The Telegraph
31 October 2008
Godse link to Malegaon suspects
SATISH NANDGAONKAR AND RASHEED KIDWAI
Mumbai/Bhopal, Oct. 30: Abhinav Bharat, the Pune-based radical outfit run by a relative of the Mahatma’s killer with which two Malegaon blast accused have links, has for long been exhorting its members to take revenge for the “killing of Hindus” over centuries.
Himani Savarkar, 61, president of the organisation and a niece of Nathuram Godse, took pains to describe Abhinav Bharat, formed in 2006, as an outfit involved in social work, but old posters in Bhopal give an indication of its radical outlook.
In one pamphlet, the organisation calls for its members to seek revenge for the “killing of millions of Hindus over several centuries”.
In recent months, the group, said to be spread over 27 districts in Madhya Pradesh, organised several “conventions” in Bhopal, Raisen and Vidisha districts of the state. It described members of a particular community as “dharma shatrus (enemies of the religion)” but local police failed to take note of it.
Savarkar alleged that Major (retd) Ramesh Upadhyay, the outfit’s working president, and Sameer Kulkarni, an activist, both booked by the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Tuesday evening, were innocent and had been framed to show pro-Hindutva elements in terror cases.
The ATS has alleged that the duo had colluded with Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur to plot the September 29 Malegaon blast which killed five persons. Savarkar claimed that if the duo were indeed proved guilty, it would be a symbolic indication that Hindus would no longer take injustice lying down.
“It is not right to talk about ifs and buts. But if they indeed did it or abetted the blast in any manner, I would say it would only be symbolic of a Hindu reaction. We don’t believe in killing of innocents, but if we are suffering, there is bound to be a reaction,” said Savarkar.
A practising architect till 2000, she now heads the obscure outfit that shares the name of the organisation founded by revolutionary and Hindutva ideologue — as well as her father-in-law — Veer Savarkar over a century ago.
Savarkar said her organisation had nothing to do directly with Abhinav Bharat society — apparently modelled on Italian nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini’s Young Italy — floated by her father-in-law in 1905.
The new outfit’s slogan reads, “kshama yachna nahin ab to ran hoga, sangharsh bada bhishan hoga (no mercy or apology, now it will have to be battled out; the confrontation will be extremely intense)”.
Savarkar echoed the outfit’s slogan by claiming that people of the country were extremely insecure after the series of explosions and violence and it was possible that there could be a reaction.
|
