Editorial
Time to confront RSS man on his terrorist links
THE confession of one of the accused in the 2007 Mecca Masjid terror attack, Swami Asimanand has nailed the role played by elements within the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It gives the lie to the claims of senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar that the allegations against him are nothing but a fabrication of the Central Bureau of Investigation at the behest of the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.
Not only has he emerged as one of the key conspirators, Asimanand claims to have told the slain RSS activist Sunil Joshi — who allegedly supervised the planting of bombs at the Mecca Masjid, Ajmer Dargah and the Samjhauta Express — that his life was in danger from Mr Kumar. The investigating agencies must now break from their cautious attitude towards Mr Kumar as Swami Asimanand’s confession is should be sufficient basis for a chargesheet against the RSS leader.
The revelations have also exposed the sinister nature of the Hindutva terror module and their diabolical motives. The pretext of being a response to Pakistan- sponsored terror attacks seems to have been nothing but a facade for their true motives — to create communal tension across the country. A case in point is the reason cited by Asimanand for choosing the Dargah of Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti in Ajmer as a target — “ to scare the large number of Hindus who visit the shrine”. It is time the Bharatiya Janata Party got out of its denial mode and acknowledged the threat that Hindutva terror poses to the country, especially as the name of one of its own leaders — Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath — has also come up during the course of the investigations. Instead of continuing to castigate the investigating agencies, the party must impress upon its parent organisation — the RSS — to suspend its functionaries who are under the scanner. The largest opposition party cannot be seen to be having double standards on an issue like terrorism.
A sad aspect to the Swami’s confession is his claim that he was prompted to confess his involvement in the attacks as an act of repentance following his interaction with a Muslim boy Abdul Kaleem at the Chanchalguda jail in Hyderabad. Interestingly and perhaps symbolically, Kaleem had been earlier wrongfully detained and tortured by the Hyderabad police in connection with the Mecca Masjid blasts.
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Major story in Mail Today of 9 Jan. 2011
