24 January 2013
While one may or may not agree with the terminology
employed by the Home Minister in his recent speech at Jaipur, we feel that for
long prejudice has ruled investigations, obscuring the role of organizations
and their multiple affiliates in planning and executing of attacks and bombings
in the country. The veneer of 'nationalism' -- narrow, exclusionary and based
on hatred for minorities as it is-- cannot hide the violence that Sangh and its
affiliates beget and peddle.
Civil rights groups have been arguing for long that
the investigations into bomb blasts and terror attacks have degenerated into
communal witch-hunts. Bomb blasts are followed predictably by mass arrests of
Muslim youth, raids in Muslim-dominated localities, detentions, arrests and
torture; media trials, charge sheets and prosecution based on custodial
confessions and little real evidence. It has been assumed, and accepted widely,
that no further proof of guilt need be offered than the fact that the accused
belonged to a particular community. Leads which pointed to the hands of groups
affiliated to Sangh organisations and their complicity in planning and
executing acts of terror were ignored, never seriously pursued. The agencies,
showing their abject bias, instead chose to pursue the beaten track of
investigating Islamic terrorist organizations such—despite clear evidence
pointing in the opposite direction. This was true of Nanded blasts in 2006, as
well as of Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Sharif bombings.
The only
exception was Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who had, as far back as
2008 conclusively brought into the public domain the nefarious designs of
Abhinav Bharat and its foot soldiers of hate: (Sadhvi) Pragya Singh of the
ABVP, serving army officer Col. Purohit, and Sunil Joshi, Indresh and Swami
Aseemanand belonging to the RSS. Karkare had communicated to the Hyderabad
Police the sensational claim by Col. Purohit that he had procured RDX from an
army inventory when he was posted in Jammu and Kashmir in 2006. The Hyderabad
Police however ignored his messages, having already detained close to 70 youth
belonging to the Muslim community.
We demand
that:
· Although the Indian government
has belatedly acknowledged the heinous terrorist acts of the Sangh groups we
feel that a genuine probe must also perforce encompass a thorough enquiry into
the terror nexus straddling Abhinav Bharat, RSS, VHP, BJP and Bajrang Dal
leaders together with sections of the Indian intelligence and security agencies
who deliberately subverted the probes as well as the due process of law.
· It must also be investigated
whether the network of Hindutva terrorists have been provided not just
political but also financial and logistical support by various governments
· There must be a thorough
investigation into the foreign sources of funding of the Hindutva
organizations.
We hope
that the acknowledgement of Hindutva terror will not remain a statement only
but that the investigations will be seriously and sincerely pursued.
Signatories
1.
Manisha Sethi, Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity
Association 2. Shabnam Hashmi, Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD)
3. Mahtab Alam, People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL)
4. Mansi Sharma, Activist, Delhi
5. Subhash Gatade, Activist and Author, Godse's Children: Hindutva Terror in India
6. Rajeev Yadav, Adv. Mohd. Shoaib and Shahnawaz Alam, Rihai Manch, UP
7. Amit sen Gupta, Senior Journalist, Delhi
8. Abu Zafar, Journalist, Delhi
9. Harsh Kapoor, South Asian Citizens Web
10. Seema Mustafa, Senior Journalist, Delhi
11. Ram Puniyani, Activist and Author, Mumbai
12. Sukumar Muralidharan, Senior Journalist
13. Syed Zafar Mehdi, Journalist
14. Dr. John Dayal, All India Christian Council
15. Prof. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, JNU
16. Navaid Hamid, Member, National Integration Council,
GoI
17. Prof Anuradha Chenoy, JNU
18. Saba Naqvi, Senior Journalist,
Delhi
19. Wilfred
Dcosta, Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF)20. Harsh Dobhal, Human Rights Law Network (HRLN)
21. Kaviata Krishnan, All India Progressive Women Association (AIPWA)
