhinau Bharat mustered at the court in Nasik on November 3 cannot have been of office goers unless they had taken mass casual leave. Mobilizing them also requires transport and huge sums of money. It is inevitable that terrorism requires supply of cash.
Another feature is that like the conspiracy to kill Mahatma Gandhi involved almost entirely Maharashtrians, in Malegaon conspiracy also mostly Maharashtrians are involved, or at least the most crucial ones. Simultaneously it is remarkable that Shiv Sena, a regional party which is in the forefront in providing legal assistance to defend the alleged terrorists. Shiv sena and Ahinau Bharat are essentially Marathi in nature and prone to violence.
They had burst crackers on large scale outside the court precisely at the time when the judge in the courtroom announced order of transfer of the Sadhvi from police to judicial custody (remarkable, for the Muslims accused in 2006 Malegaon bombing are still languishing in police custody). Such a close coordination smacks of military precision. It is for nothing that critics are saying that the RSS has infiltrated the Indian army. What has the country come to!
The firing squad that executed Imam Samudra, Amrozi Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron (Mukhlas) on November 8, 2008 should leave no doubt in any mind that Muslims do not support terrorism. The terrorists had appealed that they be executed in Ramzan, in September. They had dreamed to go to heaven for creating a South East Asian caliphate. The government and the court viewed it differently. The three accused had carried out 2002 bombing of a picnic resort in Hindu majority Bali, Indonesia, that left 202 dead. The overwhelming majority of the Muslim population of Indonesia had shown understanding with the government and has supported it. There has been no protest in the streets or crowd gathering anywhere celebrating any martyrdom.
However the scene at the session court of Nasik, India, on November 3, is antipodal. It indicates how Indonesia could become India in world economy while India will have to remain where it is in its fight against terrorism.
Malegaon has been prominently in the news for quite sometimes. There is a fairly large segment of Muslim population residing in the eastern part. The notoriety of the town as a communally sensitive flash spot is the least desirable of its attributes for the local people but not for outsiders. Currently it is a stage chosen to launch a Sadhvi into a cult figure of strident Hindutva with its rugged determination to turn India into a Hindu rashtra where Vedic culture would be the ruling passion of the people. History will show whether the face of Pragyasingh Thakur will in its turn launch a thousand phalanxes of the saffron brigades that would carry the day despite what the international community and the minorities along with people free from the extreme belief within the country would react to. Of course the constitution of the country and the laws of the land have always been taken for a ride ala 1992. As much of the confession extracted by the ATS is the confession of a band of thugs it is difficult to prove and is also time consuming we can adopt this creative mode of narration to engage the mind in the meanwhile.
The premonition about the orchestrated order to come into existence is based on how things are transpiring in and around Malegaon. On September 29 the Sadhvi rode pinion in her flowing Hindu robe as Major Ramesh Upadhya drove LML Freedom into the heart of the enemy territory and a jeep filled with the other accused followed. As it would turn out to be their knight in shining armour was no other than a Lt Col of the Indian army, Prasad Srikant Purohit. Their pincer thrust by motorbike and jeep at Bhiku chowk demoralized their enemies for they rose against their own fellow Indians in uniform and tried to seize the outpost at the chowk. It is understandable in the light of the observation of WH Sleeman in his book Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official about thuggery in the nineteenth century. "It is a common practice with Thanadars all over the country to connive at the residence within their jurisdiction of gangs of robbers, on the condition that they shall not rob within those limits, and shall give them a share of what they bring back from their distant expeditions".
The sea of crowd in saffron headwear and flags and pinions surging in Nasik on November 3, 2008 reminds you of the fall of the wall of Berlin, history was made on that day. Since then the Sadhvi has left far behind the BJP priministerial candidate in her trail of glory. His ferocity for fighting terror has depleted and he seems to be lost in ifs and buts. Her saffron turban makes her look like Swami Vivekanand resurrected to lead the Hindus infected by unmentionable un- parliamentarian adjectives Bal Thackeray ascribes to them. Is his Marathi virility far superior to that of the people in the other states of the union?
Devlali camp in the vicinity of Nasik is the right military terrain to train the new recruits of Abhinav Bharat and mine the deadly RDX for the real attack on the fort of the enemy at Malegaon. As the conspiracy deepens Purohit not only provided 4 weapons to the other accused but also distributed cash. From where did he get arms, ammunition and cash? Who could be so generous and why? As the thugs of Chambal and Morena belt had codes and signals evolved to meet emergency, Purohit and the Sadhvi too had learnt the same along with the other accomplices. Purohit had said on the mobile “singh has sung.” There is no mistake of grammar of the verb infinitive sing and past participle sung. It means what it means that Ram Narayan Sigh has detonated the bomb at Bhiku chowk. “The cat is out of the basket” is another code of Purohit that shows how he successfully did his works of military intelligence and adapted them for terrorism. He had also arranged meeting between Pragya, Upadhyay and several others in Anand ashram at Faridabad, in Bhonsla military school of Nasik and had transferred funds from various accounts to Abhinav Bharat accounts and indulged in Hawala transactions.
Nowhere in the world are there so many different organizations subsumed to a paternal organization like we have in India. Ku Klux Klan was and is just one. The RSS and its numerous known and unknown organizations and also the ever-changing affiliates, Bajrang Dal, Hanuman Dal etc, are ever assuming new identity with time. All this involves very huge amount of money. RSS keeps no accounts and therefore there is no audit, it is not even registered. Lt Col Purohit deposited huge amounts of money to the accounts of Abhivau Bharat and transferred money to the other accused. Sameer Kulkarni received regular monthly payment of five thousand rupees. Where does the money come from? Around the time the Sadhvi appeared in court after Bal Thackeray announced total support to her the chief minister of Maharashtra, Deshmukh, also addressed audience in Nasik where he said that the Marathi speaking natives of the state do not do the jobs that the people of UP and Bihar do. He grumbled that Marathi speaking natives prefer comfortable jobs in offices from 11 to 5.
The mammoth crowd that Shiv Sena and Abhinau Bharat mustered at the court in Nasik on November 3 cannot have been of office goers unless they had taken mass casual leave. Mobilizing them also requires transport and huge sums of money. It is inevitable that terrorism requires supply of cash.
Another feature is that like the conspiracy to kill Mahatma Gandhi involved almost entirely Maharashtrians, in Malegaon conspiracy also mostly Maharashtrians are involved, or at least the most crucial ones. Simultaneously it is remarkable that Shiv Sena, a regional party which is in the forefront in providing legal assistance to defend the alleged terrorists. Shiv sena and Ahinau Bharat are essentially Marathi in nature and prone to violence.
They had burst crackers on large scale outside the court precisely at the time when the judge in the courtroom announced order of transfer of the Sadhvi from police to judicial custody (remarkable, for the Muslims accused in 2006 Malegaon bombing are still languishing in police custody). Such a close coordination smacks of military precision. It is for nothing that critics are saying that the RSS has infiltrated the Indian army. What has the country come to!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Barack Obama, terrorism and “cultural” nationalism
Nationalism is and should be natural or strong devotion to your nation. But this natural tendency is warped by the clout of the dominant majority and acquires different hues like tribal nationalism of the Hutus and Tutsi in Congo and Rwanda, cultural nationalism of the right wing Hindus, religious nationalism as of Saudi Arabia, and racial and religious as of Sudan. In conflict zone the natural nationalism is stunted by the superimposed consideration of race, religion, region, culture, origin, etc. In the fight against terrorism this superimposed ideology plays havoc. In Sudan’s Dahfur region the native Muslims of African origin are suppressed and oppressed by the janjiwads or Muslims of Arab origin, the ruling elite. Overwhelming Arab nationalists do not view the terror unleashed upon the Dahfurians by the janjiwads as terror.
In India there is attempt to rationalize the ever-latent-so-far-but-newly-discovered Hindu terrorism of the ilk of Sadhvi Pragayasingh Thakur. All the Hindus like all the Muslims cannot be terrorists nor can a religion be dubbed as terrorist despite the creed of jihad or the mythical opening of the third eye of Shiva.
The compulsive competitive opposition between the right wing Hindutva and the rest representing a spectrum of views from the liberal to cautious rationalist is throwing up many grave matters that touch upon the national security of the country. Among them are: can the self-professed protestations of “cultural” nationalism be allowed vigilantism and are the recent bomb blasts in the country a matter of huge amount of funding for terror.
The right wing is in the habit of describing all terrorist acts in the country as the handiwork of the Jihad inspired Muslims. In such gory incidents only Hindus have had the pain of suffering, according to them. Therefore the insidious suggestion of the need for Hindu vigilante group to save Hindus from terrorism. Such is the false syllogism on the horns of a dilemma. To have natural or “cultural” nationalism. In all this, where does the aspiration of the Muslims for natural nationalism figure in when they sing a hymn to Allah “to decorate my nation with my life blood/ like flowers glorifying the garden”? (ho mere dum se yuhin mayre vatan ki zinat/ jis tarha hoti hai phoolon se chaman ki zinat).
As the security agencies are probing funds pouring into the country to madrasas and other organizations the need of the hour is to investigate the foreign and native (including siphoning of government funds under deceptive headings) funding of the RSS and its affiliates of all hues. In the present case of Malegaon blast of September 29 police have arrested the financier of the Malegaon blast, Ajay Eknath Rahirkar. Sameer Kulkarni was paid five thousand rupees a month. Like that how many others are on the pay sheets? The sum total would come to astronomical figures given the widespread humongous establishments of RSS. In addition Madhya Pradesh has sent a lawyer, Ganesh Savle, to fight the case of the Sadhvi and other accused. Chief Minister Narendra Modi has gifted hefty amount to the Sadhvi that has made her affluent enough to have vehicles and modern houses in different towns of different states all of a sudden, unthinkable in the case of a country girl from down trodden Chambal and Morena belt!
Where cash does not count RDX counts. How come the intelligence officer Srikant Purohit of lieutenant colonel rank having free and easy access to ordnance stocks hatch conspiracy in which RDX has played the most disastrous role and has thereby brought the enviable repute of communalism-free army to disrepute. This has serious strategic implications for our nation (nation, in the natural sense of the word). Or did he also subscribe to the nation in the warped and exclusionary sense of Hindu rashtra?
As BJP president Rajnath Singh has remarked that anyone who believes in “cultural” nationalism cannot be a terrorist. There was a moving demonstration of this as the police cavalcade bearing the accused neared the session court in Nasik where the mammoth gathering of Ahinav Bharat and Shiv Sena activists showered flowers on it with shouts of “Hinduon ka nara hai, Hindustan hamara hai.”[The slogan of the Hindus is that India is theirs] “Hindustan Hinduon ka, nahi kisi ke bap ka.”[India belongs to Hindus and is not the property of the father of any body’s] Hindu rashtra has virtually arrived. In such a rashtra you cannot dare to have any lawyer defend a Muslim accused in terrorism. Let alone that even a serving jawan of BSF Arif Hussain Khati of Sherud, Dhulia, on duty defending the country in a part of Kashmir, cannot claim either his national identity or his house as his own. The crowd that burnt his identity card and house along with his military uniform knew only the “cultural nationalism” to which he could not belong. As a contrast to this Lt Col Purohit and Major (retired)Upadhya and other military officers involved in Malegaon bombings have the cultural national identity. Look at the sea of afffron flags and the surge of emotion at the court scene where the accused were cheered and applauded as heroes. It bodes good for the cultural nationalism but the chanting of the discriminating slogans tolls the knell of natural nationalism, at least for the time being or till sanity prevails upon the misguided and laws of the land are allowed take the course of action.
However, in the aftermath of the President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohansigh’s meeting in October it is clear that India will be involved in fighting what is ordinarily described as Jihad terrorism as it is going on in Afghanistan but surprisingly not in Iraq, at leas not in the view of the president elect Barack Obama. This is how the nation must feel proud to have entered the nuclear club of the western nations.
Obama’s fight against terrorism poses a challenge to the artificially created hype on terrorism in India. It calls for a supra national approach to confront the menace of terrorism in our backyard. Widespread belief among the people in India is that Kashmiri terrorism is Islamic terrorism. It verges on terrorism as an alternate to Islamism. Obama would like India to settle its dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir and join the so-called ‘war on terrorism’ in Afghanistan. This sounds anathema to many but it has potential for the future. After having adopted cultural nationalism (which intentionally excludes Muslims and other minorities) as Indian nationalism (love for the country of birth and residence) the right wing groups would be at pains to make out how could it be that they would be essentially helping one group against another of the same faith! One swears by Islam as much as the other. That is no man’s land to fight terrorism. Here at home the beard, the tunic and the round cap were enough to identify but over there everyone is alike. The odd man should be out.
In India there is attempt to rationalize the ever-latent-so-far-but-newly-discovered Hindu terrorism of the ilk of Sadhvi Pragayasingh Thakur. All the Hindus like all the Muslims cannot be terrorists nor can a religion be dubbed as terrorist despite the creed of jihad or the mythical opening of the third eye of Shiva.
The compulsive competitive opposition between the right wing Hindutva and the rest representing a spectrum of views from the liberal to cautious rationalist is throwing up many grave matters that touch upon the national security of the country. Among them are: can the self-professed protestations of “cultural” nationalism be allowed vigilantism and are the recent bomb blasts in the country a matter of huge amount of funding for terror.
The right wing is in the habit of describing all terrorist acts in the country as the handiwork of the Jihad inspired Muslims. In such gory incidents only Hindus have had the pain of suffering, according to them. Therefore the insidious suggestion of the need for Hindu vigilante group to save Hindus from terrorism. Such is the false syllogism on the horns of a dilemma. To have natural or “cultural” nationalism. In all this, where does the aspiration of the Muslims for natural nationalism figure in when they sing a hymn to Allah “to decorate my nation with my life blood/ like flowers glorifying the garden”? (ho mere dum se yuhin mayre vatan ki zinat/ jis tarha hoti hai phoolon se chaman ki zinat).
As the security agencies are probing funds pouring into the country to madrasas and other organizations the need of the hour is to investigate the foreign and native (including siphoning of government funds under deceptive headings) funding of the RSS and its affiliates of all hues. In the present case of Malegaon blast of September 29 police have arrested the financier of the Malegaon blast, Ajay Eknath Rahirkar. Sameer Kulkarni was paid five thousand rupees a month. Like that how many others are on the pay sheets? The sum total would come to astronomical figures given the widespread humongous establishments of RSS. In addition Madhya Pradesh has sent a lawyer, Ganesh Savle, to fight the case of the Sadhvi and other accused. Chief Minister Narendra Modi has gifted hefty amount to the Sadhvi that has made her affluent enough to have vehicles and modern houses in different towns of different states all of a sudden, unthinkable in the case of a country girl from down trodden Chambal and Morena belt!
Where cash does not count RDX counts. How come the intelligence officer Srikant Purohit of lieutenant colonel rank having free and easy access to ordnance stocks hatch conspiracy in which RDX has played the most disastrous role and has thereby brought the enviable repute of communalism-free army to disrepute. This has serious strategic implications for our nation (nation, in the natural sense of the word). Or did he also subscribe to the nation in the warped and exclusionary sense of Hindu rashtra?
As BJP president Rajnath Singh has remarked that anyone who believes in “cultural” nationalism cannot be a terrorist. There was a moving demonstration of this as the police cavalcade bearing the accused neared the session court in Nasik where the mammoth gathering of Ahinav Bharat and Shiv Sena activists showered flowers on it with shouts of “Hinduon ka nara hai, Hindustan hamara hai.”[The slogan of the Hindus is that India is theirs] “Hindustan Hinduon ka, nahi kisi ke bap ka.”[India belongs to Hindus and is not the property of the father of any body’s] Hindu rashtra has virtually arrived. In such a rashtra you cannot dare to have any lawyer defend a Muslim accused in terrorism. Let alone that even a serving jawan of BSF Arif Hussain Khati of Sherud, Dhulia, on duty defending the country in a part of Kashmir, cannot claim either his national identity or his house as his own. The crowd that burnt his identity card and house along with his military uniform knew only the “cultural nationalism” to which he could not belong. As a contrast to this Lt Col Purohit and Major (retired)Upadhya and other military officers involved in Malegaon bombings have the cultural national identity. Look at the sea of afffron flags and the surge of emotion at the court scene where the accused were cheered and applauded as heroes. It bodes good for the cultural nationalism but the chanting of the discriminating slogans tolls the knell of natural nationalism, at least for the time being or till sanity prevails upon the misguided and laws of the land are allowed take the course of action.
However, in the aftermath of the President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohansigh’s meeting in October it is clear that India will be involved in fighting what is ordinarily described as Jihad terrorism as it is going on in Afghanistan but surprisingly not in Iraq, at leas not in the view of the president elect Barack Obama. This is how the nation must feel proud to have entered the nuclear club of the western nations.
Obama’s fight against terrorism poses a challenge to the artificially created hype on terrorism in India. It calls for a supra national approach to confront the menace of terrorism in our backyard. Widespread belief among the people in India is that Kashmiri terrorism is Islamic terrorism. It verges on terrorism as an alternate to Islamism. Obama would like India to settle its dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir and join the so-called ‘war on terrorism’ in Afghanistan. This sounds anathema to many but it has potential for the future. After having adopted cultural nationalism (which intentionally excludes Muslims and other minorities) as Indian nationalism (love for the country of birth and residence) the right wing groups would be at pains to make out how could it be that they would be essentially helping one group against another of the same faith! One swears by Islam as much as the other. That is no man’s land to fight terrorism. Here at home the beard, the tunic and the round cap were enough to identify but over there everyone is alike. The odd man should be out.
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