Ram
Puniyani
In his letter to all
the Chief Ministers Sushil Kumar Shinde’s Centre’s Home Minster (30, 09, 2013),
wrote that Government has been receiving complaints of harassment of innocent
Muslim youth by Law enforcement agencies. He asked the state authorities to
ensure that no innocent Muslim youth should be arrested or wrongfully detained
in the name of terror. The letter also suggests that if such wrongful act has
been done it should be duly compensated.
Terrorism has been one
of the major phenomenons of recent global scene. Globally the politics of
controlling oil wells used the radical versions of Islam for creating the Al
Qaeda series of terrorist groups, where the words Kafir and Jehad were totally
manipulated, and that’s what resulted in the word “Islamic Terrorism’. With the
coining of this term the catchy phrases were built by the vested elements. The
currently popular one is, ‘All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists
are Muslims’. This has become not only the part of ‘social common sense’ but
also the policy base for investigating police officers.
 |
| Sushil Kumar Shinde |
With the Malegaon blast
(2008) investigation done by Maharashtra ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, his
professionalism took the better of the prevalent biases of the system and he
was able to nab the real culprits, starting from Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur,
Swami Dayanand Pandey to Swami Assemanad, many of who are currently in jails.
The confession of Swami Aseemanand turned the tide of investigation and now
those involved in acts of terror got nabbed by police.
Notwithstanding this,
the acts of terror at one level came down but after a bit of a pause they came
up again and many an offshoot of Al Qaeda raised their nasty head once again.
While a professional attitude can lead the authorities to the culprits, the
biased attitude kept leading the police to many a Muslim youth over and over
again. It is no body’s case that many a Muslim was not involved in the acts of
terror, they were. The Al Qaeda and its stinking ideology it brought up kept
circulating like a cancer and not only in India, but more so in Pakistan the
acts of terror kept occurring.
So where do we stand.
One, Terrorism has nothing to do with religion. On one hand it is the cancerous
spread of the Al Qaeda, a dangerous outcome of the policies pursued by US in
setting up Madrassas in Pakistan. These insane acts of terror have been tormenting
South Asia in particular. Second, as Swami Aseemanand confessed in front of a
magistrate and the ideology enunciated in Sanatan Sanstha web site, these acts
of terror are for creation of Hindu Nation. As per the ideology of Sanatan
Sanstha, in this kaliyug (dark age) the Muslims and Christians are demons who
need to be dealt with. So in the series of blasts starting from Malegaon to
Ajmer to Samjhauta blast to Mecca Masjid the bombs were made to explode at the
times when large number of Muslims congregates at one time. Samjhauta Express
was targeted as the major passengers are Muslims.
So we are dealing with
two streams of terror, the Al Qaeda variety and Swami Aseemanand variety. Both
these shades of terror wear the cloak of religion. Both have nothing to do with
religion, both are motivated by politics. The question comes here if there are
both the types of terror, how come youth only from one community are arrested
left, right and center. Highlighting these issues, Ashish Khetan, a journalist
with commitment to truth has started his web portal Gulail (slingshot), exposing many an acts of biased investigations
and Muslims being the victims of that. Currently in Lucknow, Rihai Manch
started a long lasting Dhrana to demand the release of innocent Muslims
arrested for being terrorists, with no substance in the so called evidence.
Many a Muslim groups took out a peace march from Malegaon to Mumbai to demand
for the release of innocent Muslim youth who were in jails despite the fact
that Swami Aseemanand had given the legally valid confession as per which his
groups was the one behind Malegaon blast. Despite this, the innocent Muslims
youth continued to be in jails without any evidence whatsoever. Since then they
have now been released.
It is in this
background that Sushil Kumar Shinde’s letter to the state Chief Ministers has
to be seen. BJP, as is its wont is communalizing the issue by saying that it is
another act of appeasement on the part of the Government. As per BJP it is an
attempt to divide the nation and that the letter should be taken back. This
attitude of BJP is in pursuance of its agenda of Hindu Rashtra, one which
benefits the elite of majority community. BJP can never understand that the
unequal people cannot be treated equally in a democracy. The concept of affirmative
action, the concept of the state a guardian of the weak cannot be the part of
this communal party’s ideology.
At one level they argue
on the grounds of Constitution that all should be treated equally. So why is
there provisions like Anti-Dalit Atrocities act, why is there a law against domestic
violence for safeguarding women? A sensitive humane democratic society realizes
that weak of the society need extra protection, extra provisions so that they
don’t get trampled under the wheels of ‘Formal
Equality’. As such the process of democracy is a march from formal equality
to substantive equality. BJP cannot understand this journey and logic of
democracy as they want a status quo of caste and gender hierarchy; they want
supremacy of Hindu elite. So such actions which are meant to protect the weak
are seen by them as dividing the society.
As a matter of fact the
efforts of Mr. Shinde are coming too late in the day. Years ago once the
citizens inquiries, the tribunals, the dharnas brought forward the plight of
Muslim youth in the wake of acts of terror, such a letter should have been
issued. Not only that there is a need to train the police to overcome its
biased behavior against religious minorities and other weaker sections of
society. Mr. Shinde must take the process forward and call the convention of
the top police officers and discuss the roots of terrorism, they should be made
to understand the plight of marginalized people, and they should be made to go
through the reports of these tribunals. As human beings, as officers, and as
those who can be important conduit to bring justice to society, the police
needs to be trained in a delicate social issue. Many a BJP leaders had been
supping with the likes of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Swami Aseemanand. In those
cases they had even approached the Prime Minister to go soft on them! What a
hypocrisy or is it? It is the part of their politics to protect Sadhvis and Swamis
exploding bombs and to merrily oversee the torture of Muslim youth in the name
of terrorism. That’s what communalism is, the ideology which is the base of
this party!
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