Burdwan conundrum: Modi checkmating Mamta and marginalizing Muslims

The witch hunt mounted over the Burdwan blasts is willful pursuit of inanity. The PM and his bête noire Congress party were and still are a captive of the chasing the chimera. It is because the whole investigation system is skewed. It has sworn to go after the Muslims no matter what is the reality on ground. The classic case is Malegaon 2006 blasts in which the ATS and CBI along with their cohorts in the local police summoned the police informers from the City Police Station neighbourhood Central talkies Idgah) notorious for brothels, gambling dens and sundry illegal practices. They asked them to sign blank papers accusing Shabbir Masiullah of stocking RDX. The cops collected the soil from the workshop which they alleged contained traces of RDX. On this pretext nine accused in the case languished in jail for more than five years until NIA officer Pramod Mane came on the scene. He reportedly questioned the witness and found that they were ordered to do what the police wanted. They had not been there at the workshop and had not seen anything. It was this that proved that blaming innocent Muslims was the game the police and hence the state and centre home ministries were playing in politics. For more than a fortnight before the blasts Shabbir Masiulllah was in jail. The police did not bother to keep watch on the work shop let alone preempt the bomb attack. Where police play such proactive role in terrorism what can one hope of fairness? It bears upon Burdwan blasts. The record of sale of improvised explosives would have shown the clientele of the accused. If they were manufacturing explosives and selling, the sleuths could then obtain the record of the clients using the services of the accused that could tell the truth to the world. If the accused were really making bombs even improvised ones there must be some record of their past deeds. Business like this cannot be said to be limited to any community. Unlike the Nanded blasts of 2006 where the RSS workers were assembling bombs for use the next day in Aurangabad, Burdwan must have some past history. Or else it is a clandestine illegal business of improvised explosives used for mining or any industrial purposes. That they were supplying for use against Shaikh Hasina government is fairy tale. But the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has had a brief of giving ultimatum to chief minister Mamta Banerjee now under duress since Modi administration has its own agenda of fighting terror a la US like Vajpayee administration was doing earlier in the beginning of the previous decade when it banned Students Islamic Movement of India despite nil or zero record of terror of the much maligned organization of Muslims. There is further parallel. After the arrest of Zabiuddin Ansari aka Abu Jundal the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar refused to take his custody though he was under pressure from the Delhi police. Zabi was arrested for links with the Darbhanga module. The chief minister refused to buy this theory and remained firm. Modi had threatened to punish him for his betrayal as Kumar had broken the alliance with BJP. Bomb blasts which followed surprised everyone as Bihar had had no such attacks before. This is how the nefarious theory of the US began to have its effect in India: either you are with us in our ‘war on terror’ or you are against us and are allied to the ‘terrorists.’ This is not improbable as Zabi was a police informer and police informers have played leading role in causing blasts and in conspiracy leading to it. So the logical inference that TMC must fight terrorism the way BJP government wants. Doval’s predecessor MK Narayanan had succeeded in stymieing the investigation of Haryana police which was on the verge of arresting Hindutva terrorists behind the Samjhauta Express attack on February 18, 2007. He said it was in the interest of the country. So another inference: he who pays the piper calls the tune. The Home Ministers of Maharashtra RR Patil and central government HM Shivraj Patil have played havoc in the so called ‘war on terror’ but no “tough message” was served to the respective governments. [1] So why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi picking on Mamata? In contrast to West Bengal, Gujarat has had too many teeming issues of terrorism sub rosa. There were two Gujarat state guest houses at Mt Abu and Jaipur which prominently figured along with the Dangs ashram of Swami Asimanand. The second most important leader of RSS Indresh Kumar was present in the Gujarat samaj guest house of Jaipur where the conspiracy to bomb Malegaon was hatched. Again inquiry was stalled because of far reaching ramification. Lt Col Prasad Purohit had suspected that Indresh Kumar had given his name and that of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur to police for their involvement in bomb blasts in Malegaon 2008. [2] Kumar was also accused of mentoring and financing Malegaon and Samjhauta Express blasts.[3] Similar meetings were also held in Dangs ashram in Gujarat. Why did not any one send “tough message” to Modi who was chief minister. One chief minister is as good or bad as another in fighting terrorism. Are the 37 audio and three video clips recovered from Dyanand Pandy’s lap top not enough of corroborating evidence against Purohit, Indresh Kumar and a host or others? They clearly show that Asimanand, Pandy, Purohit and others knew each other well and what is even more damning knew what they were up to in regards to the bomb attacks of past and future. Others included in the contexts are Ramchandra Kalsangra, Sandeep Dange and Sunil Joshi and like Asminand they absconded and have not been so far traced though Asamanand was. Joshi was killed in the end of 2007. In his own confession Asimanand says unmistakably that Mohan Bhagwat was doing the same work that Asimanand wanted extremist Hindus to do: blow bombs to kill Muslims. Since then Bhagwat has risen to the top post of RSS, Neither he nor his RSS is termed terrorist! This despite the fact that 4 of the five cell phones used by the terrorists were traced to RSS paracharaks, Dange ( district pracharak of RSS in Shajapur MP) and ChandraKant Leve ( contact man of the same district for RSS). Burdwan phenomenon is not anything but a political move against Mamta Banerjee who has been broadminded and shown concern for Muslim problems including Nandigram atrocities on Muslims. Tata left the special economic zone and was warmly welcomed by Modi in a tit for tat. RSS ideology is against the third front or regional parties. In its vision of Akhand Bharat the third front is a serious challenge because its neutrality in dealing with Muslims and the appeasement of the minority is a political stunt that is always bandied to and fro between the Congress and BJP for their bipartisan considerations. Mamta Bajerjee is one of the invitees of Imam Bukhari for this reason. She has also rubbished the claim made by NIA and the BJP regarding the Burdwan case. She has refused to play into the hands of Modi although she is ready for thorough inquiry into the blasts and the consequences. As chief minister of Gujarat Modi had been playing terror politics. He used the Sohrabuddin fake encounter and not only justified the killing but also dared to the central government to prosecute him. There was hardly a month for the last twelve years when he did not do something or the other to either punish fair minded police officers or antagonize the Muslim community. Since becoming PM of India Modi has not only allowed Bhagwat to use the Doordarshan channel but also justified it and praised Bhagwat. Viwing Bhagwat in the light of the disclosure of his involvement in terror Modi has dared to do what Pakistan has done when it allowed Maulana Masood Azhar address the police and army. Expecting Muslim to stomach all this is asking for the impossible. It is here that the Imam Bukhari invitation to Nawaz Sharif but not Modi comes in the picture. "People voted for Modi for development, employment opportunities, controlling inflation and inclusiveness. But his conduct since taking over has been unbecoming of a PM. He has indulged in divisive politics and had not controlled hate mongering." Bukhari goes on "Modi claims to be the prime minister of 125 crore Indians but conveniently and deliberately avoids addressing Muslims. He has shown he doesn't like us. He is the one who has been maintaining distance from the community. So, I too chose to maintain my distance." Even the most sycophantic Muslim clerics who tried to offer him to wear the round white skull cap could not succeed in reaching him. He has adamantly withheld the scholarship sanctioned to Muslims under Sachar Commission recommendation. He even dismissed the full blown and state sponsored genocide as puppies getting killed. “I have not invited PM Narendra Modi as Muslims have not forgiven himfor the Gujart riots. Modi has not shown any guilt for the Gujarat 2002 riots.”[4] If it were only thus far it would not have been so out of the way. But Modi has shown greater care for the Sikh by enhancing the amount of compensation being paid to the families of Sikhs killed in 1984 massacre, 5 lakh for each Sikh killed in addition to three lakh and fifty thousand that the previous Congress government under Dr Manmohan Singh had done. In his own state he paid Muslims killed in the pogroms one lakh rupees and for Hindus two lakhs. Many Muslims did not get anything. Though he did not call 1984 killings as genocide but he called the Sikh as our very own while he never showed such intimacy with the Gujarati speaking Muslims of his own state. Dorothy Nussbaum in her book The Clash With has observed that when the Sabarmati Express fire incident took place there was hardly any difference between Hindus and Muslims. Both spoke the same language and what is more the Muslims in Signal Falia let the people collect water from their well to douse the fire. Modi called them criminals. For Sikhs he has this to say: "Our own people were murdered, the attack was not on a particular community but on the entire nation… It was like a dagger pierced through India's chest. [ 5] Syed Ahmad Bukhari cannot be speaking on behalf of all the Muslims when he said that the Muslims have not forgiven Modi and that “he may have been elected the PM but the Muslims of India do not accept him.”[6] Despite this Modi’s “our own people” in the case of Sikhs and ‘puppies’ (Muslims) is burnt into the flesh of Muslims as a mark of spite of the PM for the Muslims. So his strategy to chase Mamta Banerjee government in the case of Burdwan is understandable since the PM has maintained hunting with the hounds and playing with the hare tactics as he said in a blue moon that the Muslims were born here and would die here. That is enough of eyewash! Checkmating Mamta or enhancing compensation to Sikhs cannot hide the truth that the massacre of 2002 in Gujarat was genocide as was 1984 pogroms against Sikhs. To focus on Sikhs is to eclipse much nearer in time the holocaust in Gujarat. As the 25th anniversary of Bhagalpur massacre also is in news it is pertinent to know that it was genocidal for only Muslims were killed or maimed. There was no Hindu casualty or loss of property. West Bengal and Assam are in the news because of the pre-election 2014 carnage in Assam and the intelligence generated that Al Qaida will target Assam but the undercurrent is that concentration of Muslims will lead to further division. Modi celebrated Sardar Patel birth anniversary by sidelining the assassination of Indira Gandhi because it was Patel who prevented a Muslim state taking shape in Hyderabad princely state where tens of thousands of Muslims were killed to achieve just that. What the Provincial Armed Constabulary did in Hashimpura or what the mobs did in Bhagalpur was replay of history of September-October 1948: "At a number of places members of the armed forces [ during the police action in Hyderabad] brought out Muslim adult males from villages and towns and massacred them in cold blood."According to the Sunderlal report 40, 000 Muslims were butchered.[7] Modi imitated Patel in 2002 where he purportedly finished once for all the equation between Muslims and Hindus in the time of communal riots by letting the police abstain from taking action so that maximum massacre would take place three days that would break the back of Muslims once for all. Not less than 3000 Muslims lost their lives on account of the procrustean injunction. [1] http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/under-duress-mamata-banerjee-agrees-to-cooperate-with-centre-on-stopping-bangladeshi-terror-613106 [2] http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/under-duress-mamata-banerjee-agrees-to-cooperate-with-centre-on-stopping-bangladeshi-terror-613106 [3] http://www.tehelka.com/not-just-a-confession-forensic-evidence-piles-up-against-hindutva-terror/2/ [4] http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-10-30/news/55595445_1_shahi-imam-jama-masjid-imam-syed-ahmed-bukhari [5] http://scroll.in/article/686251/Rajiv-Gandhi-should-be-Narendra-Modi%27s-foremost-political-hero [6]Asian Age October 31, 2014 [7] http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24159594 Hyderabad 1948: India's hidden massacre By Mike Thomson Presenter, Document, Radio 4