Promising Hindu superiority, Hindutva has been turned into a vicious doctrine that promotes ultra-nationalism, religious fundamentalism and intolerance
Not unexpectedly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have rubbished the probe into Hindutva terror by alleging that Aseemanand’s confession was obtained under coercion.
Over the past four years the evidence gathered by CBI and other agencies against RSS pracharaks and lunatic Hindutva groups like Abhinav Bharat and Jai Vande Matram is compelling. When pieced together with Aseemanand’s confession, the whole body of evidence, both material and circumstantial, builds a solid case against these terror groups. It is now known that the broad conspiracy of targeting Muslims and their mosques was hatched around 2001 and for this purpose key RSS pracharaks inducted Hindutva radicals from RSS, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad and some from fringe saffron groups like Abhinav Bharat, Jai Vande Matram and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram. The main theatres of operation were Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan states.
Aseemanand admitted being part of the group that selected Muslim targets for explosions. He said, “I suggested that 80 percent of the people of Malegaon (Maharashtra) were Muslims and we should explode the first bomb in Malegaon itself. I also said that during the Partition, the Nizam of Hyderabad (Deccan) had wanted to go with Pakistan so Hyderabad was also a fair target. Then I said that since Hindus also throng the Ajmer Sharif Dargah (Rajasthan) in large numbers we should also explode a bomb in Ajmer which would deter the Hindus from going there [the shrine of a Muslim saint who is also revered by the Hindus]. I also suggested the Aligarh Muslim University (Utter Pradesh) as a terror target”. He went on to say, “In the meeting Joshi suggested that it was basically Pakistanis who travel on the Samjhauta Express train that runs between India and Pakistan and therefore we should attack the train as well”.
This bi-weekly train operates between Lahore and Delhi as a goodwill gesture and a confidence building measure agreed by the two governments and is appropriately named “Samjhauta” (or “compromise”) Express.
Although small explosions in Nanded, Jalna and Parbhani and some failed attempts in Bhopal due to faulty devices were reported between 2002 and 2004, but starting from Malegaon in September 2006, blasts after blasts took place for two years in prominent Muslim neighborhoods and mosques, which Aseemanand admitted were carried out by a team of RSS pracharaks.
In September 2006, four bombs exploded in the communally tense town of Malegaon, one in the crowded marketplace and three in Hamidiya mosque during prayer time. Thirty one Muslims were killed and over 312 injured. In May 2007 Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad was attacked killing nine Muslims and injuring over 50. In the Ajmer Shrine a powerful bomb exploded in October 2007 that fortunately killed only three devotees and injured over a dozen. In September 2008, a bomb, concealed in a motorcycle, exploded in a Muslim neighborhood in Malegaon while another bomb simultaneously went off in a mosque in a small Gujarat town of Modassa during prayer time.
On February 18, 2007 on the eve of Pakistan foreign minister Kasuri’s visit to India to pursue the peace dialogue, three powerful bombs exploded in two coaches of the Samjhauta Express train at midnight when it was 80 km out of Delhi on its way to Lahore, turning them into an inferno. Sixty eight people, mostly Pakistanis, were killed and dozens were injured. The peace dialogue was almost scuttled. Aseemanand has admitted that this was the handiwork of a group of RSS pracharkars, although RSS propagandists immediately pointed fingers at Pakistan based Kashmiri outfits. Even Washington bought the story and demanded of Pakistan to spring into action against the culprits.
Some excellent investigative work done by the police officer and then Maharashtra ATS Chief, Hemant Karkare, helped him track the motorcycle used in the Malegaon blast to a radical leader Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, whose arrest led to 11 high profile arrests of Hindutva activists who had a role in Malegaon blast, including serving Lt. Col. Purohit and a Hindu religious leader Dayanand Pandey. From Pandey’s possession Karkare recovered damning evidence against all of them in the 40 audio and video tapes, which were recordings of secret terror conspiracy meetings held by Pandey, Purohit and others.
Karkare’s investigations also led to the discovery that Lt. Col. Purohit had procured 60 kg of RDX from Jammu and Kashmir in 2006, part of which was alleged to have been used in Samjhauta Express and part of it in Malegaon blasts.
Karkare was bumped off during the 2008 Mumbai attack, ostensibly by RSS and other Hindutva radicals whom he was exposing. With Karkare gone, the investigation got derailed and was lost in the noisy blame game with Pakistan on the issue of 2008 Mumbai attack, which had assumed center stage. Karkare’s successor Raghuvanshi is believed to have covered up the investigation to avoid Karkare’s fate. But with crucial evidence available due to Aseemanand’s confession, the pieces of the puzzle of Hindutva saffron terror should now fall in place and the probe being handled by National Investigating Agency (NIA) should hopefully be concluded soon.
Tehelka has also revealed the “nexus between Hindutva terror and Indian military intelligence officers” in bomb attacks in Samjhauta Express, Hyderabad, Ajmer and Malegaon. The report says “political bigwigs and serving and retired army officers, all seemed part of the conspiracy”. According to Aseemanand, Lt. Col. Purohit was a founding member of Abhinav Bharat, a shadowy saffron terror outfit aimed at infiltrating every institution. Tapes recovered from the RSS accused have revealed names of two Majors, four Colonels and two Brigadiers who were part of the outfit, four of them having intelligence background.
Lt. Col. Purohit is heard on the tape saying “We are all on the same plane – Hindu Rashtra (nation)”. He goes on to claim that “General J.J. Singh (Indian army chief until 2007) is with us”. Purohit also talks of “one of our own captains” having visited Israel for “training and meeting” who demanded “four things from Israel”: uninterrupted supply of arms and training, “an office with a saffron flag in Tel Aviv”, political asylum and “support for our cause of a Hindu nation in the UN”. The tapes claim that Israel gave “a very positive response and promised arms and asylum”.
One wonders if this is only the tip of the iceberg. The infiltration of Hindutva radicals in the armed services with links to terror groups should be a matter of grave concern for the Indian political leadership, as well as for the army top brass.
