2000s In India

"It was not as if the terrorists had not given hints of attacking the temple of Indian democracy. In an equally audacious attack, three suicide bombers had barged into the J&K assembly premises on 1 October 2001. The attack claimed 38 lives. The Indian establishment reacted strongly, but only in words. Fortunately, none of the leaders of the state were injured in this attack. Emboldened by this attack, the terrorists chose the Indian Parliament as their next target."

"Human body parts littered the road. The police was trying to secure the area for vital evidence. But it wasn’t easy amidst the melee. The media personnel were struggling to reach the blast site amidst the prevailing confusion. In short, it looked as if death itself had danced on the roads of Delhi that day."

"Similarly, there was enough evidence to prove the involvement of SIMI in the Malegaon mayhem. The US intelligence agencies had proved that the Samjhauta Express blasts had the signature of Lashkar-e-Taiba. But the NIA ignored all these facts to focus its investigation on saffron groups. This is despite the fact that there were clear similarities between the terror incidents of the so-called Hindutva terror phase and those that followed in the coming years. Yet, an argument was put forward that the majority of the people killed in the so-called saffron terrorist attacks were Muslims and that as Islamist terrorists would never have targeted them, only Hindu extremists could have carried out these attacks."

"In the midnight of 18 February 2007, bombs went off in two carriages of the Samjhauta Express, a train service connecting Delhi and Lahore, just after the train passed Diwana station near Panipat in Haryana. The bombings claimed 68 lives. Like the 26/11 attack in Mumbai, there were attempts to link this incident to the RSS. While the script in the former case was written in the form of a book by a hardliner, this one was an official version released by the NIA. Regardless of who the culprit was, there cannot be two opinions about the fact that politics on the Samjhauta Express blasts did immense damage to India’s fight against terrorism."

"The Samjhauta Express blast was one such episode in this vicious cycle. There was ample proof to suggest Lashkar-e-Taiba’s footprint in the strike. The Indian Government had even prepared a 2000-page dossier based on this evidence and handed it over to Pakistan."

"Ironically, the attack took place on the train that symbolised the fight against terrorism. As the name suggested, it was a mark of building trust between the two nations. Targeting this train was a painful wound inflicted upon India, but ascribing it to Hindu organisations only rubbed salt on the injury."

"The circumstances, as well as the experiences, pointed fingers at Pak-based Jihadi groups. Haryana Police, who had managed to reach the source of suitcases used in the blasts, conducted the initial investigation. The attacks had clear imprints of involvement of SIMI recruits. The SIMI chief, Safdar Nagori, was said to be the mastermind of the conspiracy. The narcotics, brain mapping and lie detectors conducted upon him confirmed this suspicion. Nagori was also an accused in the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts. It was during the interrogation related to this case that he revealed that some SIMI activists had colluded with Pakistani terrorists to carry out the Samjhauta Express blasts. The advanced explosive used in the terror operation indicated help from across the border."

"All these compelling facts were thrown out of the window based on Aseemanand’s statement. He went only so far as to state that Sunil Joshi had boasted the hand of his own men in the blasts. This could never be corroborated since Sunil Joshi was murdered. There was no change in the modus operandi in the police’s version; only the characters were replaced."

"This was followed by the Samjautha Express blast. This was internationally noticed as this particular train service was started as a symbol of amity between the two feuding neighbours... Interestingly, there is a reference to the Samjhauta blast case included in the series of dossiers shared with Pakistan on every bilateral mechanism. Isn’t this an official acknowledgement of Pakistani involvement? Basically, the dossier is entitled, ‘Dossier on fugitives from Indian law living in Pakistan’... The then official position (in 2007) was that this attack was carried out by an Indian group and some Indians had to stand trial for it (Sameer Kulkarni, Pragya Bharati, Purohit, Aseemananda and others). If that was the position, then why did this incident get included in the Pak dossier? The box of paradox explodes in the face of the then government when answers are sought to my questions. This would perhaps accord a clear opportunity to Pakistanis to grandstand. Or was it an escape route being offered to Pakistan to get away with the charge of fermenting terror in India, because anyone can ask these questions."

"The bogey of “Hindu terror” stands busted with the acquittal of Swami Aseemanand and others in the Samjhauta blast case by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) special court on March 20. This verdict is another testimony to the fact that the Congress led-UPA government manipulated and misused the official machinery to create a false notion of “Hindu terror”. Most importantly, while doing so it ignored the national interest by letting the real culprits off the hook."

"The NIA was forced to file false cases in the Malegaon, Samjhauta and the Mecca Masjid incidents against innocent Hindus while suppressing evidence against the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiyyba (LeT) and key players in the terror apparatus such as Arif Qasmani, David Headley and Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. Information was available in public domain regarding involvement of Karachi-based businessman Qasmani, the LeT and al Qaeda, Headley and his third wife Faiza Outalha with assistance from SIMI terrorists from Indore. But the investigation during the UPA decided to not only ignore this information but sought political capital from a national security issue."

"The way the Samjhauta blast case and some others were manipulated for political gain and fixing its rivals proves that Congress has succumbed to what German-born Italian sociologist Robert Michel called the Iron Law of Oligarchy. It states that all forms of organisation, regardless of how democratic they may be at the start, will inevitably develop oligarchic tendencies. As a democracy, we should reject such oligarchic tendencies. It is also time to start asking: Who should be held accountable for letting the real perpetrators of Samjhuata blast case off the hook and targeting the innocent Hindus?"

"It is worthy to note that Christian Padres were playing right into the hands of the terrorists. They behaved in a manner as exactly predicted by the terrorists themselves. They demonized an entire community, they put immense pressure on the NDA government which they believed was a manifestation of radical Hindutva and they were using the attacks to further their own political agenda. Due to the great work by the investigative agencies and the utter stupidity of the Jihadis, the perpetrators were soon caught and the Christians could no longer blame Hindus for it."

"It becomes clear from these attacks that whether it is Christians, Muslims, or Dalits, the attacks never end; they are part of the continuing spiral built into the sectarian ideology, out to justify acts of blatant violence and denial of fundamental rights to life, equality before the law, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression."

"In June, a series of blasts damaged Christian churches in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Goa. A month later, crude bombs were set off in two more churches in Karnataka. In August, police charged members of a Muslim sect, allegedly based in Pakistan, with masterminding the attacks. Human rights activists maintained that the arrests were meant to deflect attention from Hindu hardliners' campaign of anti-Christian violence."

"I do not know. I do not want to comment. Let the truth come out. In a few days, you will hear who are behind these attacks. The country is gong to be shocked when it hears that the attacks against Christians have not been perpetuated by pro-Hindu organisations. Look at the church blast in Bangalore. The police arrested a Muslim fundamentalist. I do feel there is a definite link between the bomb blasts in churches in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Goa. But these blasts were surely not carried out by Sangh Parivar outfits."

"The misperception of Hindus as bullies and minorities as their victims in turn conditions a distortion of the information flow concerning new instances of communal violence. Thus, when a series of bombs damaged churches in Goa, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh between 21 May and 9 July 2000, Christian and secularist fingers were immediately pointed at the RSS.... simply because everybody "knew" that the RSS is that big bad wolf... But then on 9 July, two of the real perpetrators made a technical mistake, killing themselves and exposing their identitites and the Pakistani origin of their equipment... If I hadn't been a reader of the Indian press for professional reasons, I would not have known that the whole bomb campaign had been the handiwork of a Muslim outfit. For, the Christian and secular press worldwide continued to refer to "Hindu bomb attacks on churches", obviously relaying the stories fed to them by Indian Church sources. A full two months later, Church spokesman John Dayal went before an American Congressional hearing... to reiterate the same old allegations of Hindu bomb attacks. The point here is not the dishonesty of Church spokesmen, but the fact that they correctly expected to get away with repeating their calumny against the RSS... A climate has been created in which every allegation against Hindu activists enjoys a priori credibility while every complaint of Hindu victims is shrugged off or even maligned as hate propaganda... A similar case is the rape of four nuns in Jhabua, also in 1998: in spite of Christian allegations, it turned out that Hindu militancy had nothing to do with the crime and that half of the gang of perpetrators were tribal Christians themselves, yet this "rape of nuns by Hindu fanatics" keeps reappearing in press stories about "Hindu atrocities on Christians"."

"In 1999, they tried to make the most of a spate of incidents between Christians and non-Christian tribals in which a few Christians got killed (mercifully far fewer than the periodic harvest of martyrs in Pakistan). They falsely blamed Hindu activists for some inter-Christian rape cases and for a series of bomb attacks against churches, which turned out to be the handiwork of a Pakistan-based Muslim group, Deendar Anjuman. Before ill-informed but consequential international audiences such as the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, they managed to uphold their original story, but in India the campaign to blame Hindu activists for everything had badly lost its credibility."

"A series of bomb blasts against Christian churches in South India was automatically blamed on the Hindu nationalists. In that version, the story made headlines around the world: Hindu bomb terror against Christians. Hindu organizations alleged that it was a Pakistani operation, a blame-shifting exercise which only earned them ridicule and contempt. Yet, when two of the terrorists blew themselves up by mistake, their getaway car led the police to their network, and the whole gang was arrested. It turned out to be a Muslim group, Deendar Anjuman, with headquarters in Pakistan. But this was not reported on the front pages in India nor made the topic of flaming editorials; and in the international media, it was not reported at all. In the worldwide perception of Hindu nationalism, the association with raping nuns and bombing churches has stuck."

"To offset this failure, critics of the BJP tried to make the most of a supposed wave of minor incidents between Hindu tribals and Christians in 1998-2000. There were only a handful of mortal victims, far fewer than the dozens of Christians killed in Pakistan after September 11, 2001, but with the media as amplifiers, an impression of terrible oppression of a poor hapless minority was created. Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately), the key allegations made initially under the international spotlights turned out to be untrue... Indeed, this turned out to be a pattern: all inter-Christian incidents in this period... were suddenly blamed on the evil hand of the Hindus. This game of blaming the Hindus for the suffering of Christians was so successful that it inspired a third party to try its own hand at it. A series of bomb attacks against churches in South India did take place, wounding some worshipers. It was duly blamed on the Hindutva forces, but the perpetrators turned out to be a Pak-based Muslim organization, the Deendar Anjuman. Please note the chain of guilt here: the Islamic terrorists are of course responsible for their own acts, but they would not have committed these but for the encouragement given to them by the secularists. After all, the latter had proven that any unpleasant incident can successfully be blamed on the Hindus, and that the blame could not be washed off by any amount of official refutation, which would remain under-reported while the original allegation would go on being repeated. This way, the secularists have blood on their hands, viz. the blood of the Christian victims of these Islamic bomb attacks."

"A series of bomb attacks on churches, sometimes accompanied by Hindutva pamphlets, seemed to set a new pattern, proving that Hindus are no better than Muslims... But on 17 July the truth came out: members of a Islamic group, Dindar Anjuman (founded in 1924 under the Nizam's patronage in order to convert synthesis-happy Hindus with claims of an underlying unity of all religions), were arrested and found to be in possession of both explosives and home-made Hinidutva pamphlets, and they confessed to having committed the bomb attacks in order to provoke Hindu-Christian hostility (after having similarly desecrated Ambedkar statures to foment clashes between Dalits and the RSS). Expectedly, the Christian information channels which had earlier trumpeted the Hindu aggression were slow in communicating the correction. As usual, the Hindus had been falsely accused of stooping to the same behaviour level as that of their enemies. But as it turned out, they were innocent. Since this might be reckoned as a virtue, all opinion -makers in india and abroad have (so to speak) conspired to keep this out of view."

"The potential for indignation on a national and international scale was clearly enormous, and any hesitation in putting the hated Hindus in the dock was glaringly non-existent. And so, innocent Christians were wounded or maimed by Islamic bombs presented as Hindu bombs. As the Church spokesmen had uttered such fiery indignation against the terrorists when these were assumed to be Hindus, you might have expected them to be just as indignated against the Islamic terrorists as soon as the true story was known. But no, Church fury suddenly became rather more subdued..."

"It ought to be remembered that the Christian religious leaders were demonizing an entire community before any investigation was even completed. Their first instinct was to play politics over the heinous attacks instead of comforting the attendees of their Churches and safeguard their evangelical interests. As time would go on to prove, they were all horribly wrong."

"Violence broke out on 27 February in Godhra, a district headquarters in eastern Gujarat. Fifty-seven Hindus were killed, including 25 women and 14 children, who were burned alive aboard the Sabarmati Express [...] Those who were originally from Gujarat and were returning home aboard the Sabarmati Express had gathered together in a few coaches. They chanted Hindu nationalist songs and slogans throughout the entire voyage, all the while harassing Muslim passengers. One family was even made to get off the train for refusing to utter the karsevaks war cry: "Jai Shri Ram!" (Glory to Lord Ram!). More abuse occurred at the stop in Godhra: a Muslim shopkeeper was also ordered to shout "Jai Shri Ram!" He refused, and was assaulted until the kar sevaks turned on a Muslim woman with her two daughters. One of them was forced to board the train before it started going again... The anti-Hindu riot was thus a reaction to provocation from Hindu nationalist activists. The aftermath of the events clearly showed that the violence reached unprecedented proportions precisely because of the political strategy these Hindu nationalists employ."