Setalvad wants Centre to check low-intensity Right-wing terror

(Daily News and Analysis
April 09, 2007)

Setalvad wants Centre to check low-intensity Right-wing terror
by Anupam Dasgupta

Social activist Teesta Setalvad has urged New Delhi to monitor the low-intensity terror campaigns being fuelled and run by right-wing Hindu fundamentalist organisations. Setalvad was referring to VHP, Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and the RSS all of which, according to her, were “misusing” Hinduism at a time when security officials across the country were training guns on Pakistan-based terrorist groups.

Incidentally, in a pot-shot aimed at the government in the wake of the twin Nanded blasts (the most recent one being in February while the other one occurred in April last year) had demanded it was high time the government treated Hindu extremist acts and Islamic jihadi terrorism “on a par.”

Pointing to the Concerned Citizens Inquiry report on the Nanded blasts Teesta claimed independent police investigation teams (read agencies like CBI) are a necessity to probe genuine acts of terror where there are clear signs of involvement of Hindu right-wing groups.

A parallel inquiry into the February Nanded blast inside a godown revealed that the death of Pandurang Bhagwan Ameelkanthwar, who was reduced to ashes, occurred when “biscuit boxes” packed with explosives - brought there by a section of activists as ingredients to manufacture liquid bombs - went off accidentally. In all probability the activists who used the godown premises were members of Hindu Right-wing groups, Teesta claimed.

She claimed that in certain cases intelligence and security agencies should unequivocally treat Hindu fanatical organizations as units generating terror and indulging in criminal incidents.

Efforts should also be made by the administration to apply the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) provisions on these elements as well. Setalvad had earlier tried to explain that “Hindu right-wing terror is as much a worrying phenomenon as the jihadi variety violence”. And investigating agencies should learn to be “neutral” to maintain balance while probing an incident.

She described as shocking that 22 of the key accused (all Hindu fanatics) in the April 2006 Nanded blasts were discharged by the courts despite results of brain-mapping tests, suggesting their involvement and they being part of the larger conspiracy to “kill 300-400 innocent Muslims since Dawood Ibrahim could not be found”.