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FOCUS
Bajrang Dal runs the risk of
being branded terrorist group
By B RAMAN
THERE IS no other way to
describe the wave of jihadi terrorist strikes spreading death and
destruction across India since July 2006, and the wave of
anti-Christian violence being seen in Orissa and Karnataka since
August 2008, except as Indians killing Indians.
The wave of jihadi strikes
has affected many states -- ruled by the Congress, the Bharatiya
Janata Party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist and others.
Anger against certain
aggressive groups of evangelists indulging in a scurrilous campaign
against the Hindu religion and converting the impoverished tribals of
central India to Christianity through the allurement of money has been
widespread in many states of India, but this anger has been expressed
in a civilised manner in most states. Only in the BJP ruled Karnataka
and in Orissa ruled by an electoral ally of the BJP has this anger
taken an ugly, uncivilised turn in the form of orchestrated attacks on
Christians and their places of worship and even the alleged rape of a
helpless nun.
Large sections of public
opinion in India and abroad cannot be blamed if they attribute this to
the inaction of the local governments in the face of the violence and
view this as amounting to culpable complicity.
These two waves have given
rise to antagonistic reflexes which should be of concern to any Indian
interested in the unity, prosperity and strength of this nation. There
is a disturbing denial mode in sections of both the Muslim and the
Hindu communities.
Sections of the Muslim
community are not prepared to accept that their co-religionists are
behind this wave of jihadi terrorism. An attempt is being made by
these sections, supported by sections of the so-called secular
community, either to deny the involvement of some Muslims in jihadi
terrorism or to rationalise their involvement through various
arguments. There is a simultaneous attempt to denigrate and demonise
the police and other law-enforcing agencies by debunking their version
of the terrorist strikes and by coming in the way of their
investigation.
Sections of the Hindu
community owing allegiance to the so-called Hindutva groups are not
prepared to accept any blame on their community and tend to project
the anti-Christian violence as an outcome of spontaneous tribal anger
against Christian missionaries with which, according to them, the
Hindutva organisations have nothing to do. The perceived inaction of
the law-enforcing agencies in the face of the anti-Christian violence
is sought to be rationalised and explained through various arguments
such as the lack of road and other means of communications in the
affected areas which rendered prompt police action difficult.
Hindus used to be proud of
the fact that their religion respected the places of worship of other
religions and did not damage or destroy them. But, this is no longer
so since 1992 when some Hindutva elements carried out wanton
destruction of Babri masjid in Ayodhya.
Hopes entertained by many that this was a one-time aberration caused
by historic anger over the alleged demolition of a Ram temple in the
same place for the erection of a masjid have been belied by reports of
wanton destruction of Christian places of worship in Karnataka and
Orissa. India has already been paying a heavy price for the Hindu
anger caused by perceptions of the appeasement policies of the
so-called secular elements towards the religious minorities and the
Muslim anger due to perceptions of the failure of the State to protect
them and to be fair to them.
To this will now be added
pockets of Christian anger over the death, destruction and humiliation
inflicted on their community by the Hindutva elements, with the State
allegedly remaining a silent spectator. The Christians will be
rendered even more angry by the attempts being made by some
intellectuals and others close to the Hindutva groups to play down the
enormous gravity of the anti-Christian violence.
Do the orchestrated acts of
violence against the Christians and their places of worship amount to
acts of terrorism similar to the ruthless killing of innocent
civilians by the jihadi terrorists of indigenous as well Pakistani and
Bangladeshi kinds? Is the Bajrang Dal, which is allegedly behind the
attacks on Christians, a terrorist organisation similar to the
Students' Islamic Movement of India and the so-called Indian
Mujahideen [Images]? These questions are increasingly occupying the
centre of the debate. Instead of maintaining a laser-sharp focus on
our fight against jihadi terrorism, we find ourselves spending more
and more time in countering and removing suspicions of acts of
terrorism against the Christians.
There is no universally
accepted definition of terrorism and what is a terrorist organisation,
but most definitions in common currency accept that there are some
important components of terrorism -- repeated attacks of a
pre-meditated nature on innocent civilians and their property to
achieve an objective, which may be political, economic, social or
religious. Spontaneous and isolated attacks in the heat of the moment,
which are not repeated in an orchestrated manner, are crimes not
amounting to terrorism.
The anti-Christian violence
started as spontaneous, isolated attacks in the heat of the moment
following the murder of a respected Hindu leader and some of his
disciples in Orissa and the circulation of scurrilous pamphlets
denigrating the Hindu religion by a Christian organisation in
Karnataka. Law does not excuse even such isolated attacks in the heat
of the moment, but views the heat of the moment argument as a
mitigating circumstance while deciding the quantum of punishment. But
repeated pre-meditated attacks of an orchestrated nature long after
the heat of the moment has passed dangerously degenerate into the zone
of terrorism.
If the Hindutva forces are
not able to control the Frankenstein's monsters created by them in the
form of Bajrang Dal, it is only a question of time before it comes
under the scanner of terrorism experts of the Western countries. In
the early 1990s, a US-based organisation called the Jammat-ul-Fuqra,
headed by a Pakistani cleric and with a large number of Afro-American
Muslims as members, carried out a wave of arson attacks on Hindu and
Jewish places of worship in the US and Canada and there were some
attacks on the members of these religions too.
The Counter-Terrorism
Division of the US State Department placed it on the list of terrorist
organisations to be watched and included a brief note on its
activities in its annual reports to US Congress. This cleric has since
returned to Pakistan and its activities in the US have ceased. It no
longer figures in the list of terrorist organisations.
If repeated and
pre-meditated attacks on Hindu and Jewish places of worship and on
Hindus and Jews in the US can be viewed as amounting to terrorism, how
can we argue that similar attacks on Christians and their places of
worship in India do not amount to terrorism?
The Hindutva organisations
should read the writing on the wall and mend themselves lest they
come to be viewed by the international community as organisations of
concern. If the Bajrang Dal comes to be viewed as a suspected
terrorist organisation, the first to feel the pressure and adverse
effect will be the supporters of the organisation in the Hindu
diaspora abroad. It is in their interest to exercise pressure on the
Bajrang Dal and drive some sense into it.
The writer is Additional Secretary (retired), Cabinet Secretariat,
Government of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute
For Topical studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com.
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