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.