Author: Chandan Mitra
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 23, 2008
URL: http //dailypioneer.com/136213/What-a-bunch-of-fools-!.html
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: Perpetrator or
victim? Will the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad please make up its mind?
Till some days back, we were informed by "sources" in the ATS, colourfully
played up in sections of the media that the alleged Malegaon bombers' links
led right up to the top of the Sangh Parivar hierarchy. In other words, senior
RSS functionaries were suspected of hatching the so-called Hindu terror plot,
but chose obscure organisations (read Abhinav Bharat) and little known religious
personalities to execute their plan. So much so, that the name of a front-ranking
RSS leader, namely Indreesh who was active in the Amarnath Shrine agitation
in Jammu, was being volubly whispered in various circles as the ATS' next
target.
If media gossip is to be believed, a full-proof
plot had been hatched by the ATS in collusion with other investigative agencies
to systematically implicate the RSS in the entire supposed conspiracy. Since
the ATS' vivid imagination has been running riot from October 11 when Sadhvi
Pragya was illegally detained, the RSS angle seemed a logical enough part
of what most Hindu-minded people all along believed was a totally fabricated,
politically directed investigation. But if the alleged Malegaon bombers' links
could be traced to the RSS, it would have served the Congress well. Apart
from putting the BJP on the back foot in the ongoing State and forthcoming
general elections, it could have tarnished the Sangh's image forever.
But since the entire frame-up was a figment
of the ATS's imagination anyway, the facts failed to quite add up. Unable
to find any substantive evidence against the alleged bombers, the investigators
began to lose the plot somewhere. The crude attempt to nail Lt. Col. Shrikant
Purohit for the Samjhauta Express blasts evaporated sooner than methylated
spirit poured on a saucer. The absurdity of a man first pilfering a whopping
60 kg of lethal RDX from army depots, then lifting it alone to throw the heavy
bag into the Jhelum from a railway bridge for his cohorts to pick it up from
the river downstream, set the country giggling in sheer disbelief. The Army,
though, was not amused. Not only did it indignantly rebut the charge of pilferage,
but also pointed out that the security forces neither stock nor casually throw
around vast quantities of lethal explosives. Further, assuming that the RDX
had indeed been pilfered wouldn't the Army itself raise a hue and cry and
track down the thief?
Red-faced, the ATS quietly dropped the Samjhauta
Express charge, penitently arguing that it was merely "exploring"
such a possibility. By the time this retraction came, the Pakistani media
went to town shouting from roof tops, "We told you so!" The Pakistanis
were entitled to this jubilation for an Indian agency had ended up absolving
them of the accusation of promoting terror in India. South Block was in jitters
because the Government had cited the Samjhauta Express bombing as a definite
instance of Pakistani hand in terror operations in this country. ATS had thus
successfully made a laughing stock of India before the entire world, which
now found Islamabad's insistence that jehadi terror in India is purely home
grown more credible than New Delhi's claims in the past.
Even as the ATS was grappling with this self-goal
came Sadhvi Pragya's affidavit in a Nashik court. Her account makes chilling
reading and every Indian must hang his head in shame at those revelations.
Although widely publicised in the Marathi media, the affidavit was predictably
blacked out by the sneering, secularist national media. The Pioneer was the
only English newspaper to reproduce it in full. The document outraged not
only our regular subscribers but millions world over. Our website in fact
crashed that day because of the relentless downloading of the affidavit not
just in India but also by the Indian diaspora.
Her credible narrative pointed to unbelievable
violations of human rights -- physical and psychological violence, disregard
for the frailty of her medical condition, illegal detention for a fortnight
before her formal arrest (which is when most of the excesses were committed)
and denial of her right to legal aid as well as flouting of the Supreme Court's
directive requiring a woman constable's mandatory presence during a woman
suspect's interrogation. Human rights groups and bleeding-heart NGOs who feign
so much outrage over Gujarat, allege Batla House was a fake encounter, and
breast-beat over other so-called atrocities on minorities, did not even whimper.
Had LK Advani not raised the issue last Tuesday and followed it up by referring
to it in every public forum he attended, the unspeakable brutalities perpetrated
on Sadhvi Pragya may never have come into the public domain.
Steadily cornered by a succession of boo-boos,
the ATS has finally hit upon a new theory. Its latest leak suggests that the
alleged Malegaon bombers actually intended to liquidate senior RSS leaders.
The list includes the very same pracharak, Indreesh, who till a week ago was
the supposed ideological fountainhead of the Hindu terror conspiracy! According
to the new yarn, the "Hindu terrorists" decided to eliminate Indreesh
and Mohan Bhagwat, RSS sarkaryavah (General Secretary) and No 2 in the organisation,
apparently because of their "soft line" towards Muslims. This leads
us squarely back to the question posed at the outset: Was the RSS masterminding
this so-called terror plot, or was it the plotters' intended target? Surely,
it couldn't be both. But then official investigative agencies are skilled
at the art of concocting the most extraordinary tales. For example, the UC
Banerjee Committee on the Godhra train attack happily concluded that the kar
sevaks had become so possessed with the idea of committing mass suicide that
they themselves set two bogies of Sabarmati Express on fire!
Although there seems not an iota of truth
in the daily litany of (shifting) charges levelled by ATS "sources",
it is possible that some hotheads are upset that the RSS has not called for
a retributive counter-jihad against Islamists. The fact is that the RSS does
not do such things and usually engages only in social service, specialising
in education and disaster management. Are we supposed to believe that some
people, part of the extended saffron parivar, had no understanding of the
RSS' character and got agitated because the Sangh did not want to raise a
standing army of Hindu vigilantes? The day may not be far off when demands
for brain mapping of some officials of various investigative agencies and
their political masters will start to be raised.
The ATS' objective, howsoever misplaced, is
clear. Now that the BJP has decided to unmask the Government's conspiracy
and the case of Sadhvi's torture has outraged public sentiment, it wants the
BJP to back off. ATS thinks the BJP will be horrified that the ultra-Hindus
wanted to kill RSS leaders and drop the issue like a hot potato. One is reminded
of screen villain Ajit's inimitable dialogue in Yaadon ki Baraat: "What
a bunch of fools!"
