Sangh seeks cover in ‘patriotism’

The RSS's defensiveness over "Hindutva terror" came through in the editorial in the latest edition of its mouthpiece, Organiser.

Claiming that Hindus were the "most patriotic and peace-loving community in the world", the editorial's garbled punchline was: "The rats might desert the ship but the Hindu cannot burn his home to kill the rats."

A number of arguments were adduced to support the thesis that there is nothing like "Hindu terror".

The editorial that came out on January 23 said every terror strike is followed by an outfit publicly claiming responsibility for it. "... That is the only way they attract attention and publicity, which is the lifeline of their existence," it claimed. "So far, there has been no instance of any Hindu organisation boasting credit for a terror strike anywhere in the world."

Flowing from the first contention was the second that the terror attacks that have implicated Hindus - Malegaon, Mecca Masjid, Ajmer and Samjhauta Express - claimed Muslim lives.

The other common feature, it said, was the initial claim and arrests made from jihadi outfits. To support the point, Organiser quoted the UN that cited the Samjhauta blast as one of Lashkar-e-Toiba's "macabre acts" when it declared it a terror outfit and placed it on the international watch list.

The US Counter-Terrorism Center maintained that the Mecca Masjid blast was the handiwork of an alleged Pakistan-sponsored Harkat-ul-Jihadi-Islami (Huji), the editorial said.

It pointed out that before the CBI took over the case, Hyderabad police, too, had named the Huji as the blast executor.

"If the central agencies are interested in really unearthing the plot behind these terror strikes, they would not have given this kind of advance propaganda to the so-called confessions of Swami Aseemanand and a few others arrested in connection with the Malegaon blasts. Rather they would have worked on the lead... secretly... with a fool-proof chargesheet to be presented in court."

The editorial also said it was "intriguing" that only those named in "alleged Hindu radicalism" were apparently making "confessions" while there was nothing coming from Kasab, Afzal Guru, or Geelani. "Are they so tight-lipped or do their confessions not make headlines?" it asked.

Notwithstanding the defences it marshalled, Organiser made it a point to reproduce a statement distancing the RSS from Swami Aseemanand, accused in the 2006 Malegaon blast.

The statement from the Sangh's publicity cell chief Manmohan Vaidya claimed that the Swami had not held any post at any level in the organisation.

However, even in the Sangh and the BJP, it was of common knowledge that Assemanand was actively associated with the VHP and the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, another RSS front that spreads its ideology and has been reconverting Christian converts in the tribal areas.

The VHP has also been trying to reconvert recent converts to Islam in Uttar Pradesh's Dalit areas. But with Mayavati in the saddle, it has made little or no headway.

Aseemanand worked from Gujarat's Dangs, a predominantly tribal belt where he claimed "100 per cent success" in his reconversion project.

Vaidya said: "The RSS has repeatedly made it clear that it neither believes in nor supports any activity involving violence or terror. The RSS has always been co-operating with honest investigation conducted with due legal procedure."