Opinion Maker

HINDU MILITANCY GETS STATE SUPPORT

By Sajjad Shaukat

Bal Thackray, the State supported terrorist

India which claims to be a secular state, has broken all the records of violence, genocide and massacre perpetrated on various ethnic and religious groups, entailing the community of its own lower castes. These atrocities and injustices display that Hindu terrorism is on rise.

South Asia Terrorism Portal’s report revealed, “231 of India’s 608 districts have been affected by various insurgent terrorist movements…continued to pose serious challenges to the country’s security framework. It is high time; we should pay attention on the Indian law and order situation.”

India started militia operation against insurgents in Lalgarh tribal region of the west Bengal, and also banned the Communist Party of India-Maoist, terming it a terrorist organization in the wake of fresh insurgency by the Maoist insurgents. The CPI-M came into existence following the merger of the Communist Party of India, the people’s War group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC). Several states such as Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh had declared the CPI-M an unlawful organization. In the eastern regions, Naxalties have established their writ running large hundreds of villagers.

Recently, Maoist intensified their struggle, attacking official installments in the major Indian cities. In this context, on October 31, 2009, The New York Times wrote,  “India’s Maoist rebels are now present in 20 states and have killed more than 900 Indian security officers…India’s rapid economic growth has made it an emerging global power but also deepened stark inequalities in society.”

The Maoist militants oppose the ruling Communist Party of Indian government in Bengal. It is unfortunate that the US and the West do not see any threat of the Indian nukes falling in the hands of insurgents, terrorists or Communists. In addition, wide areas of the country appear to have fallen off the map of good governance, and are acutely susceptible to violent political mobilization, lawlessness and organised criminal activity.

It is notable that historical background and religious beliefs which have formed the habits and national character of

No minority is safe in Hindu India

Hindus are quite different from the other ethnic and religious communities. Indians still have a strong belief in the superiority of their race. Indian Hindus are followers of Chanakya (Say some thing else and do some thing else). These facts have been verified by the misdeeds of Hindu fundamentalist parties like the BJP, RSS, VHP, Shiv Sina and Bajrang Dal which have missed no opportunity to communalise national politics of India even under the Congress rule. With the backing of Indian officials, these parties have intensified anti-Christian and anti-Muslim bloodshed in the last decade coupled with the dissemination of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism).

Besides previous genocide of Muslims and destruction of the Babri Mosque, more than 2500 Muslims were massacred in 2002 in the BJP-ruled Indian state of Gujarat. Regarding that massive genocide, both Human Rights Watch in 2002 and Amnesty International in 2003 charged the “Gujarat state administration” for involvement in “a massive cover-up of the state’s role in that massacre” and pointed out numerous police officials—specifically ministers, high officials and leaders of the VHP, BJP and Bajrang Dal as participants.

On September 13, 2008, the communal riots in Uttar Pradesh killed more than 200 Muslims. In one of the most tragic incidents in Assam, Hindu extremists burnt alive six members of a Muslim family. Violence has continued against the Muslims from time to time. Similarly, assaults on Christians and their property have been executed by the Hindu mobs in Orissa, Assam, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. In this respect, at least 60 Christians have been assassinated in the recent past by Hindu extremists in the state of Orissa. Other minorities of India are also target of Hindu terrorism.

Under the mask of democracy and secularism, Indian subsequent regimes dominated by politicians from the Hindi heartland—Hindutva have been using brutal force ruthlessly against any move to free Assam, Kashmir, Khalistan, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu and Tripura where wars of independence are alive in one or the other form.

India’s prime minister met with Naga separatists on March 2 this year in an attempt to end one of the South Asian nation’s longest-running insurgencies. The meeting could not succeed because India is offering wide autonomy to the group though it has already rejected the separatists’ demand for an independent homeland in northeastern India. The Naga insurgents began fighting more than 50 years ago.

Kashmiri Muslims protesting

As regards the Indian-held Kashmir, since 1947, Indian forces have intermittently been employing all the possible techniques of military terrorism such as curfews, crackdowns, sieges, massacre, targeted killings etc. to maintain their alien rule. However, under the new puppet regime in the occupied Kashmir, Indian brutalities keep on going against the current phase of Kashmiri uprising which began on August 12, 2008. In the last two years, more than 3000 unmarked graves of the unidentified bodies were uncovered in villages of Indian-held Kashmir. Sources have suggested that these graves include bodies of extrajudicial executions committed by the Indian military and paramilitary forces. European Parliament strongly condemned India regarding human rights violations in the occupied Kashmir

In Maharashtra, non-Hindu communities have lived in constant fear and awe since the advent of the fundamentalist party, Shiv Sena whose Chief Bal Thackeray has organised army of hoodlums to beat up any religious minority, openly directing the Hindu terrorists to loot and stone any of their shop or house. Silence of the subsequent governments on every challenge of Shiv Sena and lack of serious action against Thackeray’s vandalism have clearly defeated the secular echoes of India which is in fact a secular terroist state. More alarming point is that Bajrang Dal has also been imparting arms training to its members near Ayodhya.

It is mentionable that ideology of Hindu nationalism prevails in every field at the cost of other minorities. It is even supported by Indian defence forces clandestinely. This fact could be judged from the recent past, when on April 6, 2008 in the house of Bajrang Dal fundamentalists in Nanded, a bomb went off. The investigations proved that the militants belonging to the Bajrang Dal were found in the bomb-making and attack on a mosque in Parbhani in 2003. Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra arrested a serving Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit along with other army officials, indicating that they were helping in training the Hindu terrorists, providing them with the military-grade explosive RDX, used in the Malegaon bombings and terrorist attacks in other Indian cities. ATS further disclosed that Lt. Col. Purohit confessed that in 2007, he was involved in bombing of Samjhota express, which brunt alive 69 Pakistanis. Leaders of the Indian extremist parties, Shiv Sena, BJP, VHP and RSS are now pressurising the Congress regime to release the culprits.

Before these revelations about Hindu terrorism, Indian government has been accusing the Islamic organizations in contact with Pakistani or Bangladeshi intelligence agencies in carrying out bomb blasts in Malegaon and other Indian places.

As regard Hindu terrorism, BBC indicated on November 21, 2008 that a new phrase has entered the sometimes cliche-riddled Indian press: “Hindu terrorism”, calling it the latest addition to the media lexicon

It is now clear that instead of taking action, New Delhi has been using Hindu terrorists to create frenzy against the other religious communities.

Most dangerous point is that Hindu terrorists with the support of Indian army and their intelligence agency, RAW would try to get weapons of mass destruction—and will use them in the US and major European states in order to show that Muslim radicals or Al Qaeda-related insurgents have performed this sinister job. While Hindu extremists, with the backing of RAW has already started a nefarious strategic game in destabilizing Pakistan by creating insurgency in the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (Frontier Province), and backing separatist elements in Balochistan.

In fact, there is a co-relationship of the Hindutva and Hindu fundamentalism which are the genesis of Hindu terrorism. Nonetheless, Hindu terrorism is on rise, which has enveloped whole of India.

Sajjad Shaukat is a regular writer for Opinion Maker. He writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power. Dangerous Shift in International Relations.