Going Soft On Terrorism
(Herald, 30 Nov 2009)
That the Chief Minister isn’t taking firm action against the Sanatan
Sanstha is an ominous sign, says VIDYADHAR GADGIL
It is now a month and a half since the bomb blast in Margao on Diwali eve, which killed two Sanatan Sanstha activists who were allegedly carrying a bomb in their scooter. One would have expected that after this incident at least there would have been appropriate action against the Sanstha, which has long been linked to hate speech, communal propaganda and terrorist violence. But that has hardly happened.
Immediately after the incident, there was a knee-jerk reaction of sorts, with Home Minister Ravi Naik making statements about “strong action” needing to be taken against the Sanstha. But his target was clearly his bete noire Transport Minister Sudin Dhavalikar, who has close links with the Sanstha, rather than the organisation itself. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was set up and the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) came in to assist in the investigations. The investigations have been making slow but steady headway, and a number of activists of the Sanstha have been arrested for being involved in the bomb plot. Recent reports in Herald reveal that the police have unearthed a well-planned conspiracy, where trial runs of the bombs were carried out at the Talaulim-Ponda hillock and SIM cards had been obtained on the basis of bogus election photo identity cards (EPIC). It is to be hoped that these investigations will be carried to their logical conclusion and all those involved in the bomb plot will be brought to book.
So far, so good – but what of the Sanstha itself? After the bomb incidents, the Sanstha launched a disinformation campaign, in an attempt to wash its hands off the whole incident. The line was initially that its activists had been framed and that the activists who died in the bomb blast were actually the victims of a bomb planted in their scooter by others.
Since such an obvious cover-up carries little conviction, the Sanstha simultaneously took the line that these activists were ‘misguided’ persons who had taken the wrong path. The same argument had been made by the Sanstha when some of its activists were arrested for violence against Christians in Ratnagiri and after the Gadkari Rangayatan bomb blasts in Thane.
As noted rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar asked in a public meeting in Panjim, how is it that the Sanstha’s activists so often take the same kind of ‘wrong path’ – and more pertinently, how is it that this unconvincing argument is accepted at face value and the Sanstha gets away without any action being taken against it as an institution? It also defies belief that a few rogue activists of the Sanatan Sanstha, a tight-knit, secretive organisation, independently carried out the blasts without the knowledge or involvement of any of the senior persons in the organisation.
It is not as if there were not enough indications, even before the incidents in Thane and Goa, that the Sanstha’s propaganda was of the type that justified violence in the ‘defence of religion’. Much has been written about the nature of the literature that the Sanstha produces and distributes, the kind of hate speech and communal propaganda that takes place in its Dharma Jagruti Sabhas, and the ‘defence training’ that it provides to selected cadre. And then we had the logical culmination of all this in the blasts in Thane and Goa. Despite all this, the state governments, both in Maharashtra and Goa, continue to take a soft stance towards the Sanstha. The Maharashtra government has long been delaying banning the Sanstha, and a recommendation last year by then ATS chief Hemant Karkare to ban the organisation was rejected. In Goa, there have been repeated demands to ban the Sanstha, the most recent one coming from the Congress Legislature Party (CLP). Yet nothing has been done. Masterly inaction is the USP of Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and his government in Goa. A ban may not necessarily be the best way to tackle the problem, but the soft attitude displayed by the government defies understanding.
The BJP has, of course, been trying to soft-pedal the issue, given that it is a direct electoral beneficiary of the kind of propaganda carried out by the Sanatan Sanstha and its offshoots like the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.
Manohar Parrikar made distinctly double-faced statements immediately after the bomb blasts, demanding foolproof evidence of the involvement of the Sanstha in the Margao bomb blasts – this coming from a man who, without any evidence whatsoever, blamed SIMI for the temple desecrations in Goa. Other BJP politicians, like BJP spokesperson Laxmikant Parsekar, have been making similar statements and trying to defuse the whole issue.
And then we have the Congress. While the CLP has demanded a ban, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat still takes a soft stance, despite the fact that had the plot succeeded, it would have set off a huge communal conflagration in his constituency of Margao, given that the intention of the Sanstha’s activists was clearly to direct suspicion towards the Muslim community.
Does Digambar Kamat have sympathies for the Sanatan Sanstha? His actions (and lack of them) seem to suggest that. He had had no qualms about tacitly supporting the rabidly communal and provocative exhibition of photographs of Kashmir by Francois Gautier, organised by the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. The Sanstha and its offshoots have only had to say “boo” for him to get terrified and bow to their unreasonable demands, whether it is to order an M F Husain film to be withdrawn from IFFI 2008 or to curtail the exhibition of Ganesha paintings by Subodh Kerkar from 11 days to 2 days!
Apart from the indecisiveness and saffron-friendliness of our Chief Minister, the Congress has always taken a soft stance towards Hindutva, under the misguided impression that stern action may alienate the Hindu community. While firm action may sometimes lead to temporary electoral damage, in the long term it can only strengthen the secular base of Indian politics, on which the Congress depends to survive. Allowing politics to become communalised is bound to hurt the party very badly in the long run.
The situation in the Congress is complicated by the fact that it has always been a hold-all party, and has always accommodated communal elements within its fold. This was seen in the 2007 elections, when it admitted hardcore RSS activist Mohan Amshekar into its fold. Digambar Kamat himself has an RSS background, and joined the Congress after defecting from the BJP, having been the Deputy Chief Minister in the Manohar Parrikar government. Is that why he is going soft on the communal forces? If not, what is the explanation?
Going soft on religious extremism is not a problem limited to Goa. In Maharashtra too, the Congress has shown little inclination to come down hard on Abhinav Bharat, the Bajrang Dal, the Sanatan Sanstha and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, all of which have been implicated in setting off bombs in the state. Of all holy cows, religion is the holiest.
But if Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and his cabinet colleagues do not realise the danger in not taking action against the Sanatan Sanstha, someone in the Congress High Command should understand that their state governments are sending out the wrong signals; and strengthening the ground for communal forces that have terrorists in their ranks.
|
